Another Look at the Soul

Another Look at the Soul

By

Lee

Adam was created by God outside of the garden of Eden and then placed into the garden, Eve was created inside the garden.  The garden was like the millennium and there was no sin.  If Adam had obeyed God and ate from the tree of life the kingdom of God would have begun at that time.  Everything was in place to bring in that kingdom except the choice Adam would have to make, that was all that was needed, for Adam to make the right choice.  We know Adam did not make that choice.  Eve became the mother of all living but the children were all born physically dead and the nature of human beings rapidly went into evil.  The souls of men were infected with sin and their spirits were defiled, all the thoughts and imaginations of their minds, their human spirits, were evil continually.  What this meant was that if a savior was to arise he could not come from Adams line of descent because then that messiah would also be defiled with the same nature as all men have.  Jesus was born by a virgin birth with no human father in a similar way as Adam, but the human spirit of Jesus is said by Jesus himself to have proceeded and came forth from God in heaven, Jesus said that he came from heaven and was going back to heaven, that is his human spirit, because flesh and blood cannot go to heaven. The human spirit of Jesus was created outside of this world, just as all human spirits are, and was why he said he was not of this world or creation .  Once in heaven Jesus was given a glorified spirit body just as he prayed to his Father for in John 17:5. 

Peter says that the hope of the saints is to have the Divine nature of God and the inability to sin once changed from flesh to spirit.  This is the resurrection that Jesus made possible for the saints while a human being, because no spirit being died for us.  By a man came death but by a man comes the resurrection of the dead.  The Divine nature then renders one unable to sin just as God cannot sin.  This Godly nature was given to Jesus, in his human spirit that was created by God in heaven and then sent to the womb of Mary and placed into the body of Jesus.  This is why Jesus said that he came from heaven.  This is how Jesus could say; if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.  The soul of Jesus, both body and spirit, was unable to sin in spirit or direct his body to sin due to the way God created him.  Jesus was like his Father in some way because scripture says he was made in Gods image; this is how God did that.  What any person is, is their spirit, the flesh is nothing more than the house, tent, or earthen vessel the spirit lives in.  The human spirit is what controls the body and is sentient.  The human spirit is what has potential value to God because it is the spirits of just men made perfect.  The spirit of Jesus had to be perfect like his Father in order for his life as a human to provide for us that future perfection and inability to sin.

Jesus, as a human, a role model and a way for us to see the Father, had to be as perfect as his Father in order for him to be the messiah.  This does not make Jesus God but it makes him after Gods image and according to Gods likeness. Jesus had to have these things because he was the first-born of many brethren and held the unique position as messiah.  Spiritually no other man was ever given these Godly qualities while in the flesh but God had to create them in Jesus to insure the fulfillment of His will, let us make man after our image and according to our likeness.  Because Jesus was given so much God would ask more of Jesus, to whom much is given much is required, Jesus was required to give his life. This will of God and hope for man was all provided for us by a man who had to have all the fullness of God without being God but  be a human being.

As Eve was Adams wife producing physically dead children the church is the wife of Jesus that will produce spiritual children that live forever unable to sin.  Jesus was the second Adam while a human and not as a spirit being in heaven.  Jesus was the first new man with a new kind of human spirit that never existed until God made Jesus.  The saints must put on this new man.  The new man Jesus was created to be as scripture says, in righteousness and true holiness just as God is eternally.

While on Earth, Jesus knew he was unable to sin because of his Fathers testimony about him in the prophets.  The  prophets declared that Jesus would set on a throne ruling the kingdom of God and Jesus knew that the prophets were speaking the words of his Father.  In order for someone to say that Jesus could have sinned and for this statement to be true then all of prophecy would be false concerning Jesus.  Gods will, which cannot be altered by anyone, would not have been done.  Jesus knew all these things and he knew that he could not sin.  While Jesus was certainly tempted by the Devil there was no hope the temptation would ever be successful , for just as God cannot be tempted by evil , Jesus could not be either because in the matter of temptation Jesus was just like his Father, unable to be tempted by evil.

If scripture would say, God cannot speak a lie, you cannot just say, “God cannot speak” and leave off the words “a lie”.  Scripture says, God cannot be tempted with evil.  You then cannot say, God cannot be tempted then leave out the last two words, “with evil”.  This is only part of the mistake and confusion resulting over the idea that Jesus could have sinned.  Because you leave off the last two words, “with evil” and just say God cannot be tempted then you jump to the conclusion that because Jesus was tempted then Jesus was able to sin.  Jesus cannot be tempted with evil and the scripture proves this when Satan tried to tempt Jesus with evil.  It did not work and Satan was defeated was he not.  Rather than being a farce as some say this is our hope, a hope in a Messiah who is like his God and we have the hope to become like Jesus in the resurrection. Carnal minds tricked by Satan actually take from Jesus the very quality God gave Jesus to be like his God and assure for us salvation.  In this way they deny the Messiah and they preach saying he was just an ordinary man exactly like Adams children in every way. If this is true then Adolf Hitler was qualified to be the Messiah or any other ordinary child of Adam.  They say that Jesus just chose to do good and not evil not realizing that this idea was the very concept under the law that all of Adams children are unable to keep and does not and cannot provide salvation for anyone.  Jesus did not need salvation he was salvation and was not adopted as we are but the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.  They deny the idea that the sin of Adam passes death to all his children not knowing that Adam gained the knowledge of good and evil that is needed to sin and passed this knowledge to all of us.

Sin entered the world by Adams choice and not Gods because God wanted Adam to eat from the tree of life and not from the tree of death. This fact proves free will because even though God knew Adam would sin God did not intervene but yet allowed Adam to choose.

Righteousness is God, God is righteous, that is why God cannot sin, and this righteousness of God was also in Jesus in all fullness but in the saints only by measure and our goal is to reach the stature and fullness of Christ at the resurrection.  The saints partake of the righteousness of God imputed to us because of our faith in Jesus as the one God created in righteousness and true holiness. Jesus was a unique and one of a kind creation of God because there will never be anyone else that will be created in the manner Jesus was and that is why he was the first born, the first and only begotten son of God while we all are adopted by God through Jesus.  God is the creator of souls and has made a wide variety of them. A soul is a spirit in a body and all creatures God made are souls. Human beings are souls and being male and female show the outer and inner difference of the soul while yet fitting the definition of a soul.  Each soul was specifically designed by God to match the body and spirit that composes the soul.  Souls can be interchanged as exampled by the talking donkey of Balaam and the transformation of Nebuchadnezzar.  Souls can have a spirit created by God with knowledge as exampled by Adam and Eve knowing a language and being able to communicate and Jesus at age twelve astonishing the elders at the temple. This knowledge can also be added later in life in the form of spiritual knowledge and prophetic revelation. All of these examples show us that God has many options available to Him when it comes to creating a soul. The soul of Jesus was the only soul God has ever made that while having the knowledge of good and evil was sinless/impeccable .  Jesus was righteous. Righteousness is a Godly quality of being unable to sin or be tempted by evil.  Jesus proved this in his encounter with the master tempter where Satan's efforts to tempt Jesus with evil failed and Jesus was yet without sin.  Jesus was born sinless and died sinless because it was his nature to be sinless.

This does not make Jesus God; it makes Jesus “like” God and after the image of God.  God still has other unique attributes that make Him stand out as God that no other being has; God is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. The life of Jesus was the payment for the saints to have the hope of salvation because he was the only righteous man who ever lived.  In the resurrection the saints put on both immortality and impeccability or living forever unable to sin and this resurrection was made possible by a man whose body saw no corruption his entire life , if the body was incorruptible what does this say about his human spirit.

The righteousness of the saints is imputed because of our faith in this man Jesus. This righteousness is a gift and is not our own righteousness but the righteousness of God. Imputed is a word that means;

 

im·pute

  –verb (used with object), -put·ed, -put·ing.

1.

to attribute or ascribe: The children imputed magical powers to the old woman.

2.

to attribute or ascribe (something discreditable), as to a person.

3.

Law . to ascribe to or charge (a person) with an act or quality because of the conduct of another over whom one has control or for whose acts or conduct one is responsible.

im·put·ed–adjective

estimated to have a certain cash value, although no money has been received or credited.

The righteousness we have is “on loan” to us until we are given our own in the kingdom when we will have inherent life and impeccability .  We will in the kingdom be like God in this way and therefore fulfill Gods stated purpose for man as God said in the beginning, “let us make man after our image and according to our likeness.”  God will still be the only being who has all of His other attributes but Jesus, the holy angels and the saints will all be like God in righteousness and love.  Love is righteousness in action and is kinetic, to love with Godly love is righteousness and visa versa.  At the present time Gods grace is what forgives our sins and His righteousness is what provides a temporary covering for our nakedness or sins we can still commit. This sin problem yet exists for the saints and if we say we have no sin we are liars.  In the wait for the kingdom, God loans us His righteousness until we are changed and have our own. The ancient shadow of this would be the skins God covered Adam and Eve with to cover their physical nakedness and all the sacrifices Israel offered that could not cover sins but the blood of Jesus does cover these sins.  We as saints are admonished by Paul to continually keep our covering clean and free from spots, blemishes and wrinkles, this means using Gods grace to repent and receive forgiveness. 

It should be clear that even the potential to sin is sin in Gods eyes because the sins of the saints will not be permitted in the kingdom but have to be eliminated and even if we do not sin we always have the potential to sin and if we say we have no sin we are liars. Not even the potential to sin can exist in the kingdom of God.  Jesus, while on the Earth in the flesh, was the king of this kingdom of God, it was why he was born and why he came into the world.  Those who say he had the potential to sin deny his kingship and his kingdom and his God who made it all possible.

Jesus Christ provided all of these wonderful blessings to the saints, by the will of God our Father.  In order for Jesus to be the vehicle God uses to provide for all these things Jesus had to have them all with the exception of immortality because Jesus had to be a soul, a human being, but remember Jesus was a one of a kind soul never to be repeated again.  Jesus prayed for his bodily glorification in John 17:5, his human spirit was already glorified as ours will be at the resurrection.  Jesus was unique as a soul because he had to be human but he also had to be like God in righteousness and love so that he could pave the way for the saints to follow.  Jesus did not have a nature, a human spirit like you and I, but he was a soul like you and I.  The human spirit of Jesus was designed by God to fit the purpose God intended, to make a messiah.  This in no way denies that Jesus was not made a soul as we are, remember a soul is a spirit in a body with many and varied applications available to God so as to make a soul whatever He desires. Jesus was unable to sin but yet could relate to our weakness and our sins, just as God can, and yet be unable to sin.  Remember that God can design a soul with knowledge in the spirit part of that soul. Look at humanity, some of us are gifted by knowledge while others are not, some with physical abilities while others are not, all being souls but different souls and no two souls are exactly alike.  This is how it was with Jesus, he was like us in all ways but he was gifted in ways we are not. I hope that you see that while we are all souls not even all of us have the exact same nature in body or spirit which is the soul and that Jesus was a special soul designed by God to be our messiah. 

When God in the prophets looked at the children of Adam He declared that there was none righteous, no, not one. God could not use one of Adams children to be the messiah because not a one of them was righteous so God had to make a second Adam, a second son apart from Adams children but made in the likeness of them but righteous and without sin and unable to sin.  Neither actual sin nor the potential to sin could be in the righteous king of the kingdom of God, Gods only begotten son.  As shown in this article the natures of souls can and are different even among the children of Adam.  Some have said that the ability to obey suggests the ability to also disobey and try to apply this to Jesus saying that Jesus chose to obey but had the ability to disobey.  This is the thinking of a carnal mind devoid of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and not by the spirit body combination, or soul, of an Adamic man.  It has already been shown that the children of Adam have a defiled spirit prone to sin and this became the nature of all people after Adam ate from the tree that gave human beings the knowledge to sin, which is the knowledge of good and evil.

The Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments are the ministry of death written on tables of stone, the knowledge of good and evil, the choice of Adam.  The law is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it looks good to the carnal mind, pleasant to the eyes, good for food or spiritual food and can make one wise but all who eat of it die. The law tree cannot bear good fruit to life but fruit to death. This is because the law requires humanity to become as righteous as God is but without God.  This form of righteousness is of the self, of the human and is filthy rags to God.  The law is holy, just and good to show man the mistake and sin of Adam and Eve and is not sin but the revealer of sin.  This is why Paul said when speaking of the law, how is that which is good death unto me.  No child of Adam ever could keep this law but the child of God, Jesus did.  Think of it, a law that demanded a righteousness from us that we could not generate was generated in Jesus.  Jesus fulfilled the law but he did not abolish it.  The law served man as a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, to produce the Godly sorrow that leads to repentance and eventually to conversion when we escape the law and that old covenant to Passover into the new.  Many people still abuse the law not using it lawfully, in order to become self righteous as Herbert Armstrong did in the Worldwide Church of God and as carnal Israel.  When seen properly the law is Gods love and mercy to us to show us our problem and Adams sin and lead us by the message of the gospel to Jesus.  The saints are not under the law but the unconverted world still is.  They have yet to learn the lesson of the schoolmaster.