Body, Soul, Spirit: Simply Explained

I am a spirit, who has a soul, that lives in a body. You are a spirit, who has a soul, that lives in a body.

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NLT)

BODY

Your body is your “earth suit.” Your body is your connection with this world. Your body is the vehicle through which you experience the natural realm. Every single interaction that you share with others is through your body. With the body, you speak and communicate. With your physical being, you see, hear, and touch the world around you. Contrary to what some religious ideologies have led us to believe, the body itself is not a sinful, corrupt thing. Sure, the body is decaying and dying. And, yes, your physical body can be trained to become an instrument of the sin nature, but that doesn’t mean that your body is itself sinful. Your body can be used for either sin or holiness. The choice is yours. In fact, your body can be a carrier of the glory of God. 

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself (1 Corinthians 6:19, NLT) 

Your body can be a holy host of the Holy Spirit’s presence. You can be the Holy Spirit’s physical connection with this world.

SOUL

The soul is the realm of decision. In the soul lives your mind, will, emotions, and personality. Your mind—what you imagine. Your will—what you want. Your emotions—what you feel. The soul is the neutral ground between the body and the spirit. It is the place where free will is exercised. 

The soul is eternal, and everyone has a soul—redeemed and unredeemed alike. The wicked have souls. 

The soul of the wicked desireth evil: his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes (Proverbs 21:10, KJV). 

The godly have souls. 

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth (3 John 1:2, KJV). 

Every human being has a soul. 

In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind (Job 12:10, KJV). 

The breath of life is in the soul. The soul gives animation, consciousness. The soul is where your free will is exercised.

SPIRIT

Your spirit is your connection with God. It is the innermost part of your being, the center of you, the source of your identity. Your spirit is the deepest part of you, and your spirit knows perfect fellowship with God. 

But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us (1 Corinthians 2:10-12, NLT)

No one knows your thoughts like your spirit does. The same is true of God. The Holy Spirit knows God’s thoughts. The Holy Spirit, who is God’s Spirit, searches out the deep things of God. The Holy Spirit knows God’s secrets, intentions, and desires. The Holy Spirit knows God’s will. The Holy Spirit perfectly and completely understands God’s nature and power. Everything there is to know about our infinitely intricate God, the Holy Spirit knows. The Holy Spirit is not learning about God. The Holy Spirit knows God. He knows Himself fully. 

The Holy Spirit communicates what He knows of God with your spirit. God’s Spirit shares revelations with your spirit. God’s innermost Being shares mysteries with your innermost being. In that place of inner oneness, divine secrets are being imparted. By the Holy Spirit, every believer has this privilege of internal, eternal connection with God Himself. 

No matter how you feel in body or soul, your connection in the spirit remains. You live, not to connect with God, but from connection with God.

Your body belongs to God. (1 Corinthians 6:19, NLT)

Your Spirit is one with God. (1 Corinthians 6:17, NLT)

And, yes, even your soul is filled and owned by God. (Ephesians 1:14, AMP)

You are a Spirit, who has a soul, that exists in a body.

ENJOY DAVID'S WEEKLY BLOG? CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO RECEIVE IT VIA EMAIL.

Other-Worldly Beings

All too often, the believer will trade the supernatural for the superficial, the sacred for the mundane, the heavenly for the earthly. One might object, “When have I traded the heavenly for the earthly? I would never do such a thing.”

Yet it’s done on the daily. When one takes no time to pray but has plenty of time for scrolling through social media, a trade is made. When one consumes hours of media yet reads not one word of Scripture, a trade is made. When one chooses to say “yes” to a sinful temptation and rejects the power to live holy, a trade is made. When one remains silent about the gospel and instead chooses to blend in with everyone else, a trade is made. Choices are made between the eternal and the temporary.

Everyday, we must choose to either live as citizens of this earth or as citizens of Heaven.

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. (Philippians 3:20, NLT)

We’re not from here. Literally speaking, the believer is an other-worldly being filled with God’s divine power, the Holy Spirit. So we must choose. For what world are we living? In what world are we investing? From which world do we derive our identity? 

15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. (1 John 2:15-17, NLT)

You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. (James 4:4, NLT)

Of course, we exist in this world, but that doesn’t mean that we are to move with the patterns of this world.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2, NLT)

Choose a world. Jesus came not to bring peace but a sword - to divide His sheep from the goats. To which world do you belong? 

To invest your life in a temporary world is to embrace temporary life, but to invest your life in an eternal world… is life eternal. We are not of this world.

ENJOY DAVID'S WEEKLY BLOG? CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO RECEIVE IT VIA EMAIL.

Only One Nature

You’ve often heard it said that the believer has two natures, two identities that battle for the foreground his being. An intense, inner struggle between sin, self, and spirit rages deep within the soul. However, I contend, based upon what the Bible says, that the believer is not dual-natured. Rather, the believer has only one true nature – the spirit.

The Bible clearly teaches that the born-again believer has crucified his former self with Christ.

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20, NLT

In the book of Romans, Paul the apostle asks a rhetorical question regarding living in sin.

By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? - Romans 6:2, NLT

The answer to his rhetorical question is simply that “the believer who is dead to sin cannot live in sin”. You’ve been made completely new.

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, KJV

But this is where it can become confusing: while we know that we are dead to sin, we still experience a very real struggle to resist the temptations of the world.

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
- Galatians 5:16-17, NLT

How can this be?

What do you do when your new mind seems to be thinking old thoughts? Where should you turn  when your new nature behaves according to old patterns? This is the frustrating part, indeed. Paul the apostle describes this battle.

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. - Romans 7:15-25, NLT

So on one hand the scripture describes the believer as being completely dead to sin, yet on the other hand the scripture describes sin putting up quite a lively battle. How can we reconcile these two realities?

The answer is found in one simple verse:

But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
Romans 7:20 (NLT)

Paul the apostle, in the verse above, is not dismissing himself from the responsibility of his own sinful actions. He is simply choosing to not identify with the sin nature. Sure the sin nature puts up a fight, but the sin nature just simply isn’t you anymore.

Just because you struggle with sin doesn’t mean you have to identify with sin.

So when you sin, you are not acting according to “another nature” that you possess. Instead, when you sin, you are acting against your actual nature.

When you sin, you’re not a fake Christian; you’re a fake sinner. You’re not a wolf in a sheep’s clothing; you’re a sheep in a wolf’s clothing.

Avoid sin. Repent of sin. Feel sorrow over sin. Despise sin. But never identify with sin. You have one nature: you are of the spirit.

Choosing to identify with the Spirit rather than with the sin nature is an important step towards holiness. For overcoming the power of the flesh is not a matter of fight sin but of surrendering to the Holy Spirit.

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. - Galatians 5:16, NLT

ENJOY DAVID'S WEEKLY BLOG? CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO RECEIVE IT VIA EMAIL.