Simply Soul

Product Information

Seeing the soul and spirit as synonymous terms for our complete immaterial being reminds us that Christian growth includes all aspects of our lives. We are continually to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). We are to be “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10), and our emotions and desires are to conform increasingly to the “desires of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:17), including an increase in godly emotions such as peace, joy, love, and so forth (Galatians 5:22). Similarly, James says that “the body apart from the spirit is dead” (James 2:26), but mentions nothing about a separate soul. And when Paul speaks of growth in personal holiness, he approves the woman who is concerned with “how to be holy in body and spirit” (1 Corinthians 7:34), and he suggests that this covers the whole of the person’s life. He’s even more explicit in 2 Corinthians 7:1: “let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God.” Cleansing ourselves from defilement of the “soul” or of the “spirit” covers the whole immaterial side of our existence (see also Romans 8:10, 1 Corinthians 5:3, and Colossians 2:5). 4. The “soul” can sin or the “spirit” can sin. When Paul says, “Your spirits are alive because of righteousness” (Romans 8:10), he apparently means “alive to God,” but he doesn’t imply that our spirits were completely “dead” before, only that they were living out of fellowship with God and were dead in that sense. In the same way, we as whole persons were “dead” in “trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), but we were made alive to God, and we now must consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God” (Romans 6:11). The book of Revelation reminds us that “the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne” (Revelation 6:9) are in heaven and are able to cry out to God to bring justice on the earth (Revelation 6:10, see also 20:4). Trichotomists also argue that when we become Christians our spirits come alive: “But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness” (Romans 8:10). If all people have souls, but only Christians have spirits that are “alive,” doesn’t this imply a distinction between soul and spirit?

This is the most-widely held scholarly view on the soul and spirit. Later, we’ll look in more detail at the reasons why many scholars believe spirit and soul are synonymous. One part: the body Some people believe that in addition to “body” and “soul” we have a third part, a “spirit” that most directly relates to God. This view is called trichotomy. While this has been a common view in popular evangelical Bible teaching, there are few scholarly defenses of it today. Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” If the sword of Scripture divides soul and spirit, doesn’t that make them two separate things? Learn more in Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology online course. First: Can we be sure that humans have souls? When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.” —Revelation 6:9

Reviews

We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” —2 Corinthians 5:8 By itself, the phrase “your spirit and soul and body” is inconclusive. Other passages of Scripture pile up synonyms for emphasis, and that could be what Paul is doing here. For example, Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). Is Jesus indicating that the soul is different from the mind or the heart? This problem is even greater in Mark 12:30: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” When we look at the usage of the biblical words translated “soul” (Hebrew “ nephesh” and Greek “ psychē”) and “spirit” (Hebrew “ rûach” and Greek “ pneuma”), it appears that they are sometimes used interchangeably.

Or if we wish to think metaphorically of our inmost being as hidden in our joints and marrow, then we can think of Scripture being like a sword that divides our joints or that pierces deeply into our bones and even divides the marrow in the midst of the bones. In all of these cases the Word of God is so powerful that it searches out and exposes all disobedience to God. In any case, soul and spirit are not treated as separate parts here, they are simply additional terms for our inmost being. Paul suggests that there are “unspiritual” and “spiritual” peopleIt’s not just one part of us (the spirit) that has been made alive in Christ. We are a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We should think of the soul and spirit as the same thing In John 12:27, Jesus says, “Now is my soul troubled,” whereas in a very similar context in the next chapter John says that Jesus was “troubled in spirit” (John 13:21). Similarly, we read Mary’s words in Luke 1:46–47: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” This seems to be an example of Hebrew parallelism—a poetic device that repeats the same idea using synonymous words.