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Spirit, Soul, Body
The Bible indicates that an individual human is composed of three parts,
a spirit, a soul and a body. The three are only mentioned together one
time in the bible, when referring to the makeup of a human being. (1 Th.
5:23) It’s impossible to understand scripture and ourselves unless we
gain some understanding of what these components, which make up our
person, are and also how they relate to each other and God.
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 physical, biological life. Job 32:8 also says, “But there
is a spirit in mankind: and the inspiration (nĕshamah)
of the Almighty gives them understanding.” So, additionally, we can now
say that man’s spirit (nĕshamah),
which was breathed into him by God, gives life and understanding, but
what kind of spirit and what kind of life and what kind of understanding
does it give? If we say this spirit made Adam a completely viable
spiritual person with spiritual understanding, then we run into some
very big discrepancies elsewhere in scripture. The most immediate
discrepancy is the scriptures which describes the “Tree of Life”. Why
did God make the “Tree of Life” available to Adam if he had already made
Adam to be a completely viable spiritual person which possessed self-awareness?
There would not have been any need for a "tree of life" if Adam had
already been a completely formed spirit personage, as the
angels.
There is other strong evidence for Adam not being a fully formed
spiritual personage, besides the "Tree of Life". Adam was given no spiritual authority by God.
Could this be because he did not exist as a spiritual personage?
Remember, the bible says Adam was created a living soul. (Gen. 2:7, 1
Co. 15:45) Nowhere does the bible say Adam was created a living spirit.
To believe otherwise is to make those scriptures pertaining to "The Tree
of Life" make no sense. He was given
natural authority over the earth and everything in it but nothing
whatsoever in the spiritual realm. Is that because Adam would not have
been able to accept spiritual authority because he had no viable
spiritual awareness? Here is another thought. Almost every Christian
theologian believes that Adam had a fully alive spiritual personage when
he was created by God, and that his spirit died when he sinned. However,
I cannot find a single scripture in the entire bible which supports a
notion like that. If his spirit was
not fully formed at his creation by God (Was not born yet), that
could help explain why God placed him in an earthy soul and an earthly
body in the first place. By doing so, he could later be redeemed, by being born of Christ’s
Spirit, becoming the new creature, which Paul mentioned in 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. We also know
that Adam would have lived forever in his sins if he had partaken of the
Tree of Life after he sinned because the bible says so. (Gen. 3:22) That
scripture indicates two things, actually three. Number one, the Tree of
Life was able to give Adam some type of spiritual life that he did not
have before and secondly that this new life did not provide redemption
for sin, because the bible says that once he partook of this tree, he
would live forever in his sin. This scripture also makes it clear that Adam
was not the complete package that most theologians say he was, before he
sinned, when he was first created by God or why place a Tree of Life" in
the garden.
So, why did 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
must have known that Adam was going to sin and that the "Tree of Life"
would become a liability for him. Here is why. 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 these
choices out of the resources within themselves and themselves 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 completely Holy 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 in His omnificence, like the fallen angels of heaven, Adam would sin. So, He had
devised a plan of escape not only from Adam’s sin, but also a way 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 this
is the reason. Even before he sinned, he had not been born spiritually
to have any desire for spiritual matters and "The Tree of Life" was
spiritual. Adam, however, had not the slightest desire to seek out
spiritual matters, 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 scriptures
fall in line like dominoes. Interestingly enough, the Hebrew word
nĕshamah
is a feminine noun. How much of a 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 which would allow it to become 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 was not a fully formed
spiritual being. 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 person 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 think. If what I am saying is true, 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. However, 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. |