OUR BODY, OUR SOUL AND OUR SPIRIT – Part 1
Author: Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
In this writing the following two questions were asked and I deal with it in three different series.
Someone asked me to explain the difference between our soul and our spirit and someone wrote to me and asked if our physical body was created in the image of God, and if this is so, who is actually created in the image of God bearing in mind the huge differences in physical characteristics between the various nations.
I will start then by answering the second question and will answer this in a somewhat lighter manner.
To put it in that way – Your and my physical body has actually nothing to do with our Lord’s image.
With a smile – If it really did, I was not created in God’s image, because God is not blind but I am.
Our body is just as the Word says, only an earthly tent house that we live in.
2 COR 4:16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
17 For our light and momentary troubles (also our physical deficiencies and yes, even the aging process) are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 COR 5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
In the King James Version (KJV) 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1 reads as follows:
2 COR 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
You – the one who lives in that body, returns eventually to God and your body, or then your tent house, remains here and becomes like the dust of the earth:
ECC 12:7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Eventually your and my body, no matter how young or old, no matter how whole or broken and yes, how light or dark, will return to the earth:
GEN 3:19 “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
You and I however will enter into the afterlife, either in Heaven or in hell and the decision of where we will spend eternity, lies completely and utterly with us. Our Lord has already done what needs to be done to get us into Heaven:
JOHN 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
JOHN 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
We decide for ourselves if we accept Him as our Lord and Saviour:
JOHN 1:12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
JOHN 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
In my following writing in this short series of 3 thoughts from the Word, I share with you about our soul, but to close off this writing that I have sent you –
You and I cannot buy or earn our place in heaven; Jesus has already done all that needs to be done at Golgotha, to get us there:
ISA 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
ISA 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Yes, He has done everything that is needed to be done and then He gives us this glorious assurance:
JOHN 14:2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
JOHN 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.Yes, our road to heaven lays open to us but decisions that I make while I am in this body/tent on earth and on my road to heaven will determine if we will walk into heaven.
It is my decision whether I am going to accept or not accept Jesus Christ as my Redeemer, Lord and Saviour, and if I accepted Him, it will depend on me if I hold onto that decision to the end and if I, like Judas and so many others, turn my back on Him before I reach the end of my journey on this earth and turn from the narrow way to the wide way, that moves towards hell.
Come let you and me follow the advice concerning this matter that our Lord had written in His Word, because for as long as we are in this body on our journey to heaven:
HEB 12:1-3
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Greetings,
Sakkie