You don't get to make the rules about the kind of statement God must make in revealing is truth.
His truth is shown in many ways, by events as well as by the answers to questions about Scriptural statements.
1) First, we see an immortal spirit (pneuma, not breath, which is pnoe) returning to its body in Lk 8:55.
2) Then there is what Jesus said:
Mt 22:31-32 - "In the account of the bush (Lk 20:37-38), have you not read what God said to you, 'I am (present tense) the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
Two hundred years after the death of the patriarchs, God declared he is (present tense) the God of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Ex 3:6). Since he is (present tense) the God only of the living, and not the God of the dead, what part of the patriarchs are still living?
Lk 16:22-26 - "The time came when the beggar man died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. . .he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to. . .cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'
But Abraham replied. . .'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "
Jesus presented the rich man in hell, with he and Abraham conversing with one another after their deaths.
If their bodies were dead, then what parts of them were conversing together?
Lk 8:51 - "If anyone keeps my word,he will never see death."
Well, all those to whom Jesus spoke those words are now dead.
And God told Adam that the day he ate of the fruit he would die, but he lived for centuries.
So what died, and what did not die?
Jn 5:24 - "Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal llife. . .he has crossed over from death to life."
So what was dead? . . .it wasn't their bodies.
From what death did they cross over?
3) We find the same thing in the epistles:
1Jn 3:14 - "We know we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. . .no murderer has eternal life in him."
Again, what was dead? . . .it wasn't their bodies.
From what death did they pass?
Col 2:13 - "When you were dead in your sins. . .God made you alive with Christ."
Eph 2:1,3 - "You were dead in your transgressions and sins. . .by nature objects of wrath."
Again, what was dead? It wasn't their bodies.
Php 1:23 - "I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body."
The NT plainly states that when believers die, they are with Christ, apart from their body.
So what part of them is with Christ, apart from their body?
Heb 12:18, 22-24 - "You have not come to a mountain that is burning with fire. . .You have come to Mount Zion. . .You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant. . ."
The NT reveals that the spirits of former righteous believers (e.g., Abel and Noah, vv.4, 7) are immortal
and are waiting for the resurrection.
Correct handling of the ten Scriptures above shows that the human spirit is immortal.