Part 2 of 14

The Essential Spirit - Why Was Man Created With a Human Spirit?

 

Man was created and equipped with his spirit organ, such that He could relate to God, who is spirit. John 4:24 (NIV) God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in (by their) spirit and in truth. Man’s human spirit permits him to ultimately come to be in eternal spirit-union with God when he receives the resurrected “spirit of life in Christ Jesus” – Spirit to spirit. “Now the Lord is the Spirit” (2Cor 3:17)

The spirit of man was breathed into Adam’s clay body in order to equip Adam and all his progeny with the necessary spirit-receptacle, to enable Adam and all men to receive God’s life, which is now “the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2a). In this way, we may consider man with his human spirit to be as a container for Christ’s eternal spirit-life. Man as a container may be seen in the Bible’s many metaphors for a container – man is a vessel, a temple, as a branch to bear the life of the vine (John 15), etc. Actually, man’s vital container is his human spirit enabling him to receive Christ’s “spirit of life.” So, within man’s body being is His spirit as the precise address where Christ may come to dwell eternally. Man’s body may wither and die but his spirit is eternal – this is where Christ comes to abide. 1 John 4:13 (KJV) Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

Today, since the cross of Christ and His resurrection as the “life-giving spirit” (1Cor 15:45b), we may receive and become endowed with Christ’s very life, “the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Man can thereby become regenerated in his innermost spirit-life, with Christ’s very own righteous, resurrected, “spirit of life” to be the new and eternal spirit-life in man. Christ’s Spirit then is man’s renewed life-source and life-guide. Jesus said the following of the spirit of the man who believes and trust in Him. John 7:37 (Amplified Bible) He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, >From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water.

We can see this intended relationship between God’s Spirit as new life and man’s spirit here also in the Old Testament. Job 32:8 (KJV) But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. The Hebrew word “neshamah,” here translated “inspiration,” is more properly translated “spirit,” as it is properly translated in Proverbs 20:27 (KJV). Thus, in the above verse we see that it is “the spirit of the Almighty” who gives “the spirit in man” understanding. I would summarize Job 32:8 to say; the human spirit in man is the essence of the created man – created to receive of “the spirit of the Almighty.”

For the regenerated Christian, “the Spirit of the Almighty,” now via the cross, has become “the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” who has come to indwell the believer’s human spirit (1Cor 6:17) as a permanent union.

Christ cross puts a believer in righteous standing before God, whereby he is counted as righteous – this is positional. But it is His resurrection life as the "Spirit of life" in the believer’s spirit that makes a man to become righteous in His living. This is a dispositional change that occurs in man, which comes by the inner working of Christ’s very life and nature indwelling man (see nature, 2Pet 1:4).

The “spirit of man” is intended by God to ultimately house Christ’s Spirit of life. Man’s human spirit was to be man’s spirit-container; from which Christ’s indwelling life and personality would then emanate to rule that man’s entire being, including his soul and body. Man’s human spirit, renewed by the presence of the indwelling Christ, bears Christ’s life as his new, essential, spirit-life. John 14:20 (KJV) At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.