| SPIRIT, ACCORDING
TO SCRIPTURE
Section
2 - The Power of Life
ii)
The imperceptible, intangible power of life, action, intelligence in living
entities
- in humans and in animals.
Let us be clear in our minds
that it is GOD Who creates ALL through Jesus Christ. There is no
place for the non-scriptural God-effacing position of evolution which bases
everything on random accidents ascribed to an abstract something called
‘Nature’ and a process termed ‘natural selection’! These atheists think
nothing of ascribing superior intelligence to this abstract concept - yet
they refuse to acknowledge the existence of a supreme Being Who works things
out with deliberation and design. There are so many examples in creation
which clearly exhibit the presence of a wondrous co-ordination and a symbiosis
that only a truly masterful designing Intelligence can bring about.
The wonder of it is that
there are many who claim to be Christians who, preferring not to be labelled
'unintelligent' and 'unscientific' according to the wisdom of the world,
subscribe to this false doctrine and endeavour by various means to amalgamate
it with the truth of creation by God.
Eph.3:9
And to enlighten all as to what is the administration of the secret,
which has been concealed
from the eons in God, Who creates all,
Jn.1:1-3 In
the beginning was the word, and the word was toward God,
and God was the word…
All came into being
through
it,
and apart from it not even
one thing came into being which has come into being.
Gen.1:1 Created
by the Elohim were the heavens and the earth.
1Tim.6:20 …Timothy,
that which is committed to you, guard,
turning aside from the profane
prattlings and antipathies of falsely named "knowledge,"
which some are professing.
As to the faith, they swerve….
If we accept that Scripture
is God’s revelation concerning HIS workings, there should be no
choice or compromise on this matter of origins. Can any person be a believer
in God as God if he refuses to believe God’s declarations, but,
rather, chooses to believe the theories and assumptions of people who themselves
claim that they have come into existence by chance? There is a Scriptural
principle to guide us in such matters.
Rom.3:4
…let God be true, yet every man a liar,…
Tit.1:2
...God, Who does not lie, ...
1Jn.5:10 ...
he who is not believing God has made Him a liar...
Spirit in Man and
in Animals
In the creation of the first
man, Adam, it is stated,
Gen.2:7
And forming is Yahweh Elohim the human of soil from the ground,
and He is blowing into his
nostrils the breath of the living,
and becoming is the
human a living soul.
Adam was created; he
never had the experience of being born. When God created Adam, He formed
him out of the soil of the earth. He was ‘out of the earth, soilish’ (1Cor.15:47).
That, we are told, was the human - MAN - even though LIFE was not yet in
him! (Adam came into being directly from soil. This precludes an
evolution from a lower form of already existing life.)
Then God breathed into him
the breath of of the living. This act introduced life into the hitherto
inanimate
man and, thus, he became a living SOUL! This is typical.
Ps.104:30
You send forth Your spirit; they are created,
And You renew the face of
the ground.
Isa.42:5 Thus
says the El, Yahweh Elohim, Creator of the heavens,
Who stretched them out,
Who stamped the earth and its offspring,
Who gives breath
to the people upon it, and spirit to those going in it:
Rev.11:11 …the
spirit of life out of God entered into them, and they stand on their
feet.
And great fear falls on
those beholding them.
1Thes.5:23 Now
may the God of peace Himself be hallowing you wholly;
and may your unimpaired
spirit
and soul and body be kept blameless
In the presence of our Lord
Jesus Christ!
Just as each living human has
a spirit which keeps him alive, animals, too, depend on spirit for living;
they, too, are living souls.
Eccl.3:19-21
For the destiny of the sons of humanity And the destiny of the beast,
It is one destiny for them;
As death is for this one, so is death for that one,
And one spirit is
for all;
There is no advantage for
the human over the beast, For the whole is vanity.
All are going to one place;
All have come from
the soil, and all return to the soil.
Who is knowing about the
spirit of the sons of humanity, Whether it is ascending above,
And the spirit of the beast,
whether it is descending below to the earth?
Gen.6:17 And
I, behold Me bringing a deluge of water over the earth
to wreck all flesh, which
has in it the spirit of the living, from under the heavens.
All that is in the earth
shall expire.
Gen.7:21-23
And expiring is all flesh moving on the earth, of flyer, and of beast,
and of living animal, and
of every roaming animal roaming on the earth, and every human.
Everyone which has the
breath of the spirit of the living in his nostrils,
of all that were in the
drained area, dies.
And wiped off is every risen
thing which was on the surface of all the ground,
from human to beast, from
moving animal to the flyer of the heavens.
And being wiped are they
from the earth.
Yea, only Noah is remaining,
and what is with him in the ark.
The case of Adam
Let us review the creation
of Adam.
a) God fashioned man
out of the soil of the earth - the body
b) He breathed into
that inanimate body the breath of life - the life-imparting
factor, the spirit
c) And so, when spirit
was joined to the body, the man became a living, sentient being,
conscious of his environment - a living soul!
Conversely, when spirit is
withdrawn, the body dies, the man dies! He ceases to be a
living entity! Spirit, then, is essential for man to be alive. But spirit
is not the man.
Jas.2:26
…the body apart from spirit is dead…
Ps.104:29 …You
gather
away their spirit; they breathe their last and return to their
soil.
No man, nor any living creature
upon the earth, can decide when this life-sustaining spirit comes or goes.
Only God controls this.
Zech.12:1
…Yahweh, Outstretcher of the heavens, and Founder of the earth,
and Former of the spirit
of the human within him,
Job.12:10 In
Whose hand is the soul of every living creature
And the spirit in all
flesh of man.
Eccl.8:8 No
man has authority over the spirit to detain the spirit,
And no one has authority
over the day of death;…
This spirit, operating only
through the body, gives the human being the ability to think and to act
as a human being. It gives him a human awareness of himself and of his
environment and enables him to think sequentially and consequentially.
It gives him understanding and allows him to ‘choose’ a course of action.
1Cor.2:11
For is any of humanity acquainted with that which is human
except the spirit of
humanity which is in it?…
Job.32:8 But
surely it is the spirit in a mortal,
And the breath of Him Who-Suffices
that
gives them understanding.
Job.32:18,19
For I am full of declarations;
The spirit of my inner
being constrains me.
Behold, my belly is like
wine that is not opened,
Like new wineskins, it is
ready to split.
Prov.20:27 A
lamp of Yahweh is the lifebreath of mankind,
Searching all the chambers
of the inner being.
Gal.5:17 For
the
flesh is lusting against the spirit,
yet the spirit against the
flesh.
Now these are opposing one
another,
lest you should be doing
whatever you may want.
From the above, we may conclude
that Man has a spirit within him which makes him a living soul and which
sustains the life that is his (see Isa.42:5; Rev.11:11; Jn.6:63). Spirit,
then, is one essential component of a living human being. Man is NOT a
spirit - never has been, and never will be! Our Lord insisted on this fact
when He appeared to His disciples after His resurrection.
Lk.24:36-43
Handle Me and perceive,
for a spirit has not flesh
and bones according as you behold Me having.
In analogy, let us consider
the circuit of an electric bulb.
Let the bulb
itself (physical and tangible) represent the BODY;
the electric
current (which cannot be seen) that flows in the circuit, the SPIRIT;
and the light
from the bulb the SOUL.
When switched ‘on’, current
flows through the bulb and causes it to light up. Analogously, when
the SPIRIT is put into a BODY a living SOUL is the result!
When switched ‘off’, current
is not present in the circuit, the bulb ceases to glow, and the light disappears
(into nobody knows where - an unseen place). Analogously, at death,
when God takes back the life-giving factor (the SPIRIT), the BODY goes
to the grave and returns to soil (eventually, through decomposition), and
the SOUL goes away (into nobody knows where - the unseen, Gk. hades)!
Job.34:14,15
If He places it in His heart concerning him,
He can gather back His spirit
and His breath to Himself;
All flesh would breathe
its last together,
And humanity would return
to the soil.
Conversely, when spirit is put
back into a body, it comes back to life.
Lk.8:53-55
And they ridiculed Him, being aware that she died.
Yet He, casting all outside
and holding her hand, shouts, saying,
"Girl, be roused!"
And back turns her spirit, and she rose instantly.
And He prescribes that she
be given something to eat.
To reiterate, Man is of soil
- and will return to soil! It is the combination of body and spirit that
makes man a living soul. When the spirit is separated from the body THE
MAN dies! He does not exist, literally, either as a spirit or as a soul!
Eccl.12:7
And the soil returns to the earth just as it was,
And the spirit, it
returns to the One, Elohim, Who gave it.
In death, he is unconscious
of his surroundings; he does not know anything; he cannot do
anything! Not for himself; not for anyone else! Any allusion, in Scripture,
to man being aware of his surroundings and situation must be taken figuratively.
Eccl.9:5,6,10
For the living know that they shall die,
But the dead know nothing
whatsoever;
There is no further reward
for them;
Indeed remembrance of them
is forgotten.
Both their love and their
hate as well as their jealousy have perished already,
And there is no further
portion for them for the eon In all that is done under the sun….
All that your hand finds
to do, do with your vigour,
For there is no doing
or devising or knowledge or wisdom
in the unseen where you
are going.
Ps.6:5 For in
death there is no remembrance of You;
In the unseen, who shall
acclaim You?
At the death of Jesus
When, at the cross, Jesus
GAVE UP His spirit to the Father, He actually DIED! He was unconscious
and oblivious of His surroundings. He was not alive in any literal
sense! This is basic to the evangel! It is a prerequisite for the
Resurrection! See 1Cor.15:1-28.
His SPIRIT He entrusted to
His Father;
Mt.27:50
Now Jesus, again crying with a loud voice, lets out the spirit.
Mk.15:37 Now
Jesus, letting out a loud sound, expires.
Lk.23:46 …with
a loud voice, Jesus said,
"Father, into Thy hands
am I committing My spirit."
Now, saying this, He expires.
Jn.19:30 When,
then, Jesus took the vinegar, He said, "It is accomplished!"
And reclining His head,
He gives up the spirit.
His BODY was in the tomb (Gk.
mnemeion,
REMIND-) for the three days.
Mt.27:57-61
...there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph,
who himself also is a disciple
of Jesus. He, coming to Pilate,
requests the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate orders the body to be given up.
And, getting the body, Joseph
folds it up in a clean linen wrapper
and places it in his new
tomb which he quarries in the rock.
And, rolling a large stone
on to the door of the tomb, he came away.
Now Miriam Magdalene was
there, and the other Mary, sitting in front of the sepulcher.
Mt.27:62-66
Now, on the morrow which is after the preparation, the chief priests and
the Pharisees were gathered to Pilate, saying, "Lord, we are reminded that
that deceiver said while still living, 'After three days shall I be roused.'
Then order the sepulcher
to be secured till the third day, lest at some time his disciples, coming,
should be stealing him and may be saying to the people,
'He was roused from the
dead,' and the last deception will be worse than the first."
Yet Pilate averred to them,
"You have a detail. Go, make it secure, as you are aware."
Now they, being gone, secure
the sepulcher, sealing the stone, with the detail.
His SOUL ceased to exist when
He died! Figuratively, it was in the Unseen, hades.
Act.2:27 For
Thou wilt not be forsaking my soul in the unseen,….
Act.2:31 perceiving
this before, he speaks concerning the resurrection of the Christ,
that He was neither forsaken
in the unseen,
nor was His flesh acquainted
with decay.
Scripture does not say that,
at death, Jesus gave up His body and went to the Father,
but that He gave up His
spirit
and was not with the Father during all the time He was dead and
in the tomb!
Jesus DIED - ceased to
live - so that we could be justified; and because His sacrifice was
accepted by God as adequate, and because of our justifying, He was resurrected
by God (cf. Rom.4:25)!
And Jesus insists that during
this period of His being dead, even though His spirit had been committed
to the Father, He had NOT AS YET ascended to the Father, an event which
would only take place after His resurrection and after His encounter
with Mary Magdalene!
Jn.20:17
Jesus is saying to her,
"Do not touch Me, for not
as yet have I ascended to My Father.
Now go to My brethren, and
say to them that I said,
`Lo! I am ascending
to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’
Resurrection
Most translators are less
than meticulous when dealing with the Greek words of Scripture. Sometimes,
one Greek word is rendered by many English 'equivalents' and their
synonyms. At other times, a single English word is used to translate a
number of different Greek words. But, as the words of Scripture
are chosen by God and the writers inspired to use them, a greater respect
should be accorded them and, therefore, more careful attention should be
paid to distinguish between them in translation.
In the usage of Scripture,
the word ‘resurrection’ (Gk.anastasis UP-STANDing) is used with
special reference to THE BODY (which will be able to stand up, when brought
to life). Other related words ‘rise’ and ‘raise’ (Gk.anistêmi
UP-STAND) are also used.
Jn.6:44
No one can come to Me
if ever the Father Who sends
Me should not be drawing him.
And I shall be raising
him in the last day.
Jn.11:23,24
Jesus is saying to her, "Your brother will be rising."
Martha is saying to Him,
"I am aware that he will be rising in the resurrection in the last day."
The word ‘rouse’ (Gk. egeirö
ROUSE), on the other hand, is used with special emphasis on THE SOUL (which
is said to be awakened, as from a sleep, or brought to consciousness and
made aware of its surroundings).
Jn.11:11
…He is saying to them, "Lazarus, our friend, has found repose,
but I am going that I should
be awakening him out of sleep."
The disciples, then, said
to Him, "Lord, if he has repose, he shall be saved."
Now Jesus had made a declaration
concerning his death,
yet they suppose that He
is saying it concerning the repose of sleep.
Jesus, then, said to them
with boldness then, "Lazarus died.
Jn.12:1 Jesus,
then, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was who had
died, whom Jesus rouses from among the dead…
Job.14:12,13
So a man lies down and shall not rise;
Until the heavens fail,
they shall not awake,
Nor shall they be roused
from their sleep.
O that You would seclude
me in the unseen,
That You would conceal me
until Your anger turns back,
That You would set a statutory
time for me and then remember me.
The word ‘vivify’ (Gk. zöopoieö
LIVE-DO)
is used in a special sense of the return of THE SPIRIT, fortified with
God's spirit that gives life beyond the reach of death, thus conferring
immortality and incorruptibility. For those who are alive at the coming
of Christ for the ecclesia, the final payment is made, of which the sealing
with the holy spirit on believing is only the down-payment or guarantee
or earnest of the complete transaction (Eph.1:13,14).
Jn.5:21
For even as the Father is rousing the dead and vivifying,
thus the Son also is vivifying
whom He will.'
Jn.6:63 The
Spirit is that which is vivifying. The flesh is not benefiting anything…
Rom.8:11 Now
if the spirit of Him Who rouses Jesus from among the dead
is making its home in you,
He Who rouses Christ
Jesus from among the dead
will also be vivifying
your mortal bodies because of His spirit making its home in you.
1Cor.15:20-22
Yet now Christ has been roused from among the dead,
the Firstfruit of those
who are reposing.
For since, in fact, through
a man came death,
through a Man, also, comes
the resurrection of the dead.
For even as, in Adam, all
are dying,
thus also, in Christ, shall
all be vivified.
Believers who have died previous
to the rapture will, at the event, be resurrected from among the dead and
be vivified. They will receive new bodies energised by spirit rather than
through blood. Believers who are alive at that instant will experience
a vital change in their bodies so that they, too, will have bodies like
those who have just been resurrected. These are spiritual bodies, of flesh
and bones like Christ’s is. This is outlined in 1Cor.15:42-55.
Thus also is the
resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption;
it is roused in incorruption.
It is sown in dishonor;
it is roused in glory.
It is sown in infirmity;
it is roused in power.
It is sown a soulish body;
it is roused a spiritual body.
If there is a soulish body,
there is a spiritual also.
Thus it is written also,
The first man, Adam, "became
a living soul:" the last Adam a vivifying Spirit.
But not first the spiritual,
but the soulish, thereupon the spiritual.
The first man was out of
the earth, soilish;
the second Man is the Lord
out of heaven.
Such as the soilish one
is, such are those also who are soilish,
and such as the Celestial
One, such are those also who are celestials.
And according as we wear
the image of the soilish,
we should be wearing the
image also of the Celestial.
Now this I am averring, brethren,
that flesh and blood
is not able to enjoy an allotment in the kingdom of God,
neither is corruption enjoying
the allotment of incorruption.
Lo! a secret to you am I
telling!
We all, indeed, shall not
be put to repose,
yet we all shall be changed,
in an instant, in the twinkle of an eye, at the last trump.
For He will be trumpeting,
and the dead will be roused
incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality.
Now, whenever this corruptible
should be putting on incorruption
and this mortal should be
putting on immortality,
then shall come to pass
the word which is written,
Swallowed up was Death by
Victory.
Where, O Death, is your
victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?
Scripture often contrasts our
human spirit and our flesh in the way they affect our behaviour, our attitude,
our character. Our spirit, the life-imparting component given by God to
each human being, and not constituted from the soil, cannot die.
Scripture says that the body
will die (Jas.2:26; Ps.104:29). It says, in a figure, that the soul also
can die (Ezek.18:4,20; Mt.10:28). But it never says, in any way, that the
spirit can die!
Flesh and spirit, each exerts
an opposing pull on our decision-making so that we are never unhindered
either way.
Rom.8:6,7
For the disposition of the flesh is death,
yet the disposition of the
spirit is life and peace,
because the disposition
of the flesh is enmity to God,
for it is not subject to
the law of God, for neither is it able.
Gal.5:17 For
the flesh is lusting against the spirit,
yet the spirit against the
flesh.
Now these are opposing one
another,
lest you should be doing
whatever you may want.
Left to ourselves, however,
and because of the now intrinsic weakness in our flesh (remember, death
was passed on - Rom.5:12-14), we find it easier to please the dictates
of the flesh, to satisfy our senses (our soulish desires), and to do the
wrong, rather than to heed the legitimate longings of our spirit.
Rom.7:18,19
For I am aware that good is not making its home in me (that is, in my flesh),
for to will is lying beside
me, yet to be effecting the ideal is not.
For it is not the good that
I will that I am doing,
but the evil that I am not
willing, this I am putting into practice.
Rom.7:22,23 For I
am gratified with the law of God as to the man within,
yet I am observing a different
law in my members, warring with the law of my mind,
and leading me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members.
Gal.5:16 Now
I am saying, Walk in spirit,
and you should under no
circumstances be consummating the lust of the flesh.
Rom.8:5 For
those who are in accord with flesh are disposed to that which is of the
flesh,
yet those who are in accord
with spirit to that which is of the spirit.
Gal.5:19-21
Now apparent are the works of the flesh,
which are adultery, prostitution,
uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, enchantment, enmities, strife, jealousies,
furies, factions, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkennesses, revelries,
and the like of these…
Gal.5:22-24
Now the fruit of the spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control:
against such things there
is no law.
Now those of Christ Jesus
crucify the flesh together with its passions, and lusts.
The spirit in the context of
these passages is our human spirit, not God’s holy spirit. Non-believers,
too, show evidence of these virtues, the fruit of this spirit, in their
otherwise unenlightened lives. The character and behaviour of some of these
non-believers can put some of us, who call ourselves Christians, to shame.
If salvation has to be earned by qualification through virtue and good
works, we would be in a very sorry state, indeed!
But, thank God, salvation
is God’s gift in grace to those whom He calls (Eph.2:8,9), and completely
independent of effort on our part. We, members of the body of Christ, have
been given His holy spirit which makes its home in us, and seals us. This
spirit reinforces our spirit, thereby strengthening it, and together they
testify that we are children of God, leading us to put the practices of
the body to death (Rom.8:9-16). Through it, God works in us to will as
well as to work to please Him (Phil.2:13). It is all His doing, not ours
(Eph.2:10)!
Rom.8:1-4 Nothing,
consequently, is now condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.
Not according to flesh are
they walking, but according to spirit,
for the spirit's law of
life in Christ Jesus frees you from the law of sin and death.
For what was impossible
to the law, in which it was infirm through the flesh,
did God, sending His own
Son in the likeness of sin's flesh and concerning sin,
He condemns sin in the flesh,
that the just requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us,
who are not walking in accord
with flesh, but in accord with spirit.
Sometimes, Scripture uses ‘spirit’
in another sense. This is apparent in the following:
Rev.1:10 I
came to be, in spirit, in the Lord's day,
and I hear behind me a voice,
loud as a trumpet,
This passage refers to no scriptural
sabbath nor to any theologically sanctified Sunday. Here John, though present
on Patmos, is taken in a vision to a momentous period in his far
future where he sees the details of old prophecies concerning the ‘the
Day of the Lord’, becoming realities. It was as if he were present in that
period heralding the coming of the Christ (Jn.21:20-23). Look at another
example of being 'in spirit'.
1Cor.5:3-5
For I, indeed, being absent in body, yet present in spirit, have
already,
as if present, thus judged
the one effecting this, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
(you being gathered, and
my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus),
to give up such a one to
Satan…
Here, though Paul is unable
to be with the Corinthians at the time of his writing, he decides, as if
he were actually present in their congregation, on the action they should
be taking against the wrongdoer.
A motivating force
The term ‘spirit’ is also
used to denote the inner moving force, a power that motivates, enables,
and controls perspective and action. A few examples will serve to explain
this.
Lk.13:11
And lo! there was a woman having a spirit of infirmity eighteen
years,
and she was bending together
and utterly unable to unbend.
1Jn.4:6 We are
of God. He who knows God is hearing us. He who is not of God is not hearing
us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
Rev.19:10 And
I fall in front of his feet to worship him. And he is saying to me, "See!
No!
A fellow slave of yours
am I, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus.
Worship God! for the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Rom.7:6 Yet
now we were exempted from the law, dying in that in which we were retained,
so that it is for us to
be slaving in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.
2Cor.3:6 Who
also makes us competent dispensers of a new covenant,
not of the letter, but of
the spirit, for the letter is killing, yet the spirit is vivifying.
Rom.8:15,16
For you did not get slavery's spirit to fear again,
but you got the spirit
of sonship, in which we are crying, "Abba, Father!"
The spirit itself is testifying
together
with our spirit that we are children of God.
Rom.11:7,8 What
then? What Israel is seeking for, this she did not encounter,
yet the chosen encountered
it. Now the rest were calloused, even as it is written,
God gives them a spirit
of stupor, eyes not to be observing, and ears not to be hearing,
till this very day.
1Cor.2:11-13
For is any of humanity acquainted with that which is human
except the spirit of
humanity which is in it? Thus also,
that which is of God no
one knows, except the spirit of God.
Now we obtained, not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we may be perceiving
that which is being graciously given to us by God,
which we are speaking also,
not with words taught by human wisdom,
but with those taught
by the spirit, matching spiritual blessings with spiritual
words.
1Cor.4:21 What
are you wanting? With a rod may I be coming to you,
or in love and a spirit
of meekness?
2Cor.4:13 Now
having the same spirit of faith, in accord with what is written,
"I believe, wherefore I
speak also,"
we also are believing, wherefore
we are speaking also,
Eph.1:17,18
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may be giving you a spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the realisation of Him,
the eyes of your heart having
been enlightened,
for you to perceive what
is the expectation of His calling,
and what the riches of the
glory of the enjoyment of His allotment among the saints,
2Tim.1:7 for
God gives us, not a spirit of timidity, but of power and
of
love and of sanity.
June 2001
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God Himself
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4 - The Power in God's Operations
II
....Section
5 - Metaphysical Beings I
....Section
6 - Metaphysical Beings II
....Section
7 - Conclusion |
