For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit (1
Peter 3:18)
Peace be unto you: as my Father hath
sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this,
he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive
ye the Holy Ghost: (John
20:21-22)
There are some good Christian people who insist upon their own volition and
decision-making for salvation. They will go to great lengths to provide
formulas that MUST be adhered to for the mode baptism and even for the age at
which baptism must, or must not be, performed. Can anyone truly know God, or
even be called of God, without the agency of the Holy Ghost? Do you yet believe
that YOU initiated your own salvation by choosing God, or do you trust
Scripture that God CHOSE YOU before you could ever choose Him? Was Jesus
speaking idle words when He said: “Ye have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you?” (John
15:16) If you are
chosen by God, when did He make the choice, before baptism, or after? God does
not diddle-dawdle. He is not somehow surprised by our righteousness and, so,
chooses us at some point in time along our earthly walk. He chooses us from
before the foundations of the world. Why do some make such contention over the
covenant practice of baptism of children? Baptism is the same covenantal sign
in the New Testament as was circumcision in the Old, except with broader
application. We do believe that we are the children of Abraham by faith. What
of Isaac and Jacob who were circumcised into the covenant on the 8th
day after birth? Was their covenantal act invalid because God did not know
whether He would choose them yet or not? He KNEW before they were born!
Circumcision was not salvation; it was the act of dedicating a child to God by
the utmost power and influence of the father and mother.
Today’s hymn, Breathe on Me Breath of God, is a reverential prayer set
to music and meter. Its words echo the yearnings of every heart that loves God
and seeks His Comforter – the Holy Ghost. You may cling to the autonomy of
determining your own salvation, but that would be futile. Before you belonged
to God, you were “dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph
2:1-10) A dead
person knows NOTHING at all, least of all, how to bring himself to God. He must
be made alive by the mysterious workings of the Holy Ghost in His innermost
being. Adam was made, at the beginning, from the clay of the earth. When his
body was complete, he remained lifeless and a dead body. “And the LORD
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Gen
2:7) Before the
Holy Ghost breathed into your dead body the breath of life, you were just as
dead as Adam’s body before God did the same to him.
This hymn was written in 1878 by Edwin Hatch and the music, TRENTHAM, is by
Robert Jackson. The music well embraces the lyrics to provide a reverent and
Holy ground for the prayer it contains.
Breathe
on me, Breath of God
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.
“Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love
what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.” At the
birth of a child, God imparts a temporary life of flesh. We endure the pains of
sufferings of life in this body, but, like Adam, we are dying slowly the very
moment after birth. In order to have that Eternal Life with God we must not
remain dead to Him. There must, of necessity, be an outside power that revives
us to life anew. It is only after being quickened (or made alive) by the Holy
Spirit of God are we able to love God who FIRST loved us. “We love him,
because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) We did not simply come to our
senses one day and decide to love God, it was contingent upon our ‘being made
alive” and being loved by God. God does not love dead things for He is the God
of the living and not the dead.
“Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure, until my will
is one with thine, to do and to endure.” May the Lord
breathe into us His Life, for He is the Way,
the Truth and the Life. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit of
God, we cease to be our own, and become His. As we read and diligently study
His Word, Live that Word, and follow Him, our hearts become purer by
sanctification. As we grow closer and closer to Christ, and are filled more and
more with Him, we lose the old sinful free wills and take upon our hearts that
perfect Will of God so that the things we desire and for which we pray will be
precisely those things that it is His desire to grant. We literally become One
with Christ just as Christ is One with the Father. We are therefore, One with
the Father as well…..and with the Holy Spirit, for these Three are One.
“Breathe on me, Breath of God, till I am wholly thine, until this
earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine.” Just as the
Refiner sits by the fire and brings the silver to its melting point, God does
so in the sanctification process with us. With each time we are brought by
fervent heat to that point, the dross of our souls floats to the surface. He
scoops it away, and repeats the process until seven times. When the silver is
so pure as to see His image on the surface, then, and only then, is the silver
sterling pure. We are called Christians because we are supposed to bear the
image of Christ. Do we?
“Breathe
on me, Breath of God, so shall I never die; but live with thee the perfect life
of thine eternity.” If God grants us eternal Life, that means life
unending. “And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John
11:26) Well…… do
YOU believe it? Of course, the salvation of god must occur while we yet liveth and believeth. We grow perfect in
the imputed righteousness of Christ. We will be perfect in the coming glory of
God. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matt 5:48) Life in this world is like
running a race with practice leg weights; but when we go to Christ, we shall
walk and not be tired, run and not grow weary: “But they that wait upon
the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah
40:31) The point is
to wait upon the Lord with His patience and not the lack of our patience. As
the aged eagle that grows weary of life and walks about the floor of the valley
eating only that which he can catch on foot and no longer is even able to fly,
so do we become in life. But when that aged eagle gets totally disgusted with
himself, he will climb the mountain, and go near to the great rock by which he
was born. He will beat the calcium build-up from off his old beak, and pull
every one of his oily, droopy feathers out. He will then grow all new feathers,
and soar on high just like a young eagle. This is a literal event in the life
of an Eagle. Has it been an event in your life with Christ?
