Body, Soul, and Spirit, pt. 3

The body forms the material part of man, and the soul forms one aspect of the immaterial part. The Bible tells us that when God breathed into man’s nostrils in the Garden of Eden that man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). The word soul in the Hebrew is nephesh, and the Greek counterpart is psūchē. The soul of man is the internal part that is the life-principle of personhood.

The first several uses of the word nephesh in Genesis indicate the possession of a life principle that seeks, desires, and acts. Man not only has a soul as his individual possession (Mt. 16:26), but man is a soul, even as the word nephesh can stand for the entire person. Genesis 46:27 says that 70 souls went into Egypt. That said, the soul of a man distinguishes one individual from another, from an internal perspective.

The soul is the living being of the whole person (thoughts, will, and emotion). Essentially, the soul is the living principle of a person in his thoughts, will, and emotion. Thus, if you have a soul, you are a person. If you are a person, you have a soul.

The soul exists forever, and therefore can be redeemed. Jesus asked what profit comes to a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul (Mt. 16:26). Peter said that believers receive the salvation of their souls (I Pet. 1:9). God gave you a soul: offer it back to Him for salvation.