Man is also spirit. What is physical about the spirit of man?
.
Part III. An Exegetical Basis For a Tangible Soul
Following up on posts 189 and 190, I will now provide a plausible exegetical argument that the soul is tangible. Bear in mind that I already examined these two titles:
(A) The Holy Spirit/Ghost as immaterial substances
(B) The Holy Breath/Wind as material substance
and provided an exegetical basis for title-B, I did this in posts 34 38 43 51 61 116. Thus since the divine Pneuma appears to be tangible, it stands to reason that the human pneuma is likewise.
My case trades on Paul's usage of the term flesh (sarx). That term occurs 150 times in the NT, and is consistently used in the same ways found in English today. Whenever it is used as a literal term to designate existing substance, it consistently refers to a tangible body, almost always a body of cellular protoplasm such as the bodies of animals, humans, and insects. And yet that's the same word that Paul chose to designate the sinful mind !!!! If Paul had wanted to convey an immaterial sinful soul, the word "flesh" is the absolute worst possible choice because it literally screams matter. For example no Platonist would ever refer to the immaterial realm as the "realm of flesh" for the obvious reason that flesh screams matter. And for those who haven't checked, the pairing of words "sinful nature" doesn't exist in the NT. Paul always uses the term flesh except that in Romans 7 and 8, as we shall see, he uses the terms "flesh" and "body" somewhat interchangeably.
After all, the tangible soul is spread throughout the entirety of the human body, and thus intermixed with it perhaps as closely as a cup of milk diluted with water. You wouldn't find any need to distinguish the two, you'd just say, "I had a glass of milk today." In other words the merging of the two substances essentially into one substance allows us to regard the human body as a living body. From this perspective, it is your BODY that is evil, it is your BODY that sins, it is your FLESH that sins - not the unconscious part of course. As always, materialism offers greater fidelity to the text than immaterialists. Platonic translators have difficulty with Paul's term flesh and typically render it as "the sinful nature." Only the materialist can really take Paul literally at his word.
And before embarking on a look at Romans 7 and 8, there is a parallel passage of significant weight - James' discussion of the
untameable tongue. Equally decisive. James make it clear that the tongue is "a restless evil, full of deadly poison". He is at pains to persuade us that:
(1) Rather than the "mind" controlling the "body", the evil tongue itself is often in control, steering the human body into evil like a rudder veers a ship.
(2) Rather than the tongue being a dead, unconscious piece of matter controlled by the mind, he likens the tongue to a living animal with a mind of its own which, as such, needs to be tamed.
It would be heresy for James to classify unconscious matter as evil. In point of fact, if materialism is true, the tongue is not unconscious matter, at least insofar as intermixed with a tangible soul.
Without more ado, let's take a look at Romans 7 and 8.
Paul cries out in
Romans 7, "Who will rescue me from this
body of death?" (verse 24). Notice Paul did
NOT say, "Who will rescue me from this sinful immaterial mind?"
As for regeneration, does it take place in an immaterial mind? Is that what the Holy Breath targets with regenerating Life? Or does He target the physical human body? According to Rom 8:11:
"And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give
life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you."
Now, if this be true, your "sinful nature" actually has a physical shape. It is the shape of your body. That's what Paul confirmed at verse 3:
"God [sent] his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh".
In what sense did Christ come in the likeness of sinful flesh? Did Christ arrive tainted with sin? Obviously what Paul is saying is that Christ came in a distinctive physical shape - the same physical shape as the sinful nature (the flesh).
Verse 10:
"Your body is dead because of sin."
Physically dead? Did your heart stop? No. He means spiritually dead, that is, unregenerate. This proves that God regenerates the
body, not some immaterial soul. This is clear from the very next verse, already cited above:
[He] will also give
life to your mortal bodies (verse 11).
Verse 13 confirms the entire schema:
"For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the
misdeeds of the body, you will live."
Misdeeds of - the body? My body is what actually sins? But didn't the theologians teach us that it is our immaterial mind that sins? Those theologians haven't been listening to Paul. They've been listening to Plato.
Let's roll back to chapter 7:
"For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our
members to bear fruit to death" (7:5).
Why didn't he say, "the sinful passions at work in our immaterial minds?" Is he really saying that my actual members are alive? That they consciously indulge in sinful passions? Take a look at Col 3:5:
"Therefore
put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry."
Put them to death physically? No. Spiritually. Foster in them the regenerating/sanctifying Life of Christ in order to quicken them. This means your body is not a mere machine. It is a moral agent in need of sanctification.