Mission Venture Ministries

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23) 

Adam was created from the dust of the earth and became a living soul as the Bible states: “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” – literally a soul (Genesis 2:7). 

The “soul” came into being when God breathed into Adam’s nostrils. Thus, a new soul comes into being every time a person is born. 

The word soul is always a combination of two things, body plus breath. Therefore, one cannot exist without the other, unless body and breath are combined. Scriptures teach that, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezekiel 18:20). Meaning everyone is individually responsible for their actions. 

The bible designates the “soul” as the whole person, characterized by the body’s desires, wishes and needs. This emphasizes that humans are emotional beings. Jesus said, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow,” that is to say, as an emotional being I am possessed by sorrow (Mark 14:34). Therefore, soul = nephesh / psuche refers to the totality of the person as a center of life, emotions, feelings, and longings. 

In its most basic sense, the word “soul” means “life,” either physical or eternal. Jesus asked “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). 

The soul is the realm of decision, it relates to your mind, will, emotions, and personality. The soul is the place where free will is exercised. The soul is eternal, and everyone has a soul; the redeemed and unredeemed alike. 

Both Old and New Testaments reiterate that we are to love God completely, with our whole “soul” which refers to everything that is in us. “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). And Mark 12:30 reiterates the same in the New Testament. Whenever the word “soul” is used, it can refer to the whole person, whether physically alive or in the afterlife. 

The soul is basically our mind, our emotions, and our will. It is who we are as human beings. But it is also used to express God. As written in Luke 1:46-47, “And Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

In this verse, we can see that Mary uses her soul to glorify God and then uses her spirit to rejoice in what God has done to save her. Glorifying God is a human responsibility. We express our humanity to God through our soul, and we magnify His power and presence through our spirit as John 4:24 tells us, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 

Mary was a strong believer and as such was chosen by God to have His Son, our Savior and she rejoiced in her spirit, since the Spirit himself beard witness with her spirit when this amazing historical moment occurred. 

We need to be filled by the Holy Spirit to fully express God’s love. 

Unlike the soul, which is alive both physically and eternally after the person is born, the spirit can be either alive, as in the case of believers, or dead as in the unbelievers and when the person dies the spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). 

The spiritual part of believers in Jesus Christ is that which responds to the things that come from the Spirit of God, and are understood and discerned spiritually. On the other hand, the spiritually dead perceive the things of the Spirit to be “foolishness” because, in his spiritually dead conditions, he does not have the ability to discern the things of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:12-14). The spirit is that part of us that is enabled by God to know and worship Him, the part of humanity that “connects” with God, who is Spirit Himself (John 4:24).

While the soul and spirit are often used interchangeably, the primary distinction between them in man is that the soul is the animate life, or the seat of the senses, desires, affections, and appetites. The spirit is that part of us that connects, or refuses to connect, to God. Our spirits relate to His Spirit, either by accepting His promptings and conviction, thereby proving that we belong to Him (Romans 8:16) or resisting Him and proving that we do not have spiritual life (Acts 7:51). 

When it comes to the state of the dead, many people often become confused with the concept of the soul and spirit. Notice what Solomon says about death: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). At death everything returns to where it came from; the dust returns to the earth from which it was taken and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 

This concept is consistent with the account of how man was created, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). Body + Spirit (breath of God) = Soul (life). This is why it is so important to remember our Creator in this life; because when this life is over, one will answer to the eternal God and spend eternity where we will reap what we have sown. 

Concerning the spirit that goes back to God, we know from James 2:26 that the body without the spirit is dead.  A body without breath is dead as is a person without the Spirit of God. A clear example is found in Job 27:3-4, “As long as my breath is in me, and the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.” Therefore, the spirit – breath that returns to God at death is the breath of life, the divine spark of life, be it of a believer or unbeliever. Just as Jesus stated: Then calling out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, into your hands I commit My spirit!” And having said this He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46). 

While the soul is the source of our expression through our humanity, it has its limitations and the only way we can experience God is through our spirit. The soul is merely a channel that will either yield or not to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to eternal life. Our spirit is the only way to connect with God, and we can only be guided by the Holy Spirit if we believe in God and receive Him through our Lord Jesus Christ’s salvation. 

In Romans 8:3-4, we are reminded that, “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” 

The way of the spirit is the way of God. The spirit was given to us through Jesus Christ. He lived amongst us and became human and for this reason, He sends the Holy Spirit to the spirit of those who choose to believe and to accept His free gift of salvation. 

As we see, the body soul and spirit all have specific functions. The body feels our physical senses of sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch. The soul on the other hand is our humanity that directs our beliefs, emotions, feelings, memories and attitudes. And finally, the spirit is what produces our deeper connection with the Lord. We express our love to God and Jesus Christ through our spirit because this is one of the gifts that Christ gave us when He became human and died for our sins. 

One day when the born-again believer dies, their soul will go immediately into the presence of the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). There, the soul of the faithful believers awaits the resurrection of the body. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17). Amen!

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