The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 128

XIX.

The Holy

Spirit

in

the Mystery of the

Incarnation.

"The Word was made dwelt

flesh

and

among us, and we beheld

His glory.'"—Jo /in

i.

14.

There is one more question in the treatment of this subject: What was the extraordinary operation of the Holy Spirit that enabled the Son of God to assume our fallen nature without being defiled

by

sin?

we concede it to be unlawful to pry into that behind the veil which God does not freely open to us, yet we may seek the meaning of the words that embody the mystery and this we intend Altho

;

to do in the discussion of this question.

The Incarnation

of Christ, with reference to His sinlessness, is

connected with the being of

sin,

the character of original sin, the

relation between body and soul, regeneration, and the working of the Holy Spirit in believers. Hence it is necessary for a clear understanding to have a correct view of the relation of Christ's

human

nature to these important matters.

is not a spiritual bacillus hiding in the blood of the mother and received into the veins of the child. Sin is not material and tangible its nature is moral and spiritual, belonging to the invisible things whose results we can perceive but whose real being escapes detection. Wherefore in opposition to Manicheism and kindred heresies, the Church has always confessed that sin is not a material substance in our flesh and blood, but that it consists in the loss of the original righteousness in which Adam and Eve bloomed and prospered in Paradise. Nor do believers differ on this point, for all acknowledge that sin is the loss of original righteousness. However, tracing the next step in the course of sin, we meet a serious difference between the Church of Rome and our own. The former teaches that Adam came forth perfect from the hand of his Maker, even before he was endowed with original righteousness.

Sin

;

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