“The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.”John 5:19 (KJV)
A Bible Study The Breath of
The Breath of
the Second Adam
From Eden's dust to Pentecost's fire, and the life Christ wants to breathe into you now.
01 / THE BREATH OF LIFE The first Adam received breath.
The first Adam received breath.
The last Adam gives life.
There is a line of fire running through Scripture. It begins in dust, passes through a manger and a cross, enters an empty tomb, rises through the clouds, descends again in tongues of fire, and ends in a people alive with the life of Jesus Christ.
“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.”
Genesis 2:7 (KJV)Adam possessed every structure necessary for life, but structure was not life. Then came the breath. The lifeless became living. Sin entered, death followed, and the first Adam became the head of a dying race. Humanity waited for another Adam.
02 / THE SECOND ADAM
Christ breathed on them.
In the upper room, the risen Christ stood among disciples who had watched hope apparently bleed to death. Then He did something that reaches backward across thousands of years toward Eden.
“And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
John 20:22 (KJV)The first Adam received life. The last Adam conquered death and gives life.
“The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”1 Corinthians 15:45 (KJV)
03 / THE LIVING WORD
The Word is seed. His words are spirit. His words are life.
Jesus explained the parable of the sower without leaving its central image in mystery.
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”
Luke 8:11 (KJV)The Word enters the surrendered heart, takes root, and begins producing the character of Christ.
“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
John 6:63 (KJV)“And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.”
Revelation 19:13 (KJV)“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1 (KJV)“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14 (KJV)The great question is not only whether Jesus lived. It is whether the living Spirit of Christ is living in you. The seed remains, the Word governs, and the life God plants does not produce rebellion against God.
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
1 John 3:9 (KJV) CHRIST'S PERFECT EXAMPLE
The Son received the Father’s words and did the Father’s works.
Jesus does not present an independent message or an independent work. He reveals the Father, receives the Father’s commandment, speaks the Father’s words, and does the Father’s will. These passages form a Bible-first study of the pattern Christ gives His disciples.
“I can of mine own self do nothing... because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”John 5:30 (KJV)
“I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”John 6:38 (KJV)
“My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.”John 7:16 (KJV)
“I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.”John 8:28 (KJV)
“For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.”John 12:49 (KJV)
“The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”John 14:10 (KJV)
“The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.”John 14:24 (KJV)
“I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them.”John 17:8 (KJV)
“For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them.”John 17:14 (KJV)
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
John 14:6 (KJV)“If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth.”
John 14:15-17 (KJV)John 17 completes the pattern: the Son glorifies the Father, gives the Father’s words to His people, and prays that they may be sanctified through the truth. Jesus is the perfect example of receiving, obeying, and making known the Father’s word.
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
John 17:17 (KJV)04 / CHRIST WITHIN
The presence, not merely the memory, of Christ.
Religion can preserve the name of Jesus while keeping Him safely distant. The apostolic witness brings the question closer: Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, and Christ in you.
“Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”
Romans 8:9 (KJV)A doctrine cannot conquer the temper. A membership cannot cleanse the heart. Human strength cannot produce resurrection life.
You need Jesus Christ, alive within. 05 / THE PROMISE OF POWER
Ask for the gift heaven is waiting to give.
“How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
Luke 11:13 (KJV)The answer to weakness is not merely more willpower. The answer to human wisdom is not merely more information. Christ is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” Ask for the life of the risen Saviour, the wisdom of God, and the Spirit of Christ.
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
John 14:15 (KJV)FEATURED BOOKLET
The Breath of the Second Adam
Read the complete study from Eden's breath to Christ's quickening life. The first page is open below; continue in the reader or download the original booklet for personal study.
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THE PURCHASED POSSESSION
Your body is a living temple.
The New Testament calls the believer to consecrate life, body, and spirit to God. The body is not a paper identity or an empty form; it is a living temple, bought with a price and offered back to the One who gives life.
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (KJV)“And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”
Galatians 4:6 (KJV)PIONEER WITNESS
Keep reforming by the Word.
These primary-source statements by James White are preserved in their original periodicals. Read each in full, then compare the pioneer testimony with the related studies in this library.
Trinity and Sunday
“Here we might mention the Trinity, which does away the personality of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, and of sprinkling or pouring instead of being ‘buried with Christ in baptism,’ ‘planted in the likeness of his death:’ but we pass from these fables to notice one that is held sacred by nearly all professed Christians, both Catholic and Protestant. It is, The change of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment from the seventh to the first day of the week.”James White, “Preach the Word,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, December 11, 1855, vol. 7, no. 11, p. 85.Read Archival PDFRead Related History Study
The Reformers Stopped Reforming
“The ‘mystery of iniquity’ began to work in the church in Paul’s day. It finally crowded out the simplicity of the gospel, and corrupted the doctrine of Christ, and the church went into the wilderness. Martin Luther, and other reformers, arose in the strength of God, and with the Word and Spirit, made mighty strides in the Reformation. The greatest fault we can find in the Reformation is, the Reformers stopped reforming. Had they gone on, and onward, till they had left the last vestige of Papacy behind, such as natural immortality, sprinkling, the trinity, and Sunday-keeping, the church would now be free from her unscriptural errors.”James White, “The Word,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, February 7, 1856, vol. 7, no. 19, p. 148.Read Archival PDFRead the Loud Cry Study
CONTINUE THE STUDY
A living people, prepared for a living city.
The promise reaches beyond present failure. It prepares a people who love the Lawgiver, keep His commandments, and stand with the Lamb. Follow the linked studies into the sealing message, the early printed witness, and the New Jerusalem hope.
John 17:3 - Begin at the RootsTo Know Him Is to Love Him“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Explore the original Adventist platform, its pioneer sources, and a 30-day investigation.