Today’s lesson comes from a question asking, “What’s the difference between a person’s soul and his spirit?” To look at that, we’ll look at how Scripture, primarily the New Testament, describes who a human is in his personhood.
The Soul distinguished from Heart and Mind
Matthew 22:37: [Jesus answering what is the greatest Commandment]: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
- In what ways did Jesus say that we are to love God?
- How fully are we to love God?
The Soul and Spirit as Synonyms
The most-common usage in the New Testament for soul and spirit are as synonyms for each other.
The Deepest Aspect of the Human Person
The soul
- John 12:27: [Jesus praying at Gethsemane]: “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.”
- Acts 4:32: Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
See also Matthew 22:37, 26:38; Luke 1:46.
The spirit
Matthew 27:50: [Jesus dying on the cross]: And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
John 11:33: [Jesus seeing Martha weeping over the death of Lazarus]: When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.
1 Corinthians 2:11: For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
See also Matthew 27:50; Mark 2:8, 8:12; John 4:24; Acts 17:16; 18:25; Romans 1:9; 1 Corinthians 5:5, 6:17, 7:34, 14:14-15, 16:18; Philippians 4:23.
The Spiritual Aspect of a Person as Distinguished from the Body
The soul
- Matthew 10:28: [Jesus speaking to His disciples]: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
- Revelation 6:9: [The Apostle John describing Christians in heaven before the Last Day]: When he [The Lamb, Jesus] opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.
See also Isaiah 10:18, Luke 12:20, Acts 2:27, and Revelation 20:4.
The spirit
- Luke 24:39: [a post-resurrection Jesus speaking to His disciples]: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
- 2 Corinthians 7:1: [Paul and Sosthenes speaking about the virtues of being celibate]: Since we have these promises, beloved [that we as Christians are temples of the living God], let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
- James 2:26: For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
See also Matthew 27:50; Luke 8:55, 23:46, 24:37; John 19:30; Acts 7:59; 1 Corinthians 5:5, 7:34; Hebrews 12:23; 1 Peter 3:19.
Excursus: Understanding the Dichotomous (a Two-Parted) View of the Person and our Salvation
A Person as Body and Soul/Spirit Living as Part of the Fallen Creation
After God had formed Adam, he was as a physical body–but still lifeless! Then, the Lord God breathed into him “the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). God directly inspirited Adam, giving him life. Without his soul/spirit, Adam would have never become a living being. James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, confirmed this understanding: “The body apart from the spirit is dead” (James 2:26). The soul can exist without a body, but the human body cannot exist without a soul.
God created man as body and soul/spirit. When sin corrupted both, sin brought corruption and death into our experience. Because of that, both body and soul suffered corruption.
The Person as a Soul/Spirit in Heaven
Even when body and soul have been separated (after death with the soul in heaven), they are still the two parts of an individual that God created. A person’s soul being in heaven is not the “consolation prize” after death. God made human beings as body and soul, one person, never to be separated. And yet that happens because of death. Thus, as good as heaven is, the person in still incomplete. The fullness of salvation–being restored in body and soul–still awaits.
The Person as Body and Soul/Spirit in the New Heaven and New Earth
God created both body and soul as good, and how He originally intended for us to live forever. But, of course, we have that little (really, insurmountable and huge) problem called “sin.” So, when God sent His Son, Jesus, to redeem us, God didn’t just redeem our souls. Christ’s death and resurrection has redeemed the whole person! However, it is only in the resurrection of the body on the Last Day when a person will fully receive what was lost because of the fall into sin.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:51-54
Philippians 3:20-21: Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
- What will we be like after God has reunited body and soul in eternity?
Revelation
In the book of Revelation, whenever John observed the worship of God taking place in heaven, he used two words to describe what he saw: pipto (fall down) and proskeneuo (in a position of prostration) (See Revelation 4:10, 5:14, 7:11, 11:1, 11:16, 15:4, 19:4, and 19:10). Although they are the sinless saints in heaven, they still fall prostrate before God in worship.
But after Jesus returns on the Last Day, and the bodies and souls of the saints are reunited, then John uses a different word to describe worship. The saints are no longer worshiping God in the form of pipto and proskeneuo. Instead, Revelation 22:3-5 reads:
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship [latreuo] him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
Now the saints worship God in the form of latreuo, which doesn’t convey the idea of being prostrate before God. But more than that, they will also reign with God in eternity! Jesus will have transformed our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body and we will be reigning with Him for all eternity! (Can you now see why our souls being in heaven falls short of the salvation that God has planned for us?)
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The Person as Body, Soul, and Spirit
In a few places, Scripture describes us as consisting of body, soul, and spirit. When Scripture uses this trichotomous (a three-parted) view, it is for a different purpose, and soul and spirit are not synonymous.
1 Thessalonians 5:23: [The Apostle Paul speaking to the congregation at Thessalonica]: Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Paul is pointing Christians toward the Last Day, using a trichotomous view of the person, tying into that view being blameless (justification) and being sanctified.
Romans 8:16: [The Apostle Paul to the congregation at Rome]: The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
- Our “spirit” is not the Holy Spirit. Instead, the Holy Spirit bears “witness that we are children of God.” The Holy Spirit is at work, strengthening our faith.
Hebrews 4:12: [Referring to Jesus in whom we have Sabbath rest]: For the Word of God [Jesus] is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
- For the Christian, Jesus is with him in body, soul, and spirit.
Galatians 5:16-17: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
The Soul as “Shorthand” for the Whole Person
In some places, Scripture refers to the whole person as a “soul.” This goes back to the idea of a soul in the Hebrew language, nephesh. Nephesh was a person’s “life force,” and since a person could not exist without that which gave him life, “soul” was used, at times, to refer to the whole person. Some examples are:
- Genesis 12:5 (souls, translated as people)
- Genesis 34:3 (soul, translated as he or heart)
- Exodus 1:5 (souls, translated as descendants)
- Leviticus 4:2 (soul, translated as someone or anyone)
- Joshua 11:11 (every soul, translated as all or everyone)
- Luke 12:19 (psuche in the Greek, soul, translated as you)
- Acts 2:41 (souls, translated as people),
- Acts 2:43 (every soul, translated as everyone)
- Acts 7:14 (souls, translated as persons or people)
The Spirit as Someone’s Attitude or Outlook
In the dichotomous view of a person, sometimes someone’s spirit refers to someone’s attitude or desire to do something, sometimes in contrast or comparison to the body/flesh.
- Matthew 5:3: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
- Matthew 26:41: The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
- Luke 1:80: The child, Jesus, grew and became strong in spirit.
- 1 Corinthians 4:21: Should I come in love and with a gentle spirit?
- 2 Corinthians 4:13: Since we have the same spirit … “I believed, and so I spoke.”
- Galatians 6:1: If someone is discovered in some sin, restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
- 1 Peter 3:3-4: Wives, let your beauty be the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.
