We consist of 3 parts: body, soul and spirit. Understanding how these three interacts is crucial in understanding our walk and relationship with God, in understanding what it means to be a follower of Christ.
Gen 2:7 is a very powerful scripture, as it clearly states where each part fits in:
“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.”
Man = physical body shell to host the spirit and soul, becomes dust upon death
living = spirit, emotions God’s life, goes back to God upon death
soul = soul, intellect, will, reason, character, personality who we are, depending on what we choose, goes to heaven or hell upon death
Scriptures regarding body, soul and spirit:
John 1:3 – All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Zech 4:6 – Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
1 Thes 5:23 – And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ecc 12:7 – Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
James 2:26 – For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
1 Cor 6:19-20 – 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.
Rom 12:1 – I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Gal 5:16-17 – This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
John 4:24 – God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Let’s look at each part:
The body:
The physical, visible part of who we are, with limbs and blood and organs. The earth is the physical realm. Nothing on earth can happen without a physical body. This is the first heaven, this is the physical world. God and the devil only has as much power here as we, as humans with a physical body, gives them. (Scary thought). Although the physical body then has an important function and the Bible tells us to look after it, it is not what the devil ultimately wants. He uses it most certainly to distract, but he doesn’t care about the body. The body also does not go to heaven or hell. The body does get transformed into a glorified body when Jesus comes back.
Personal conviction: I believe (and this is my personal idea, the Bible does not directly state this) that we will look the way we do now, and we will even have our scars, too. After Jesus was resurrected, they could see His wounds and even touch them.
The spirit:
This spirit refers to the life in us, the part that we “give up” when we die. Without it, we are physically dead. This spirit is God’s. I believe (and a lot of people believe differently, you need to make your own study) that because the spirit of God in us gives us life, and this life is from God, it will return unto God when we die. It is a part of Him, why would He let it go to hell? And because it literally is a part of God, it cannot be the devil’s. The spirit cannot choose between heaven and hell, it does not have free will. So no matter what the devil does, it cannot possess your spirit. Again, the devil interferes a lot with your spirit in the spiritual realm, but he doesn’t want your spirit. It is not his to get.
The soul:
The soul is who we are, our identity, our character, our personality, our will, our thoughts. Thus, the soul is what the devil can possess. It is what makes the choice, it is what will go to wherever you choose to go: heaven or hell. So the devil is after your soul.
How does it work?
God gave man life, literally from His own life, because He breathed into man and he (man) became alive. God gave man of His spirit. The body is the flesh part, literally made from clay. This was dead until God breathed into it. The soul was made with the body – “man became a living soul” : there are so many interpretations of this sentence, it is not even funny. But let’s take the one that suggests the soul along with the body, was dead, until God breathed into it. What is the soul? It is our minds, our will, our character. That is what makes us – us. Our personalities, ability to reason, etc. God made animals from the same earth that man was made from, but animals do not have the capacity to reason. Because God did not breathe into them, therefore, they did not receive a spirit or a soul. They are simply alive.
We were chosen before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). How can we be chosen if there was nothing to choose from? Therefore, for Him to be able to choose us, means we must have been made already. But what was made? Our bodies? Obviously not. In Gen 1:26, God made man in His image. And God is a spirit (John 4:24). This was BEFORE man was made from dust, BEFORE the body was formed. So, our spirits, that part that are to be our life source, were made before the foundation of the world. And because our soul is the part that defines us, that makes us – us, I believe our souls were also created and that when we are with God, before we are born, our souls and spirits are one.
During conception, a sperm and ovum comes together to form a baby. Yet science knows very well that that doesn’t happen every time a sperm and ovum come together. It has to come alive. And they do not know yet what makes it “come alive”. Well, we do. It is when that spirit that was formed before the foundation of the world comes down to become a living human, a living soul. And that happens at God’s appointed time for each and every person, because life is in His hands (Acts 17:25, John 1:3-4). Only He decides when the sperm and ovum will “come alive”.
But if your soul and spirit is 1, how can the spirit go to heaven and the soul go either to heaven or hell? Shouldn’t they be going to the same place?
Personal conviction and opinion, based on Biblical principles: When your spirit and soul, as 1, comes down during conception, it splits. The sperm carries the soul, although uniquely created by God, it comes through the physical father. It carries the generational sins. When mommy and daddy comes together, all mommies generational sins climbs onto daddy, and vica versa. But mommy does not pass on the generational sins, daddy does. That’s why Jesus was physically born of Mary, but did not have a biological dad. He had a heavenly Father without sin, without generational iniquity. So Mary – although riddled with generational sins – did not, could not, pass it on. It comes with the sperm.
Why does the soul and spirit split?
In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were physically naked. But because sin had not been done yet, no negative ideas or emotions existed yet, they were not ashamed. They were made with all the tools to have sex and were told to reproduce. I believe that they had sex, in the manner it was supposed to be, between man and wife, in love. And although sin was present – the tree of knowledge of good and evil was in the garden – it hasn’t been chosen yet. For the devil to get access to the soul, he needed Adam to sin. Remember, the devil needed a physical body to start his reign on earth. Their eyes were still closed, their soul and spirit were still one.
Now, why Adam listened to Eve and sinned, is a whole other study. But Adam needed to sin, not Eve. Nothing happened when Eve sinned. We don’t know what that sin was. It wasn’t sex. But it was something the devil got Eve to do, and she could take it to Adam to do as well. And when Adam sinned, then, and only then, did it all end. The Bible says “their eyes were opened”. The eyes are the windows to the soul – guess what? Their souls just activated. The Word of God is His laws, and when Adam broke the Word of God, it cut asunder soul and spirit. Now, spirit will always go back to heaven, but unless soul chooses to, it will go to hell.
The soul became the devil’s by default.
When you choose to follow Jesus, when you accept Him as your savior, your soul becomes saved. Until that moment, you are in darkness and cannot have God’s Spirit in you, because He doesn’t commune with darkness. The spirit you do have, is from Him, but it is only LIFE, not His HOLY SPIRIT. And that spirit is also in darkness when the soul is unsaved. When you get saved, your soul now belongs to God, it is washed clean and filled with light and God can send His HOLY SPIRIT to dwell within you.
So after you are saved, you have 4 parts, not just 3: body, soul, spirit (life) and God’s Holy Spirit.
How do these parts interact?
Your soul decides what happens. Whether you take care of your body or not, whether you are saved or not, those choices are made by your soul. Your body cannot do anything out of itself (not talking about normal bodily functions like breathing). Your body cannot go to a bar without you choosing to do so. Your spirit cannot make you do anything without your soul choosing to do it. So the devil can deceive you through your physical body (lust of the eyes) but he cannot force you to sin, your soul chooses it. The devil can run up your emotions and cause grief in your spirit – he is in the spiritual realm, so he will attack you in spirit! – but you choose to succumb to the emotion, to give in to the anger or the jealousy.
VERY IMPORTANT: the devil cannot make you sin. You choose to. He can only deceive and entice and try to convince, but the choice to act is yours and yours alone.
When you become saved, you submit to God. Your soul chooses God and then needs to submit to God. His Holy Spirit comes into your life and you, your soul, must obey God’s Holy Spirit. You, your soul, must rule over your body and over your spirit, by choosing to submit to God’s Holy Spirit.
When the Bible says you need to die, that is what it means. You – your soul, your wants, your desires, your thoughts, your actions – needs to die, so that Christ can live in you. Does that mean you lose your personality? No, not at all. It means that you allow God to act on this earth through you. Remember – God limited His powers to the obedience of humans. Without our consent, He cannot do anything. And either God works through you, or the devil does. If you think you control your own life, you are sorely mistaken. There are only 2 forces: good and evil. If you are not subjected to good, you are subject to evil. There is no middle ground.
Other considerations:
But because getting saved is a conscious choice, what happens to a baby or toddler when they die? They hadn’t made the choice yet? Where are they going? I believe that any and all children, from birth to around the age of 7, goes to heaven when they die. They do not have the mental capacity to understand the concept of God or heaven or hell, and therefor cannot make a choice. God is very specific in the Bible that you need to accept Jesus, and young children cannot willingly and knowingly make that decision. I also believe that this extends to those with limited mental capacity, and mental retardation.
God’s grace is much more comprehensive than we can imagine. I don’t believe there is an exact age (many believe it is 7 years old). When I take my own kids, at 7 they were not able yet to comprehend the weight of such a decision. Never mind my kids with learning disabilities… My one son only fully understood the concept of God and Jesus and the cross at age 10, even though he was brought up with the Bible and the stories and the concepts. My youngest son is 7, and there is no way he is able to make this decision. So I believe every person will be judged according to their own ability.
No comments:
Post a Comment