You misunderstand. I have never said death is the end of existence. We are not born with a spirit, it never existed in the first place to end. We are born spiritually dead which, is why we must be born from above, the Holy Spirit generating (for the first time) a human spirit within us. If you are physically dead, you have no body. If you are spiritually dead, you have no spirit. If you are not born, you do not exist. If you are not born spiritually, your spirit does not exist. Real simple.
We are spiritual beings (if born from above), we are not spirit beings, that is the being of what we term angels Ps.104:4 Heb.1:7 and demons or otherwise known evil spirits. And as I pointed out, God the Son, whom all things were made by, through and for Col.1:15--18 is Spirit (Deity), Soul (human) and Body (in time of flesh, in eternity of spirit) 1Cor.15:44 Phil.3:21 So I ask again, which person of the
Godhead do we resemble?
Human life did not swap from his spirit to his soul because Adam sinned. He was
always a living soul,
never a living spirit.
He died the day He ate and His spirit returned to God who gave it. Ecc.12:7 But He didn't die physically on the day (as he should have, as Christ did), because God had a plan for this occasion, a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev.13:8
Adam was chosen to be in the garden, not because he would sin, but because he would repent. The Lord was showing the angels the difference between the unrepentant (Lucifer) and the repentant (Adam). The Lord God was showing Himself to be the generous and merciful God He truly is and not the harsh and judgmental God that was being thrown around by angels who questioned His word due to the punishment of the lake of fire which was created for the rebellious angels. Matt.25:41 We see the same arguments from men today that God is unjust by sentencing "good" (so called) men to hell (aka LoF). This is simply a reflection of the world system initiated by Satan. (cmp. Lam.3:22-24 )
Our spirits are born of God, just as flesh comes from the substance of flesh, our spirit comes from the substance of Spirit. Jn.3:6 Our spirit cannot die or be corrupted. Anything we believe that is not true bypasses our spirit and goes to darken our soul. Our spirit is what gives us the capacity to form a relationship with God. The flesh we receive now is born corrupted due to original sin. This is why God cannot give as a spirit at birth and why we are spiritually dead from birth and why we cannot be in a relationship with God, we have no capacity for it. Our spirit is for the purpose of understanding spiritual phenomenon, it is not for the purpose of animating physical life. Physical life has life in itself, God did not form a corpse for Adam to enter. We are souls, all through scripture we are referred to as souls,
never are we called spirits. We are said to
have spirits, but
never be spirits. Adam and Eve (two souls) were created in Gen.1:27 "bara" (word attributed to something God alone is capable of doing) and while not always out from nothing, can mean out from nothing. At this point, it was two undefined individual souls (male and female He created them Gen1:27) We did not know them as the definitive Adam and Even until God brought them into the world.
I am not sure what any of that has to do with what I said as redemption wasn't the topic. I will say it was God's mercy that allowed Adam to die physically as well otherwise a never ending lifetime as a sinner would have led the bravest man into hopeless despair. Adam was never going to be like Satan that is why he was chosen to be in the Garden.
Actually being crucified with Christ means we
are to reckon our bodies as dead. We don't have dead spirits. I explained earlier why that is the case.
Rom.6:10-12
10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
1 Peter 2:24
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
God did save us by giving us a new spirit. He saved us from spiritual death, from the consequence of sin. Rom.6:23 Now that we are able to relate to God the Father (who is Spirit) through being in Christ and sharing in His life. We can now be enlightened and relieved of the darkness in our souls, setting them free by the truth of His word and enabling us to counter the lies of the Devil as long as we are led of the Spirit and remain in fellowship by grace through faith.
Christ carried our sin in His body, for that is where the sin nature resides and from where sin originates within us. It is why the Holy Spirit dwells in our body to cleanse us so that our bodies can be the Temple of God. Our bosies, that is the sin nature in our bodies, deceives our minds and leads/keeps us in darkness for we nave no spirit to comprehend the truth of God (prior to salvation). If not for His mercy, grace and truth coming into this world, we would remain in darkness, never knowing the truth that sets us free.
There is much that can be said regarding how our salvation is worked out but one thing we can say for certain is because it rests on the Word of God, we are confident that those who belong to Christ are saved eternally and will never die a second death.
Yes, I was like you in that I knew nothing. It seems after walking 35 years with the Lord I understand so much more yet the more I know the more knowledge awaits before me. I will never run out of quetions, so many things yet to learn. We keep pushing forward to the end and in the Resuurection we will know as we have been known.
1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
To know Christ fully, the only worthwhile thing in life and death.
