The Spirit and the Word

John 6:63
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. NKJV

In John 6, Jesus had gathered quite a large following, but many only followed because He miraculously fed them by multiplying the loaves and fishes. He told them not to labor for food that perishes but for the food that endures to everlasting life. Then Jesus spoke of His body as bread and His blood as drink. He was speaking of a spiritual food that the flesh would not profit from but was for their eternal souls.

John 6:53-55
53 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. NKJV

Jesus is the living word. The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us and we beheld His glory. He is the bread that came down from heaven. He is spiritual food for our souls. Man is different than every other living creature in that we need not only a steady supply of oxygen to live but God-breathed words for our soul. We need not only the vital signs of natural life but the very breath and heartbeat of God within our breast.

Matt 4:4
4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" NKJV

Physical life is sustained by natural food from the earth but the spiritual life of mankind must be sustained by the words that proceed out of the mouth of God, or God-breathed words.


1 Corinthians 15:45
45 And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. NKJV

God created everything by the word of His mouth. He spoke into being all things, both visible and invisible. There is just one exception to that pattern and that is His creation of man. He formed man from earth’s soil, breathed life into his nostrils and he became a living soul. See Gen. 2:7

It stands to reason that, if the breath of God was needed to give life to man in the beginning, we surely need God’s breath to continue in us.



2 Tim 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. NIV

The context of these verses, in 2 Timothy, speaks of the manner in which men wrote the scripture through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is not automatic that every time scripture is quoted that it will give life to the hearer. Even the devil quotes scripture for the purpose of mocking, condemning or misleading someone. The letter of the law alone is dead but the Spirit gives life to God’s word.

Evangelism involves speaking God-breathed words that give life to the hearer. Just as the breath of God gave man life at creation, His breath is required in the process of becoming a new creation. Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus, explained the process of being born again.

John 3:7-8
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." NKJV

Just as the wind comes and goes at its own will, and we hear the sound of it, so is the process of being born again of the Spirit. The God-breathed word comes, at His will, to give life to those who hear the sound and agree with it. Then those who are born again will be led by the Spirit in the same way, going here, or there, speaking God-breathed words to others.

It was Adam’s choice to partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that brought spiritual death through separation from God. Adam and Eve were banished from the garden so they would not eat of the tree of life and live forever in their sin. Sin has now been punished and its power destroyed by Jesus on the cross. The way has been opened for us to come to the tree of life again. We can come to Jesus and partake of Him: He is the bread of life and the living water that we need.

Though we were not given the choice to be born into this world, God does give us the choice to be born again of the Spirit. We can now choose to forsake sin, eat from the tree of life and live forever in God’s eternal Kingdom.