THE IMMORTAL SOUL
By
Shelby G. Floyd
December, 2009
There is a class of people whom we call materialists that deny that man
has an immortal soul. When the Bible
says that God “created man out of the dust
of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” they take that to mean that man is just body,
bone, blood and breath, and that when man dies he ceases to exist. I do not believe that, but I do believe just
the opposite, that man has an immortal soul or spirit that dwells in this house
or tabernacle of clay. A hundred years
from now when most of us will be dead in the body we will still be alive in
another world.
So we are going to explore
the Bible, the Old and New Testament, to see if there is an inward man as well
as an outward man, an invisible man as well as a visible man.
The Biblical Affirmation
I cannot see your soul or spirit and you cannot see mine, but does that
mean that our soul doesn’t exist? By
that logic, we would have to deny that we have minds because I cannot see your
mind and you cannot see my mind. Our
minds are invisible and yet who would affirm that we do not have such a thing
that is called mind? So, just because
something is invisible doesn’t mean that it does not exist. The soul or the spirit is invisible, but
nevertheless it does exist and the Bible affirms this to be the case. For instance, Daniel was an inspired man and
God gave him a special power concerning visions and dreams.
Daniel had one of those
dreams as recorded in the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel. In verse 15 of that chapter he said, “I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the
midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.” Daniel had one of these visions, and the
visions or the dreams that he had troubled him, so he said, “I was grieved in my spirit in the midst of
my body.” Where is man’s
spirit? We can’t see it, but Daniel says
it is in the midst of our body. Well,
what part of our body? I don’t know, but
the Bible says that Daniel had a spirit in the midst of his body. Now are we going to take the modernists and
materialists or shall we take an inspired man like Daniel who said that he had
a spirit in the midst of his body? He
was grieved in his spirit and his spirit was in the midst of his body. Daniel couldn’t see his spirit, but he knew
by God’s word that he had a spirit and that spirit was in the midst of his
body.
Then we have a remarkable
statement over in the book of Job. It is
thought by some that Job is the oldest writer of the Bible. We do know that he was one of the ancient
patriarchs. Job, of course had quite a
debate with his friends. His friends
charged him with sin because of what was happening to him. But Job knew that he had not done anything
against God so he maintained his integrity and his faith in God. In Job 32:8, we have this statement, “But there is a spirit in man: and the
inspiration of the Almighty giveth them
understanding.” So according to that
statement there is a spirit in man, but the modernists and materialists say
that we don’t have a spirit, but the Bible says that there is a spirit in man
and Daniel says that the spirit in man is in the midst of the body.
We know that Enoch was
translated into the world of spirits so that he did not see death (Genesis
Then we read of Elijah, the
prophet, in 2 Kings 2:1-15, who was caught up with God that he did not see
death. Now many years later, Elijah was
one of the men that appeared with Christ on the mount of transfiguration and he
was still alive. God translated both
Elijah and Enoch into a world of spirits, but Moses and Elijah appeared on the
mount of transfiguration and talked with Christ. Now, if man doesn’t have a
spirit, then when Elijah and Enoch were translated, that would have been the
end of them, but Elijah spoke with Christ and reappeared on the mount of
transfiguration.
Moses died a natural death,
and God buried his body back there on
So when we die, we do not
cease to exist. I have never believed
the doctrine that when we die we don’t know anything. I believe that the Bible teaches that when we
die we are still fully conscious and our mental faculties, memory and
perception are all even sharpened more than they are in the body. I believe that the Bible teaches that. Moses was able to converse with Christ. He was still conscious and they recalled
things that happened back there on yonder earth. So when we die that is not going to be the
end of us. We will still be conscious
and alive because we have a living soul or spirit that will never die.
Jesus taught that we ought
not to fear man who can kill our bodies, but we ought to fear God who can
destroy both our soul and body in hell fire (Matthew
Then, the
apostle Paul who was quite emphatic in his teaching about the soul or spirit of
man, had much to say about the inward man and the outward man. In 2 Corinthians 4, he said, “Though our outward man perish, the inward
man is renewed day by day.” Now
according to Paul’s inspired philosophy, man has an outward nature and an
inward nature. Now, what is the primary
nature of man? Is it the outward man or
the inward man? If our primary nature is
the outward man, then when the outward man dies and goes back to the dust, then
we would cease to exist. But, Paul says,
“Though this outward man perishes day by
day, there is an inward man that should be renewed day by day.” What does this mean? It simply means that man has a soul as well
as a body. And we know by experience and
observation, that as we grow older we become more subject to the degeneration
of our outward physical powers. Since
this is the case, as our body degenerates, if we are a faithful Christian we
will be strengthening the inward man day by day. We can do this by taking the word of God into
the inward man and by spiritual exercise.
So, according to Paul there is an outward man and an inward man. And that inward man is what is called the
soul or spirit that will live forever.
And, ideally we must have a
strong inward man if we are going to face and overcome all the trials and
tribulations of this life. Those who
faint and fall by the wayside have a very weak inward man, even though they may
have a very strong outward man.
Therefore, your basic nature is your inward man called the spirit which
should be strengthened every day.
Paul continues this theme in
2 Corinthians 5, stating that, “if this
earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” And so this outward tabernacle is going to
decay and perish, but God is preparing us another tabernacle—it is a building
not made with hands—it is a building that God is making for us. God is not going to leave that inward man a
naked spirit. He is going to re-clothe
us with an everlasting habitation or house.
And, that will be our resurrection body.
And of course those faithful souls resurrected will live in heaven, our
eternal home.
Either in the body or out of
the body, Paul himself was taken up into heaven. In 2 Corinthians 12 he says, “I knew a man fourteen years ago that was
caught up to paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I know not, God knoweth. Such an one was caught up to the third heaven and heard words
which it is not lawful for man to utter.”
Now notice the logic of this passage.
Most commentators think that Paul is talking about himself. And fourteen years before he wrote the book
of 2 Corinthians, he said, “I knew a man.”
No doubt, Paul was talking about himself.
What about this man that
Paul knew? He was caught up to
paradise. What is paradise? The word paradise is a Persian word that
means a beautiful garden. That is the
reason the Garden of Eden is called paradise.
It was the beautiful garden in which the first man and woman were placed
to live and serve God. In the book of
Revelation we read about heaven as the paradise of God. And some of the poets have written beautiful
words about paradise lost and paradise regained. They are describing what man lost in
So, paradise as it is used
in 2 Corinthians 12, is not talking about some kind of earthly garden, but
about heaven itself. And this is the
reason Paul said, “Such an one was caught up to the third heaven.”
The Jews had three heavens
in their vocabulary. The first heaven is
where the birds fly—the immediate atmosphere.
The second heaven was where the sun, moon and stars are found—the cosmos. But, the third heaven was where God is—heaven
itself. Now Paul knew one who was caught
up to paradise. But, he says that such a
one was caught up to the third heaven.
The obvious conclusion is that paradise is equivalent to heaven itself.
And while being caught up to
heaven this person heard words which it is not lawful to utter. But, notice the argument further: he declares that whether he was taken up in
the body or out of the body he does not know, but God knows. This statement would not make sense if man
ceases to exist out of the body. If we
do not know anything out of the body, then, Paul’s statement that one could be
caught up to heaven out of the body wouldn’t make sense. Paul really didn’t know whether God caught
him up in the body like he had done with Elijah and Enoch or whether his spirit
had been caught up out of the body for a brief time. But it really didn’t make any
difference. Whether he was taken up into
heaven body and spirit, or whether he was taken up in just his spirit, Paul
realized that he was fully conscious and retained his memory of what he heard
and saw. But, if man ceases to exist out
of the body, then, Paul would have been making a senseless argument. So, obviously, Paul believed by inspiration
that man can be conscious and he can know things as well out of the body as in
the body. So, this is very strong
evidence for the immortality of the soul or spirit of man.
We learn in Luke chapter 24
that our Lord was resurrected from the dead.
He had died and his spirit had gone to Hades for three days. But God had brought his spirit out of the
hadean world and resurrected his body that it did not see corruption. He had raised him up and Christ was alive
again.
But, the disciples saw him
and they thought they had seen a ghost.
The origin of the term ghost
is interesting. It is an Anglo-Saxon
word which originally meant guest. So,
it was a very good term to use to designate the Holy Spirit and our own
spirits. Our spirit is not dwelling in
this body permanently. The body is not
the permanent home of the spirit, and so the spirit of man is just a guest
(ghost) for a while. So, the word ghost
means guest. Our spirit is a guest in
this earthly tabernacle and when we “shuffle off the mortal coil,” the spirit
will live independent of the body.
The disciples saw Christ and
thought they saw a ghost. But, Jesus
spoke to them and said, “A spirit does
not have flesh and bones such as you see me have” (Luke 24:39). From this we learn something about the nature
of man’s spirit. A spirit does not have
flesh and bones; nevertheless it does exist even though it is invisible and
cannot be seen by the human eye.
Jesus had a fleshly body
even after his resurrection. On certain
occasions Christ changed the form of his body, but he definitely had a fleshly
body up and until his ascension. Christ
emphasized this fact to prove to his disciples that he was not just a spirit,
but the same person they had known for over three years. But Jesus had a spirit also, for his spirit
went to Hades and then after three days was reunited with his body.
There is one further proof
of the existence of the soul or spirit that dwells in our body. In Revelation chapter 6: 9-11, we read about
the souls under the altar crying out for vengeance concerning their shed blood. They had been martyred upon the earth for
their testimony and for their faithfulness to God. They are now dead as far as the body is
concerned, but they are alive unto God.
Therefore, these souls under the altar are pictured as crying out for
justice (Revelation 6: 9-11; 20: 4).
Now, if man doesn’t have an eternal spirit or an immortal soul, then,
what would be the meaning of these souls crying out for vengeance? They are dead concerning the body, but they
are alive unto God.
The Relationship of Man’s Spirit to God
Now, we ask, what is the relationship of man’s spirit to God? In this connection, the wise man Solomon had
something to say about death and the immortality of the soul. In one of our hymns we sing about when “the
silver cord is broken.” That is a
reference to Ecclesiastes 12 where Solomon gave a symbolic picture of old
age. He points out that the elderly
man’s hair is like the almond tree, the keepers of the house shall tremble, the
grinders shall cease. He is talking
about old age and how the outward man begins to degenerate and lose its powers.
And he adds, “the silver cord be
broken.” This refers to the brittle
thread we call life. And life is a very
delicate thing. It was David who said, “There is just a step between me and
death.” Life is like a silver cord
that breaks and is no more.
Solomon says that when the
silver cord is broken, then the body goes back to the dust from which it was
taken and the spirit will return to God who gave it. What is the relationship of man’s spirit to
God? When we die our spirit will return
to God who gave it to us. Where does our
spirit come from? It comes from God who
gave it. Where does our spirit go when
we die? It goes back to God who gave
it. These are the answers to those
questions as given by Solomon in Ecclesiastes 12:7.
Next, let us notice a
statement in Zechariah 12:1, “The burden
of the word of the Lord for
In Genesis chapter one we
read that after God deliberated within himself, he
said, “Let us make man in our image and
after our likeness.” Now what part
of our being is made in the image of God?
The Bible talks about God
having eyes and ears, hands and feet.
But this is only a figure of speech.
God is only accommodating himself to us so we can understand what he is
saying to us. Sometimes God must speak
of himself as a man in order for us to understand him. This is therefore an anthropomorphism—which is, God speaking of himself in the form of a
man.
But, God does not have a
corporeal body such as we have. The
Bible says that God is a spirit (John
If then, man is made in
God’s image, what part of man is made in God’s image? It could not be the body, because God doesn’t
have a body of flesh and bones. So, it
must be the spirit or soul of man that is made in the image of God. God is a spirit and the inward man made in
the image of God is spirit. And that
spirit is immortal and will live forever.
On one occasion, Paul was
talking about the nature of man to the Athenian philosophers on Mar’s
Hill. In that speech he declared that “we are the offspring of God.” “Think
not that the godhead is made like unto gold, silver or stone graven by man’s
art and devise. For we are his
offspring,” he said. Man’s spirit is
the offspring of God, for God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life
and man became a living soul.
In Hebrews chapter 12, Paul instructs how our
fathers chastised us and we gave them respect.
He then asked, “How much more
should we respect the Father of spirits and live?” His logic is that God chastises us when we do
wrong. He corrects us because he is a
loving Father and all loving fathers correct their children when they do
wrong.
But, notice that he says we
ought to be subject unto the Father of spirits.
Our earthly fathers are the fathers of our flesh and we respect them. What about the Father of our spirits? God is the Father of our spirit. So we have received our earthly body from our
human fathers, but our spirits have come from God. And so, when God chastises and corrects us as
unruly children, we ought to receive it with the right attitude. We should thank him for loving us enough to
keep us in the straight and narrow road.
The relationship we bear to God is therefore that of a father and son.
In summary we have noticed
the relationship of man’s spirit to God in these particulars: (1) God gave the spirit to man, so it goes
back to him at death. (2) God formed the spirit of man within him. (3)
God created man’s spirit in his own image. (4)
God made man’s spirit the offspring of his own spirit. (5)
God is the Father of our spirit.
The Immortality of Man’s Spirit
But, at this point someone will say,
“I believe God is a spirit and that his spirit is immortal, but I don’t believe
man’s spirit is immortal.” Of course
there is no debate about God being immortal for Paul stated to Timothy, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever, A-men” (1
Timothy 1:17).
Note that the same word
which is translated immortal is also applied to man. In 2 Timothy 1:10, Paul says “But is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
Jesus Christ brought not
only life and immortality for the spirit, but also for the body. And so by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
our bodies are not going to be in the grave forever. They are going to come to life at the last
day. And also through the blood of
Christ and the gospel of Christ, the soul or the spirit of man is saved from
the guilt, the power and the consequences of sin. And so Christ has brought to light life and
immortality not only for the body, but also for the soul. And so the soul of man is immortal and will
live forever.
A Proof-Text Examined
But, let us notice a proof-text that is sometimes used by some of our
religious friends to teach the idea that when man dies, “He is like the dog Rover, he is dead all over.” Our friends do not believe that the soul of
man is immortal. They teach that man is
mortal and when he dies he ceases to exist.
That is the end of man. And one
of their favorite scriptures is found in Ecclesiastes 3:18-21: “I
said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might
manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth
the sons of men befalleth beasts: even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth,
so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath: so
that a man hath no preeminence above a beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust,
and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth
upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth
downward to the earth.”
The problem with this is
that our friends do not read or consider verse 21. They stop reading too soon. According to them there is no difference
between a man and a beast. And in some
respects that is true. We observe that
when a horse or cow, a dog or cat, an ant or mole die, their bodies go back to
the dust. And when man dies, his body is
buried back into the same elements as the beasts of the earth.
So, in this sense we ask,
what advantage does man have over the beasts of the earth? As far as the body in death is concerned, we
don’t seem to have much advantage. But,
in many other respects we have advantage over the beasts. Take the hand of man for example. Most of the beasts are more powerful than man
concerning brute force. But, what beast
can accomplish what man can do with his hands.
So man is greater in body than beasts according to his activities and
what he can accomplish. But when we die
the beast has as much advantage as man, for the bodies of both go back to the
dust.
Therefore, some say man has
no advantage over the beasts and refer to Solomon’s statement that both go back
to the dust. But, our friends greatly
err because they do not read all of Solomon’s statement. But, let us consider again the last two
verses: “All go unto one place; all are
of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth” (Ecclesiastes
According to Solomon the
spirit of the beast goes downward with his body, but the spirit of man goes
upward away from his body. And that
makes the difference. And we have
already discovered where the spirit of man goes when it goes upward. According to the same writer, the spirit of man
goes back to God who gave it to man (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
The Value of Man’s Soul
This soul or spirit that each one of us has within us is
priceless. There is no value that can be
attached to your soul. Several years ago
someone said that the value of our body is $1.29. This was based on the value of our bodily
components on the commodity market.
However, this is not
correct. Recently, I noticed that if we
had to purchase all the elements and chemicals that make up our body from a
company like Eli Lilly, it would cost over a million dollars. Therefore, we are all million dollar men even
from the standpoint of what our body is worth, to say nothing about the value
of the soul.
But, within that body we
each have a soul or spirit that is worth more than the entire world. Jesus said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose
his own soul? or
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul” (Matthew
Our soul is worth so much
that God sent his only begotten son to die and shed his blood. How much is the blood of Christ worth? When you tell me how much the blood of Christ
is worth, then that is how much your soul is worth. For that is how much it cost to save your
soul from sin. Jesus Christ died for our
sins and our soul.
And kind friend your soul
can only be saved if you will obey the gospel and become a Christian (Romans
*Shelby G. Floyd delivered this sermon at the Garfield Height Church of
Christ,
Note:
I presented this sermon 32 years ago and I believe what I said then and
have not changed my mind to this present day. Praise God Almighty, the Father
of our immortal spirit!
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