The soul that sins dies. To obtain a soul that remains we must destroy whatever thought, will, or emotion is disposed to the flesh against Jesus and the gospel. There is a spiritual soul.
Scripture says, "The soul that sins dies." Inability to think right or to recognize truth, jerked around by deceptive and ever changing emotions, unable to make a commitment...these are some common aspects of "psychical," that is, soul death. Jesus says, "For whosoever may be wanting to save his soul will be destroying it, yet whoever shall be destroying his soul on account of Me and of the evangel will be obtaining it." (Mark 8
35, CLT) Defining what more inward workings of the soul identifies Jesus' disciples, this was an explanation and expansion on what He had just said, "...If anyone is wanting to come after Me, let him renounce himself and pick up his cross and follow Me." (vs., 34)
Jesus began His public ministry with a message of repentance. "Jesus came into Galilee, heralding the evangel of the kingdom of God, saying that "Fulfilled is the era, and near is the kingdom of God! Repent, and believe in the evangel!" (Mark 1
14-15, CLT) Though commonly translated "repentance," the Greek word is actually a MIND word. The English "repent" comes from the Sanscrit
pu from which we also get our word "pure." It is difficult to disassociate the idea "to purge" or "make clean" from repent. We've been taught what repentance means is to (mentally) admit sin is bad, be (emotionally) sorry for sin and to (willfully) turn away from sin. Thus we are purified. The various functions of soul in general are not indicated by the Greek
metanoia. This is about the source of consciousness. It literally means to "change-MIND," or, "after-MIND," Whatever awareness of ourselves, who we are, where we are, what we do is known initially by what our family, our school, our culture or religion has told us. And, "As a human thinks in his heart, so is he." We find ourselves with a certain self-consciousness God's illumination makes to be of a previous nature or self. Because of what His showing up means to us we have a mind after our former knowing, an "after-mind." Our change puts us in accordance with God's rule.
In your penultimate post you said: "The soul is not an independent substance. It is 'becoming' from the union of spirit and body". Don't these two ideas contradict each other?
As previously explained, the breath or spirit of God is substance and the body made of physical material is substantial. For Adam, the spirit breathed into the body produced a soul.
Nephesh (Hebrew) or
psyche (Greek,) the "soul" is the result of these two substances interacting and is not in itself a substance. Beyond my light from electricity in a bulb analogy, or even the Greek words for spirit, soul, and body, another example is God. The Father is unmanifest, unseen. "The only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father has explained Him." (John 1
18.) Christ is "the image of the invisible God." (Colossians 1
15) What produces "Christ," that is, "The Anointed," is the Holy Spirit, Who is "The Anointing." The manifestation of the invisible God is God the Son which is produced by God the Spirit. In this the Father may be compared to the soul. We know from Psalm 91
1 that the Father is El-Elyon and the mother is El-Shaddai. From elsewhere we know Jesus is the incarnation of IEUE.
How can a soul possibly sin if it is the union of spirit and body? How can there be a spiritual soul, if one of the those aspects is required to make the other? If half of the soul's parentage is by definition opposed to God (the flesh), how could we even talk about a soul resisting sin?
Jesus has for ever sanctified incarnation. Not only was he made flesh, we have His words after resurrecting immortal. "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." (Luke 24
39, KJV) So also the earliest form of the Apostles' Creed has faith in "The resurrection of the flesh" as a non-negotiable basic to identify as a genuine Christian.
Yet, "To be given over to the flesh is death but to be given over to the spirit is life and peace." (Romans 8
6) The hierarchy of Adam's trinity of personality has soul primary. "The new man
homo novae is the Lord from heaven." This "enlivening spirit" (1 Corinthians 15) is foremost over the three-fold hierarchy of the second man, it being born again. The first possible resurrection is that of the spirit when we are born from above.
Could you please spend some time explaining the 13 bodies, I am dying to know how that works.
Every day what is it? more than 2 1/2 million cells? die off and are replaced. The lining of the stomach and the gastrointestinal tract is replaced about every 2 weeks. While it is a gradual process, through the course of a lifetime the average person cycles through about 13 bodies. These are not separate individual bodies, as I say, it is a gradual process, slower with bone than softer tissues. So, you could probably say you've become a completely other physical entity than you were a decade ago. This truth affects what we can understand about the resurrection. There is a flow of material into us and out from us, like God. The material its self is from the stars. This succession of copies in itself is a kind of resurrection. When harpazo-ed, seized, possessed by God, the process will no more be degenerative, if it even continues. We also have a daily resurrection as we awake from sleep. These are all opportunities for exercising faith for healing, prolonged life and our transformation into the image of God as must happen. "For this mortal must put on the immortal."
