Spirit and Soul and Body, Part III
2021-12-27
Because of the sin of humankind, both our personal sin and of the sin nature, we have been hopelessly alienated from God. The only solution is for a rebirth: a complete recreating and starting over that is initiated by God. We read this of the new covenant:
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. (26) A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. (27) And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
Notice that God gives us “a new spirit” in Ezekiel 36:26 and “my spirit” in Ezekiel 36:37. The old dead spirit we had because of sin was replaced by a new spirit. This is in addition to the giving of the Holy Spirit.
We need to be born again. The first time we were born of water and flesh. The second time, we were born of the Spirit. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). We have a new spiritual nature in Christ: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Though spiritually we are born again, the flesh is not born again yet and is still hardwired to the Adamic nature. The flesh is not redeemed until the Day of Christ: “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).
In the meantime, there is a battle between the spiritual nature and the flesh, outlined in Romans 7:7-25. There is a daily dying that must take place, knowing that the flesh is dead, but we are alive in Christ: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
In summary, what comes naturally through the body operates by the senses and the fallen nature. What comes spiritually is apprehended by faith. The body is still hardwired to Adam, while the immaterial is not. The spiritual does not start until one is born again. The spirit is dead until then.
Conclusions
So, which is correct? Monism, dichotomy, or trichotomy? Previously, I always leaned toward the trichotomy view. Some of it is the splitting of hairs that is not necessary. The three entities are distinct things. How we group them together may not be that important.
There is a lot we do not know. Ultimately, human beings were designed to be spirit, soul, and body together. In Revelation 6:9-11, we see how the disembodied souls are waiting for the Day of Christ, when they will be complete with bodies again. All of creation is waiting for the resurrection (Romans 8:19-23). When this happens, the body will be recreated into a new body, and the spirit, soul and body will never be divided again.
Gotchas
We never want to say anything like the three entities of a human being are like the Trinity. The members of the Trinity are distinct Persons, which are all God. Your spirit, soul, and body are not distinct persons!
Also, we do not want to say that animals do not have soul or spirit.
Animals may have a soul: “And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so” (Genesis 1:30), where “life” is the word for soul.
Animals also seem to have a spirit: “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:21).
Whatever spirit or soul animals have, it would clearly not be the same as people, who are in the image of God.