The indivisible human being! Is there a soul separate from the living body? How did Bible view a human being? What happens when we die? What is Jesus’ attitude towards death? What is Jesus’ promise about resurrection? It is a common practice to talk about a soul, separate from the body and mind, as a separate entity, existing on its own, even when the body is lifeless. Many think that this is biblical. But most of the time we can trace it back to its old Greek philosophical roots. The Old Testament writers had a very definite view of the human being. Various Hebrew words translated as “flesh”, “soul” and “spirit” were alternatively used to describe, from different points of view, the human person as a whole. In harmony with this perspective, the Bible use different metaphors to describe death. Among them, “sleep” stands out as the most suitable symbol to reveal the Biblical idea about the condition of the dead (Job 3:11-13, 14:12, Ps. 13:3, Jer. 51:39, Daniel 12:2). Death is the total end of life. Death is a state of total unconsciousness, in which there are no thoughts and emotions, and the dead person is not able to perform any work or communicate with other people (Eccl. 9:5, 6, 10; Ps. 115:17, 146:4). Even before the time of Jesus, the concept about human nature, particularly of death, was under attack by the dualistic concept of immortality of the soul, which was rapidly spreading throughout the world. In john 11:11 Jesus says, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps”, fully aware that Lazarus is dead. A number of Christians argue that Jesus believed in the immortality of the soul, when Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). When you look at this text, the meaning of this verse will change entirely depending on where the commas are placed. The oldest Greek manuscript of the New Testament don’t have punctuation marks (which were later added by the translators). If the comma is placed after “you”, as most Bible versions render, it means Jesus and thief went to the Paradise same day. If the comma is after “today” (Assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise), it means Jesus emphatically assures the thief his salvation. Even now it is a common practice to use the phrase “I say to you today”, to stress a particular point. Jesus was stressing the surety of thief’s redemption, not the timing of thief’s entry into heaven. The context confirms this. To start with, thief never asked for an immediate transfer to heaven at death, but rather to be remembered when Lord would come into His kingdom. Moreover, three days later Jesus himself affirmed that He had not yet ascended to Paradise (John 20:17). It is written that, “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”. As a result of which, “man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). To think otherwise, if God would not have given life by breathing into his nostrils, man would have still remained a lifeless body, not a living being. As long as God’s breath remain in man, he remain alive. But when this breath is gone, he dies and return to dust (Ps. 104:29, Eccl. 12:7). This death is not something arbitrary from God, but an inevitable result of sin (Gen. 2:17). Human beings, like any other living being, have an inherent fear of death, because we were created to live. Death is an intruder which destroys our happiness. Jesus during His earthly ministry showed utmost sympathy towards the bereaved. When He saw the widow of Nain taking her only son to the grave, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep” (Luke 7:13). To a heartbroken father of a 12 year old girl who had just died, Christ consoled him, saying, “Do not be afraid; only believe” (Mark 5:36, NKJV). Every time one of our loved ones die, Jesus is tenderly moved by our grief. His compassionate heart weeps with us. But Christ does far more than just weep. We have hope in Jesus, Who has the power to raise the dead. As we read in John 1:1-4, Christ created everything, and He only breathed into our nostrils to give us life. Christ has life in Him, for He is life Himself (John 14:6). He has the power to give life to whom He wills (John 5:21). According to the Bible, resurrection is the reversal of death. Life is restored when the breath of life comes back from God (breath is restored). This we can see in Luke’s description of the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter. After learning that the 12 year old girl had passed away, Jesus went to the house and told the mourners that she was sleeping. Then He “took her by the hand and called, saying, ‘Little girl, arise’. Then her spirit [pneuma] returned, and she arose immediately” (Luke 8:54-55). At Jesus’ divine command, the life principle of God returned to the girl. The Greek term that Luke used, “pneuma”, means “wind”, “breath”, or “spirit”. When the Bible uses it in relation to human beings, it never denotes a conscious entity capable of existence apart from the body. In this text it clearly refers to the breath of life (life giving principle of God). Some may think that resurrection is only for a few. Jesus affirmed that a time will come when all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth (John 5:28-29). Believers and unbelievers, righteous and sinners, saved and lost, all will be raised. As Paul declared, there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust (Acts 24:15). This universal resurrection does not mean that at the final day everybody will be ushered into a blissful and joyful eternal life. “Those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). Speaking of the two resurrections, Jesus indicated that our destiny will be decided on the basis of the moral quality of our deeds (good or bad). This fact, however, doesn’t mean that works save us. On the contrary, Jesus clearly taught that our salvation depends exclusively on our faith in Him as our Savior (John 3:16). Why, then, are works taken into consideration? Because they show whether our faith in Christ and our surrender to Him are genuine or not (James 2:18). Our works demonstrate whether we are still dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1) or dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:11). Think of the ultimate destiny that awaits you. If anything is standing between you and eternal life, why not get rid of it, right now? After all, what possibly could worth more, than losing eternal life? May God bless us so that we will be part of that “some”, who are resurrected “to everlasting life”! 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Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 19:47:29 +0000
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