Are you a body with a soul, or a soul with a body?

While reading the thread about Baptism of the Holy Spirit, this thought came to me that I thought might be ignored in a thread that's so involved. Do you consider yourself a body, with a spirit and with an eternal soul, or an eternal soul that has a temporal body that's governed by a God given spirit?

It sound like a dumb question until you think and pray about it for a bit.

God alone is immortal. We put on Christ's immortality by grace through faith in His shed righteous blood...

Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made
that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.


John 17:2-3~ You granted Him authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him. Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent.

Everything is of and from God.

It does not sound like a dumb question, it sounds like a question of One who is seeking the Lord.

I consider myself a Temple or Body of the Holy Ghost, with his own Spirit of man that God gave him, and a Soul that the Lord will preserve as He promised.

I consider my God to be Eternal, nothing about man is Eternal until the Lord says so upon the Return of the King of kings.

May Lord bless all the Saints.
Peace be unto you

You are both.
Currently: aging body and eternal soul
Future: glorified eternal body and eternal soul

God designed us with the body as part of who we are. It just goes through a transformation.

I strongly disagree with Spurgeon. the Bible in the Book Case is a great and marvelous thing that can edify the family and can be a great tool if used, my memory has so much bible sometimes it is better now to just Open the Book and see what the Lord wants to show me.

Peace be unto you.

My take on this subject. When the Lord formed Adam from the earth he was motionless and basically dead. I dont see Jesus breathing a breath of air into Adam but a living soul. Same with our parents, baby is formed from the earth but the living soul comes from the Lord.

We agree when Adam was formed he was without soul, not living able to do some things, not able to breathe, eat, and use the restroom. Adam was a Spirit before Christ gave him a soul, this influence on the device is a great way to grow doctrine of Faith.

Powerfull to think about, Adam before Christ breathed a living soul in him was, simply Flesh and Spirit with no life. That is food for Doctrine right there.

Praises be to the Son of God.

even now the thought is, Adam was just Flesh in the Spirit before Christ breathed Wisdom into him.

Wisdom of Solomon 7: 25 For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty: therefore can no vndefiled thing fall into her.

The spirit is the part that interacts with God. The soul is the organ of expression. It includes mind, emotion and will. The soul should serve the spirit, not self. The body enables us to carry out the desires of the soul. If the soul is governed by our spirit, the desires will be of God.

The spirit is eternal. The body is not and will be replaced with a spiritual body. The spirit is immediately born again. The body will not change in this life. The soul can and should be set free from those things that hinder the full expression of the spirit.

Gen 1: 26-27:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1: 7:
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.
1 Thes 5: 23:
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Jn 5: 7:
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Deut 6: 4:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
We were made in Lord's image, and so we begin life as mortal, temporal, and limited individuals that reflect the Lord's likeness. The Lord is a single entity, with three infinite, self-aware and eternal, for lack of a better word, persons who are one.
Jesus said that to Philip when asked to show them the Father:
Jn 14: 9-11:
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
Before Jesus was made flesh, he is the Word of God, of whom we're told in Jn 1: 1-3:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Jn 1: 10:
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
And again in Heb 1: 2-3:
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Then Jesus was sent to us by the Father as per Jn 6: 57-58:
As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
The reason Jesus was made flesh and came into the world, can be seen in Mt 1: 21:
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
And again in Rom 15: 8:
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:
And once again in Mt 5: 17-18:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
These things were done by the Word of God that was made flesh. Our component parts: body, soul, and spirit that make us a single whole being is also a reflection of the Lord's image and likeness. As such Jesus is like that which is seen and heard of the Lord God Almighty. It is our bodies that contain our vocal cords, allowing us to communicate to others; just as Jesus communicates the Lord's intent to the world and to us.

Jesus said of the Holy Spirit in Jn 16: 13-15:
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
So when we take the time to hear the Lord's word, to abide in the scriptures: the Holy Spirit, who speaks not of his own, makes the word of Goid to be Jesus speaking to us by revelation and illumination and we learn of him; here a little and there a little as per
Is 28: 9-10:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
This fulfils the Lord's word in 2 Pet 1: 3-4:
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
So our boodies reflect Jesus, and by comparision, our soul, with our heart's intent, reflects the Father and our spirit reflects the Holy Spirit; making us expressions the Lord's image and likeness in our design.

Jesus, an infinite being, suffered more than just a physical death when he died on the cross. We know that when the water and blood flowed from the wound in his side that he died from a ruptured heart as his body couldn't withstand the torment of having our sins put upon him by the greatest miracle in all eternity. As the Father and the Holy Spirit seperated themselves from him because of our sin; Jesus being infinite suffered through an infinite sacrifice to make an infinite atonement that paied our debts-in-full. When he sweat blood shortly before his betrayal, we can see that he knew full well what he had to do to satisfy God's just requirement for our forgiveness. He bore our curse of spiritual death in full. This is seen in Heb 12: 2-4:
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

After we're resurrected, our bodies will be made into exact copies of Jesus' resurrection body and we'll become true spiritual beings, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus. Immortal, incorruptable, and eternal which will enable us to more exactly reflect the Lord's image and likeness and the longer we live like that, the greater our eternal perspective will compare to that of the Lord's as we experience life in New Jerusalem and the new earth. So, therefore, it'll take all three components: body, soul, and spirit to attain to a true image and likeness of the Lord's.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you ( set apart ); I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

Yes,

Earthly body + God-consciousness/moral conscience (cf. A&E) = human soul currently;

Heavenly body + fullness of God (cf. Christ & EPH 3:16-19) = immortal soul ultimately.

I believe there is a body for this realm and another for next one as it shows in 1 Corinth 15

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

So, if there is a natural body there is a spiritual body. We know when the natural body is born but the real question, I think, is "When is the spiritual body born?". Is it born when we are born from above, is being born from above the start of the seed that God gives a body to when the natural body dies? And what about those who are not born from above? Are they born when they die, but born in the grave because if they aren't then how will every knee bow and those who pierced Him see him?


Doesn't 1 Corinth go on to teach us no flesh and blood bodies, (except for the Lords'), will be raised up

50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

We are triune beings with body, soul and spirit Made in the image of God

Yes, with God's body being creation and Jesus.

By sayibg creation do you mean Christ's body (ie, us) or creation in general? I hope not the latter

I appreciate how deep you're reflecting on this. However, there's a theological point to consider regarding the immortality of the soul.
In traditional Christian belief, while God alone is inherently immortal (1 Timothy 6:16), it's also understood that God has endowed human souls with immortality. This means our souls, once created, do not cease to exist.

Also, Jesus' teaching in Matthew 10:28 says, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." This indicates that the soul survives physical death, affirming its immortality.

So, while we're putting on Christ’s immortality through grace by faith, it's also true that our souls, created by God, possess an inherent immortality that aligns with that same divine grace.

I couldn't have said that better myself...

Hi there Whomsoever, Your thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15 are both insightful and thought-provoking. The distinction between the natural body and the spiritual body is a significant aspect of Paul's teachings on the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44 states, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."

You highlight a crucial point, when is the spiritual body "born"? From the Christian perspective, this could indeed be seen as starting when we're born again (John 3:3). This spiritual rebirth highlights the beginning of our transformation and the growth of our spiritual life, which will be fully realized at the resurrection.

John 3:3 "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Now about those not born from above, the concept of resurrection and judgment really tells us that all are going to face Christ, as shown in Revelation 1:7 "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen."

And as you very well mentioned from 1 Corinthians 15:50 "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." This really shows that our current physical bodies, in their corruptible state, are not suited for the eternal kingdom. Instead, we are transformed into incorruptible beings suited for the heavenly realm. Thanks for that...