Spirit, Soul, and Body

Jacob carried the mark of his meeting with God in his body. As the sun rose he was limping on the thigh that had been strained at the Jabbok, and at the end of his life he spoke three names that summed up what he had lived. His limp and his words were his witness. The same Spirit who was within Jacob now dwells in everyone who believes, and Messiah lives in them while they go on living in the flesh. The question is what part of a person that indwelling uses. Paul answers in a prayer at the close of his first letter to the Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of eirene εἰρήνη i-ray'-nay(peace) Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit) and psyche ψυχή psoo-khay'(soul) and body be preserved complete, without blame at the parousia παρουσία par-oo-see'-ah(presence-coming) of our Lord Yeshua Messiah.

The Whole Person

Paul names three things in this verse: “your pneuma(spirit) and psyche(soul) and body.” In Greek they are pneuma, psyche and soma. He sets them side by side, and he does not rank them or leave any of them out.

Before the three he places two words that both speak of wholeness. The first is in the opening prayer, “sanctify you entirely,” where the Greek is holoteleis, wholly, through and through. The second stands right in front of the three nouns: holokleron (ὁλόκληρον), which the YLV renders “complete.” It means whole in every part, with no part missing.

The plain meaning follows. It is not that one of the three is used while the others are left aside. God does not sanctify only a person’s spirit and leave the body to itself, nor does He keep only the body while the soul goes its own way. The whole of it is sanctified, and the whole of it is kept, until the coming of the Lord Yeshua Messiah.

Paul’s prayer leaves no part of a person outside the work of God. What happens within and what is done with the hands and feet are not two separate matters, one belonging to God and the other left to ourselves. Paul joins all three together, and the Messiah who dwells within works through the whole person.

Treasure in Clay

If the whole person is used, it is fair to ask what kind of vessel God is using. Paul answers honestly in another letter.

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our kardia καρδία kar-dee'-ah(heart, soul-domain)s to give the Light of the gnosis γνῶσις gno'-sis(knowledge) of the glory of God in the face of Yeshua Messiah. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the dynamis δύναμις doo'-nam-is(power) will be of God and not from ourselves;

The treasure is the light that God has shone into the hearts of believers, and the vessels that hold it are earthen, made of common clay that cracks, chips and wears out.

Paul gives the reason: “so that the surpassing greatness of the dynamis(power) will be of God and not from ourselves.” When something great is seen coming out of something weak, no one can mistake where the greatness came from.

Jacob carried the same lesson in his body, the limp that showed nothing had been won by his own power. Believers carry the treasure in the same kind of vessel, and the power that shows through them is God’s and not their own.

Light That Cannot Be Hidden

What does that indwelling look like to those who are watching? Yeshua said it at the beginning of His teaching on the mountain.

Matthew 5:14 You are the light of the world — a city situated on a mountain cannot be hidden.

Matthew 5:16 So let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens.

Light does not need to be explained. It is seen. A city set on a mountain can be seen from far away, whether anyone points to it or not. Yeshua tells His disciples that they are that kind of light, and that their light should shine before people.

Then He says what the light is: “your good works.” The light that shines from the disciples is seen in what they do. And He says what the light is for: so that people may “glorify your Father who is in the heavens.” The good works do not draw attention to the one who does them. They point past him to the Father. This is the same order as every step of taking hold. The works do not earn anything; they are the shining of a life that has been given. Paul said that believers are His workmanship, created for good works prepared beforehand for them to walk in. Here Yeshua says that those works, seen by others, bring glory to God.

Power to Be Witnesses

Before He was taken up, Yeshua told His disciples where the power for this witness would come from.

Acts 1:8 But you will receive dynamis(power) when the hagio(holy) pneuma(spirit) comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the farthest part of the earth."

The power is not their own but comes with the Spirit, and its purpose is witness, starting in Jerusalem and reaching “to the farthest part of the earth.”

This is the same word, dynamis, that Paul used in 2 Corinthians 4:7. The surpassing greatness of the power belongs to God; it works through clay vessels and makes them witnesses, and the witness reaches as far as the gift itself reaches, to all flesh, to every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Jacob’s Witness and Ours

Jacob bore witness to his night at the Jabbok in two ways: by the limp he carried and by the three names he spoke at the end. His body and his words both testified to the One he had met.

What is used for that witness now is the whole of spirit and soul and body. Yeshua, whom we carry within, works directly through spirit and soul and body; that working shows itself to the world as light; and that light is what bears witness to Yeshua Messiah.

Nothing in this is earned, and nothing in it is idle. A person is born from above as a gift; he takes hold of the Person he has met and does not let go; he enters through the door with thanksgiving; and he remains by keeping the commandments of the One who kept His Father’s commandments first. And the One who has made His abode in him shines through the whole of him, so that others see and give glory to the Father.

So the word Jacob spoke first reaches from his deathbed to the life of everyone who now calls on the same Redeemer, and the whole line, set in order from beginning to end, leads back to that name: Ha-Goel, the One who redeems.