The genesis of the flesh is flesh. The genesis of the Spirit is spirit. But the distinction here is not between tangible and intangible things, nor between bodies of flesh and disembodied spirits. The contrast is rather between that which bears the Spirit of God and that which does not.
Flesh that is filled with the Spirit of God is alive and living; whereas there are plenty of spiritual things that are contrary to the Word of God and therefore devoid of His Spirit and His Life.
By the same token, flesh apart from the Spirit of God is already in the process of dying, returning to the dust whence it was taken. So shall it decay, disintegrate, and be destroyed. It goes down to Sheol, because flesh that does not bear and live by the Spirit of God is idolatrous and covetous. Such flesh hungers, not for the true and holy God, but for flesh like itself. It is cannibalistic, and in its voracious and insatiable consumption it is consumed and comes to an end.
Though flesh attempts to feed upon itself, it is utterly unable to sustain itself. It cannot survive on its own resources, nor will it manage to live for long on its own terms. Flesh cannot save itself.
Without the Spirit of God, all flesh, including yours, is blind and in the dark, lost in a permanent nighttime of ignorance and unbelief. It cannot see God, know God, believe in God, or go to Him. It cannot ascend into heaven, nor can it enter the Kingdom of God.
More to the point, you are not able to know God or believe in Him by way of your own fallen flesh. You are not capable of discerning or knowing heavenly things, far less can you get into heaven, by any way or means of your fallen flesh. Without the Spirit of God, your flesh is undone.
But if your fallen flesh is confronted by the Holy, Holy, Holy God — apart from His Gospel — then you are undone all the more quickly, because you are not holy, you are sinful and unclean.
Therefore, God the Father sent His only-begotten Son into the world, in Love, in order to save the world through Him — in order to grant eternal Life to those, like you, who have not known Him.
As in the beginning, the Father speaks His Word into the darkness; and His Word is Light and Life and Love for the whole of His creation, because He speaks to you by His Son, Christ Jesus.
So it is that you see the Kingdom of God in Him, the Son of Man, who has descended from heaven for you and your salvation. In Him, God has become Man, and the Word has become true Flesh.
How so? It is by the Spirit of God, who overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary and conceived the Son of God in her womb, whereby He became flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood.
The New Adam was thus conceived and born of a New Eve by the grace of God, by His Word and Holy Spirit. And in the Flesh of Christ Jesus the fall into sin and the curse of death are reversed.
Accordingly, the Signs that He does — like turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana, and other such Signs of His divine Glory in the Flesh — are Signs of the New Creation in His Body. This is the dawning of the eternal Eighth Day, the blooming of a brand new Paradise, and the New Birth of Mankind. Jesus works and accomplishes all of this in Himself, but He does so for all of us and for our salvation, by the way and means of His Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead.
He does it all for you, and He alone is able to do it. For this New Birth is harder than the first; indeed, it is impossible for the flesh apart from the Spirit of God. It is harder than the usual labor and delivery of fallen flesh. It is harder than entering again into your mother’s womb when you are old, as it is harder than putting a camel through the eye of a needle. For the birth pangs in this case are those of the Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus, the suffering and death of the Son of God in His own Flesh, the shedding of His holy and precious Blood in Atonement for all of your sins.
Ironically, His descending into death and the grave — into Hades and Sheol — coincides with His being lifted up and His ascending; for He offers Himself up to the Father as the Sacrifice for the sins of the world, and He rises like sweet-smelling Incense in peace and reconciliation with God.
He has fully borne your sin and death in His own Flesh. But His Father has received and accepted His Sacrifice. His Father has raised Him up again from death to life. And His Father has poured out the promised Holy Spirit upon Him — upon His Body, crucified and risen, and into His Flesh.
Consequently, His bodily Resurrection from the dead is the New Genesis — a new beginning — and He is the New Adam by whom all the children of God are born through His Church on earth.
It is the Holy Spirit who accomplishes this New Birth in you, by putting you to death and raising you to a new life in and with Christ Jesus. That is what repentance is — being turned inside-out, being turned away from your sin and death to faith in Christ and His forgiveness of your sins. By such faith you see and know God in Christ Jesus, and you live with God in Him forever.
The Spirit works the dying and rising of this New Birth and New Creation in your body and soul by the earthly Means of Grace, by the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the whole Ministry of the Gospel. This is the Voice of the Spirit — this is the Sound of the “Wind,” which you can hear but cannot see — and it is by this Voice of the Gospel that the Spirit is actively present and at work with all His gifts and graces.
This Spirit of the Lord, this Author and Giver of Life, speaks by the cleansed lips of those who are called, ordained, and sent in the Name of Christ Jesus. And in this way the Spirit is then breathed into man — into fallen flesh — through Holy Absolution. You know that, right? Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven.”
And by this forgiveness of the Gospel, by this breathing of the Spirit into you, you are no longer dead and dying, but alive and living; you are not undone, but cleansed and healed and made new.
It is like the coal from the Altar of Incense — that little golden Altar in front of the Holy of Holies, where the Incense was burned in the presence of God, rising into heaven as the prayer of Israel — it is like that coal, which touched Isaiah’s lips and cleansed him from iniquity, so that he could go and preach the Word of the Lord to Israel, unto repentance and faith in the coming Christ Jesus.
And so it is that from the Cross, on which the Lord Jesus Christ has been offered up in death as an acceptable Sacrifice for you and all, and as a sweet-smelling Incense in the presence of God, a new and better “Coal” is now given, by which you are forgiven, that you might live with God in Peace.
From the Altar of His Cross the Lord Jesus touches your lips with His Body and His Blood, and by these Gifts you are forgiven all your sins, you are cleansed of all iniquity. You shall not die but live. And so shall you also speak the Name of the Lord your God, and call upon His Name, and praise His Holy Name in the midst of His Temple, within His Church on earth as it is in heaven.
By the whole Liturgy of the Gospel Christ the Crucified is being lifted up before you in this place — into your ears and into your mouth — unto faith and life in Him, in both your body and soul.
By your Holy Baptism in His Name, you are born again of water and the Holy Spirit. You are put to death, crucified, and buried with Christ Jesus, and so raised with Him to newness of life. Thus, you are a child of God in Christ, and you live as a child of God by grace through faith in Him.
As the Son of God was conceived and born of the Woman, in order to become true Man — and as He has risen from the dead, risen from the dust of the earth, the Firstborn from the dead, the First Fruits of the New Creation — so are you also born again from death to life, as a son of God in Christ Jesus, anointed by the Holy Spirit for everlasting Life with God the Father in Paradise.
You thus know the true and only God, not as a doctrinal abstraction, but as your own dear Father. You know Him as your Father in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, who is your Brother in the flesh and your Savior from sin and death. And you know your God and Father in His Son by the Spirit whom He has given you by and with His Word, who breathes in you the very Life of God.
You know the Holy Triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, here and now in this Holy Place, at this sacred Altar, sanctified by His Presence. You know God in the hearing of His Gospel, His forgiveness of all your sins. You know God in the eating of the Body of Christ Jesus, and you know Him in the drinking of His Blood. For the Word and Flesh of Christ are Spirit and Life.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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