The Soul and Human Spirit
Believers have two parts to their immaterial being, both a soul and human spirit, which are separate but connected. Unbelievers have only a soul without a human spirit. The Bible makes it clear there is a difference between the soul and human spirit. Hebrews 4:12 says: "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says: "May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And Isaiah 26:9 tells us "My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you." The soul and spirit are therefore separate and distinct immaterial entities with different functions and purposes. The human spirit is not the same thing as the Holy Spirit indwelling and filling the believer. The human spirit is a second portion of the immaterial life of the believer, and although it is interconnected with the soul it is entirely separate. The soul is the "human" part of the believer while the human spirit is the "spiritual" part. This is why unbelievers have no human spirit, since they are not spiritual beings, only soulish ones.
Adam and Eve were created with both a soul and human spirit. And their souls were created as male and female as well as their bodies. Genesis 1:27 says: "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Genesis is talking about the image of God, which is not the body, when male and female are mentioned as being created. When they sinned by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the one forbidden tree, their human spirits are what died. At that point they had only a soul and no human spirit. As God had warned them if they ate from it "you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17), and God meant their human spirits would die, which is spiritual death. That is what defines spiritual death, that the human spirit is dead and the person only has a soul. They remained physically alive for hundreds of years afterward, so it did not mean physical death. As the first humans showed a person can live without a human spirit since they did not immediately die physically, but a person cannot have a relationship with God without it. After they sinned they hid from God since they had no ability to interact with Him, but God offered salvation to them which they both accepted, and at that point their human spirits were revived. But as a result of the original sin all their descendants are born without a human spirit, and salvation is required to obtain one. Therefore all people are born with a soul but no human spirit. The only exception was Jesus Christ who was born perfect with both a soul and a human spirit (spiritually alive) therefore He did not need salvation. At the moment of faith in Jesus Christ (and during the Old Testament by faith in the promised Messiah) the human spirit is revived, and from that time on the person is spiritually alive and has both a soul and a spirit forever.
We are spiritually reborn at salvation, which is going from spiritual death to spiritual life. That is when the person becomes a spiritual being. As John 3:3 says: "Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." Being "born again" is the rebirth of the human spirit at the moment of salvation. Prior to salvation a person has only a soul but no human spirit, and is unable to interact with God in any way except to receive salvation by faith. As we see from the lives of unbelievers, only a soul is necessary to be a functional human being, and the human spirit is not. But without a human spirit that person cannot function spiritually in any way, and they also cannot live with God in eternity. This is why salvation must be a gift from God, not something to be earned over time, since no unbeliever can please God in any way or earn anything because none are spiritual beings. God makes humans into spiritual beings at the point of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, not as a result of anything the person does to earn it.
But what is a human spirit, how does it differ from the soul, and why do we need both?
Both the soul and human spirit are immaterial, and therefore are directly created and given by God. Neither come into existence in a material way, either in the mother's womb or in the body itself, since they are not part of the material world and are not made of elements from the universe. The immaterial soul is imparted to the physical body by God at the point of birth and this makes the person soulishly alive. But only the human spirit can make a person spiritually alive, and that only occurs at salvation. If there is no salvation during the lifetime that person remains spiritually dead forever (except for those who die as children and those with very low mental function). The human spirit is necessary to understand spiritual information and to have interaction with God. As 1 Corinthians 2:14 says: "The person without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness." Romans 8:16 says: "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children." For humans to interact with God they must have a human spirit, otherwise God cannot interact with them, and they cannot understand God or His spiritual truth.
Therefore a spiritual life is only possible through use of the human spirit. That human spirit has four main purposes. First, it makes the person spiritually alive and therefore enables interaction with God. Only spirit can interact with Spirit, therefore no unbeliever can interact with God. Secondly, the human spirit makes spiritual information from the Word of God understandable, and no person can truly understand spiritual information apart from the human spirit but "considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them." Third, the human spirit enables the indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit which empowers the spiritual life of believers. As mentioned above, Romans 8:16 says: "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children" which shows how the Holy Spirit uses the spiritual information contained in our human spirit, and builds up our faith as a result of it. Finally, the human spirit is the storage location for spiritual information. The human soul cannot store spiritual information since it is not designed to do so. Therefore spiritual information must be stored in the human spirit where it becomes usable in the life of the believer, then it is accessed by the soul and used in the spiritual life.
In contrast to the human spirit which is focused on the spiritual, the human soul is the center of human life and interfaces with the material world, and for the believer it also interfaces with God because it is backed by the human spirit. The soul is given at the moment of birth, being put into the physical body directly by God, but the human spirit is not given at birth. The soul is the location of the central processor for the person, called the "heart" in the Bible, which pulls together inputs from the entire soul and then interfaces with the outside material world. And if the person is a believer, the soul interfaces with God through the heart because it is supported by a human spirit. The soul also has other components listed in the Bible including the "mind" which is the mentality or thinking part of the soul. The soul also contains the memory where it stores information related to the material world, such as vocabulary, subject information, events, past actions, visual information, tastes, sounds, music, and so on. Additionally, the soul contains the emotions, conscience, free will, and other innate human functions. And the soul is the center of the self-awareness of being alive, called the self-consciousness. The various components of the soul support the soul's heart in its integrating and processing function. Therefore the soul defines us as rational human beings unlike animals which have no soul.
The Bible describes the heart as the core part of the soul, the essential being of the person, and the central processor which integrates all soul and human spirit functions, making the heart the nerve center of the soul. The immaterial heart is functionally analogous to the body's physical pump which nourishes and sustains the human body with oxygen, nutrients, immune defenses, heating and cooling, and numerous other functions. And since the true life of the person is the soul, and that soul lives forever, the soul and its heart require a more detailed explanation. Proverbs 4:32 says: "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." We see the "flow" analogy as with the physical pump of the body, meaning the soul's heart pumps the "flow" of outputs from the soul into the material world and pulls information back into the soul from the material world. As such the heart expresses what is in the soul of the person, whether good or bad. And for the believer the heart is also the means of flowing spiritual information into and out from the human spirit. Spiritual thoughts originate in the human spirit and flow out of the soul through the heart toward God and people, and spiritual learning flows back into the human spirit through the heart. The heart also decides whether to allow information to enter the soul, and can either accept or reject it. Therefore the heart is also the gatekeeper of the soul. In all of this the heart is not just passing everything through, but rather the heart filters and processes information, makes decisions, and forms the thoughts and intentions, which are then expressed out from the soul.
The soul of the believer is the instrument of applying spiritual information contained in the human spirit toward both God and the material world, therefore spiritual information flows out through the soul's heart. The human spirit can only reach the outside world through the soul's heart which serves as the gatekeeper of the two immaterial parts of the person. As such the human spirit relies on the soul to give expression to what is contained in the human spirit. The believer's soul and spirit work together, and that working relationship becomes more powerful and effective as the believer grows spiritually, building up the storage of spiritual truths inside the spirit which then flow out through the soul. And that storage of spiritual information in the human spirit is not in a simple form, but rather the human spirit manufactures a complex interconnected web out of the spiritual information it receives, combining simple concepts with more advanced principles, which builds up faith as a person matures spiritually. But if the human spirit of the believer is empty, as with a new believer or one who has never grown spiritually, the soul will go to the human spirit for spiritual information but find little or nothing there since it is empty or nearly so. This is why studying the Word of God is so crucial, because it is the basis of spiritual growth and puts information into the human spirit which can be accessed and used by the soul, and provides the Holy Spirit with spiritual information to work with. Additionally, recall the earlier discussion that the believer must continually request forgiveness of sins to take them out of the way and enable the Holy Spirit to function in the spirit-soul processes. If unconfessed sins remain in the life the spiritual processes inside the believer are severely restricted, and the human spirit is effectively shut off from the soul.
Spiritual information must be stored and structurally assembled inside the human spirit for the Holy Spirit to use to empower the spiritual life. Spiritual growth increases by packing the human spirit with information from the Word of God which provides a higher level of spiritual function for that believer, fulfillment of God's plan, and greater glorification of God through Jesus Christ. Feeding spiritual information into the human spirit is the only means of increasing faith in a meaningful manner, one which works under testing and pressure. Therefore believers must grow up spiritually by building up the spiritual information inside the human spirit so the Holy Spirit can provide maximum power in the life of the believer by putting that spiritual information into use. Hebrews 6:19 says about the human spirit filled with the Word of God: "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain." The human spirit as the "inner sanctuary" is compared to the layout of the Temple of Israel, whereby the human spirit is analogous to the Holy of Holies which had the presence of God, and the soul of the believer is like the outer areas of the Temple where interaction with the outside world occurred on different levels.
When discussing the innermost being of mankind the Bible most often uses the word "heart" rather than "soul." The NIV version of the Bible refers to the immaterial "heart" over 800 times, about 200 of which are in the New Testament, but the word "soul" is only used 95 times in the Bible of which 23 are in the New Testament. This shows the importance of the heart as the main component of the soul. The functions and attributes ascribed to the immaterial heart in the Bible include thinking/thoughts, intentions, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, deciding, believing, remembering, love, meditation, reflection, pondering, purposing, seeking, searching, humility, obedience, gladness, caring, tenderness, compassion, joy, self-reflection, yearning, cheerfulness, hope, peace, and on the negative side the Bible says it is also the source of arrogance, foolishness, anger, envy, pride, jealousy, darkness, hardness, folly, deceit, evil thoughts, impenitence, obstinacy, wickedness, perversity, lusting, coveting, and many other negative things. The Bible says the heart treasures things (good or evil), is the source of the secrets of the person, conceives plans, sorrows, can be heavy, and can be dejected and in anguish. It is also the means of expressing worship toward God. As such, the heart is the central engine of the soul, the central processor which integrates and pulls together all the complex components and facets of the soul, makes decisions, and expresses thoughts and intentions toward God and the entire outside world. Comparing the outputs of the heart with the overall characteristics of the human soul we find the heart integrates the self consciousness, mind, conscience, emotion, and memory which are all separate from the heart, yet are all component parts of the soul. Everything which comes out from a person toward either God or the outside world comes out from and through the heart. God is highly focused on the thoughts and intentions of the person, and He evaluates each person based on their heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 says: "The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." It is therefore clear that the heart is the inner core, the essential nature, the highest functioning piece of the inner immaterial person, both believer and unbeliever, and therefore provides the majority of the soul's important functions.
The Bible distinguishes the heart from other immaterial components of the soul, including the "mind". Psalm 26:2 says "Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;" and Philippians 4:7 "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" and Jeremiah 17:10 "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind" and Mark 12:30 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." All these distinguish between the heart and the mind. As noted, the heart of the person is the central processor of the soul. The mind is the part of the soul which takes perceptions and information from the outside world brought in through the senses, and combines them with what is already known, and puts it into a format the heart can use called "understanding." The mind gives that understanding to the heart where it can be processed, and the heart combines the understanding from the mind with inputs from the other parts of the soul such as the conscience and other soul component advisors. Then the heart exercises the free will of the person by making decisions, and forms integrated "thoughts and intentions" based on all the inputs from the component parts of the soul and spirit, plus inputs from the attached sinful nature, forming expressions both outward and inward. The heart will make the final decision about any given issue after being advised by the mind, conscience, emotions, memory, and all facets of the soul's component "advisors" to the heart. And the sinful nature is another advisor, being a usurper advisor attached to the soul although not inside it, and is often a very powerful and influential advisor to the heart. And if the person is a believer, the human spirit also advises the heart of the soul. But if the human spirit is empty, there will be no input from it, leaving the decision in the hands of the lesser capable soul functions often under the influence of the sinful nature. But when the human spirit is full of the Word of God, which is called "wisdom", the heart will value its inputs as the best and most important to consider, even if the heart does not always make the right decision spiritually. That is because the sinful nature is an ever-present force acting on the soul which must be continually dealt with. The result is internal soul conflict whereby the heart is pulled in different directions, on one hand by the sinful nature and on the other hand by the human spirit. Having a sinful nature which can exert such influences means we never stop sinning, although we can control it to some degree when the human spirit is full of spiritual information and under the control of the Holy Spirit.
While unbelievers have only a soul, and believers have both a soul and human spirit, all humans have an additional non-physical part of them which did not come from God, namely the sinful nature which is attached to the soul, but not inside it or even part of it. We have noted how Proverbs 4:22 says "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." The "guarding" refers to the sinful nature, which although not a core internal component of the soul is attached to the soul as an illegitimate advisor to the heart, and is the source of temptations which attempt to get the heart to decide in favor of things the heart knows to be wrong, or should know to be wrong. The sinful nature became an attachment to the soul after the fall of Adam and Eve, since God did not create them with a sinful nature attached. As a result of the fall of Adam and Eve all of their descendants are born spiritually dead (i.e., no human spirit) and also inherit the legacy of the sinful nature attached to the soul at birth. But since Jesus Christ was born spiritually alive due to supernatural conception which avoided Adam's sinful legacy, Jesus was the only person ever born without a sinful nature. The sinful nature as the source of internal temptation has its own unique areas of weakness to certain types of sins, and these weaknesses are learned and developed over time but some may also be inherited. The sinful nature weaknesses to sins are not merely carnal weaknesses, but also include arrogance, hatred, envy, jealousy, anger and other such mental sins which are very harmful since they create bundled sinning, initiating a cycle of destructive sins. These mental sins become both inwardly destructive and also destructive toward others, including expressions outwardly as sins of the tongue. James 3:6 says "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." The reference to "hell" refers to the sinful nature as being a part of Satan's domain, since he is its originator. The sinful nature weaknesses also create lust patterns including examples such as lust for power, money, sex, esteem, and many other lusts, and at the extreme end the sinful nature can motivate lust for heinous acts such as torture and murder. Lust can take many forms, and has both carnal and self righteous sides to it, therefore lust is not limited to the carnal types most commonly associated with it.
If the sinful nature is not controlled, it will become the dominant force in the life of a person, including believers. For believers the way to minimize its influence is by constant study and use of the Word of God which fills the human spirit with spiritual information, which is a sort of spiritual inoculation against the sinful nature. But if the sinful nature gets out of control to an excessive degree the believer's human spirit is shut off and all types of sins can become possible. The unchecked sinful nature is the source of great evil in the world, including evil dictators who are used by Satan, and the ultimate expression of this will be in the future Antichrist during the Tribulation. For unbelievers, when the sinful nature is allowed to control the soul to a near total degree it can open the unbeliever's soul to demon possession, which although a rare condition it will certainly be true of the Antichrist. However, no believer can be demon possessed, only influenced by Satan's Cosmic System through the sinful nature. The sinful nature out of control is where heinous crimes become possible in some people when the condition continues long enough, as the conscience becomes broken down over time. And the person is able to justify these to self based on the sinful nature blaming the victims using distorted mental patterns of bundled sins. Even for a believer the sinful nature's influence can become strong if allowed to gain maximum control in the life, and the believer will live a life of sin. All of this is because the sinful nature is part of Satan's realm, since he was the source of it by enticing Adam and Eve to sin and die spiritually. Romans 5:12 says "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned." Adam made the choice for all mankind when he sinned because he did it intentionally, but Eve was deceived. Therefore Adam was the source of spiritual death and the sinful nature for his descendants, so the sinful nature is passed down from Adam, not from Eve. This is where the miraculous conception of Jesus apart from a human father cut off the sinful nature, therefore He was born without one and also had a human spirit at birth.
So the advisors of the heart are not always looking out for the best interests of the person, but are often in disagreement about which course of action to take. And the components advise in alignment with what they have been taught, or learned the hard way, or developed in other ways. For instance, the conscience is different from one person to another, and is not necessarily correct about what is right and wrong. The soul as created by God is empty, and each person fills it as they go along in life, whether good or bad, but usually a mixture. For believers the human spirit is filled up with spiritual truths if that believer takes in spiritual food regularly under the teaching ministry of a Pastor who is well trained in the Bible. And the sinful nature is also filled up as the person grows, picking up lust patterns and areas of weakness to certain sins, some more than others. Parental discipline and hard knocks along the way help keep the development of the sinful nature under some control, enabling the person to function in society.
There is a lifelong battle in the soul of each person over which advisors the soul's heart listens to when making decisions. On the one hand are the logical advisors to the heart, including the mind, conscience, memory, and also for believers the human spirit. These logical advisors are normally aligned in opposition to the sinful nature, with its sinful tendencies and lust patterns, which is continually seeking to gain the upper hand as an illicit advisor to the heart. The soul's emotions can take the side of the sinful nature and make bad decisions more difficult to avoid. The emotions do not think, so they merely respond to either the heart backed by the logical advisors or else to the sinful nature. The emotions were designed by God to respond to the heart in alignment with the logical advisors of the soul, however they can also misalign with the sinful nature. That makes the emotions the "wild card" of the soul, sometimes aligning with the logical advisors, and sometimes aligning with the sinful nature. And the sinful nature is the source of lusts, which come in many varieties, and can be very different for each person. When the emotions become the near permanent ally of the sinful nature, the two combined overwhelm the heart and essentially stage a coup, taking over the thought processes. In such a case the emotions become what is referred to in the Bible as a "prostitute" of the soul, seeking the illegitimate company of the sinful nature rather than the legitimate company of the heart. And since the sinful nature is the ally of Satan, the person becomes allied with Satan's Cosmic System, which is opposition to God. And that is true for believers as well as unbelievers. This is how the emotions can create instability inside the soul when allied with the sinful nature, and if severe enough it can result in overall mental instability. This is how continuous sinning most often develops, when the logical advisors are ignored by the heart in favor of the sinful nature which has gained the alliance of the emotions. And since unbelievers have no human spirit, the sinful nature is harder to avoid and therefore is often the dominant influence on their heart. When the heart of the soul is taken over by the sinful nature backed by the emotions, the logical advisors of the soul, including the human spirit for the believer, are mostly shut off from influencing the heart, while the sinful nature and emotions run the soul. And over time the logical advisors even become corrupted, as the mind and conscie