His quickening spirit

“The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit.” (1Cor. 15:45).

Why is it that I can save no one? Because even if my track record were impeccable and my character perfect like Adam’s before the fall, even if “I give my body to be burned”, “have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge”, “have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,” “speak with the tongues of men and of angels”, and even if I was full of “faith which worketh by love”, the best I can ever be is a living soul. (1Cor. 13:3,2,1;Gal. 5:6). I could never be a quickening Spirit. That requires divinity.

I cannot give salvation to another and reconcile them to the Law of God. I cannot change their heart and provide the repentance and inspire a new heart in them to overcome sin because my example, my limited ability to convict the very root of sin, does not compare with Christ’s infinite knowledge and loyalty to His Father’s Law. My love is nothing compared to His infinite love.

My possession of the Holy Spirit is only from my response to Him, the originator of His Spirit. As the Son of God, His Father “giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” (Jn. 3:34). He is endowed with the Spirit of power without measure. He could breathe on His disciple and say, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” just as He did to Adam and Eve. (Jn. 20:22;Gen. 2:7). But Adam and Eve could not do that to anyone after them; neither could the apostles, and neither can I.

Christ was the greatest Christian that ever lived. No apostle Paul, no Baptist prophet could do as Jesus could to inspire life in a soul. He was infinite light-years ahead of even Gabriel in discerning motive and disabling pretense. This is what angered the priest and rabbis. Jesus had such access to the truth that all of their study of Moses and the prophets was pre-school in comparison to the Messiah’s grasp of truth. “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep.” (Ps. 36:6).

His simplest stories, perfectly crafted, turned the traps which the religious leaders laid for Him so that His question at the end captured them in their answers and snide remarks to Him. “The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.
The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.” (Ps. 9:15,16).

Yet, though He often corrected even His disciples and pricked their consciences with some guilt and shame, He could have really blasted them to shivers. But He corrected them in a love that they detected and appreciated, and they stayed with Him and continued to follow and trust Him and learn to be like Him. “With the merciful Thou wilt shew Thyself merciful; with an upright man Thou wilt shew Thyself upright;
With the pure Thou wilt shew Thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt shew Thyself froward.” (Ps. 18:25,26).

We are not equal to the Son of God. He had an advantage over us because being divine His gift of the Holy Spirit was without measure. That is why He could be the propitiation. That’s why He could satisfy the Father, and an angel could not. He had a better name than they, and better pedigree, an infinitely higher state of being. “And again, when He bringeth in the Firstbegotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him.” (Heb. 1:6).

Let us not murmur because Christ had an advantage over us. We must never put Him on the same par as ourselves. He was “equal with God.” (Phil. 2:6). Let us “rejoice and be glad in it.” (Ps.118:24).