Breath of God: From Creation to the Cross

God is the Breath of Life: The Trinity of Breath in Creation 

The Spirit (Breath) is present from the beginning of time, hovering over the waters

• “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit (Breath) of God was hovering over the waters.” – Genesis 1:1-2

• Ruah (Hebrew)

Jesus speaks/breathes creation into existence

• “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” (John 1:1-4)

• “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and all their host, sun, moon, and stars, by the breath of God’s mouth.” (Psalm 33:6)

  • God created light, separated it into day & night, separated the waters of the vault of the heavens from the waters below, separated the land from the water

  • Fills all parts of creation with living, growing creatures

  • All very good, but saves very good for us - Humans as culminating act of creation

God breathes life into man

• “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” – Genesis 2:7

• Intimate

• First action as a living being - Exhaling ‘Ha’

• Opens eyes to see Father, right there, declaring him ‘very good’

• But it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone, so God created a companion from Adam, and with the creation of Eve, human community is formed - Also very good

Life in Eden: As Easy As Breathing

• Flourishing relationships - Adam & Eve (bone of my bone), walking in Garden w/God, naked and have no shame

• No barriers, no judgment, no competition - only love and care and trust

• Trust - Not only Adam & Eve trusting God to care for them but God handing over creation to their care

• “You play a part in this beautiful thing that I have made

• As easy as breathing - Life as God originally intended it

So, why does living & breathing become so hard?

God as Breath of Life 

The perfect life of Eden is shattered the moment mankind believes the lie that God cannot be trusted, that He doesn’t really love us and want what’s best for us.

God warned Adam in the Garden of Eden – “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” – Genesis 2:16-17

Break God’s only rule in order to gain knowledge of good and evil

• But they already knew good, Eden was nothing but good because God is only good.

• Gain a knowledge of evil - The only way to know evil is to let it into the world

Immediate Consequences: Relationships are broken

Hiding from God, passing blame, Serpent is celebrating how easily he was able to bring things crashing down.  Satan could care less about us, but knows that in hurting us, he hurts God.  In one fell swoop he has brought about terrible damage

Broken Relationships

• Broken relationships between man and God, great distance opens up between them

• Broken relationships between Adam and Eve, blame and mistrust

• Broken relationships between man and creation, no longer perfect and easy, but rather by ‘painful toil’ and ‘sweat of your brow’ you will eat your food

• Broken relationships with self, will look to others to provide what is missing in our hearts (Eve) - ‘your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you’

Things fall apart

• Having turned away from God, the Breath of Life, have turned toward death

• Soon brother is murdering brother and within a few short chapters we see God saying that he regrets ever having made mankind.

• We become the judge of others

• We become strivers, competing with each other for limited resources

• We become crushed under what we were never intended to feel - pain, loss, sick, death

• Hopeless situation of a people, we’re like that valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, with no breath of life and no way of getting breath back into ourselves

But we catch a glimpse of God’s plan for our dry bones

Read Ezekiel 37:1-14

• Reclaims a bit of trust - “You’re the Breath of Life. They’ll live if you say they’ll live.”

• No surprise that God asks Ezekiel to act on that trust - ridiculous preaching to dry bones

• Baby steps of faith - Ezekiel prophesies to the bones, to the breath, now to a living, breathing group of people who have lost hope (Hardest)

• Hear words of hope

The Lord declares that he breathes life into our dry bones. But how?

The plan has been in place since the beginning of time

• Before the Word of God spoke creation into existence, He had already decided what He was willing to do to redeem it

• The Word of God would come to us as the incarnate Breath of Life

• Jesus as the Breath made flesh would live and walk among us, breathing life into our shame and sickness and death

• Fully human, Jesus experienced the struggle it is to breathe in this world

  • He was constantly surrounded by people in need, crowds following Him

  • Everybody wanting something from Him.

• Fully God, He couldn’t help but breathe life on everyone He met

  • He spoke words of peace, healing, mercy, and compassion

  • In response, the blind could see, the lame walked, and the dead rose up from their graves

• Even in death, Jesus continued to breathe life

  • Forgiving the soldiers as they crucify Him

  • Welcoming the criminal hanging by His side into paradise

  • He breathes life to the very end, where in the greatest act of injustice the world has ever known, Jesus, the Breath of Life, dies by suffocation.

  • Death by crucifixion is death by suffocation

• Listen to His final gasping breaths

  • “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

  • Opening words of Psalm 22

  • Written by King David, hundreds of years before Jesus, before the rise of the Roman Empire and the use of crucifixion as a method of execution

• Physically impossible to pray the Psalm aloud in its entirety, I believe He is praying it in His heart

  • He is still breathing life

  • Pointing our eyes to the prophecy that is being fulfilled by Him in that very moment

  • Showing us how to breathe in our most difficult times.

• Listen to Him breathe - Exhaling what he does not need (pain and fear) & inhaling in what He does (praise to get his eyes up on His Father, trust in His love and care, look on to the victory that comes on the other side of the cross)

Read Psalm 22

He has done it!