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Body and Spirit

The Apostle Paul wrote:

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:1-8)

This earthly house of which Paul speaks is our body. For the human body is imperfect. It can be deformed or wracked by disease. It ages. And it dies.

The Greek view of the body differed radically from the Biblical. Many Greek philosophers such as Plato saw the body as nothing more than a prison for the soul. Pythagoras called the body a tomb. Plotinus believed that the soul must desert the body to pass into a higher spiritual life. Many hold that view today. But that view is wrong.

Paul says, we shall not be found naked. For him, the soul without a body was not free, it was nude. Man was created to be an integrated spiritual/physical being.

Hebrews 1:14 describes life forms completely different from us, calling angels 'ministering spirits'. Angels are pure spirit beings. They can emanate form, and exert force on the material world, but have never dwelled in bodies and they never will. Unlike angels, however, man is meant to live inside a body. Our souls are not complete, they are naked, without physical form.

When our bodies die, our spirits enter heaven. And there we are naked. We are disembodied spirits. We are ghosts. But we will not remain naked. And here we find the importance of the Resurrection. At the Second Coming of Christ, our bodies will be reclaimed. Our souls and bodies will be reunited.

In 1 Corinthians 15:49 Paul says that we will bear the image of the Heavenly Man. There is a special connection between us and the Second Member of the Godhead. God the Father does not have a body. He is not merely invisible, He exists beyond time and space. He possesses the quality of infinity; therefore, it is impossible to have a direct relationship with God the Father. God the Holy Spirit does not have a body. The Holy Spirit is more like the angels. But God the Son, Jesus Christ, is more like us. He left the infinite to enter the finite, and came to earth to become a man. He arose from the dead in a glorified body. If we believe in Him as our Lord, He will glorify our bodies at the Resurrection.

From the Second Coming forward throughout all eternity, we will exist as integrated spiritual/physical beings as God meant for us to be. And we will exist side by side with the God-man. We will forever see Jesus face to face.