Quote:
Originally Posted by awareness
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The last man Adam became a life giving "x" ...
And the Trinity = x.
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Sorry I haven't parsed this thread thoroughly but I just wanted to throw in my two cents.
My understanding of this verse is in context of the previous verse 44. I think life-giving spirit in verse 45 refers to Jesus' spiritual body which is not unlike the spiritual body we'll receive after we pass from our life in the flesh.
God told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the fruit of tree of knowledge of good and evil that they would surely die. We all know that after they ate of that tree they didn't drop dead but Adam continued as a living being in the flesh, perhaps because God was referring to another kind of death that mattered more, a spiritual death - the death of Adam and Eve's spirit.
Though it seemed like man was doomed to die this spiritual death forever, Jesus came into the picture and took the key to death and Hades away from Satan. Because he overcame death we can too through what he did on the cross. I think Paul was just trying to convey this contrast between death and life. Before we were doomed to spiritual death, but through Jesus we are made alive and can be born again in the spirit.
The thief comes to kill steal and destroy, but Jesus came that we would have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).
This is contrasted with Adam who by eating of the forbidden fruit became a perpetual "death" giver by passing his sin which leads to spiritual death to all mankind.
So I think Paul was trying to communicate two things at once with the phrase "life-giving spirit" : 1. Although Jesus died, he overcame death and he is alive right now in the spirit. 2. His resurrection to life is not limited to himself, but we can share and receive in this same life.
To me, to come to the conclusion that Jesus became the Holy Spirit from a reading of this verse is just way out of left-field and has nothing to do with the spirit of what Paul was trying to convey in the passage.