The Spirit in Man

            There has been much misunderstanding about the spirit in man which is spoken of in the Scriptures. God put a spirit in man. This spirit was not God, but formed by God. The interaction between the soil that formed physical man and the addition of the spirit from God produced man as a living soul, or person. Let us begin by looking at a few scriptures from the Old Testament regarding the spirit in man.

THE SPIRIT AND THE PERSON

            Ecclesiastes 12:7 tells us that the dust that man was made from returns to the ground and the spirit that was given by God returns back to God when one dies. It is also important to note that it is the spirit in man that gives him understanding (Job. 32:8). Paul points out that it is our spirit in us that knows our thoughts and likewise we can only know the thoughts of God through the interaction of our spirit in us with God’s Spirit. It is through this spirit in us along with God’s Spirit in believers that we can exercise our spiritual relationship with God through prayer. Psalms 146:4 says that when the spirit departs, the person returns to the ground and his plans vanish. He no longer has any thoughts or plans because he is dead and his spirit has returned to God who gave it.

            It is important to know that the soul was not added; it was the spirit that was added. Some will say that the terms soul and spirit can be used interchangeably, but this is not so. This is said in an effort to maintain one’s concept of having an immortal soul that never dies. If a person is already immortal, why does he need Christ’s sacrifice of his death to atone for his sins so he can receive immorality at the Second Coming and resurrection? The Bible says that only God has immortality inherently and Christ will give immortality to mankind at the resurrection. Ezekiel 18:20 says, “The soul that sins, it shall die. . . .” It is the person who sins who is the one responsible for sinning and will die according to this verse. It also informs us that the soul can die and therefore is not immortal. God told Adam and Eve that if they took of the tree of good and evil that in that day they would die. We know that death is a process and they both died spiritually that day by having now experienced being disobedient to God, and eventually they would literally die physically. Satan told Eve that they would not die if they ate of that tree. In other words, there are Christians today that are saying, like Satan, that they will not die but continue on in another dimension as a soul without a body. Then to them the resurrection only means their uniting with the body that died. Any scientist can tell us that it would be impossible to reconstitute one’s original body that was buried and decayed and was destroyed through many chemical reactions in the ground.

JESUS’ DEATH AND THE SPIRIT WITHIN US

            Let us look at the example of Christ’s death. The Scriptures say that Christ was in the grave (hades) once he died and that his soul would not remain there (Acts 2:27). Many, on the other hand, say he was in heaven according to Luke 23:43. They try to say that Jesus promised this thief to be with him in Paradise, or heaven, that very day. Actually, the thief asked to be remembered when Jesus would come in his kingdom, which will occur at the Second Coming. On the day in which Jesus was crucified, he committed his spirit to his Father (Luke 23:46) so that it returned to God (just like it says in Ecclesiastes 12:7). That this was not a conscious session in the presence of the Father is proven by his words to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection on the third day after his death (John 20:17). While he had not ascended to his Father in heaven as he said to her, his spirit had. While his spirit and body were separated, his soul was in hades (grave). In his resurrection he was made alive by the return of his spirit (1 Peter 3:18) and as a result his soul (life as a person) was not left in hades.

OUR RESURRECTION LIKE THAT OF CHRIST

            The spirit in man from God returns to God at death. Theologians want to define death as the separation of the soul from the body, but that cannot be found in Scripture. James defines death as the separation of the spirit of man from the body (James 2:26). It is this spirit in man that will be used to resurrect our life from death at the Second Coming and resurrection Christ has promised us. Resurrection is not about returning a body from the grave. It is about restoring the life of a person who has been dead. It is about life from the dead, not from some other dimension of continuing existence. Those who believe in the immortal soul believe that God will bring back their bodies that physically died to be united with their souls, which never died. Our common sense would inform us that this will not be possible. One’s body eventually will be destroyed and recombined with other elements in the soil. The Bible does not teach that the resurrection of the body is to be reunited with a soul from another existence after death, but the resurrection of life from the dead. At that time we will be recreated with spiritual bodies of flesh and bone as Christ’s body was described in Luke 24:39-43. Paul further tells us that our bodies are sown as a natural body in 1 Corinthians 15:44 (a soul body in the Greek) and will be raised, or resurrected, as a spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15:45 says that the first man, Adam became a living soul (or person), but the last Adam will be a life-giving spirit. So Jesus appeared to his disciples with a spiritual body of flesh and bones in which he apparently walked into the room where they were while the doors remained closed.

CONCLUSION

            The spirit in man was given by God and gives the human person understanding. When we become believers we then also have God’s Spirit working in us with our spirit that is in all mankind. It is through this spirit in man in conjunction with God’s Spirit that we can have a vibrant relationship with God our Father.

            Many scriptures tell us that at our death this spirit in man returns to God who first gave it. This spirit in man is not conscious and is not an example of anyone going to heaven. When death comes to a person, their nonconscious spirit returns to God and their body is buried and that person no longer exists. Without what Christ has done in dying for our sake, we would all perish. Christ will raise the dead believers and, without being  judged, they will enter into the kingdom of heaven having then been established on the earth. The unbelievers will face judgment and Christ will assign them to an age of judgment wherein they can learn to repent and trust Christ also for their salvation. Once they have changed their carnal minds to spiritual minds, they too will be invited into the everlasting kingdom.