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Discerning a Distinction
By John R. Gavazzoni
From the KJV, Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
For the Word of God (or: God's thought, idea and message;or: the expressed Logos from God;or: the Word which is God) [is] living (or: alive), and active (working; operative; energetic; at work; productive) and more cutting above every two-mouthed sword, even passing through (penetrating) as far as a dividing (or: parting; partitioning) of soul and spirit (or: of inner self-life and breath-effect), both of joints and marrows, even able to discern (separate; judge; decide) concerning thoughts (ponderings; reflections; in-rushings; passions) and intentions (notions; purposes) of heart (= core of the being).
It is to be understood from this passage in the Book of Hebrews that God's speaking to us has a cutting, separating, deciding, dividing effect, and very penetratingly so. The issue, very clearly, is that to the one to whom God is speaking, a difference between soul and spirit is to be discerned; a difference made clear, a distinction clarified, one from the other. We're faced with an intense intention on God's part that spirit must not be confused with soul, nor soul with spirit, for the believer is to be led by the Spirit in union with his spirit. "He that is Joined to the Lord is one spirit." All life-initiation for the believer is to originate in his spirit enlivened by "the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus."
Spirit is birthed ("that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit"), whereas it is a soul that man becomes as formed from the dust of the ground ("and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.") Soul pertains to the creaturely journey of the being we have in God's Being. Where the KJV in Genesis has God creating various "creatures," the Hebrew text in those cases is really "souls." Soul pertains to our creaturehood, whereas, spirit pertains to God birthing us, to our begotten being. Without going into a teaching on the relationship in depth, I will just point out that the former is formed from the latter. Soul, with its inherent materiality, owes to spirit for its substance.
Soul pertains to life and living in the ages, within the limitations of the space-time continuum. Spirit pertains to divine, procreative reproduction....God begetting after His kind, just as every creature, mirroring divine spirit-reproduction, physically gives birth after its kind. Spirit is timeless, eternal, without beginning or end, and incorruptible, whereas the soul, created vulnerable to corruption, inevitably proves its vulnerability at every opportunity. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," but no such thing is spoken of the S(s)pirit. Spirit may suffer with the soul, for the soul, but is never corrupted by the soul's subjection to futility. While bearing with the soul, and for the soul, the spirit, in that relationship, retains always its intrinsic incorruptibility.
There is a "defilement of flesh and spirit," such as, in the physical realm, a person may suffer from an illness without his/her intrinsic humanness, by that suffering, being intrinsically corrupted. Sad we would be, if in catching a cold, we would lose some essence of our humanness. We are all of spirit-being on a journey through time, space, and materiality; strangers, pilgrims and sojourners in a strange land. We are all born of God, in need of renewal of that birth by the new birth/born-again/born from above, or to bring out all the nuances of the Greek for being born again: "Except someone (or anyone) be born back up again from above, to a higher place, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (from Jonathan Mitchell's translation of John 3:3).
In our creaturehood journey, subject to futility/vanity/frustration, by the disconnect we suffer from by our creaturely vulnerability, we must be born back up again to the higher place of having been in our Primal Origin, eternally-begotten of the Father in union with His uniquely-begotten Son, our Elder Brother, Jesus. This is what Jesus said to Nicodemus that he was not (yet) able to believe. So, let's look at the many ways scripture distinguishes between spirit and soul:
For instance, there is the Son of God, who is also the Son of Man; there is that which is above, and that which is below; there is the heavenly and the earthly; there is the Jerusalem which is above, and the Jerusalem which is below; there is the inner man and the outer man; there is the first man, of the earth, earthly, and the Second Man from heaven; there is the first Adam, who became a living soul, and the Last Adam, who became a life-giving Spirit; there is the heavens and the earth, there is the outer court of our soul's body, the first holy place of our soul, and the second Holy of Holies, the center of God's indwelling by which we are the temple of the living God. "Ye are the temple of God, which temple is holy."
To handle the Word of God skillfully, we must discern between God's speaking of, and to, us as creatures vs His speaking of, and to, us as His children, born of Him. Do you think Paul was writing pertaining to his sonship when he bewailed his wretchedness: "oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Or do you think he was writing of his and our creaturely vulnerability to wretchedness when he wrote, "they that are led of the Spirit are the sons of God;" in other words, the sons of God, specifically AS sons are led of God. AS creatures, subject to futility, we go our own way, led by the lust of the flesh, as the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit.
Nevertheless, though going our own creaturely way, God oversees our deviation and makes it serve, ultimately, HIs Way with us as His sons. Interestingly, there are two different descriptions in the gospels of Jesus, as our Great High Priest, who is not untouched by our infirmities, going into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. One gospel has Him being led by the Spirit into the wilderness, but another, His being driven. I can't help wondering if that distinction has to do with His sharing in our creaturehood, being fully human while being God's only/uniquely-begotten Son. On one hand, led, on the other hand, driven.
We see this distinction, this dividing between soul and spirit, in John's first epistle. Shortly into his introduction, John encourages the reader to confess his/her sins, and that to say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. That's John addressing us AS it pertains to our creaturely vulnerability to futility. BUT, later in the epistle, he writes of us, and to us, as those born of God who (in the Greek verb tense) who continually cannot sin, for our Seed remains in us.
From John we have there the perfect example of the Word of God, making a distinction, dividing between soul and spirit, with apostolic balance, addressing us as both created by God, but also as born of God. As born of God, we are born of the incorruptible Seed of, and which is, Christ. As created by God, we face the depth of our creaturely conundrum, "poor, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked." In your reading of scripture, confess your desperate creaturely neediness, but also your begotten immunity from sin and death. That which we are as born of God, will finally swallow up that which we are as created by God, and corruption shall put on incorruption; this mortal shall put on immortality, and death shall be swallowed up of life.
Confess your sin, not as indicative of your identity, but as an affliction of vulnerability you must endure until your own sonship is manifested (unveiled/uncovered/disclosed) to your creaturehood, and then you shall know as you are known: the holy child of the Holy God. We, of the sonship/kingdom message must realize that for all creation to be delivered from its bondage to decay by the manifestation of the sons of God, that manifestation begins with us, for us, and then on to all creation. You, as creature, need the manifestation of your own sonship, as you behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and in that beholding, see yourself, as in a mirror, fully sharing His glory. Jesus, in His prayer in Gethsemane: "Father, I have given them the glory that I had with Thee before the world began."
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