The Bible teaches that humans have three parts: spirit, soul, and body.

God formed man's body from the dust of the ground. Then He breathed the breath of life into him, and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). God Himself is spirit (John 4:24), so His breath is spiritual. This breath gives life to all creatures, but the spirit world is beyond what our natural mind can fully understand.

When God breathed into Adam, he became a living soul. But the Bible never says Adam became a living, self-aware spirit who could make spiritual choices. Instead, the evidence in Scripture shows that God did not give humans a fully developed, self-aware spirit at creation. Adam's soul was the part that could think, be self-aware, and make decisions.

If Adam already had a complete spirit person at creation, there would have been no need for the Tree of Life. Also, Jesus would not have told Nicodemus that people need to be "born again" or "born of the Spirit" if humans already had a full spiritual self from the start (John 3:5). Jesus explained there are two births: one natural (of the flesh) and one spiritual (of the Spirit).

Adam did receive a spirit from God—it's the breath of life—but it was not a self-aware spirit that could choose right or wrong. When the body dies, that spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

After Adam sinned, God said something important. He spoke (within the Godhead) that Adam must not eat from the Tree of Life, or he would live forever (Genesis 3:22). Why did this matter? If Adam ate from it after sinning, he would live forever in his sin, with no hope of redemption—like fallen angels do. His spirit wasn't corrupted by sin because it wasn't a choosing, self-aware spirit yet. The Tree of Life would have activated or given birth to that full spiritual person in him, but it had no power to forgive sin. So he would have been stuck forever in sin.

The Bible never says the human spirit goes to hell. Solomon says the spirit returns to God at death (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Jesus says it's the soul that can be destroyed in hell (Matthew 10:28). No verse says the spirit is corrupted by sin or goes to hell. If Adam had a full choosing spirit from the beginning, why would the Tree of Life have been needed?

The Tree of Life seems to have been there so Adam could choose to become a fully spiritual being (like the angels). But if he had done that and then sinned later, there would be no redemption. When we are born again through Christ's Spirit, we get full redemption from all sin—past, present, and future (1 John 1:7).

When we confess Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9), God creates a new self-aware spiritual person in us—the "new man" or "new creation." This new person is made in righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24). God seals our new spirit with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 John 3:9). Sin cannot touch this new spirit.

But sin can still affect our soul (mind, will, emotions). Our soul must be sanctified day by day while we live here. That process will finish at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23? – likely 5:23 or related). God gives us a new heart in our soul and removes the old stony one (Ezekiel 36:26; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22? – close to related verses). This new heart is the center of our personality. Through it, the Holy Spirit guides us to take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5).

These ideas connect many Bible parts. I've studied them for years. The more I think about these "hidden" truths in Scripture, the more my faith grows and my trust in the unseen God increases.