Basic HTML Version
feminine (
$
, cf. Heb.
$
). The rendering “itself” in Rom. 8:16, 26, due to the
Greek gender, is corrected to “Himself” in the
RV
.
The subject of the “Holy Spirit” in the NT may be considered as to His divine
attributes; His distinct Personality in the Godhead; His operation in connection with the
Lord Jesus in His birth, His life, His baptism, His death; His operations in the world; in
the church; His having been sent at Pentecost by the Father and by Christ; His operations
in the individual believer; in local churches; His operations in the production of Holy
Scripture; His work in the world, etc.
SPIRITUAL
A. Adjective.
$
(
, 4152) “always connotes the ideas of invisibility and of
power. It does not occur in the Sept. nor in the Gospels; it is in fact an after-Pentecost
word. In the NT it is used as follows: (a) the angelic hosts, lower than God but higher in
the scale of being than man in his natural state, are ‘spiritual hosts,’ Eph. 6:12; (b) things
that have their origin with God, and which, therefore, are in harmony with His character,
as His law is, are ‘spiritual,’ Rom. 7:14; (c) ‘spiritual’ is prefixed to the material type in
order to indicate that what the type sets forth, not the type itself, is intended, 1 Cor. 10:3,
4; (d) the purposes of God revealed in the gospel by the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 2:13a, and the
words in which that revelation is expressed, are ‘spiritual,’ 13b, matching, or combining,
spiritual things with spiritual words [or, alternatively, ‘interpreting spiritual things to
spiritual men,’ see (e) below]; ‘spiritual songs’ are songs of which the burden is the
things revealed by the Spirit, Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; ‘spiritual wisdom and understanding’
is wisdom in, and understanding of, those things, Col. 1:9; (e) men in Christ who walk so
as to please God are ‘spiritual,’ Gal. 6:1; 1 Cor. 2:13b [but see (d) above], 15; 3:1; 14:37;
(f) the whole company of those who believe in Christ is a ‘spiritual house,’ 1 Pet. 2:5a;
(g) the blessings that accrue to regenerate men at this present time are called
‘spiritualities,’ Rom. 15:27; 1 Cor. 9:11; ‘spiritual blessings,’ Eph. 1:3; ‘spiritual gifts,’
Rom. 1:11; (h) the activities Godward of regenerate men are ‘spiritual sacrifices,’ 1 Pet.
2:5b; their appointed activities in the churches are also called ‘spiritual gifts,’ lit.,
‘spiritualities,’ 1 Cor. 12:1; 14:1; (i) the resurrection body of the dead in Christ is
‘spiritual,’ i.e., such as is suited to the heavenly environment, 1 Cor. 15:44; (j) all that is
produced and maintained among men by the operations of the Spirit of God is ‘spiritual,’
1 Cor. 15:46.…
“The spiritual man is one who walks by the Spirit both in the sense of Gal. 5:16 and
in that of 5:25, and who himself manifests the fruit of the Spirit in his own ways.…
“According to the Scriptures, the ‘spiritual’ state of soul is normal for the believer,
but to this state all believers do not attain, nor when it is attained is it always maintained.
Thus the apostle, in 1 Cor. 3:1-3, suggests a contrast between this spiritual state and that
of the babe in Christ, i.e., of the man who because of immaturity and inexperience has not
yet reached spirituality, and that of the man who by permitting jealousy, and the strife to
which jealousy always leads, has lost it. The spiritual state is reached by diligence in the
Word of God and in prayer; it is maintained by obedience and self-judgment. Such as are
led by the Spirit are spiritual, but, of course, spirituality is not a fixed or absolute