

This is the meaning of the expression in Jude, "soulish, having no spirit" (v. Although it was still there, it was as if it were not there anymore. Now it had lost all its ability to function and had fallen unconscious. Originally, the spirit had the ability to know God and serve Him. At that time, the spirit had lost all its power and senses, and had become dormant. He began to act according to his intellect or his feelings. Since the spirit became so closely knit to the soul, man began to live in an idealistic world. The reason that the two have to be divided is that they have become one.

This is why the writer of Hebrews said in 4:12 that God’s word has to pierce and divide the spirit from the soul. Soon after, through the soul’s suppression, the spirit was merged with the soul, and the two parts became closely knit together. When the inner man within him became disorganized and fallen, his outer body was destined to death and destruction.įrom that time on, the spirit of Adam (as well as that of all his descendants) was suppressed by the soul.

At that time, a body that could have been glorified and changed was turned back to dust. It continued to work in him until his spirit, soul, and body all became dead. Although after his spirit died, he still lived for a long time, during that time death was operating in him. The death in the spirit of the first man gradually spread to the realm of the body. This is why many times in the New Testament, God refers to those who live in their flesh as dead people. He can no longer hear or feel the voice of God’s Holy Spirit. He can speak about God, conjecture about God, and even preach about God, yet he is dead to God. Thereafter, man may have religion, morality, education, ability, power, and mental and physical health, yet he is dead to God. When man sinned, this sin corrupted the keen intuitive knowledge of God that existed in man’s spirit so that he became dead to the things of the spiritual realm. The spirit was still there, but it was dead to God and had lost its capacity. When Adam disobeyed God, his spirit died. He cannot speak because there is some problem with his mouth. It is not that this person does not have a mouth or two lungs. Spiritual death means that there is no more fellowship with God. It merely means that the spirit has lost its keen knowledge of God and is dead to God. Therefore, for the spirit to be dead does not mean that the spirit is gone. When the body dies, the spirit cuts off fellowship with the body. When the spirit dies, the spirit loses its fellowship with God. What kind of death was this death? The scientific definition of death is to be cut off from all fellowship with the environment. This shows that the death that God spoke of was not only physical death. After Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they continued to live a few hundred years. After Adam fell, his spirit became dead.Īt the beginning, God said to Adam, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. The spirit has God-consciousness it knows God’s voice, fellowships with God, and has a very keen knowledge of God.

MAN’S SPIRIT, SOUL, AND BODY AFTER THE FALLĪdam existed by the breath of life, which is the spirit.
