Man is a Spirit. He Has a Soul. He Lives in a Body – Part II

THE BODY & THE FLESH

Unlike the spirit and the soul, it is no confusion what the body is, because we see it every day. Generally, everyone knows what the body is. We know that it is a means of connecting to the physical world. Many of us love and pay great attention to our bodies. We dress it up, make it up, replace parts of it, and some spend exorbitant amount of money maintaining it, because it can be seen – we define ourselves by how it looks. I’ve heard statements like, “Why should a girl that pretty be a prostitute?” Or “Why should a man that handsome be a murderer?” Or “Such a beautiful child should not live in poverty”, etc. We make such statements because we define who we are by how we physically look. But if you read the recent previous post (Part I), you should have that cleared out by now. We established in that post that you are not your body. You are actually the spirit in the body you live in and you have a soul. 

You are NOT your body! Please, get that crystal clear. Believers should not get into the error of the teaching that you are your body and that man was created the way animals were created. It is clearly stated in the first chapter of Genesis the distinction in man’s creation versus that of animals. Man was created in the very image of God (Genesis 1:26-27); and God is a Spirit, therefore, man is a spirit and must worship Him in spirit (John 4:24). It is a spirit man that can worship a Spirit God.

We are definitely not our bodies. We learn from scripture that our bodies are a casing. Casing for what? Our spirits. (Read Second Corinthians 5:1-10. NLT, for simpler explanation).

How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? – Job 4:19

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  2nd Corinthians 5:1

If we are our bodies, then those of us who are saved should be able to live forever in these mortal bodies. But as we can see in the above passage, these mortal bodies are an earthly house – perishable and momentary. We will receive new bodies (2^nd Corinthians 5:10). We shall be all be changed (1^st Corinthians 15:51-54) into bodies that are eternal in the heavens. Alleluia!!! So even if not everyone will be physically dead when the trumpet sounds, EVERY BELIEVER will be changed into glorious bodies; because these mortal bodies end in this mortal world. If we were our bodies, and not spirits, we should be able to be glorified in this body made from dust (Genesis 2:7; Ecclesiastes 12:7).

We see in First Corinthians 9:27a Paul referring to his body outside of who he is. Here Brother Paul tells his audience something “he” has to do with “his” body. “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” If he was the body, the question will be who is doing the “bringing into…” to his body? But No, he is not his body. He (that is, spirit) will bring his body (what he lives in) into subjection. If you notice, he uses the pronoun, “it” to refer to his body. 

It is highly limiting to your spiritual walk and growth to think that all you are is “body” walking around with wind or breath inside of you so that you can live; and when you die, you are gone and forgotten. The body connects to the physical. You cannot live to the fullness of who God has designed you as man to live through the physical. Second Corinthians 4:18 tells us that the things which we see are temporal (fleeting, ephemeral), but the things which are not seen are eternal (forever lasting). You see, as Christians, we are to live in the spirit so as to live victorious Christian lives. There are several things we do in and through the spirit. (Please, read Romans 8).

We live in our bodies, but we do not own our bodies.

As established as this truth is that we are not our bodies, we should not make the mistake of thinking it can be treated as we like. Never think that your body is yours to do as you like. It’s pitiful to hear people make statements such as, “It is my body and I can do whatsoever I want with it.” That’s incorrect! It is not your body. First Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us that it actually belongs to God.

What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

So even though we know that we are not the body and we should not idolize it by prioritizing it over our spirit (the inner man) and soul , it is still very important that we care for it. It is not ours, so we cannot do with it as we like.

As Christians, we already know that sexual immorality defiles our body. Not only that. Also, overfeeding or underfeeding your body or feeding it with garbage is an abuse to it. Not exercising your body doesn’t glorify God. Overworking your body is also dishonorable to God. Over the years, I’ve watched a lot of Christians use their bodies excessively claiming that they’re “working for God.” All Christians should know that God doesn’t work on earth through a dead body, so we should give it the rest that it requires at the right time, so that we can be fully used of God here on earth – as vessels unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use (2^nd Timothy 2:21).

Besides, and very importantly, as seen in 1^st Corinthians 6:19 above, your body is God’s temple (dwelling place). He delights in dwelling in us (John 14:23).

That settled, if you are faithful enough to study Romans 8 as I asked you to earlier, you will realize that the spirit is contrasted with the flesh there a number of times, and it is so in several other passages in the Bible. It can honestly be confusing the difference between the Body and the Flesh. Ok. So let me explain. 

The Body & the Flesh Contrasted

There are two Greek words that are used to refer to the body in the Bible. One is soma which refers to the physical body or being, heavenly bodies, or an entity in general. The other is sarx, which refers to a covering – or the flesh.  While “body” in the English Bible is “soma” or sometimes, “sarx” in Greek; the flesh is interpreted from just “sarx”. Sarx doesn’t always connote something evil in the Bible. However, spiritually speaking, the flesh (sarx) refers to the carnal nature in man – that is, man’s nature that works outside of faith and lives for itself; according to Ephesians 4:22, the old man. The flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8), and as long as we live in this physical body, the flesh will always contend with our spirit’s desire to please God. 

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” – Galatians 5:17.

When we were sinners and in the world, we lived to gratify our flesh – we gave our flesh all that it asked for (Romans 8:5,8; Galatians 5:16-25) because we really couldn’t do contrary to that. We did not have the ability to. But now, as believers, we have the power to subdue our flesh and satisfy our spiritual needs (1^st Corinthians 9:27; Ephesians 4:22-24). Praise God! 

I’ll end with Paul’s popular distress cry in Romans 7. I call it “popular” because a lot of people use that passage to justify their inability to subdue the flesh. You hear them say, “Even Paul, as great as he was, could not stop sinning.” They say that because they somehow failed to read up to the very last verse of that passage. Yes, Paul mentioned that he did the things that he did not want to do, and did not the things he wanted to do. But he tells us why this is so. 

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. – Romans 7:22-25

Just as Paul, we see that we too have the ability to live to please God alone through our spirits because Jesus Christ has delivered us from the bondage of the flesh. Glory!!!

Next time we will learn about how we got to this fallen state of having a carnal nature in the first place – The Fall of Man.