Where did we come from? Who are we? What will we become? What is the meaning of it all?
These are questions that linger in my mind. Being a born again Christian I desire to know what the Bible has to say about these questions. My prime example is the man Jesus Christ himself. I am Oneness. This means that I don’t believe in the Trinity. I believe in absolutely one God. One divine being. One divine person. However, being Christian I believe that this one God has chosen to manifest Himself to mankind by incarnating Himself in the man Jesus Christ, His only begotten son. Thus, in my theological understanding Jesus is both man and God. I wish to focus on the “human” side of Jesus, the man Christ Jesus. He is the prototype of what we are and what we will become. He is our kinsman redeemer. So anything said of the man Jesus Christ might be said of us also. What are the origins of “the Son”, the man Christ Jesus? The Gospel of John states something interesting:
“Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.” – John 8:42
”For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” – John 6:38
Trinitarians often try to use these verses, and those like these, to indicate that Jesus was a pre-existent “God the Son”, the “Second Divine Person” of a Trinity. However, I see it a bit differently. Yes, Jesus pre-existed. We all did. We as human beings pre-existed in the very being of God, the source of all life. Our “spirits” originated in God, were robed with a soul, and placed in a body. Therefore, the man Jesus Christ can speak saying that he “came from God” and would return to God. Jesus can say that he came down from Heaven. This is true of every human being.
Man is a three part being. Man is composed of body, soul, and spirit. What theologians call a “trichotomy”. Understanding these three parts of our being unlocks many answers that we have about ourselves and even our salvation. Here is a breakdown of what these three aspects of our being are:
1. Body – The Greek “soma”. It is the physical, or material, aspect of our being. Through the body we experience the physical world through five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell). These senses are “gates” for experiencing the world around us. It is also through these senses that the influences of the world get into our deeper levels of being. Therefore we should guard all five senses. The body is like a temple and these senses are like gates. If we do not guard them, we will be invaded by ungodly images, sounds, touching, tasting, and smelling. And it is through these senses that our soul is molded. We become what we allow our senses to focus upon. One day our body will die and be disposed of in accordance to our wishes (or our family’s wishes). Those who are born again will one day be raised from the dead. The very atoms of this physical body will be reassembled and “changed”. It will become a “spiritual body” capable of living forever without sickness or death.
2. Soul – The Greek “pseuche”. This is the same word from which we get our English word “psyche”. It is our mind. Within the soul (or mind) we have our faculties of reason, emotion, and will. It is immaterial and reflects our consciousness, our, personality, our identity. Experiences through our senses can shape the soul, damage the soul, and corrupt the soul. The should can be shaped through study, meditation, and prayer. Wounds of the soul can be healed supernaturally or through some forms of counseling. The soul continues to live on after death and will one day be reunited with the body in the resurrection.
3. Spirit – The Greek “pneuma”. It means “breath” or “wind”. This is the deepest aspect of our being. It is the very “breath of life” or “life force”. This is the part of man that emanated from God. This part of us “came forth from God” or “came down from heaven”. In a sense we pre-existed in the very being of God, the God who is the source of all life. As the soul is effected through the senses, the spirit is effected by the disposition of the soul. The spirit can be broken. Only divine healing can heal a wounded or broken spirit. The spirit also has a complex spiritual and emotional nature. Psychology calls it the “subconscious”. Others have called it our “higher-self”. The Bible calls it our “inner man”. It is the core of our being and reflects our most basic nature. When a man is born again, the spirit is united with God through the Holy Spirit which comes to abide in man’s “inner man”. Through this “born again” experience we become one spirit with the Lord. This is a reunion of being, seeing that the spirit originated from the Father to begin with. The soul and the spirit are inseparably woven together. Therefore the terms “soul” and “spirit” are often used interchangeably in Scripture.
Many believe that life begins at conception. But this is to limit the very meaning of life to a set of biological events. Life begins prior to conception, in the very bosom of God. When God desires to create a man, He brings from Himself the spirit of the one He desires to create. It is a living and immaterial substance. Prior to entering the conceived body the spirit is robed in the soul, it almost serves as a cocoon or protective barrier around the spirit. The living soul of a man is then placed in the biologically living zygote. This living soul is connected to the body by what the Bible calls a “silver cord”. Through this “silver cord” connection the living soul experiences the natural material world. As the body matures, and even after birth, the living soul will experience the physical realities through the body’s five senses. Upon death, the “silver cord” is severed (like an umbilical cord). The soul and spirit then return to God.
When a man is “born of the Spirit” the human spirit is placed in union with the abiding Holy Spirit and the human spirit becomes one God through the Holy Spirit. This union makes a man a “son of God”. This union also allows a man to partake in the divine nature. The born again believer literally becomes a spiritual branch, or extension, of the True Vine, Jesus Christ; through the Holy Spirit. It is through this abiding union of man and God that a human being is conformed into the image and likeness of Jesus. It is God’s ultimate desire and intention to conform His children into the image and likeness of His Son, the man Jesus Christ. We are not to be conformed into the image and likeness of any theology, religion, philosophy, or practice. Jesus is the image, or target, we are pressing towards through the leading of the Holy Ghost.
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