Weekly Devotional 9-1-25 Man’s Eternal Spirit
Hebrews 4:12 addresses the power of the word of God saying that it is living, powerful, and sharper than any two-edged, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow. And Genesis 2:7 says that 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 being. God breathed spirit into man. These two passages affirm that man is not just flesh and blood but that he was endowed with a spirit. Man was created both material and immaterial.
The purpose of man’s material essence is to experience physical life, but the purpose of man’s immaterial essence is to know and have communion (fellowship) with God. The apostle Paul addressed this in his 1st letter to the Corinthians. Consider >
“9 But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1st Cor. 2:9-14).
Many passages confirm that because of sin man’s physical essence must die but this is not true of man’s spiritual essence. It is eternal. One such passage is 2nd Corinthians 5:6: “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6).
And from a second passage, Revelation 6:9-11, we read: “9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed”.
And from a third passage Luke 23:3-43 “39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’ 40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’ 42 Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. 43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
All three men (Jesus and the two criminals) died physically that day, yet their spirits lived on. Jesus and the repentant criminal went to Paradise and the third, though not mentioned, went into eternal torment.
This is attested to by Jesus Parable of the rich man and Lazarus; Luke 16:19-31“19 There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ 27 Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ “
Both men, are seen as being conscious, that part of them that was spirit, lived on. So yes, man’s spirit essence, is eternal, never to go out of existence. At Physical death, those who have been made righteous await the resurrection of their bodies (promised by Lord Jesus) but those who have died physically without having been made righteous with live eternally in torment.
Jesus said “14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” John 3:16-18.
It comes down to this – turn to Jesus, God’s provider of being made righteous, or refuse to allow Him preeminence and forever be condemned.
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