Spirit, Soul, & Body

1 Corinthians 15:45, “So also it is written, ‘The first MAN, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

I wanted to write today on Spirit, Soul, and Body because I find it a good introduction into what I think is going to be a be series of posts on Growing in Christ. In my post God is Light I said in passing that the spirit is energy, the soul is consciousness, and the body is mass. And this as it relates to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is true, but it is also true according to scripture.

If we first look at the spirit of man we see from the above scripture that Christ, the last Adam, is the one who brings life (energy) to that spirit. According to John 3: 6-7; salvation, or the process of being “born again”, is a rebirth of the spirit. Perhaps comparing this born again spirit is more like a home being connected to electricity for the first time. Paul in Colossians 1:13 says that we are transferred from a kingdom of darkness to a kingdom of His beloved Son. So the spirit, for those who have given their life to Christ is alive with the energy of God.

The body on the other hand has its own source of energy derived from being alive on the earth. The organs, blood, bones, muscles, skin, etc all work autonomously with or without God’s spirit. Instincts and genetic programming allow survival and function in the world. Hearts beat, brains think, emotions run all independent of both spirit and soul.

But the soul… now that is what God breathed into man when He created the first Adam. In the soul is consciousness. It is the soul that has the conscious connection between body and spirit. The soul is not intellectual capacity. That is the brain. But rather the soul houses are character and free will. It is the place where who we really are is found. It is what is and will be judged by Christ.

And so, in the context of this definition and relationship of spirit, soul, and body we find ourselves a living soul constantly making choices based on two competing forces. (Rom 8:5) The body is lazy, selfish, prideful, greedy, and under the curse and contamination of original sin. The spirit for those saved is connected to God. It is His life force, His energy, His communication, and even His kingdom that is growing inside us. And so here is life. In its simplest of godly purpose life is a conscious soul that daily, hourly, even moment by moment has a choice of choosing the desires of a body, or choosing the desires of the Spirit. Oh some times, perhaps even many times those desires are the same, but just as often the Spirit is in conflict with the body.

So to grow in Christ or for a more palatable term, spiritual growth is nothing more than choosing Spirit over body. And this path we will find in the coming post has a pattern. We will also find out that that pattern has very little to do with not sinning, and a whole lot to do with discovering Christ in a new and living way.

Here’s to growing in Him together.

As a side note. I have seen it argued that emotions are in the soul. If that is the case does it mean a woman with PMS really has a crazy soul? Does it mean someone with hypothyroid, a cause of depression, has a depressed soul?

For those who think intellect is in the soul. Does it mean the mentally handicapped have less of a soul? Does it mean diminished mental capacity means less capacity to be conscious of God?