Bible: "Life"

Dear Jo, 5 March 2024

Have you ever been confused by the statements of life and death that you find in scripture?

Me, too! Like the old TV series “I Led Three Lives,” a Christian does, too.

(1) a physical, animal life.

(2) an intellectual, individual, conscious, human life.

(3) a spiritual life

The shema is the key:

“You shall love Adonai your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

and with all your might.”

Exact translations are difficult; I take ‘Heart’ to be the moral & spiritual center, ‘Soul’ to be our consciousness/self, and ‘Might’ to be the physical element, of who we are.

Physical death needs no explanation. Our souls I understand to mean our self-identity – our awareness and thought. Heart represents our spiritual identity.

Sometimes scripture says of a physically dead person, “he only sleeps.” This represents the lack of self awareness after physical death, which does not return until the resurrection of the body (in my view). Sleep is used as a familiar condition of unawareness.

I believe we are born “heartless” and only have a spiritual life when we accept salvation; when we are buried with Christ in baptism and testify we are His.

Why “heartless?” Because in Eden Adam’s Spirit died, as God had warned him. Satan spoke the truth when he assured Adam “you will not surely die,” but only referring to physical, not spiritual, death.

The process of sanctification lasts our entire physical span, as God ‘grows’ our hearts as we run our race. He has promised us pure hearts; just not in this world.

Our souls were made for immortality.

Loving you, Grampa Jeff