Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep… It is a significant, suggestive fact, that the work of the Holy Spirit is historically coeval with the work of creation. The Divine Being who inspired the Bible appears upon its first page, a mystic centre of light and beauty in the midst of an universe of darkness. And St. Paul tells us that God the Holy Spirit, who first illumined the dark world of matter, still illuminates the dark world of mind. All is midnight in the heart, mind, and soul of a sinner, until He, the Light of Life, saith, "Let there be light." I. The work of the Spirit in the NATURAL man. The force of Paul's allusion to the creation in Genesis implies that man's original earth, in its perennial darkness, waste, and submersion, is a type of man's heart, as nature moulds it, and sin corrupts it. "The earth was without form and void"; and the heart is without grace, or capacity of spiritual discernment, till the Spirit of God moves in His creative, enlightening energy, upon both the one and the other. This is equally true of every man, for "who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou, O man, that thou didst not receive? "It is our part to preach Christ, but it is the Spirit's office to convince "of sin, righteousness, and judgment." The Spirit Himself is the foundation of all spirituality. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, and the Spirit giveth life: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit," because He spake in the Spirit, lived in the Spirit, and commanded His disciples "to wait" for the Spirit, before they commenced their ministry, that they might be "endued with power from on high." That is the only power still to convert souls. The most powerful ministry is simply that which is the most spiritual, which most prays in the Spirit, preaches in the Spirit, lives in the Spirit, and most constantly insists upon congregations seeking the Spirit, and resting on His gifts and graces as their only source and secret of edification. II. The work of the Spirit in the REGENERATE man. "The path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," for He who gives the first convicting and converting impulse, "giveth more grace." As the original motion of the Spirit of life and light was followed by the creation of the sun, the moon, and the stars, each in their appointed orbits, fulfilling their Creator's munificent purposes of love and goodness; so the work of the quickening Spirit in individual regeneration is succeeded by ampler revelations of Christ as the "Sun of Righteousness," the centre of His redeeming system; of the Church, as His satellite, "fair as the moon," borrowing all her light and influence upon many waters from the Lord, whose fainter image she is, a light shining in dark places: and of Christ's ministers and sacraments, as stars in His right hand, by whose "lesser lights" He deigns to carry on His gracious offices of mercy to "a world lying in darkness, and in the power of the wicked." But it is the Spirit which gives the weight and efficacy to all these means of grace, and channels of edification, by which the child of God is built up in his most holy faith, and rendered more and more conformed to the image of God's dear Son. At every step there is the scriptural impress of the Spirit, from first to last. (J. B. Owen, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. |
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