Body, Soul, and Spirit: A Biblical Perspective

By John-Luke Muresan, MTS Tyndale University, Toronto

Introduction

In the Bible it says:

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23, ESV

“And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” Mark 4:41, ASVh

“Both the Holy Spirit and the soul dwell in the heart of a believer; the same place overlapped but in different dimensions. We could think that the heavenly dimension and earthly dimension walk in parallel through the heart of a believer. The soul is part of the earthly dimension. When the Lord gives the soul to a person, that soul becomes part of the earthly dimension. The body, the soul, and the spirit of a person coexist together as a unit; that is how the Lord built us. The breath of the Lord is complete and has both soul and spirit when He gave life to Adam (See Genesis 2:7).”
Comment on Mark 4:41, BCF

“But he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” Mark 10:30, ASVh

“Your house and the Holy Spirit house in your soul makes for houses.”
Comment on Mark 10:30, BCF

The Body, Soul, and Spirit

Humans have many questions about the Body, Spirit, and Soul. Here we will put our understanding based on the Scripture and guidance from the Holy Spirit. From the above comments we can see the inner heart of a person and their soul is deeply connected, and we will see them as one unit.

αυτος δε ο θεος της ειρηνης αγιασαι υμας ολοτελεις και ολοκληρον υμων το πνευμα (spirit) και η ψυχη (soul) και το σωμα (body) αμεμπτως εν τη παρουσια του κυριου ημων ιησου χριστου τηρηθειη (1 Thessalonians 5:23, Westcott-Hort)

We can see that there are distinct words used for body, soul, and spirit in the original languages of the Bible. From this we can say that the human being is a five-dimensional entity. The body is in three dimensions, the soul is in a soul dimension, and the spirit is in a spirit dimension. Each dimension of the human is tangled together, and this makes the human being a living being on earth.

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Genesis 1:28, ESV

“And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.’” Luke 1:46-47, ASVh (Greek for Luke 1:46, and verse 47)

“Q: What is the difference between the soul and spirit in verses 46 and 47, respectively? A: Verses 46 and 47 identify a person as having two different spiritual identities. Our heart can feel the spirit, but it cannot feel the soul unless the Lord lets us feel it. The soul in verse 46 reveals a deeper inner thought, a thought of different dimension, soul dimension within the unseen world, than in this verse. In this verse, the spirit of the person of Mary worships the Lord in two dimensions, with the spirit and the heart, but the heart receives joy without understanding …
In these two verses we encounter two worlds, the unseen world and the seen world. The soul and the spirit exist in two different dimensions in the unseen world. In the unseen world, it is not the same as in this world we know about.”
Comment on Luke 1:46-47, BCF

Only a human has a soul, this is a critical difference between animals and humans. Otherwise, animals would be guilty of sin as humans. Animals do have a spirit, and can have emotions, as humans we need to care for animals as the Lord Jesus demonstrated for us.

“Then He says to them, My soul is greatly grieved, even to death; remain here and watch with Me.” Matthew 26:38, ASVh

This verse has proven that the Lord is truly human. The words to think about are “My soul”; only humans have a soul. Humans have souls because humans are created in the image of God, and that is why humans are not animals.
Comment on Matthew 26:38, BCF

“[Jesus] Saying to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; having untied bring to Me.” Matthew 21:2, ASVh

The donkey and its colt were tied together. At that time, this was the way the mother and the baby were tied together to keep them calm. If you take the colt, the mother will follow. The disciples brought both of them to the Lord Jesus. The Lord would not separate the mother from her baby.
Comments on Matthew 21:2, BCF

The Body, Soul, Spirit Connection

The human spirit connects to the body through the air: a human breathes and gives life to the body through the lungs. The human soul connects to the body through the heart and blood giving inner strength to the body.

“…then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Genesis 2:7, ESV

“But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.” Job 32:8, ESV

“Indeed My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.” John 6:55, ASVh

“‘My blood is true drink’; The blood of the beloved Son of God that has poured down on earth was the life of Him when He was in human form on earth, and in the communion time, we allow to use the juice of the grape vine in representing thinking of His blood poured down for us and be washed clean; all believers should remember this.”
Comment on John 6:55, BCF

The soul exists before the body, and comes from God, and is joined to the body at the moment of conception.

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:14, ESV

“And His disciples asked Him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, he or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, Neither he sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made visible in him.” John 9:2-3, ASVh

“The important work the beloved Son of God will do for humans has also been shown here; the mercy of God has been poured down on this soul, and there is no need for anyone to be guilty in their situation. After this event, we do not know the purpose of life for this person to receive mercy. Therefore, we should wait and see the end of it before judging any situation. When a person is born, and that person does not have good health from birth, when we look at the person and don’t know where, what, and how it happened to the person, let all remember one thing, they all have been born in the image of God as well; even they have a problem from birth, the Lord’s love and will, will still be in them.”
Comment on John 9:3, BCF

The spirit fully joins the body when the umbilical cord is cut and the human begins to breathe on its own.

“Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Genesis 2:7, ESV

“…he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” Acts 17:25, ESV

Both our human soul and spirit play a role in the emotions that we feel. The soul has the deeper emotions that are harder to feel, we can see a person’s soul through their eyes.

“And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord…” Luke 1:46, ASVh

“The ‘soul’ is deeper than our heart itself can feel. But the Lord can bring it up for a person to acknowledge what the soul is thinking. In this verse it tells plainly that Mary glorifies the Lord from the deepest of her knowledge.”
Comment on Luke 1:46, BCF

“However, if your eye may be bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore, the light that is in you may be darkness, how great that darkness!” Matthew 6:23, ASVh

“If your spiritual eye gets darkened, your spirit is lost.”
Comment on Matthew 6:23, BCF

“Keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye…” Proverbs 7:2, ESV

“My soul keeps your testimonies; I love them exceedingly.” Psalm 119:167, ESV

“However, I say to you, that everyone looking at a woman to desire her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Matthew 5:28, ASVh

“Do not look at their body; look into their eyes. The eye is the window of their soul. Looking at the body creates lust; only look into their eyes.”
Comment on Matthew 5:25, BCF

The soul is large, with many rooms in its dimension. If we do not protect our souls by meditating on the Word of God, the evil has a chance to attack us. Demonic possession of the soul as in ancient times no longer happens today because the Holy Spirit has been given on the earth.

“And when the unclean spirit is gone out from the human, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and does not find. Then it says, I will return to my house from where I came out; and having come, it finds it being unoccupied, and swept, and put in order.” Matthew 12:43-44, ASVh

“House here refers to the soul of a person. People believe that the house is the heart, but the heart is just an organ of the body (think of the heart in two dimensions as well: one dimension of the heart is an organ for the body, and another dimension of the heart is for the soul). An evil spirit does not need the heart, but it needs the soul to feed on. As humans, we try to use a human way to keep ourselves clean. You sweep the soul clean when you try to cut off something useless in life. But if you do not come to the Lord Jesus and read the Word, you leave the soul empty, and it becomes a temptation for an evil spirit to dwell in. Before we become Christians, we try to be clean, to change, and to become a new person. But if we do not fill up the soul with the Word, the change will not last long. The empty house will collapse down. Also, as Christians, if we slack off from the Word, we make empty rooms in our souls to be tempted. Human nature, and especially the laziness of human nature, makes us vulnerable. If we call ourselves Christians, we need to read the Word. Only the Word of God can be used to fill and shield the soul.”
“Comment on Matthew 12:44, BCF”

“And when He had come to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, met Him two possessed by demons, coming out of the tombs, extremely violent, so that no one could pass by that way.” Matthew 8:28, ASVh

“Not all the cases encountered by the Lord Jesus are present in our times because the Lord Jesus was on earth, and then He asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to occupy the earth (See the Book of Acts). The presence of the Holy Spirit controls the dark side’s activity.”
Comment Matthew 8:28, BCF

Q: Do we encounter these cases in our times? A: It is still evil in the world, but it is not the evil which has the power to enter humans, the evil that possesses, that enter in the body; they are not allowed to do that anymore; it is over. Nowadays, it is not possessed anymore but by make-belief and imagination. The possessed in this way, as described herein Mark, has stopped with the Holy Spirit coming down on earth, but people still make-belief. When the body weakens, people try to go in the old way of their belief in the dark and call the dark to come down to them; when the faith is weak, it drags the body to be weak as well. Remember, the Bible tells clearly that the Holy Spirit covers the whole earth. The dark doesn’t come out, but humans disobey and keep calling the dark to come out for them; when they come out, they harm humans (these days, there is a dark influence because of human seeking, but not possessed anymore as described in these verses).
Comment on Mark 5:1-13, BCF

Comment on Mark 3:21-30 (Explaining the Parable of Mark 3:27), BCF

The spirit can have emotions and can be revealed through the words we say. The soul and the spirit need to be at peace within the body of a person for the person to be alive and well.

“It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I speak to you are Spirit and are life.” John 6:63, ASVh

“He said, ‘Depart: for the damsel is not dead, but sleeps.’ And they ridiculed Him. Now when the crowd had been put out, He entered in, took hold of her hand, and the damsel arose.” Matthew 9:24-25, ASVh

“The ruler’s daughter was not dead yet; she was just in a coma. Her spirit was still holding onto her body. The girl’s spirit was stuck in the dark and could not find the way back to her body. The body cannot wake up without the spirit. The Lord Jesus opened the path for her spirit to join back with her body. He commanded the spirit to join back with the soul and body and be at peace.”
Comment on Matthew 9:24-25, BCF

In the Word of God, we are commanded not to seek communication with other spirits. We should only pray to God through the Holy Spirit.

“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 19:31, ESV

“When the soul walks in the path of light, the communication between the soul’s identity and the spirit’s identity of a person happens only through the Holy Spirit. But if a soul chooses to walk in the path of darkness, then the soul and the spirit of a person will communicate with different spirits.”
Comment on Luke 1:47, BCF

The Separation of the Body, Soul, and Spirit

After death, the human body turns to dust, because of sin. The soul of the human returns to the Lord but in a waiting place. The spirit remains near the human body but in a different dimension. When the human is resurrected, the human receives a heavenly body. The human soul and spirit will join the heavenly body by the mercy of God at the Resurrection.

“and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints having fallen asleep were raised;” Matthew 27:52, ASVh

“… Don’t forget that all the saints that have perished have a soul, spirit, and material body; the material body is gone, but the soul and spirit are still there. The soul has returned to the Father, but the spirit remains where the body has disintegrated; the tomb must be open for the heavenly body to come in and out from above (this action takes place in a twinkling of an eye). The Lord puts the heavenly body in the spot He wants, and that body joins with the saint’s spirit. How can the body get out of the tomb? The Lord has split the tomb open for the heavenly body to get out; the Lord has deposited the body down to be joined with the spirit, and after joining with the spirit, the heavenly body has substance and material like that of earth and that body comes out …”

“Q: Why do we say that the material is like that of the earth in the comment above? A: The resurrected appearance has to be similar to the dead one; they just look alike, but they are not the same. All imperfections of the earthly body will not be reproduced in the heavenly body; everything that is imperfect is fixed, and those bodies will come out to meet people.”

“Q: What happens to us when we die? A: When we die, our soul goes back to the Lord, the body goes back to dust, and the spirit stays inside the tomb in a different dimension of the tomb, waiting; tomb over the tomb. However, the spirits cannot come out to roam free; they stay in a different dimension waiting in order; note that there are different waiting places for the spirit and the soul of a person. Cemeteries are not places for the living to go and play around; the cemetery is used for different purposes in human life. You are still alive; why do you go there and fool around? So many go and bother the things that the living cannot understand; just leave where the dead die, leave it alone; no living need to do anything with the dead there. In terms of humans, we can say: do not disturb the peace of the resting.”
Comment on Matthew 27:52, BCF

The Humanity of the Lord Jesus

The Lord Jesus, in His human form on earth, had all human components: body, soul, and spirit. Like all humans, His human body, soul, and spirit had to grow together in His human life on earth, entangled together. At death, the three are separated, but the Lord Jesus took His human form with Him to heaven, and by the Father’s mercy, His Spirit is separated and hovers over the earth to connect with the true believers.

“And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS.” Luke 1:31, ASVh

“And the Child grew, and became strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.” Luke 2:40, ASVh

“Strong in this place means strong in two ways, physically and spiritually.”
Comment on Luke 2:40, BCF

“Then He says to them, My soul is greatly grieved, even to death; remain here and watch with Me.” Matthew 26:38, ASVh

“This verse has proven that the Lord is truly human. The words to think about are “My soul”; only humans have a soul. Humans have souls because humans are created in the image of God, and that is why humans are not animals. The Lord is telling here that His soul is sorrowful; only humans have that.”
Comment on Matthew 26:38, BCF

“And Jesus having cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the Spirit.” Matthew 27:50, ASVh

Q: How do we understand the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, as mentioned here? A: God of Three in One, but the Lord Jesus has taken the form of a human, and He has received the spirit as a human; all humans must have a spirit. Because the Lord Jesus takes the form of dust, He has a body, spirit, and soul to confirm human being in Him. The Trinity is always Three in One, but each one has a duty, and the Father is above all. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father. The Lord Jesus in human form as the body, the soul, and the spirit is three in one as well. The body, soul, and spirit of the Lord Jesus can’t be separated; they are only as one because He is human.
Comment on Matthew 27:50, BCF

The role of the Spirit of Jesus

By the mercy of the Father, the Spirit of the resurrected Lord Jesus has been sent on the earth. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwell together in true believers, and the Lord Jesus communicates with His servants through both the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the resurrected Lord Jesus. There are different duties between both Spirits: the Spirit of Christ intercedes to the Father on behalf of each believer, and the Holy Spirit receives specific duties from the Father. The Spirit of Christ receives the order straight from the beloved Son of God; the origin of the coming and reporting will be different even if the Father and the beloved Son of God are One. However, the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the resurrected Lord Jesus (Christ) work in unity in the life of the believer, but each one has special duties.

“For, like a man going on a journey, called his own servants, and delivered to them his goods.” Matthew 25:14, ASVh

“‘Called his own servants’ refers to His special servants because it is a difference between the Lord Himself’s calling and the Holy Spirit’s calling. The Lord Jesus has His own servants for His work, His specific work that He wants to be done. Yes, the Holy Spirit calls, but the Lord Jesus Himself also communicates with specific servants that He chooses to do His personal work. However, the Lord Jesus connects with His special servants through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, which is why the Bible says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven (See Mark 3:28-30). But also remember that the Bible says the Father Himself is in the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus and the Father are One. The Lord Jesus said that what belongs to the Father also belongs to Him. However, the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the Lord Jesus are not the same. The Holy Spirit is one with the Father, and the Lord Jesus (His Spirit) is between them both.
“Delivered to them his goods” or “entrusted his goods.” When it says entrusted His goods, it refers to specific orders that the Father tells to the Son. These are specific orders, and that is why the Son has His own specific servants to go out and do the job. The Holy Spirit hovers over the earth and does His work (the Holy Spirit’s work) that He also receives from the Father; that is why the Bible tells us that the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are Three in One. The Three have duties, but all have received duty from the Father as One.”
Comment on Matthew 25:14, BCF

“And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit; and having said this, He breathed His last.” Luke 23:46, ASVh

“During the Lord Jesus’ life on earth, He was one hundred percent human; the body, soul, and spirit of the Lord Jesus couldn’t be separated, they were together as unity because He is human. Now the Lord Jesus is in heaven in bodily form and by the will of the Father, the beloved Son’s Spirit can separate and come to earth for work. The Spirit of Christ is on earth according to the Father’s will Himself. The same way as the Holy Spirit works on earth, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, the beloved Son of God’s Spirit also works on earth as well, and this has shown true God and true human; the beloved Son of God has them both.”
Comment on Luke 23:46, BCF

“Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make a home with him.’” John 14:23, ASVh

Q: How does the Lord live in our hearts? A: Do not think in physical terms but spiritual terms. The heart of the true believer is like a palace, which will have many rooms in it, and each room will be used for a different purpose as well because that heart has become the home of God to dwell.
A: That is the will of the Father to live in our souls when we open our souls to receive Him; the Father uses the Holy Bible to be the path for humans to get in touch with the Holy Spirit; through the Holy Bible, the Holy Spirit will work in the heart of the reader, and when that heart has invited the Holy Spirit to be their guide, the Holy Spirit will use that invitation and put Himself to join with the soul itself.
The Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the beloved Son are in the Holy Word itself.
Comment on John 14:23, BCF
Q: Furthermore, how does the Holy Spirit dwell inside a believer? A: The Holy Spirit dwells in each believer and the Lord Jesus as well, but there is still only One Holy Spirit. Also, we should think about how big the Holy Spirit is to cover the whole earth! We are all in Him, and He is in us as well. We could think that the seed and some gift from the Holy Spirit are planted inside a believer’s heart at the moment the believer accepts and invites the Lord Jesus into their heart. Both the Holy Spirit and the soul dwell in the heart of a believer, the same place overlapped but different dimensions. We could think that the heavenly dimension and earthly dimension walk in parallel through the heart of a believer. The soul is part of the earthly dimension. When the Lord gives the soul to a person, that soul becomes part of the earthly dimension. The body, the soul, and the spirit of a person coexist together as a unit; that is how the Lord built us. The breath of the Lord is complete, and He has both soul and spirit when He gave life to Adam (See Genesis 2:7). In the case of “Holy Spirit dictation,” the Holy Spirit is the giver and the receiver at the same moment. In the case of “Holy Spirit inspired,” the Holy Spirit is the giver, and the soul of the believer is the receiver.
Comment on Mark 4:35-41, BCF

Meditation on Body, Soul, and Spirit

Knowledge of the Body, Soul, and Spirit are of no value if you do not have peace with God. If you have not found peace with God we encourage you to meditate on the words found on our webpage Making Peace With God the Father Through His Son Jesus Christ. Only the Trinity of God can save the human body, soul, and spirit from the troubles of this life, and save the human being from death – giving us eternal life.