announcement: 0:01

Hello and welcome to the Waking Up to Grace podcast, where we celebrate and explore the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tune in to the Waking Up to Grace podcast on every major platform. You can also listen to our episodes and read our full transcripts at wakinguptogracecom. And now here's Lenny.

Lenny: 0:22

I would imagine that most of us have heard plenty of ghost stories in our lifetimes and seen plenty of media on the television about paranormal activities. I'm not going to be talking about ghosts today, but rather I'll be diving into what our scriptures teach us about our body, soul and spirit and how it pertains to the spirit and the flesh that we read about in our scripture. In order to get a good handle on topics like walking in the spirit or walking in the flesh, or the fruits of the spirit versus the fruits of the flesh, we'll start by exploring what our spirit really is. What is our soul? What is our spirit? Are these two ghostly things within us that can float around apart from our body? Will these components separate from our body upon death and float away into eternity? We hear of all kinds of experiences people share about the spiritual realms, but should we set our minds on experiences or the truth that we read in scripture? I found it to be of great value to clear my mind of all the noise that comes from our human experiences and seek what our Lord has revealed in his scriptures. When we look to the scriptures, we will gain a much clearer view of what the terms we find in scripture actually mean. Today we're going to discuss the spirit and the flesh. We'll also be diving into the term soul that we see in our English translations of scripture, due to its relevance to our topic.

Lenny: 1:44

Let's start with spirit, shall we? Paul had a lot to say about spirit in 1 Corinthians 2.10. We read 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 thought 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. As we know from our scripture, god's Holy Spirit is referred to as a person. It's a being that knows the thoughts of God. This is a mystery the three-in-one Lord, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. You're not going to easily grasp this. If you try, your mind will probably explode. But if we break down what the Holy Spirit does within us. I believe we gain a clearer view of what Spirit really is when we read about it in Scripture. Looking at the passage we just read, there's a lot to gain if we're looking for it. Paul says 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? Based on this passage, how is God revealing things to the Corinthian church? Yes, through the Spirit. This refers to his Holy Spirit. And does our Lord's Spirit know the depths of his mind? Yes, we read the Holy Spirit is God's Spirit. It is in him. It is also in the Christian.

Lenny: 3:40

Then we read 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. Paul wrote. He reminds them that they received the spirit of God. They would now have access in their inner being to the depths of the Lord.

Lenny: 3:58

But an interesting thing that we read in the first part of Paul's statement was they did not receive the spirit of the world. What would the spirit of the world be? It is not a ghostly being floating around in the air. It would be worldly wisdom, the thought process of the world, the mindset we have from our human intellect. Paul goes on to say, and we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. So we learn how Yahweh sees things spiritually. We need to seek his wisdom, not human wisdom. So how do we know a teaching is good or bad? The answer is it must line up with the view of our Lord. Where do we find the view of our Lord? In the scripture. But we must see the scripture from the spirit, otherwise it will simply turn into a human handbook of rules and regulations. The human intellect can mess up anything. The reason there are so many denominations in Christianity is not the fault of Yahweh or the scriptures. It's the fault of the human mind. Apart from the Spirit of God, we are the problem, not our scriptures.

Lenny: 5:11

Paul promoted a spirit that united the church. Philippians 2, verse 1, and this is in the ESV translation. All these passages are actually from the ESV Bible translation. We read so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Paul desired that they be of one mind and in Acts Luke records this happening to one of the early churches. Acts 4.32 says Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. We'll be getting into soul later in our episode, but what we can take from this passage now is that the faithful were united by something at the heart of their being. This union of the soul could only come from the spirit of Christ.

Lenny: 6:06

The prophet Ezekiel wrote about this event prophetically, years before. Ezekiel 36, 26 reads and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you. Yahweh would regenerate his people in a most awesome way in the future, and that time was happening in our recorded Acts of the Apostles and in their letters. In context, this passage was about Israel. They had become hardened in their heart, but Yahweh would remove that hard heart and give them a soft one. A heart of flesh as described here, would be a soft heart, not a sinful one. To be clear, this prophecy was about Israel, and this new regeneration process would also apply to Gentiles, so we can embrace this as well. We are now part of the game, so to speak. We were never under the law with Israel, but we would still be set free in the same way by Christ.

Lenny: 7:06

As we look closer at this passage from Ezekiel, it is truly amazing. He says we get a new heart and a new spirit. Talk about an attitude adjustment at the core of our being. But he doesn't stop there. He goes on to be more specific and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. In order to make us right, he had to remove that old heart first, the one that was opposed to Yahweh, the one that only knew how to look to itself for all things. He took that out of us and gave us a new one. We received a heart transplant at salvation. It is written and I will put my spirit within you. On top of a new heart and spirit, we receive his Holy Spirit. This would place our new spirit in a union with his. We're united with Christ now and can share in his attitude and mindset. None of this would have been possible with our old spirit. Something at the core of our being needed regeneration in order to form this union with the spirit of God. This new way of regeneration gives us the ability to see things how God sees them. We can now see truth. Prior to this regeneration, we could only see things from a human view. Now we can see God's view and share in his thoughts. This is not a ghostly thing or something ghostly going on inside of us. It's actually more of an attitude than anything From a worldly vantage point.

Lenny: 8:37

We could look at the term spirit in order to gain some context. It is actually very comparable to the term spirit in the context that we are reading it in our Bibles. I found this definition online. What is team spirit? When talking about team spirit, people mean a positive and supportive atmosphere amongst a group of individuals that work towards a common goal. So what we see is this type of spirit, referred to as team spirit in our society, is very similar to what we read in our scriptures. It's an attitude and is shared amongst a group of people with a common purpose.

Lenny: 9:15

According to Webster, attitude can be defined as a mental position with regard to a fact or position, a feeling or emotion regarding a fact. It's based on fact. If our thoughts or feelings are not based on fact, then they do not come from our Lord. That is fact. Another definition from Webster on attitude is a bodily state of readiness to respond in a characteristic way to a stimulus.

Lenny: 9:51

In our New Testament, the word spirit is translated from the Greek word pneuma. According to Thayer's, spirit or pneuma can be defined as the spirit, the vital principle by which the body is animated. The rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks and decides. The soul, the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of anyone, the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc. In comparison, the word soul in our New Testament is translated from the original Greek word psuche. It looks like psych and, according to Thayer's, can be defined as the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions, our heart, soul, etc. So by these definitions we can discern that the soul is our inner being and spirit is the attitude of our inner being. This helps us to understand what's going on within the early church in Acts 4.32. When we read what's going on within the early church in Acts 4.32, when we read Now, the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul when they received the Spirit of God. Their inner being became one with another through the attitude of the Spirit. Our spirit is like our inner attitude. If we have an attitude of dependency on the Father, we share the attitude that Christ displayed to us in Scripture. Dependency on the Father, we share the attitude that Christ displayed to us in Scripture.

Lenny: 11:21

Paul, being an apostle appointed by Christ, yeshua would teach the church, as he was overseen about this attitude. In 1 Corinthians 5.3, he writes For though absent in body, I am present in spirit and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who church like a ghost. He wasn't haunting them while he was in another physical location apart from them. His attitude was one with the attitude of Christ Yeshua. This Christian who was taking pride in sexual sin did not have the right attitude. Something was wrong with his mindset. He was causing pride issues in the group and Paul wanted him to be removed from that group for a time so that the Lord would wake him up. Paul didn't have faith in that man himself, but rather that the Spirit of God that resided within him would prevail, and it did. Earlier, in his letter to Corinth, paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2.14,.

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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. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. I've come to realize that this passage is about those without the Spirit of God, but also applies to us when we turn away from his guidance and walk by the flesh. We have the mind of Christ in the sense that it is within us to share his attitude and walk in his Spirit, but we can also choose to walk in the flesh, can't we? As Christians, we can still have an attitude that produces in us words and actions that are not at all from the mind of Christ. We do not get a fully regenerated brain at salvation. Our minds are being renewed and will be in the process our whole life through. It is important to realize that we cannot force ourselves to grow Just like a young child. We must grow at the rate that our Heavenly Father has set for us, but we can rest knowing that we're fully right with him the whole way through.

Lenny: 13:37

But then there is the flesh. The flesh, like spirit and soul, can take on different meanings based on context. For example, spirit sometimes refers to demons or evil spirits who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men or a movement of air, of the wind, hence the wind itself, or breath of nostrils or mouth. The flesh, in our New Testament, comes from the Greek word sarx and can be defined as, according to Thayer's, mere human nature, the earthly nature of man, apart from divine influence and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God.

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I've heard some grace teachers who proclaim that sin indwells within us, basically that we have a sinful nature. This view is probably helped along by a bad translation in the NIV or the New International Version of the Bible. It is actually an interpretation, not a translation. They tried to help us by changing the flesh to sinful nature. The problem is that the idea of a sinful nature is not present in our scripture and it's even more confusing when you apply it to a Christian who is said to have taken on a divine nature and has become a new creation in Christ. Another issue probably stems from misunderstanding chapter 7 in Paul's letter to the Romans, but that's a subject for a future episode. Niv has since changed their interpretation of the flesh to no longer read the sinful nature, but unfortunately, when translators try and help us too much with interpretation, the Bible becomes biased towards their views. Whenever something doesn't quite line up, looking at the word in the original language always takes us back to a view that's in line with the gospel of our Lord. But either way, we're always safe when we see things in light of the gospel, aren't we?

Lenny: 15:29

I don't believe we have a sinful nature. As Christians, our nature would be divine according to scripture, but that doesn't mean we always do holy things. We're still prone to sin and our mind seems to be the source of the issue, not our core being or who we are in Christ. The flesh is not who we are and is not part of our soul or core being. I believe it's more of an external force that we can bring in through our thoughts. When we set our minds on the flesh, we begin to adopt an attitude of the flesh. Essentially, we begin to walk by the spirit of the flesh and not the spirit of our Lord. Paul describes this in Romans 8.6. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God, and again in Galatians 5.16, paul says but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. When we find ourselves gratifying the desires of the flesh, we know that we have the wrong attitude about something. When we pay careful attention to this, christ Yeshua will guide us into all kinds of humbling spiritual growth. Waking up to grace is a lifelong process and, like a child learning to walk, our Father is guiding us along the way.

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In other contexts, according to Thayer, flesh can also mean the soft substance of the living body, which covers the bones and is permeated with blood of both man and beasts. The body, the body of a man. It can also mean used of natural or physical origin, generation or relationship, or born of natural generation, like a lineage. Some examples are as follows. In Matthew 16, we read and Jesus answered him Blessed are you, simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father, who is in heaven. Then in Matthew 19,. Not revealed this to you but my Father, who is in heaven. Then in Matthew 19,. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. John 1, 14,. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory glories of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Can you see here how the flesh is referring more to a human body and then, in the context of human genealogy, we see it read as here Paul is referring to human genealogy. We can see that the context does not describe anything related to the power of sin or the flesh as defined earlier. I hope this is helping to paint a clearer picture of these terms for you. It'll really help us to understand better what's going on inside of us as Christians.

Lenny: 18:27

One of the most descriptive passages about the transformation of our inner being can be found in Paul's letter to the Romans. In Romans, chapter 6, we read what shall we say then, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him, by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like this, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like this. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him, for the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider Did you catch all that?

Lenny: 19:45

Our inner being, our old self, was crucified with Christ. The wages of sin is death. So we had to die to be set free from sin. God killed that old self and made us a new creation at salvation. Let's read that part one more time. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. That's just incredible, isn't it? And then we get a call to action. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him, for the death he died. He died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The better we understand this, the more our minds become renewed to think like Paul. In Philippians 121. Paul says for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Paul's attitude was that life was Christ. To physically die would only mean being with him in eternity. I want to finish this episode by taking a closer look at the term soul that we have in our Bibles, it's my thinking that we've adapted a false view of the term used in the original language of our scriptures.

Lenny: 21:15

The idea of the soul originated with Greek philosophers about 300 years before the time of Christ, originated with Greek philosophers about 300 years before the time of Christ. In the 2nd century it found its way into the early institutional church and it became a fundamental truth of the Roman Catholic Church through the Nicene Council of 325 AD, and it was reinforced by other councils that convened over the next hundred years. But where did this concept that a man has an eternal nature apart from death actually come from? Well, history reveals that it first appeared among the ancient Egyptians. With the expansion of the Greeks under Alexander, the Egyptian philosophy of life and death was examined by Greek philosophers. Plato is credited with modifying the Egyptian philosophy of man's having two natures so that it could be incorporated into the religion of the Greeks. Plato taught that man had a nature that lived on after death and went on to a higher plane of being.

Lenny: 22:13

Plato wrote the soul, whose inseparable attitude is life, will never admit of life's opposite death. Thus the soul is shown to be immortal and since immortal, indestructible. We believe there is such a thing as death, to be sure. And is this anything but the separation of the soul and body? Being dead is the attainment of this separation. When the soul exists in herself and separate from the body and the body is parted from the soul, this is death. Death is merely the separation of the soul from the body.

Lenny: 22:47

Plato's theory of the soul, which was inspired by the teachings of Socrates, considered psuche the Greek word translated to soul to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how people behave. Plato considered this essence to be an eternal occupant of a person's being, that which decides how people behave. Plato considered the Sassans to be an eternal occupant of a person's being. Plato said that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think. He believed that as bodies die, the soul is continually reborn in subsequent bodies. Plato divided the soul into three parts reason, spirit, which houses anger, as well as other spirit and emotions, and the appetite, or desire, which houses the desire for physical pleasures.

Lenny: 23:30

The Greeks prided themselves on their superior intellect, as we know from Paul's writing in 1 Corinthians 1.22. He said For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. 122, he said, for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. The Greeks' philosophy and teaching found its way into Jewish society 300 years prior to the birth of Yeshua through the Pharisees and Hellenization movement. Early converts to Christianity then brought this philosophy of eternal soul into the early church.

Lenny: 23:58

Origen was the first person to attempt organizing Christian doctrine into a systematic theology. He was an admirer of Plato and believed in the immortality of the soul and that it would depart to an everlasting reward or everlasting punishment at death. Origen wrote, the soul, having a substance and life of its own, shall, after its departure from the world, be rewarded according to its deserts, being destined to obtain either inheritance of eternal life and blessedness, if its actions shall have procured this for it, or to be delivered up to eternal fire and punishments, if the guilt of its crimes shall have brought it down to this. In the City of God, augustine wrote that the soul is therefore called immortal because, in a sense, it does not cease to live and to feel, while the body is called mortal because it can be forsaken of all life and cannot, by itself, live at all. The death, then, of the soul takes place when God forsakes it, as the death of the body when the soul forsakes it. That's from the Anti-Nicene Fathers, volume 2, page 245, 1995. And the prior quote from Origen came from the Anti-Nicene Fathers Volume 4, page 240, the 1995 publishing.

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Centuries later, the leaders of the Protestant Reformation generally accepted these traditional views. They became foundational in traditional Protestant teaching. The teaching of Christ, yeshua and his apostles reflect ancient Hebrew views. Apart from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, which Christ targeted at the Pharisees and their belief system, scripture does not teach of an eternal life apart from Christ. There is only death, and that death would be eternal, in other words it would last forever. I go through that in my episodes on eternal torture. It was life or death. There would be no life for the dead apart from Christ.

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Prior to these pagan philosophies that was the mindset of the ancient Israelites. In the Jewish Encyclopedia Immortality of the Soul, 1925, we read the belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is a matter of philosophical and theological speculation rather than of simple truth and is accordingly nowhere taught in Holy Scripture. The International Bible Encyclopedia, page 812 from 1960, says we are influenced always more or less by the Greek platonic idea that the body dies, yet soul is immortal. Such an idea is utterly contrary to the Israelite consciousness and is nowhere found in the Old Testament.

Lenny: 26:42

In our Old Testament the word soul is translated from nefesh. There's actually no equal to the term or idea of soul in Hebrew language. This English term we use is really of Greek and Latin origin. Vine's expository dictionary of the Old and New Testament defines nefesh as the essence of life, the act of breathing, taking breath. According to Strong's exhaustive concordance, nefesh means a breathing thing, by extension a living creature, any animal of vitality. So if we trace that back to the soul being the seat of our spirit, then our life and our life force is where our attitude and spirit resides. Soul is a life force, it's not some mystical part of our body.

Lenny: 27:32

It is the essence of our life. And without life, how can we have a spirit of anything? We need life to have an attitude. Do you believe Adam was created as an eternal being? The Bible doesn't teach us this.

Lenny: 27:47

Undeniable proof that Adam was created mortal is found in Genesis 3.22. 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 Through the tree of life. God had given Adam the means to maintain everlasting life. He was not created immortal. His soul, as we call it in English, was mortal. Adam sinned in eating the fruit of the forbidden tree and was subject to condemnation. The result was spiritual death.

Lenny: 28:30

As we read in our scriptures, the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life. Christ is life. Without Christ there is no life, spiritual or eternal. For those without Christ, punishment is eternal. The punishment is death and it has no end. It lasts forever. It's a life and death situation.

Lenny: 28:51

Eternal life or eternal death. 1 Corinthians 15.53 reads, for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory. O death. Where is your victory, o death? Where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord, jesus Christ. You can't have eternal torture without eternal life.

Lenny: 29:29

Eternal punishment in scripture is the wages of sin. Death. Death is the eternal payment you receive from your sin. In Christ, you receive life, spiritual and eternal life. Romans 6.23. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's what I got for today, guys. We still have some ground to cover on these topics, though, and in my next episode I'm looking forward to exploring the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of the flesh. Until then, keep on walking by the Spirit, and I'll talk to you again soon.

announcement: 30:05

Thank you for listening to the Waking Up to Grace podcast brought to you by the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you enjoyed today's episode, we would love to hear from you. You can send encouragement our way right from our episodes and transcripts page or reach Lenny privately from the contact form at wakinguptogracecom.