ALIVE in the SPIRIT

ALIVE  in  the  SPIRIT

by  James  McBride

From  the  "Bible  Advocate" (November/December 2013) -  a  publication  of  the  Church  of  God,  Seventh  Day,  Denver, CO. USA.

The apostle Paul sums up the human condition like this: "May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless . . ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23) — that is, our human spirit, our life force, and our physical body with its organized groups of cells.

Little understood is the role of the human spirit. Scripture tells us that "there is a spirit in man" (Job 32:8) associated with the breath of God and enters man with his first breath (Genesis 2:7).

Humans differ from lower animate creatures in that our spirit returns to God who gave it, while the animal spirit dissipates at death (Ecclesiastes 3:21; 12:7).

The spirit of any earthly being is active (probably through the nervous system) only in the presence of an animate body. In the lower creation the spirit provides instinctive behavior, varying in degree as God has appointed each kind. In humankind the spirit imparts higher intelligence, reasoning ability, an aesthetic sense, and a God-consciousness.

That spirit, probably entering with our first breath, enlivens body and soul (Genesis 2:7; Job 33:4). The human spirit, at death, is somehow transported back to God. The process of disengagement from the natural body may account for reports of near-death experiences. If the patient is resuscitated, the spirit may indeed have "recorded" environmental events that can be recalled.

Both Christ and Paul emphasize that when we die, we are asleep (1 Corinthians 15:18) — spirit sleep. Having returned to God, every human spirit is preserved (God knows how!) until the resurrection — for believers, at the return of Jesus and for all others, for later judgment.

This sheds light on the resurrection from the dead. How can someone dead and buried thousands of years be resurrected? Hasn't he returned to dust? During our life-span the human spirit, similar to the programmed hard drive of a computer, "records" all there is to know about us: our DNA (body form, coloring, etc.), our successes and failures, our moral code, our choices, our memories: "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly" (Proverbs 20:27, KJV).

That spirit entity returns to the One who imparted life and is preserved in His care. When the appropriate moment arrives, it is clothed with a body. For believers that will be a spirit body (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

A real body, that is — but subject to different operating laws than the natural body. It has, like the resurrected Jesus (Luke 24:39), flesh and bones and shares the spiritual powervof its — "elder brother" (1 John 3:2).

That spirit body will not die but will with Christ serve the Father through the millennium and for eternity. The reason the Christian's spirit puts on immortality lies in the fact it has been — through a changed heart, baptism, and conversion — united with God's Spirit. A true new birth as a spirit being (John 3:1-8), yet retaining the spiritual character built during our lifetime.

We too will be resurrected but in a restructured physical body, the blueprint for which is in our spirit, preserved by God. Quite an incentive for us to nourish that precious spirit within! 

James McBride

edits New Horizon magazine (Churches of God Outreach Ministries, Tulsa, OK). He and his wife, Sarah, live in Lincolnshire, England.

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