Recently in the podcast I have been covering the matter of how we are three-part beings, “spirit and soul and body” (1 Thes. 5:23), and why we need a very clear grasp of this crucial truth, namely, that our human spirit is a distinct part of our person, rather than being the same thing as our soul. (You can listen to the entire podcast series here: “Spirit and Soul and Body.”). As I have stressed in this series of messages, without a realization that we have within us a human spirit that gives us a unique ability to contact God and receive His divine life, it is simply impossible to understand how salvation really works, or the way to live a fruitful Christian life.

As I prepared for this series, I looked again at an article I’d read quite a number of years ago defending the contrary view, which claims we are two-part beings. According to that view, which theologians call “dichotomy,” the spirit and the soul are not distinct parts or our being, but just different expressions for the same part of our being.

The author of the article is John Murray (1898-1975), a highly-regarded 2oth century Calvinist theologian. At one point he comments that Matthew 10:28, which tells us to “fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell!,” only refers to “soul and body,” while another verse, 2 Corinthians 7:1, speaks only of the flesh and the spirit:

Therefore, beloved, having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

He concludes:

In the one case body and soul are deemed a sufficient specification [of the elements of human personality], in the other body an spirit. If an integral component were omitted [from these verses, i.e., our human spirit in the former, and our soul in the latter], the completeness would be negated.
— The Collected Writings of John Murray, Volume 2: Selected Lectures on Systematic Theology; chapter 3, “Trichotomy.”

In other words, because each of these verses view us as being complete persons while mentioning only two parts of our being, while omitting any mention of a third part, they support the view that we are in fact two-part beings.

While I am certainly no theologian, I can say that here, as elsewhere in this article, the author completely disregards a basic and widely accepted principle of Biblical interpretation, that we must use the clear texts of Scripture to interpret those which are not so clear, rather than vice verse.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrews 4:12 strongly, clearly, and definitely affirm, respectively, that we are indeed three-part beings (“spirit and soul and body”), and that the spirit is indeed a distinct part of our being, separate from our soul (“the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow”).

Still, I have to admit that, when I first considered Mr. Murray’s argument regarding 2 Corinthians 7:1, I was somewhat puzzled as to why the soul is not mentioned in this verse

I first considered, if we assume the spirit and the soul are the same thing, then could we speak of “soul” in this verse instead of “spirit,” so that we must “cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and soul?” That surely did not seem right. And you could not change “defilement” for “corruption” either; the thought would be very different.

Then, in light of the clear verses mentioned above, Paul’s word here also became quite clear, even obvious I would say. And in fact I was very much helped by this consideration myself, because I came to see that 2 Corinthians 7:1 actually shows us something very significant about the Christian life.

And that is what we will consider in the next Note in this series.

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—  12 November 2024 —