Now the Lord is that Spirit.

(II Corinthians 3:17): “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Let us consider the nature of our fall in Adam.
Our first parents did enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit; for they were created in the image and likeness of God, which was no other than his Spirit. By that he communicates himself to his creatures, and by that alone they can bear any likeness to him. It is, indeed, his life in them; and so properly divine, that, angels and regenerate men are called his children.
But when man would not be guided by the Holy Spirit, by choosing the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it left him Then he found himself forsaken of God, and left to the poverty, weakness, and misery of his own proper nature
Adam now find himself naked; nothing less than God was departed from him. Till then he had experienced nothing but the goodness and sweetness of God; a heavenly life spread itself through his whole frame, as if he were not made of dust; his mind was filled with angelic wisdom; a direction from above took him by the hand; he walked and thought uprightly, and seemed not to be a child or novice in divine things. But now he had other things to experience; something in his soul that he did not find, nor need to fear, while he was carried on straight forward by divine grace; something in his body that he could not see nor complain of; while that body was covered with glory. He feels there is a self-displeasure, turbulence, and confusion; such as is common to other spirits who have lost God: He sees here causes of present shame and a future dissolution; and a strong engagement to that crawling life which is common to animals that never enjoyed the divine nature.
The general character of man’s present state is death…. a death from God., whereby we no longer enjoy any intercourse with him, or happiness in him; we no longer shine with his glory, or act with his powers. It is true, while we have a being,(Acts 17:28) “in him we must live, and move, and have our being;” but this we do now, not in a filial way, but only in a servile one, It is one thing to receive from God an ability to walk and speak, eat and digest,…. to be supported by his hand as a part of this earthly creation, and upon the same terms with it, for farther trial or vengeance; and another, to receive from him a life which is his own likeness,….. to have within us something which is not of this creation, and which is nourished by his own immediate word and power.
Man has fallen under the tutorage of the evil one. The state he was at first placed in, was a state of the most simple subjection to God, and this entitled him to drink of his Spirit; but when he, not content to be actually in Paradise, under as full a light of God’s countenance as he was capable of; must know good and evil, and be satisfied upon rational grounds whether it was best for him to be as he was, or not; when directed as a child, he must weigh every thing himself; and seek better evidence than the voice of his Maker and the seal of the Spirit in his heart; then he not only obeyed, but became like to, that eldest son of pride, and was unhappily entitled to frequent visits, or rather a continued influence, from him. As life was keeping his command, and, accordingly, that Spirit, which alone could form it unto true life, dwelt in his body; so, being sentenced to death for his transgression, he was now delivered unto “him who has the power of death, that, is, the devil,” whose hostile and unkindly impressions promote death and sin at once. This being the state of man, if God should send him a Redeemer, what must that Redeemer do for him?
Our Redeemer must be one that “baptized with the Holy Ghost,”…. the Fountain and Restorer of that to mankind, whereby they are restored to their first estate, and the enjoyment of God?
Indeed “the Lord is that Spirit.”
Shalom!