Spirit, Soul, Body

The Bible indicates that an individual human being is composed of three parts, a spirit, a soul, and a body. The three are mentioned as separate components of a human being by Paul. (1 Th. 5:23) It’s impossible to make sense of many scriptures in the bible, until we gain an understanding of these three parts which compose our being.    

THE SPIRIT OF MAN

Gen. 2:7 says, “And the Lord formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath (nĕshamah) of life; and man became a living soul”. Job 33:4 says, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath (nĕshamah) of the Almighty has given me life.” These scriptures indicate that this spirit (nĕshamah), which was breathed into man by God gives us life. However, what was this spiritual breath? Was this spirit a separate self-aware spiritual personage or was it just a part of God, himself, breathing life into our soul, but not creating in us a separate unique spiritual personage? If we say yes to Adam being created a unique self-aware spiritual personage (Which is the false teaching of most Christian theologians) then we create huge discrepancies between scriptures. For one, if Adam was made a completely unique self-aware spiritual personage, upon his creation, then why did God create the tree of life? There would have been no need for a tree of life if Adam was already a fully formed spiritual personage, like God’s angels. Furthermore, if Adam was made a completely unique self-aware spiritual personage, then why did the Godhead say that partaking of the tree of life after he sinned would cause him to live forever in his sins? If he was already a fully formed spiritual being, then he would already be going to live forever in his sin because spiritual beings do not die. Isn’t it obvious that the tree of life was named the tree of life for a reason. It was named the tree of life because it would create in Adam a self-aware spiritual personage but with no hope of redemption from sin. Therefore it would cause Adam to live forever in his sin, like the angels live forever in their sin. Yet, many theologians say that Adam had already been created an alive self-aware being in his spirit and that his spirit became corrupted with sin. Do you see the conflict? The bible says no such thing. (Gen.3:22) Adam’s body was alive and his soul was a living, self-aware personage, but there is no indication anywhere in scripture that his spirit was a fully formed self-aware spirit. Instead, man’s spirit at his creation is the breath of God, and that spiritual breath returns to God when we die. (Ecc.12:7) It does not go to hell. It is our self-aware personage called the soul which goes to hell. (Mat. 10:28, Acts 2:27,31) Nowhere do scriptures indicate otherwise. Most theologians teach that Adam’s spirit became corrupted when he sinned, but the bible says no such thing. It couldn’t become corrupted because it was not a fully formed person capable of making choices necessary to sin. It was the living breath of God and like the living egg in the womb was made to receive self-aware life through the tree of life or the redemptive spirit of Christ Jesus.    

Interestingly enough, Adam was given no spiritual authority by God. This is another indication that he was not a fully self-aware spiritual being. He was given natural authority over the earth and everything in it but nothing whatsoever in the spiritual realm. The reason for that is because Adam would not have been able to accept spiritual authority. He had no viable spiritual awareness. Here is another thought. If his spirit being was not fully formed with spiritual self-awareness, (Was not born yet) that could help explain why God placed him in an earthy soul and an earthly body. The angels have no such component in their makeup. By doing so, this allowed mankind to later be redeemed, by being born of Christ’s spirit to become that new creature, which Paul mentioned. (2 Co. 5:17) Here’s another thought which suggests that I am on the right track. There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that fully formed spiritual beings, like the angels, have any recourse for redemption after they sin. We know they will live forever in their sins in hell.

Here’s why God put the Tree of Life in the garden in the first place and give Adam permission to eat from it? God knows everything, so he knew that Adam was going to sin and that the Tree of Life would become a liability for him. However, God’s nature is one of perfect Holiness. His Holiness requires him to allow his angels and man to choose between good and evil (free will) but it also requires something else. His holiness requires that he provide a way for man and angels to be exposed to that choice and to deal with making choices which leave him out of the picture and depend on their own ability to navigate eternity through their own choices alone. Thus, the reason for the Tree of Life and also the reason for the Law of Moses. The short description for what I just said is, “free will”. God is not a “control freak” like Satan. He gives us “free will”. The “Tree of Life” in the Garden would have satisfied that relationship requirement of God toward us , because the Tree of Life provided a way for Adam to choose eternal spiritual life by his own hand. Yet, God knew, like the fallen angels of heaven, Adam would sin. So, He devised a plan of escape not only from Adam’s sin, but also a plan for us to become Sons. How awesome is that? And He devised this plan before the foundation of the natural heavens and world was ever laid.

Obviously, Adam was complacent in the garden. Although the Tree of Life was available, he didn’t rush over to partake of it. Why? I believe, even before he sinned, he was dead to anything that was spiritual and saw no need for spiritual life, just like a lot of people today. The story of mankind would now be a very different one if he had.

This line of reasoning just gets better and better and makes the truth of scriptures fall like dominoes. Interestingly enough, the Hebrew word nĕshamah is a feminine noun. How much of leap is it to visualize the breath (nĕshamah) of life, which was breathed into Adam, as being analogous to the female egg produced in the womb? It gives life to the soul and body, but at the same time, this breath of life is and has always, by divine design, lacked the characteristics of a completely viable spiritual being, until it is united either with the Spirit of Christ, or in Adam’s case, the “Tree of Life”. Statements made elsewhere in the bible strongly support what I am saying here. Angels sin but they do not die. They have to be locked away somewhere to live forever in their sins, but there is not a single scripture that speaks of angels dying. God also indicated that Adam would also live forever in his sins if he was allowed to partake of “The Tree of Life” after sinning. God said, “If he (Adam) partakes of the tree of life now (After sinning) he will live forever…..(The inference is agreed upon by most bible teachers to be “in his sins” for the rest of this sentence.) (Genesis 3:22) What did God mean by that? How could God say Adam would live forever in his sins here, and also say to Adam, that “On the day you eat of the “Tree of Good and Evil” you will surely die”? (Genesis 2:17) How could Adam die and live forever in his sins at the same time. Does anyone see the discrepancy here? However, these two scriptures make perfect sense when we come to the realization, that the spirit of man within Adam was not a fully formed spiritual being, so it couldn’t die. It was like the egg in a woman’s womb. The Hebrew word for man’s spirit was “ruwach”, also a feminine noun. The death mentioned in Genesis 2:17 was the death of the soul and body. That type of death is mentioned again by Jesus in Mat. 10:28. Jesus mentions the soul and body being destroyed in hell but he doesn’t include any reference whatsoever to the spirit. Some would say that is because the spirit is already dead. It died when Adam sinned. There is just one problem with making a statement like that. There is not a single scripture to back it up. The bible says that man was made a little lower than the angels. (Psalms 8:5) This is another scripture which supports my belief that God did not give Adam a fully self-aware spirit when He was created? He was made lower than the angels who were fully self-aware spiritual beings.

Let’s fast forward to the New Testament where it gives more insight, supporting what I have just said. 1 Co. 2:11 says, “For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit (pneuma) of the man, which is in him?” The Greek word pneuma here means breath as does “ruwach” in Hebrew. This is referring to the same breath or spirit (nĕshamah) breathed into man, by God, as mentioned in Genesis except Paul is talking about the fallen man here. He still has a spirit that gives him understanding, the understanding mentioned by Job. So, this unredeemed spirit of man must have some kind of life within itself. Like the female egg, it’s not dead, but it just hasn’t been born yet. Very importantly, Paul makes no indication that this spirit of man is corrupted by sin. Since it has never been born, how could it sin? It has never had the wherewithal to sin. However, Paul does say that this spirit of man only possesses the ability to bring understanding to the soulish realm, concerning facts associated with this natural world. This fits the mindset of Adam in the garden. He wasn’t concerned in the least with gaining spiritual life by partaking of the tree of life although it was completely available to him and not forbidden by God. Paul goes on to say in 1 Co. 2:14, “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him.” Now I know that some will argue at this point that the reason the natural man cannot understand spiritual percepts is because Adam sinned, thus ushering in spiritual death for everyone. 1 Co. 15:22 does say, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive”.  However, as I said before, that is talking about the death of the soul and body and not a single verse in the entire Bible mentions anything about the death of the spirit. Why? Because the spirit of man was never living personage in the first place, at least not in the way many thinks. You know what this means? It means that just like you and I, Adam needed a savior from the very first moment he took his first breath, not just after he committed his first sin.

Am I splitting biblical hairs? I don’t think so. Many Christians do not understand how important it is to fine tune our understanding of God’s word in order to become more victorious in the battles of life. I hate losing, don’t you? Remember only the truth you know will set you free and when you are free you can’t lose.

THE SOUL

Now let’s talk a little about the soul. It is the mind, the will, and the emotions. It receives and translates spiritual information as well as information from the five senses. It can be compared to the hard drive in our computer. The hard drive receives electrical impulses (as does our soul receive spiritual input) and the hard drive also receives the keyboard operator’s input ( as our soul receives input from the five senses). The bios of a computer hard drive can be compared to what the bible calls the heart. The bios of a computer hard drive is the very elemental and deep programing of a computer, and our heart is the very deep subconscious personality buried in our soul (mind). It is the very essence of who we are, our likes and dislikes and the seat of our deepest motivational drives. Though our spirit cannot be corrupted by sin, the soul and the heart can and is corrupted by sin at the moment of conception. (Psalm 51:5) If you don’t believe what I have just said, then you haven’t baby-sitted an infant before. It is our eternal soul which goes to hell, not our spirit. (Psalm 16:10, 86:13, Prov. 23:14, Mat.10:28, Act. 2:27, 2:31) Nowhere does the bible say that our spirit goes to hell. When we die, but it does say that our unborn spirit (ruwach) returns to God. (Ecc. 12:7)

THE BODY

The body is our flesh made from the chemicals of the earth. It is what we see in the mirror. It can be compared to the hardware in a computer. It’s the biological system which provides us with the five senses, which input signals from this world’s environment into our soul. The body does not have a direct connection to our spirit. In the bible, the five senses which communicate with our soul are referred to as being carnal and the body is often referred to as the flesh.