It has already been suggested that the composition of the human spirit includes numerous intangibles…intangible, immaterial, non-physical, but very real nonetheless. The list included, but is not limited to, the human volition, intellect, personality, emotions, temperament, creativity, conscious, norms and standards, imagination, memory, and such like, all very real and all very invisible, and, thus, unobservable. None of these important items that contribute to our humanity have ever been seen, but we exhibit them through the outward expressions of our body, verbally and through what we call “body language”.
Body language is an outward expression of what one is experiencing internally in one’s spirit. Scores of examples are given to this effect in the Bible. Daniel tells us, in chapter 7, that upon hearing the information he was given, “my spirit was distressed with me.” Internally, Daniel was very upset, depressed about the information and its implications. The prophet Zephaniah, in chapter one, speaks of men who are “stagnant in spirit.” Don’t count on these men for anything. They are inert…Old Testament couch potatoes in their inner being.
An example of the opposite of being stagnant in one’s spirit is found in Romans 12, where the believers are admonished to be “fervent in spirit.” The poetical books of the Old Testament speak frequently. Job speaks of the “anguish” of his spirit, and a psalmist tells us of a “contrite spirit,” a “right spirit,” and a “broken spirit,” in Psalms 34 and 51 respectively. In Psalm 77, 142, and 143, he speaks of his spirit being “overwhelmed” within him and his heart within him being “desolate.” Curiously, in the same psalms, the writer speaks of his soul as well. Rather than make the soul synonymous with the spirit, as many do, we have suggested that they are related but different. The “spirit” speaks of the immaterial inner being of the human self, while the “soul” includes both the inner being of the spirit plus the outer being of the body. If this is correct, and it appears to be, we are reminded that the equation is as follows: the physical body plus the non-physical spirit equal the human soul. Thus, when the writer speaks of his soul being “afflicted”, he refers to the totality of his being, internally and externally, material as well with the body and immaterial with the spirit. In Psalm 143, he closes with the statement, “I lift up my soul unto Thee.” It appears the psalmist is saying, “I lift up the whole of my personhood unto Thee.” It’s merely another way of saying, “I am fully engaged with God in every aspect of my being.” All this is conveyed in the meaning of the “soul”.
So, to recap, we do not have a soul, but we are a soul, and, being a soul, we consist of an immaterial spirit and a material body. The body is destructible; the spirit is indestructible. At death, the body goes to the physical grave, and the spirit returns to God who gave it, in accordance with Ecclesiastes 12. And, how do we know these realities regarding the human spirit and its existence? Only by divine revelation. That is all sufficient.
CC-08-19
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