Life-Giving Work of the Holy Spirit

January 11, 2025

Scripture Reading: Genesis 2:7 (ESV)
“then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

Introduction

This year, the theme of our church is the Holy Spirit.
Today, following last week’s message from Genesis chapter 1, we turn to Genesis chapter 2, where we see that God created human beings in a special way.

We usually take being “alive” for granted.
We breathe, think, make decisions, love, worry, and regret.
However, the Bible does not speak of human life as a merely biological phenomenon.

In recent years, there has been a growing way of thinking that sees little difference between humans and animals, suggesting that humans may live as animals do. But the Bible clearly and consistently distinguishes human beings from animals.

I. Human Beings Were Made Alive by the Work of God’s Spirit

The first point we must understand is this:
Even though the term “Holy Spirit” does not explicitly appear in this verse, the work of the Holy Spirit is clearly present.

Job 33:4 (ESV)
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Here Scripture uses two terms:
• ruach (Spirit of God) — the agent of creation
• neshamah (the breath of the Almighty) — the act of giving life

Both refer to the same divine work, describing the life-giving activity of God’s Spirit from different angles.

From this passage we also learn something essential:
Human beings are fundamentally different from animals.

II. Human Beings Were Created as More Than Mere Living Creatures

When we read Genesis carefully, we notice that expressions used for human beings are not used for animals.
• Animals: “Let living creatures come forth.”
• Human beings: God formed them and breathed into them.

This is a decisive difference.

Job 32:8 (ESV)
But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.

Here, neshamah is associated with:
• intelligence
• understanding
• moral discernment

Therefore, human beings were created not merely to survive, but:
• to discern good and evil
• to bear responsibility
• to stand before God

Human beings were originally created to live ethical and moral lives,
but the power of sin has rendered us unable to do so.
Sin has cut us off from God and brought our spiritual life into a state of dysfunction.

Animals live by instinct:
• when hungry, they eat
• when threatened, they flee
• they submit to the stronger

Human beings, however, ask themselves:
• “Is this right?”
• “Is this permissible?”
• “Will this harm someone else?”

This ethical and moral capacity cannot be fully explained by evolutionary theory alone. It is spiritual in nature.

That is why human beings:
• feel shame over sin
• repent
• seek justice
• and attempt to choose love

Yet, although humans were created capable of ethical living, sin has made this impossible to sustain fully.

III. Sin Brought Spiritual Separation from God

Sin did not turn human beings into animals.
Because of sin,
• our relationship with God has been broken, and
• our original humanity has been distorted.

Human beings were originally created as beings with the capacity to discern good and evil and to choose what is right. We are not merely creatures that react instinctively; we are able to ask ourselves, “Is this right?” and “Am I harming someone?”

Yet in reality, many people share the same experience:
We know what is right, but we cannot keep doing it.
We repeat actions we know we should stop.
We want to care for others, but when we lose margin or strength, we become self-centered.

The Bible does not describe this condition as mere failure or immaturity.
Rather, it presents it as the result of a distortion of the healthy way human beings were originally meant to live.
Human beings were not born wanting evil. And yet, by our own strength alone, we find ourselves unable to live out what we know is right. This, the Bible teaches, is the reality of the human condition.

Even so, within us there still remains a desire for goodness and a longing to ask meaningful questions about life. This inner struggle itself is evidence that human beings are more than creatures driven by instinct alone.

This human weakness—knowing what is right yet struggling to keep doing it—has been increasingly explained by recent findings in behavioral science.

One modern example of this is what behavioral science calls “moral licensing.”

When people do something good, they often feel justified in relaxing their standards afterward.
Good behavior does not always strengthen moral resolve; it can weaken it.

For example:
• “I worked hard, so a little dishonesty is fine.”
• “I helped someone, so I can overlook my own faults.”
• “I’m trying my best, so some compromise is acceptable.”

From a medical perspective, the brain records rewards and produces a sense of satisfaction and relief. However, that same sense of relief can weaken self-control.

The problem is not that the brain itself is evil. The problem arises when this mechanism interacts with humanity’s sinful inclination.

Biblically speaking, sin is not only the desire to do evil, but the inability to remain faithful to good. Thus, sin quietly lowers our moral standards, often without us noticing.

Sin is not violent force dragging us into evil all at once;
it is a subtle power that slowly pulls us away from goodness.

IV. The Holy Spirit Is the One Who Gives Life Again

God resolved this problem through the cross of Christ.
More precisely, Jesus accomplished salvation, and the Holy Spirit applies and completes it.

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples.

John 20:22 (ESV)
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’

This is the same imagery we saw earlier in Genesis chapter 2, where God breathed the breath of life into humanity. In Genesis, human beings were given life through God’s breath, but through sin, spiritual life was lost. Then Jesus came and opened a new way to life, and through the Holy Spirit, new life is given.

What we must not misunderstand is this: the work of new birth by the Holy Spirit also occurred in the Old Testament. The cross of Jesus is effective not only for people after His coming, but also for those who lived before it.

Therefore, the work of the Holy Spirit today is the work of giving life. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, human beings cannot recover what it truly means to be human.

Conclusion

Genesis 2:7 and the teaching of neshamah define human beings as:
• not creatures driven only by instinct
• but beings who ask questions of ethics, responsibility, and meaning

Yet sin caused humanity to lose its true humanity.

Through re-creation by the Holy Spirit, human beings can once again have a fellowship with God, the path of truly human living becomes visible again.

By the re-creating work of the Holy Spirit, we rediscover that we are precious before God.
This is not for pride or comparison with others, but to recognize that life itself is grace.

Modern society, built largely on an evolutionary worldview, evaluates people by productivity, usefulness, strength, youth, intelligence, and success.
It becomes a world of comparison and competition. Within such a framework, ethics are often explained as tools for survival, justice as a means of social stability, and love as mere chemical reactions.

The belief that death ends everything weakens the motivation to live rightly.

To live as a precious being is not to boast in one’s achievements, but to receive life with gratitude and thank God for it.

Waking up each morning, being able to breathe, think, choose, and love—
each of these is evidence that God’s breath is still at work within us.

Instead of condemning ourselves for what we cannot do, we are invited to rejoice in the grace of being alive.

To praise God is not only to lift our voices on special occasions. It is also to give thanks for the life we have been given, and to value both our own lives and the lives of others.

Prayer

Lord God,
we thank You for giving life to each one of us,
for breathing Your breath into us and sustaining us even now.
Our lives are not accidents; they exist within Your will and love.

We confess that we often know what is right, yet struggle to live it out.
You see our weakness—the moments when we want to do good but cannot continue,
when we desire to love others but become centered on ourselves.
Still, You do not abandon us.
You continue Your work of giving life and restoring what has been broken.

By Your Holy Spirit,
restore in us what it truly means to be human.
Teach us not to measure our worth by achievement or comparison,
but to receive our lives as a gift and to live with gratitude.

Thank You for this day,
for the breath in our lungs,
for the ability to think, to choose, and to love.
May we never take these gifts for granted,
but turn them into praise and thanksgiving.

Help us to cherish our own lives,
to honor the lives of others,
and to walk as people who value the world You have created.

We offer our thanks and praise
to You, the source of all life.

Amen.