The Finger of God – The Giving of Life
The Finger of God – The Giving of Life.
“For the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4).
God leaves His fingerprints everywhere, because that finger of His is always working. God has a finger? Yes, it is now time to bring the Holy Spirit into the conversation. Scripture and Christian thinking ever since the early church supports the idea that the finger of God is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. God’s finger represents the power of the Holy Spirit, and in fact is the working member of the Godhead that demonstrates God’s power and accomplishes His will.
It’s easy to think about the Holy Spirit as like the wind or a breath, since spirit, wind and breath are the same word in Hebrew, “ruach.” God’s Spirit is often thought of as Divine Energy or Life Force as well, since He serves in that capacity in the world. But it stretches the imagination a bit to think of the Holy Spirit as the finger of God’s right hand. A finger is tactile, an actual physical object that we can imagine. The wind, breath and energy, though, are formless, without shape. We can hold onto a finger, but of course we can’t grasp the wind or a breath. To feel the wind in our hair or a breath on our face is a completely different experience than being tangibly touched by a finger. But as we will see, we can be inspired by, or literally inspirited by, the finger of God as well as a divine wind or life force. Don’t we all have a desire to be “touched” by the Spirit?
Michelangelo, the unsurpassed Renaissance painter and sculptor, is famous for numerous works of high artistic genius. One of his masterpieces is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, on which he painted a series of dramatic biblical scenes. One scene in particular has always captured the imagination of the public. Creator God, in the appearance of an astounding Father God, is stretching out His very muscular right arm, His power arm according to Scripture, and His extended right hand is pointing His forefinger at an inert Adam, just sitting there, waiting to be given life. The finger of God is reaching out to Adams’s hand and almost touching it, but not quite. Michelangelo wanted to reach that emotional peak of what happened just before the first person was given life. The artist envisioned the finger of God’s hand “breathing” life into Adam. Adam was “inspirited” by the Holy Spirit, touched into life by the powerful finger of God.
The fundamentals of basketball are dribbling, shooting, passing and rebounding. The fundamentals of Christianity are found in the Nicene Creed written by early church leaders in 381 AD. In the Creed, the Holy Spirit is proclaimed as “the Lord, the Giver of life.” Yes, the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is a divine Person, a “He” not an “it.” The Spirit is not some impersonal force or energy source. God’s Spirit is truly the Lord in every way that the Father is Lord and the Son is Lord. Jesus called the Holy Spirit something monumental, the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13), and nothing is more life-giving than the truth. We can look at the Holy Spirit as the source of every truth in the universe, and thus the Giver of life.
God is a Community of three Lords in One, completely full of life everlasting. And this Community, the Trinity, created a world that is intended to be full of life as well. The job of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, is to be the Giver of that life. A quick survey of Scripture confirms the life-giving role of God’s Spirit:
(1.) “When you gave them your Spirit, life is created, and you renew the face of the earth.” (Ps. 104:30);
(2.) “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. The very words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. (John 6:63);
(3.) “The Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6);
(4.) “The person who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” (Galatians 6:8);
(5.) “For the natural realm can only give birth to things that are natural, but the spiritual realm gives birth to supernatural life! That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6);
(6.) ‘I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live.” (Ezekiel 37:14).
The Giver of Life in Creation. Since the beginning of the Christian Church, the Holy Spirit has been called Creator Spirit. In Genesis 1 we see the Spirit-wind hovering over the watery abyss in anticipation of what is about to happen. The Spirit here is more like a mother bird brooding over her nest. But then the finger of God, the Spirit once again, is pictured touching the world’s first human and “breathing” new life into him. All three Persons were involved in Creation of course. It was a divine group project from the start. From all eternity, the Holy Spirit has been in the business of creating life.
The Giver of Life with Jesus. In the greatest, most wonderful mystery of all, the creative power of the Holy Spirit “overshadowed” the Virgin Mary and conceived Jesus in her womb. The Spirit of God conceived the Son of God. And the Holy Spirit was a vital companion to Jesus every minute of Jesus’ time on earth. One of the unspeakable tragedies of the Cross is that Jesus had to “give up the Spirit.” That was the first time they were separated since His conception, but it wasn’t for long. On the third day after the death of Christ, it was the Holy Spirit who touched the dead body of Jesus with the finger of God and brought the Son of God back to life. The Spirit touched the first Adam and gave him life, and He did the same with the Last Adam. “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Holy Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11).
The Giver of Life in Believers. As has been said, the Holy Spirit loves to renew creation as well as give new life. He re-creates what He has already created. The Spirit of God touches us and brings our dead spirits to life just like He did with both Adams. When we invited Him into our soul, the Spirit makes Himself at home and commits Himself to our complete renewal. We become new creatures in the Holy Spirit, and He transforms us until we are remade into the very image of Jesus. The Spirit of Christ within enables us to grow into the likeness of Christ. The image of Jesus in us includes the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), in which we are given through the Spirit the very character of the Trinity of love. The Spirit develops within us the personality of Jesus.
An anonymous early church leader put all this into a prayer… “Come, Holy Spirit, hover over my chaos too, and breathe upon it. Put light again into my darkness. Make me a microcosm, a real little world, something beautiful, harmonious and pure: a new creation.” In other words, Come Holy Spirit, and be the Giver of life to all of us.