Subject: Body/soul/spirit? |
Bible Note: Hi Bill, I've been sharing my "understanding" too, and I'm not sure which parts I have "right". I'm sure that point comes across. #4 in your post seems feasible, but to some degree it creates even more questions for me. That happens a lot I'm afraid. :):) As to #4, I do agree that "God designed man not to be autonimous but dependent upon God's Spirit (spiritual life) in Him". But if Adam was created with God's Spirit within him, then I would have two questions to start with. 1. Why would God put the "tree of life" in the garden with Adam... if He already had that "life"? 2) Then it would seem that we who are "born of the Spirit" could also lose or have God's Spirit removed from us for sinning just as Adam did. Yet God gives the Holy Spirit as a surety or earnest toward the completion of our salvation (2Cor. 1:22, 5:5; Eph. 1:14) [earnest - 728 "arrhabon" a pledge, i.e. part of the purchase-money or property given in advance as security for the rest.] So I'm not sure that Adam was given anything different than we were except that his "soul"(mind) reflected or resembled God at it's creation because it had never sinned. Ours doesn't, until it is born of the Spirit. Of course that thought could bring up questions possibly about an "age of reason" or "sins of the fathers" too. :) #3 though seems understandable to me. To me there are definitely 3 separate parts to man -- body/spirit/soul. My reason for saying this: 1) the body is dust and will return to dust. 2) the spirit which is immortal will return to God who gave it. [immortal is included in the meaning of the word 4151] 3) the soul (spirit of the mind - concordance also mentions "spirit") of an un-saved person will not return or go to God at a person's death. Only if it is "born of the Spirit" can it go to God. Since God "breathed into" Adam once, I assume the complete spirit package came to Adam at one time. THE spirit (of life) and the spirit of the mind (soul). Which is why I see a connection. An example to explain what I mean. If I have an orange in my hand... the whole thing is an orange. If I remove a slice from the orange, the remainder PLUS the slice are still "orange". Neither will be "whole", but they are still both "orange". And I think the spirit is kind of like that too. God gave man a spirit. A part of that spirit is the soul. PART but not the exact same thing. Another reason I think THE spirit and the soul(mind) of man are connected is that God's Word is the only thing that can divide the two. If they were not "together", they could not be divided at all. So my thoughts go like this. If God made Adam's spirit (of life)[THE spirit] "in His image", then it(spirit and soul/mind) would automatically return to God at a person's death whether or not it was "re-born". ('the spirit will return to God who gave it') Since it is the "spirit" of the mind that must be renewed, it makes sense to me that the soul(mind) which is spirit is the part that would need to be born again, or "renewed in the knowledge according to the image of Him who created him". That renewal, or new birth of the spirit of our mind is the only way man can reflect the image of God. ["image" of God actually means "resemblance" or "representative" of God.] So those are a few of my thoughts on this. God bless. |