SOUL, SPIRIT, LIFE, IMMORTALITY by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Sep 24, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 39.

SOUL, SPIRIT, LIFE, IMMORTALITY.

By Editor

A CORRESPONDENT asks for a definition of these terms, their nature, difference, etc.; not an easy thing to give briefly.

1. Soul.—Primarily the word applies to the whole person,—living creature,—including both man and beast. "And man became a living soul," that is, a living person. Gen. 2: 7. "All the souls that were therein he [Joshua] utterly destroyed that day." See Joshua 10: 28-39. "Eight souls were saved by water," that is, eight persons. 1 Peter 3: 20. "Every living soul died in the sea." Rev. 16: 3. In the original Hebrew we have the expression "dead soul." Soul is also used to denote the life common to all, both man and beast (Gen. 1: 20, margin; 35: 18), and to express the affections, impulses, energies, etc., of the entire man (Judges 10: 16, 1 Sam. 30: 6). "Bless the Lord, O my soul." Ps. 103: 1. In the latter case it is used synonymously with heart and mind. It is spoken of as "living" and dead. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Eze. 18: 4. But never once is it said to be immortal, deathless, or undying.

2. Spirit.—Primarily "spirit" applies to a spiritual being. "God is a Spirit." John 4: 24. Angels are spirits. Heb. 1: 14. Evil angels, or demons, are evil spirits. Mark 5: 1-20. It also means life pure and simple, and especially that life unperverted which God through Christ gives to every one who believes. But used in this sense it never means a separate entity existing alone before coming into the body, and capable of existence after it leaves the body; it is never spoken of as having a consciousness separate from the body. When the spirit or life goes back to God, it returns as it came from Him—the breath of life; and the man returns to dust. Gen. 2: 7; Eccl. 12: 7. Never is the spirit of man said to be never-dying, deathless, or immortal. God in His wonderful wisdom has made man a thinking, acting, living being, composed of body, soul, and spirit. Separated, the man dies; and in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. 146: 4.

3. Life is that principle or energy which sustains the same relation to man that the steam does to the engine, the electricity to the trolley-car or arc light. With God is the fountain of life. Ps. 36: 9. Everything that lives receives life from Him, and uses that life according to the law of its being, organization, or formation. In this way the mineral uses the life to crystallize the particles which compose it; the vegetable to grow and produce seeds from which shall grow other vegetable products of like nature. And so through all the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, the life received from God through earth and sun and rain and food always acts according to the law of the organization of the creature it enters. Because of this the life which each possesses is spoken of as its life, his life, her life. It is the life of a rose, of a tree, of a dog, of a horse, of a man.

If sin had never entered, this life would have been eternal; but sin perverted the law of every creature of earth. As the law, the channel of the received life, was and is perverted, the life itself is perverted, and works out death instead of continued existence. Man, whose sin is the cause of all the trouble of earth, suffers with the rest of creation. His life is as a vapor, a cloud, a weaver's shuttle, a thing of vanity. God does not count this perverted life His life any more than He counts perverted love His love or perverted righteousness His righteousness.

A right line is a straight line. Perverted the least, it is no longer straight but crooked. Righteousness perverted is sin. Love perverted is hatred. Beauty perverted is ugliness. Life perverted is death. Hence those who know not God are said to be dead in trespasses and sins. They are "alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4: 18); "having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph. 2: 12). To say that the wicked, the sinful, the rebellious, have the life of God, is to contradict the direct and positive testimony of Holy Scripture.

But God's life is in the world, and He gives it freely to those who believe. This is not the soulical life, the life common to all creatures. It is not designated by the term soul, but with the term zoe. With that alone is the adjective eternal or everlasting used. We never read of eternal or everlasting psuche, but ever and again, and especially in the Gospel and epistles of John, of eternal and everlasting zoe. God's law of life is His great moral law; the exemplar of that law is Christ Jesus; and when man yields to that law as it is in Christ Jesus, he opens his whole being to the stream of God's eternal life, to work in that man not according to the law of his flesh, but as God will, according to God's law. Therefore it is written:—

"He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth [believeth] not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3: 36. See also John 6: 40, 47, 53, 54.

"He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. These things I have written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God." 1 John 5: 12, 13.

Theistic evolution and Christian Science tell the sinner that he already has the divine immanence, that he already possesses the life of God. It is not true, as the Scriptures above quoted clearly declare. "He that hath not the Son of God, hath NOT the life." Verily, verily I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have not life in yourselves." John 6: 53. "The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life." Verse 63. Faith—yielding all to God—opens the great channels of life from God to the believer. O let it in! There is no other power which will enable the soul to live above sin. God gives it now that we may use it for Him; it is actual and altogether vital to success. When character is formed by it and sin is no more, eternal life will be absolute.

4. Immortality is incorruptibility. It indicates a condition, and is never set before us as a goal to be attained. See Rom. 2: 7. It will be bestowed upon the faithful when Jesus comes and the great character trial is over. 1 Cor. 15: 51-54. Then, when God's people stand before Him with incorruptible characters, will He place the stamp of incorruptibility, immortality, upon their entire being. Then it will be true, "neither can they die any more." Every part of the universe of God will be open to the inflow of His life direct from the great Fountain, and its outflow in constant blessing to His entire creation.