Book Review/Summary - The Great Divorce (C.S. Lewis)

This is an old book report I found and scanned in on C.S. Lewis' book, The Great Divorce.  Warning: Contains Spoilers.

Mormonism

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), also known as Mormonism, was founded in 1833, when its founder Joseph Smith claimed to have received golden tablets with its doctrine written on them from the angel Moroni (not in the Bible).

They teach that the church died with the first apostles and was restored with Joseph Smith. They teach the Godhead is three separate beings, not a trinity in unity. God the Father has spirit babies in heaven (and Jesus and Satan were two of these) who inhabit human bodies when born. They believe that Jesus lived a perfect life and therefore, attained godhead, but that his death did not atone for our sins. Therefore, we must do good things to attain heaven, and can actually become gods of our own worlds if we are good enough.

Here I have attempted to compile a list of all of the early Christian Church Heresies they subscribe to:

• Monarchianism, which is that God is a single person, not a trinity
• Unitarianism, that Jesus is the son of God in some other sense
• Dynamic Monarchianism, that Jesus is not-coeternal, but granted godhood
• Audianism, where God the Father has a human form.
• Montanism teaches that continued prophecy is important
• Arianism that Jesus was created by the father in a non-physical form before becoming incarnate
• Influences from Macedonianism. While they do not deny the divinity of the Holy Spirit, they deny he is one with the Father and the Son.
• Palagiansim denies original sin and states that human nature is not bad
• Monophysitism taught that Jesus has one nature.

Islam

Islam was started around 600 AD by a trader named Muhammad, who claimed that the angel Gabriel relieved it to him.

1. Six Articles of Faith:
1. Allah
2. Angels
3. Holy Books
4. Six Prophets:
1. Adam (chosen)
2. Noah (preacher)
3. Abraham (friend)
4. Moses (speaker)
5. Jesus (word)
6. Muhammad (apostle)
5. Predestination
6. The Day of Judgement
2. Five Pillars of Faith:
1. Daily recite the Shahadah
2. Pray 5 times per day facing Mecca
3. Give alms of 2.5%
4. Fast during the holy month of Ramadan
5. Make Pilgrimage to Mecca once in lifetime
3. Early Christian Church Heresies subscribed to:

• Psilanthropism, that Jesus was only a man
• Influences from Gnosticism, in that they deny the resurrection of the dead
• Monarchianism, which is that God is a single person, not a trinity
• Montanism continued prophecy important
• Influences from Circumcellianism, militant sect that prized martyrdom
• Macedonianism denies the divinity of the Holy spirit.
• Palagiansim, denied original sin and states that human nature is not bad

From Orthodox to Confessional (Heresy History 4: after 1580)

Early Lutheran Orthodoxy began in 1580 after the presentation of the Book of Concord and lasted for twenty years, until 1600.

• Congregationalism began in 1592 as an offshoot of the Puritans, who adopted the Presbyterians structure of completely autonomous congregations.
• Baptists began in 1609 from the English Separatist Movement, influenced by the Anabaptists and also the Puritans.

High Lutheran Orthodoxy lasted between 1600 and 1685 and included theologians such as Martin Chemnitz and Johann Gerhard.

• Quakers or Friends began from the teaching of George Fox in the middle of the 17th century. Fox was attempting to reform the Anglican church to be more like the Anabaptists. They focus on priesthood of all believers and are nonconformists, individualists, and pacifists who verge on universalism. They reject religious symbols like iconoclasts as well as sacraments and try to just live life being led by the Holy Spirit.

In 1648 the Treaty of Westphalia ended the European religious wars, which is commonly accepted as the end of the reformation. In the East, in 1666, 213 years after splitting into separate groups, the Eastern Orthodox Church came back together under common doctrine after 14 years of reforms. However, there was a schism with the Russian Old Believers.

• Jansenism was a very Augustinian  movement in 17th to 18th centuries in the Catholic church emphasizing original sin, human depravity, justification by faith, the necessity of grace, and predestination.
• Socinianism had its roots in the anabaptist movement, but was non-trinitarian. It went beyond Arianism to deny pre-existence of Christ and focused on civil affairs and issues.
• Erastianism teaches that the state is supreme in church matters and split from Anglicanism
• Gallicanism: 17th to 18th centuries The states authority is equal to that of the popes
• Febronianism: movement within Catholicism in latter 18th century directed at nationalizing Catholics and stating the state had more power than the pope

 Late Lutheran Orthodoxy lasted between 1685 and 1730.

• The Amish are a group that began in 1693 who are closely related to the Mennonite Church and are the theological descendants of the Ababaptists.
• Pietism began as a Lutheran offshoot in the late 1600s, peaked during the mid 1700s, ushering the end of Lutheran Orthodoxy. It has since declined to almost nothing, however, its influences are still around in many protestant denominations. It focused on individual piety and personal behavior and was influenced by Anabaptism.

Lutheran Synods in America began in 1748 with the formation of the Pennsylvania Ministerium, followed by the New York Ministerium almost forty years later. This was happening during the height of the Pietist movement and also when many Puritans were migrating to America from England. In 1799 King Frederick William III of Prussia wanted a common service for a state church. By 1817 he ordered the Reformed and Lutheran churches to unite. The dissenters who remained faithful to the Lutheran doctrine were called Old Lutherans.

• Wesleyanism began in the 18th century as a reformation of the Anglican church with influences from the more radical reformation, especially Arminiansm. They claim four sources of authority: scripture, reason, tradition, experience
• Methodism teaches that sanctification is progressive, but you can work toward earthly perfection (and there is a method of doing so)
• Adventism was officially formed in 1863. They focus on end times, heaven, hell, new earth, purgatory, and annihilation
• Holiness Movement: emerged in the 19th century from Methodism instant sanctification and perfection is possible
• Pentecostalism, Nazarene, Assembly of God, and the Church of God  are various churches and denominations coming from the Holiness Movement
• Church of Christ congregations are loosely affiliated autonomous Churches who only use the new Testament and avoid all denominational labels and icons.

Old Lutherans moved to America during the early and middle of the 1800s to escape religious persecution in Prussia and formed many new Synods. The Neo-Lutheran movement in came about around 1830 as a response against Pietism and rationalism. The Erlangen School of Neo-Lutheranism leaned toward antinomianism and merged with the Reformed church. The Repristination Neo-Lutherans wanted to remain faithful to the teachings of the Lutheran confessions, such as C.F.W. Walther. Over time many Lutheran synods were formed and merged and changed and the term Confessional Lutheran came from the heritage of the Old Lutherans and Repristination Neo-Lutherans as the ones who hold to a quia (because) subscription to the Book Concord, as opposed to a quatenous (in so far as) subscription. Here is a great graphic of the formation of the synods in America.

Today the main groups of Christians are:

1. Roman Catholic
2. Eastern Orthodox
3. Confessional Lutheran
4. Calvinists
5. Mainline Protestants/Seven Sisters of Protestantism (liberal in Biblical interpretation and ethics)
1. Methodist
2. Episcopal
3. Presbyterian
4. Church of Christ
5. Non-Confessional Lutherans (e.g. ELCA)
6. American (northern) Baptist
7. Disciples of Christ
6. Evangelicals (conservative socially and politically; and low church)
1. Reformed
2. Baptist
3. Non-Denomination Churches from a reformed and/or baptist background
7. Charismatics
1. Holiness Movement offshoots
2. Adventist offshoots

Anthropology 8 - Man's Will in Light of the Tripartite Model

St. Augustine stated (and later, Martin Luther and other reformers adopted) that there were four stages of man’s will. This is discussed at length in the Lutheran Confessions. I previously posted  diagram of man's will during the different stages here, but now I will go through them and relate them to the body, soul, and spirit, and it will become apparent how many aspects of doctrine are related.

1.)   Before the fall - Able to sin

Paradisal man originally had a body, soul, and spirit, and a will that was aligned with God's.

See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. -Ecclesiastes 7:29

2.)   Since the Fall - Not able to not sin (total depravity)

After the fall, we all inherit a dead spirit and are steeped in original sin and total depravity.

… since the fall of Adam all men begotten in the natural way are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with concupiscence; and that this disease, or vice of origin, is truly sin, even now condemning and bringing eternal death upon those not born again through Baptism and the Holy Ghost.” -AC: Article II: Of Original Sin

…man's will has some liberty to choose civil righteousness, and to work things subject to reason. But it has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness.” -AC: Article XVIII: Of Free Will

“…men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ's sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins.” -AC: Article IV: Of Justification

3.)   After regeneration - Able to not sin

After regeneration, when God, through the Holy Spirit, regenerates our spirit we have two competing wills; one from the sinful flesh and the other from the spirit. We are simultaneously justified and sinner (Simul Iustus et Peccator).

“God’s sovereign grace does not annihilate man’s will: it overcomes his unwillingness. It does not destroy his will but frees it from sin. It does not stifle or obliterate his conscience but sets it free from darkness. Grace regenerates and re-creates man in his entirety, and in renewing him, causes him to love and consecrate himself to God freely.” -The Reformed Reader (Calvinist)

“the person who has been reborn and renewed through the Holy Spirit has free will toward spiritual good, in fact, a will freed from slavery to sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet in this life this freedom is far from the perfect freedom of the life to come.

“Thus, until the last day, the Holy Ghost abides with the holy congregation or Christendom, by means of which He brings us to Christ, and which He employs to teach and preach to us the Word, whereby He works and promotes sanctification, causing [this community] daily to grow and become strong in the faith and the fruits of the Spirit, which He produces. In these words the Catechism does not mention our free will or cooperation with a single word, but ascribes everything to the Holy Ghost, namely, that through the office of the ministry He brings us into the Christian Church, wherein He sanctifies us, and brings it about that we daily grow in faith and good works….

“And although the regenerate even in this life advance so far that they will what is good, and love it, and even do good and grow in it, nevertheless this (as above stated) is not of our will and ability, but the Holy Ghost, as Paul himself speaks concerning this, works such willing and doing, Phil. 2:13. As also in Eph. 2:10 he ascribes this work to God alone, when he says: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk therein….

“Herewith I reject and condemn as nothing but error all dogmas which extol our free will, as they directly conflict with this help and grace of our Savior Jesus Christ….

“For since we receive in this life only the first-fruits of the Spirit, and the new birth is not complete, but only begun in us, the combat and struggle of the flesh against the spirit remains even in the elect and truly regenerate men….

“…after such conversion, in the daily exercise of repentance, the regenerate will of man is not idle, but also cooperates in all the works of the Holy Ghost which He does through us.” -Johan Gerhard

4.)  After Death - Not able to sin (the saved after death)

The Reformation got rid of the superstition of purgatory, pardons and indulgences. But getting rid of a place of purgation for sins not atoned for by penance on earth, the reformers also lost all the sense of contrast between the intermediate and the state of final blessedness. Now it is widely taught that sudden death brings sudden glory, like the thief on the cross. This complicates the doctrine of the bodily resurrection, so it is not talked about much.

The intermediate state after death, but before regeneration is a Sabbath for us. It is one of bodily death, but spiritual life. In life the body reigns and the soul serves it. In the intermediate state, the spirit reigns and the soul serves it. The next day is the day of new creation, where body, soul, and spirit are with God and our will is aligned with God’s will.

When Scripture talks about death, the condition of the believer between death and the resurrection, and the resurrection itself, its primary purpose is to proclaim to the Christian what great things God has done for him through Jesus Christ. Through this witness, God offers to believers the sure hope of everlasting life with Jesus Christ. Thus the Holy Spirit creates in the believer joy and hope in the face of the last enemy, death. This is our Gospel hope. -The Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the LCMS, in their “Statement on Death, Resurrection and Immortality”

Also they teach that at the Consummation of the World Christ will appear for judgment, and will raise up all the dead; He will give to the godly and elect eternal life and everlasting joys, but ungodly men and the devils He will condemn to be tormented without end. -AC: Article XVII: Of Christ's Return to Judgment.

Anthropology 7 - Death, the Intermediate State, and Ressurection in Light of the Tripartite Model

Now moving from birth (and rebirth) to death, we can learn more about the relationship of the body, soul, and spirit. First, the spirit and soul leaves the body and returns to God.  This is what we commonly refer to as heaven, but it is not eternal.

“[A]nd the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” -Ecclesiastes 12:7

“And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.” -Genesis 35:18

After we die, we are first disembodied souls and spirits in the intermediate state, but we do not stay that way.  Even though our physical bodies as we know them have become corrupted and will die, God will resurrect and perfect them, so he obviously wants man to have one. Your body is part of you. The resurrection of the body, not the existence of your soul and spirit after death, is the pledge of redemption.

“And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,” Job 19:26

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” -Romans 8:11

Our resurrected bodies will be changed and perfected and immortal, though. They will not have the same limitations as our current bodies.

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” -1 Corinthians 15:51-53

“who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” -Philippians 3:21

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.” -Revelation 7:16

Anthropology 6 - Traducianism vs. Creationism in Light of the Tripartite Model

There are some important questions that are answered in light of the difference between the soul and spirit, that are worth discussing.  The first is the controversy over traducianism vs. creationism.

Traducianism – The soul (immaterial aspect) of a human is transmitted through natural generation along with the body.

God breathed the breath of life into Adam, causing him to become a living soul. Nowhere else is it recorded that God performed this act again. Also, when God was done making man, God's creation is finished, thus no new souls are created directly, but are instead transmitted by natural generation just as the body is.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” -Genesis 2:1-3

Also, human “begetting” includes the image and likeness of the parents. Since all men have a body and soul, this must mean the immaterial aspect of human beings, as well as the material.

When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.” -Genesis 5:3

God created all things "very good" (that is perfect), yet people are sinful and in a fallen/corrupt/ totally depraved state from conception. Since people are born with corrupt souls, and God would not create them that way, they are not created.

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” -Psalm 51:5

Lastly, the idea that each soul is created destroys the idea of the miraculous and supernatural, since it incorporates God's supernatural, miraculous creation of the soul (out of nothing) into the natural process of reproduction. Remember that a miracle is something that happens, outside and therefore, contrary to the natural law. Creation out of nothing is a miracle. The idea that God performs a miracle routinely, every time a natural process occurs, is inherently contradictory, since it makes that which is against natural law a part of nature and that which is special, routine. Luther agrees with this logic.

“When a child is born today, the soul is created together with the body, contrary to Plato. Although all others disagree, it’s my opinion that the soul isn’t added (to the body) from the outside but is created out of the matter of the semen. This is my reason: If the soul came from somewhere else, it would be made bad by contact with the body, but the soul isn’t bad by chance but by nature. Consequently the soul must be born out of corrupt matter and seed and must be created by God out of the matter of a man and a woman.” -LW 54:401

This does lead to the question, though of how Jesus could be perfect, since he was born with a human soul.  The Roman Catholics try to get around this by the idea of the immaculate assumption (the idea that Mary was sinless (free from original sin) from her conception). However, there is no Biblical justification for this, so there must be another answer.

Creationism – God creates the soul (immaterial aspect) of humans at conception

This idea stems from the fact that it does not make sense that something born of the flesh could be spiritual, or understand anything of the divine. This gets at disagreeing with the immaculate assumption, along with how conversion could ever come about. Lastly, the following Bible verses indicate that an immaterial part of us was given to us by God.

“Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it.” -Isaiah 42:5

“The oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him.” -Zechariah 12:1

“[A]nd the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” -Ecclesiastes 12:7

However, in light of the distinction between the spirit and the soul, we see that this whole disagreement stems from a misunderstanding of human nature. We must rightly understand that we are born with a soul passed down from our parents as Luther said, which makes sense from all of the reasons the Traducianists give. However, we are spiritually dead (that is, we have a dead spirit) from conception, and God gives us a spirit by bringing it back to life through the Holy Spirit. Every proof text of the Creationists is actually referring to the spirit, not the soul. Therefore, conception, birth, and the forming of souls are not miracles, but a part of nature. God bringing people to faith (that is conversion or regeneration) is a miracle, because he brings our spirit to life. So he gives us our spirit, but it is not creation, because he does not create our spirits out of nothing, rather he regenerates them (brings us back to life). Lastly, Jesus’ spirit was the Holy Spirit, which he was conceived with, allowing him to live the perfect life, without Mary having to be free from Original Sin.

Anthropology 5 - Body (Soma)

To be complete I will now discuss the body, and the spirit and soul’s relationship to the body.

“The third part is the body with its members. Its work is but to carry out and apply that which the soul knows and the spirit believes.” -Martin Luther, Commentary on Luke

The body is important; it is not just a shell, or container, for your spirit and soul until you can escape from it in death as some would like to say. God created man to have a body and He saw that it was good and perfect. All of our parts (spirit, soul, and body) are intimately connected and not meant to be separated. We are not just parts, we are a whole, unified being, and that includes our bodies. Angels are spirits and don’t have bodies because they were intended to be that way and God made them that way. If God intended people to be disembodied, he would not have given us bodies, just like the angels.

“There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this is rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.” -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Biblically, the first part of the body is the bones. Bones are the basic structure of “frame” of our body and are mentioned in 94 verses in the Bible. Special mention is made during the crucifixion that Jesus’ bones were not broken.

“For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken.’” -John 19:36

In Ezekiel Chapter 37, God raises the bones of the dead and then puts flesh back on them.

“Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath (or soul) to enter you, and you shall live.” -Ezekiel 37:5

Flesh is the second part of the body and is mentioned in 284 verses. The flesh is the substance and bulk (meat) of the person and since it is the main part, flesh is sometimes used interchangeably with body.

“Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’” -Genesis 2:23

Flesh can also refer to being earthly, or represent the fallen aspect of man’s physical form.  Since we live in the fallen world, our bodies have become fallen and corrupted.

“So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” -Romans 8:12-17

The last part of the body is the blood, which is mentioned in 382 verses. The blood is the life and life belongs to God.

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” -Leviticus 17:11

Bodies are also shown to be important in the Bible with the fact that Jesus gave his body for the forgiveness of sins, both on the cross and through communion. John uses the word flesh because Gnostics were saying that body could mean a "spiritual" body, whereas the word flesh can only mean physical.

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” -John 6:53

Since the body is a special gift of God, how should we treat it?

“For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” -1 Corinthians 7:4

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” -1 Corinthians 6:19-20

What does that mean that our bodies are temples? The tabernacle and then the temple were just temporary substitutes in history between the fall and the Redemption. Luther explains:

“Let us take an illustration from the Scriptures. In the tabernacle fashioned by Moses there were three separate compartments. The first was called the holy of holies: here was God's dwelling place, and in it there was no light. The second was called the holy place; here stood a candlestick with seven arms and seven lamps. The third was called the outer court; this lay under the open sky and in the full light of the sun. In this tabernacle we have a figure of the Christian man. His spirit is the holy of holies, where God dwells in the darkness of faith, where no light is; for he believes that which he neither sees nor feels nor comprehends. His soul is the holy place, with its seven lamps, that is, all manner of reason, discrimination, knowledge, and understanding of visible and bodily things. His body is the forecourt, open to all, so that men may see his works and manner of life.” -Martin Luther, Commentary on Luke

Anthropology 4 - The Human Spirit (Pneuma)

Last post, I discussed that man has not only a soma (body) and a psyche (soul), but also a pneuma (spirit). Since when does man have this spirit? Where did it come from? How did we get it? Why do we have it? What does it do? Let’s start at the beginning and take a look at the creation of man.

Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” -Genesis 1:26-27

And it was good. We know Genesis goes on to say that God’s creation was perfect. Because man was created in the image of God, Adam and Eve, could walk and talk with God, and could look on his face directly. Man’s will was in perfect harmony with God’s will, until man sinned and it wasn’t, and we lost the image of God. So, what is the image of God? What does it mean to be made in the image of God?

“God is spirit.” -John 4:24a

“For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” -2 Corinthians 3:18b

“[T]hen the Lord God formed the man (body) of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (spirit), and the man became a living creature (soul).” -Genesis 2:7”

God created us this way. “Breath of life” in Hebrew is Neshemah, the spirit, or the character, or “image” of God. Your psyche is what makes you, you. It is your essence and is the union, or intersection, of the physical and spiritual. God is spirit, but man is spirit in a soul in a body, or a pneuma in a psyche in a soma. Our animal nature (body) does not reflect God. The rational and intellectual nature (soul) reflects Him only partially, since God is much more than just a reasoning being. Going back to the creation story we see that the image of God, given to Man was his spirit.

“God’s image, they say, still shines now in the spiritual essence of our soul.” -C.F.W. Walther in a sermon in 1841

Adam and Eve were made for immortality and perfect harmony and union with God, but this immortality was contingent on his spiritual likeness to God through obedience and love. Therefore, Adam and Eve were given a will that was perfectly in tune with God’s, but not enslaved to it. This state of being was God’s intention for man. This is how God wanted it to be.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” -Genesis 2:15-17

Notice, that verse says they will die that day. Did Adam and Eve’s physical body die the day they ate of the tree? Did their souls die? Their death that day was a spiritual death. Their spirits died because they disobeyed. They had to leave the Garden of Eden, because they could not be with God without his likeness. People cannot stand to be in the presence of God when they are spiritually dead. Adam and Eve’s bodies began to die, not directly because they sinned, but because they could no longer eat of the tree of life after being kicked out of the Garden of Eden.

“Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever-” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” -Genesis 3:22-24

Man’s immortality springs from his being given a spirit made in the image of God, but that when he lost that image, he became dead in his sins and fell under the law of mortality and became under the sentence of death. In the instant that Adam sinned, his spirit died. People are left with nothing but a guilty conscience and seek to fill the hole, left by the dead spirit.

So, the spirit is the image of God, but besides being able to be in God’s presence, what else does the spirit do? Actually three things.

God-Consciousness and where God Lives in Us

The spirit is what allowed man to understand spiritual things. When people say they are spiritual but not religious (SNR), I always laugh because without faith in Jesus, we are spiritually dead, and you can’t be spiritual if you are spiritually dead. This is how the fall of man causes original sin, and why we are in a state of total depravity.

“The spirit (neshema) of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.” -Proverbs 20:27

In this proverbs verse, the Hebrew word for spirit that is used is the same as the “breath of life” from the Genesis creation story.  Paul tells us that only those with a spirit can interpret spiritual truths.  This goes along with the distinction between wisdom and knowledge discussed previously.

“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”-these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” -1 Corinthians 2:9-14

People need a divine faculty, or “organ”, in order to understand divine truth. The eye is the organ for seeing, the ear for hearing, and the spirit, or pneuma, is the organ or faculty by which we know God. The natural man (who still has a soul) cannot understand and does not accept spiritual things, because they are not discerned by the soul, but by the spirit.

“The first part, the spirit, is the highest, deepest, and noblest part of man. By it he is enabled to lay hold on things incomprehensible, invisible, and eternal. It is, in brief, the dwelling place of faith and the Word of God.” -Martin Luther, Commentary on Luke

Communication and Communion with God

Next people need the spirit to commune, worship, and talk to God. True worship, praise, and prayer come from our spirit.

“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” -John 4:24

“What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit… I will sing praise with my spirit….” -1 Corinthians 14:15

God does not hear the prayers of those who are spiritually dead, because they cannot truly pray to him, without faith in him.

“The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.” -Proverbs 15:29

Children and Heirs of God

In so far as man is only a rational being (having a body [soma] and a soul [psyche]), he is not the offspring of God, but the creature, or created of God. God is the father of spirits. Those who are spirits are the children of God.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” -John 3:6

“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?” -Hebrews 12:7-9

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” -Romans 8:16

How do we become children and heirs of God? The story with Nicodemus directly addresses this. The body cannot be born again, neither can the soul. Only the spirit can because it is dead. Some people erroneously think of baptism/conversion as a rejuvenation of the old birth a fixing of the old, rather than an actual new birth. We a spiritually, stillborn. That is, we are born with a living body and soul, but a dead or dormant spirit. Once faith is received, you are not a better man, but a new man.

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” -John 3:1-6

Or another way to say it is that when God calls us, he restores the image of God (the spirit) in us, through the work of his Son, Jesus Christ.

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” -Romans 8:29-30

He must still remain in you to sustain it. We cannot sustain it ourselves.

“No man has power to retain the spirit.” -Ecclesiastes 8:8