The Inner Spiritual Nature and the Material Form
Back to The Release of the Material Creation
The love of God has placed the eternal spiritual nature of man in a corruptible body. God’s plan is that through Christ human beings can gain the knowledge, the Presence of God, bringing the eternal Life of God into their spiritual nature.
The spiritual nature of human beings is eternal to begin with, meaning their spiritual consciousness, form, and function cannot be destroyed. But the eternal lifethat Christ brings to our spiritual nature is infinitely more than eternal existence. It is the Life and Presence of God, the personal knowledge of God. Our spiritual nature has eternal life in the sense of enduring forever, and through the Lord Jesus Christ we can gain eternal life and glory in the sense of living in the Presence and Life of Almighty God.
Our material body is dead because of sin. Our body is dead while we are alive biologically because its lusts prevent it from living in the Presence and Life of God.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10)
God will not accept our physical body until we are willing to come out from all uncleanness. God will not have fellowship with sin.
Having therefore these promises [the promises concerning our being the Temple of God; God receiving us and dwelling in us, and being a Father to us], dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (II Corinthians 7:1)
Our body is cut off from the Life of God because of the law of sin dwelling in it, and is dead in that sense. Also, the body perishes when biologic life leaves it, whether through sickness, accident, or old age.
The unsaved have a spiritual nature that will endure for eternity: a spiritual nature that is dead because it is cut off from the Presence of God; a material form that is dead because it is cut off from the Presence of God; and a material form that one day will lose its union with the spiritual nature and return to the dust of the ground in physical death.
The saved have a spiritual nature that will endure for eternity. The saved are seeking, through Christ, to overcome the forces of darkness and to gain an ever-increasing degree of union with God. The saved have a material form that is dead because it is cut off from the Presence of God, and a material form that one day will lose its union with their spiritual nature and return to the dust of the ground in physical death.
The difference between the unsaved and the saved is that the saved, if they are living in victory, are seeking, through Christ, to gain the eternal Life that is the Presence and Person of God and His Son, Christ.
The Scriptures deal almost exclusively with life in the body, whether during our days on the earth or at the return of the Lord from Heaven. By being "alive" the Scripture means alive in the body.
All our religious talk about a glorious life after we die physically is almost entirely conjectural. There indeed may be a wonderful spiritual existence after we die physically and before Jesus returns. But the Scriptures do not emphasize it.
Notice, for example, how the following passage defines being "made alive":
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. (I Corinthians 15:22,23)
We can see the term "made alive" is referring, in this context, to the resurrection of our body from the grave. The entire fifteenth chapter of the Book of First Corinthians reveals to us the significance of the reunion of our material form with our spiritual personality.
Notice also:
. . . and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)
It is obvious, from the context of the above clause, that the expression "they lived" means their material bodies were raised from the grave. These holy saints certainly had been alive spiritually previous to this time. "They lived" means their material forms had been restored to them.
In terms of the Scriptures, man is not considered to be redeemed or alive until his soul and spirit have been filled with the Presence of God and his material form has been changed from corruptible life to incorruptible life.
And not only they [the material creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)