The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301-D, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 6." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1976. All Rights Reserved.
Question
What is the difference between soul and spirit?
Answer
Let me give you the best answer that I can give you: there is no difference. You say, "Now, that's not what I have heard"--maybe not--that's just what I believe. Now, I can't be dogmatic about this because I can't perceive the imperceptible, but I'll tell you this: I believe that we would all agree on this: man is basically two parts--right? Body, that's the material part, and the immaterial part--whatever you want to call it and however you want to cut it up. You basically are a body with a "something" living in it--whatever that "something" is--a rose by any name...you know.
Now, what about your material part? Well, your material part is made out of interesting substance--according to Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 3:19 it is made out of dust! Your body is important. Important enough for God to want your body. Important enough for you to subject your body to holy patterns. Important enough for you to dedicate your body to God. Your body is the partner of the soul. It is the expression of the immaterial part. Sometimes the Scripture uses "soma" to speak of "body"--that's the word in the Greek, "soma." Sometimes the term "sarx" or "flesh" is used in reference to the physical, but you are a body. You are flesh, and bones, and blood, and muscles, and tissue--you are a body, but really the real you is more than a body, in fact, the body is just the house you live in. In fact, someday you will transcend this body to another body--right? Like Benjamin Franklin wrote on his epitaph, "Here lies the body of Franklin Printer. Like the cover of an old book, stripped of its lettering and gilding, it lies here food for worms, but the work shall not be lost for it will appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the author." That is on Benjamin Franklin's epitaph--I am not sure that is true in his case, because I am not sure he was a believer. But the point is simply, your body is a house for your soul or your spirit--whatever you want to call it. Now, that's the material part.
Now what about the immaterial part? Where did it come from? Well, in Genesis, chapter two, it tells you where your immaterial part came from--verse seven, don't look it up, just listen, "The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became..." What? "...a living soul." You've got two parts: He made man out of dirt, and He breathed into him the immaterial part--there's two parts. In the creation how many parts of man were made? How many? Two. So people say to me, "How many parts are there to a man?" I say, "God made two--He made him out of dust and then He breathed into him, "...and He breathed into him and he became a living soul."
Now, there are some people who feel that man is body, soul, and spirit, and that's all right. Those are terms that are Biblical--they are what they call "trichotomist" that you have three parts, and that your spirit is your God-ward part; your soul is your earthward part, and your body is your body--nobody has an argument about that. The support they use for the trichotomy view is 1 Thessalonians 5:23 where it says, "...your whole body, soul, and spirit." But remember that there can be different terms used to speak of the same thing, and there can be different activities conducted within your immaterial part that don't necessarily mean that there are different parts there. Hebrews 4:12 is another one they use, where it says he "...divides the soul and spirit," and they say, "There it is--you've got to have two parts because they can be divided." Well, that isn't what it's saying--what it is saying is that it penetrates into the deepest part of man's soul, man's spirit--the Word of God penetrates deeply into a man.
The other view is that man is only two, that he is body and soul-spirit. Now if you want to know where I am at: I am there. I don't want to blow all your little charts that you've got in you mind, that's just my opinion. I believe man is a combination of soul-spirit. When you die, what goes to heaven? Soul? Where does the spirit go? Goes there too doesn't it? If they are both going there I sure can't figure out how they are two different things. You say, "Well, why do you believe that there is only two parts?"
1. The first reason I believe it is because when God made man He only made two parts: the material part and an immaterial part, and that was it and man was done. In fact, the Bible talks about a body and a soul making a whole man.
2. It also talks about a body and a spirit making a whole man--throughout the New Testament the body is always identified as such, but the soul and the spirit are used interchangeably over and over again. Sometimes a man's spirit is doing it, and sometimes a man's soul is doing it--they're very frequently interchanged.
Just to give you an illustration so you know that you can go to some Scripture: James 2:26, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead." There you have two parts: a body and a spirit--the body needs the spirit to be alive. Some people say the spirit is when you get the Holy Spirit--have you ever heard that view? You are two parts until you get saved, and then you get the third part. No, no! You are not two-thirds of a human--that is the worst view. In Hebrews 12:23, it says, "...that your spirits are made perfect." The spirits go to heaven. That a man is a body and a spirit--so there are a couple of Scriptures that talk about man being a body and a spirit. There are other Scriptures you can look at, Revelation talks about some. Let me look at Matthew 20 for the time being--I don't want to get bogged down in Revelation. Matthew 20:28, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life [or His soul] a ransom for many." "Give His soul a ransom for many." So here the immaterial part is called "soul" elsewhere it is called "spirit." This interchange goes on all the time in Scripture. I find it very difficult Scripturally to separate soul and spirit. Now maybe the soul has a different function in a sense than the spirit but they are one and the same thing, because they are the total you--you can't lose your spirit and still be you, and you can't lose your soul and still be you. You can't say, "Well, my soul did it, but my spirit didn't--my spirit's really doing great but my soul is all messed up." You are just you. I see them as interchangeable and I guess I would be what is classically called in theology, a dichotomist.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
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