What’s the Difference Between Spirit, Soul, and Body?
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own”
1 Corinthians 6:19
If I were to ask you, “What three forms can water come in?” you would more than likely be quick to answer with, “Liquid, solid, and gas.” Three different forms, but all three are equally water. Just because water is in a different form, that does not change the fact it’s still completely water.
This is a great way to describe who we are as humans, as well as God, the Trinity, three in one. For us, we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. As Christians, all three are equal, blameless, and describe us as a person (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23). I’ll get to us in a minute, but for our Creator, if we look for the word Trinity in the Bible, it’s not there. However, if we put one and one and one together, it’s easy to understand that God is three parts. Jesus mentions it, so does Paul, as does John (see Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14, 1 John 5:7).
Even from the opening book of the Bible–the opening chapter even–God is mentioned in plural form (see Genesis 1:1-2,26). So God is: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three Persons, one God. The Son is not the Father, the Father is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Son–nor any slicing of it. However, they are all three in perfect harmony as one God.
I wanted to set that up because we too are three-part beings: spirit, soul, and body. When we understand the separation of the three–how different each part of our being is–things will start to make a lot more sense. Mainly, you will stop mistaking one for the other, which will give you confidence and peace. Also, the devil will look like the idiot he is, because his lies will be even more blatant to you.
First of all, Christians are perfect in every way: spirit, soul, and body. At our core, in the everlasting part of us, our spirits, we’ve literally been crucified with Christ, buried, and raised back to life as new spiritual beings. When this happened, once, by believing Jesus has forgiven you, your spirit was made brand new! (See Romans 6:6-7, Colossians 1:22, 1 John 3:9, Hebrews 10:10).
There are Bible passages which mention the destruction of an unbeliever’s spirit, as in annihilation. But there’s still a biblical possibility that a rejecter of Christ, their spirit, will not be destroyed and will be punished forever. Either way, our faith in receiving God’s Spirit right now will always keep us safe with Him. Jesus explains:
“And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” (Matthew 12:31)
In this verse, Jesus isn’t referring to taking the Lord’s name in vain. Many people promote that idea to control others through fear, but imagine if God abandoned us forever just because of a swear word—that’s a foolish notion. Instead, Jesus is talking about an unbeliever—someone who has never trusted Him—rejecting the Holy Spirit. Blaspheme means “to speak evil of”; if you speak evil of God’s Spirit, you clearly aren’t accepting Him. If a Christian does this, it’s important to remember we are already sealed up with Him, and no words can undo that bond (see Ephesians 1:13). We accept Him into our spirits by grace through faith, simply by believing He is our Savior (see Ephesians 2:8-9, John 1:12, 6:29). Because our spirit is within our body, He’s within this shell as well. All of this occurs the moment we believe Jesus has forgiven us (see Colossians 3:3, 1 Corinthians 6:19).
Next, I want you to know you do not have a sinful nature. For so long, even I thought I had a sinful nature. This was because I was reading a NIV Bible that had not been updated. In order to be more readable the publishers changed the flesh to sinful nature in the 1984 version of their NIV Bible. Since then, they’ve changed it back to the flesh.
Why is this important? Because the words sinful nature are not in the Bible. The original Greek word is sarx which means the flesh. Sarx doesn’t mean sin and it doesn’t mean nature–it means the flesh. So each time you read the words sinful nature in the older version of the NIV, you can scratch through it and write “the flesh”–literally.
This matters because your body is your flesh, one of the three parts of you. Your flesh is not the flesh. Your flesh doesn’t have a sinful nature nor is it sinful. In fact, it’s holy (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23). There’s nothing wrong with anyone’s flesh. It is a suit to wear. God likes our flesh, it was His idea. So any sinful desire is not even your desire but comes from the flesh presenting itself to you or an old unrenewed mindset. Then you have a choice to walk that way or not (see Galatians 5:16-26, Romans 8:1-13).
Besides the option of the flesh, there is also sin. Not the verbs of sinning, but the deadly film which entered through Adam when he no longer believed God. The Greek word is hamartia. From the opening book of the Bible, God warned about the power of sin–the force of sin:
“sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” (See Genesis 4:7)
Do you see that it desires? The power of sin by itself? Also, we can see it is a separate entity from us and has nothing to do with us as Christians because we’ve died to it supernaturally. It is a tumor, so to speak—it is in our physical bodies, but it is not our physical bodies. Christ, who now lives in you, has defeated the power sin had over you. He did so by killing off your old spirit, on the Cross, and giving you a new, perfect spirit which is already seated in heaven with Him through His resurrection! (See Romans 6:1-13, Colossians 1:22, Ephesians 2:6).
Therefore, Christian, you are not at battle with yourself. Yourself is good! Yourself is holy! Yourself is settled up with God forever because of Christ making His home in you! (See Hebrews 7:25, 10:10, John 14:23). So, the power of sin–which is everywhere on this planet like gravity–it tries to influence you each day, but you’re dead to it supernaturally (see Romans 7, Galatians 5). As we walk by our true selves, its desires don’t come to fruition because we know we’ve been remade to not act on sin’s influence in our flesh. Paul explains this to the Romans:
“Don’t let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires” (Romans 6:12).
I say all that to point out the importance of understanding that Christians are not sinful. We’re not sinners, but saints. We’ve died to sin—the power—even though we still commit sins because we’re still human. The reality is, you are holy, blameless, and free from all accusation from people and the enemy. You are perfect: spirit, soul, and body! You are completely reconciled with your Creator! (See Colossians 1:22, Romans 5:1, Hebrews 10:14, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
One final thing about our bodies: our flesh is but a tool. Tools do what the person holding them decides. A hammer can’t hammer itself. As supernatural children of God—spirits—we have His desires written on us, which now guides our actions and attitudes (see Hebrews 10:16). We want what God wants—we really do! So, we live that out through our bodies!
At any point in time, however, we can choose to walk in a way that doesn’t match up with our identity in Christ, but we cannot out-sin our perfect identity! Why not? Because Jesus already took on the full punishment of our sins at the Cross. Therefore, even when we do sin, our spiritual perfection stays sealed up forever! (See Romans 5:20, Ephesians 4:30, 1 John 2:1).
This raises the question: “Then why not go ahead and call up Guinness to record our new sinning record? After all, choosing to act on sin won’t change my identity in Christ.” Paul knew the Romans would ask something along those lines, so he made it clear that our new spirits weren’t made to sin; as in, expressing sin will never make sense permanently, no matter how much we do it, because we are no longer in it! Just look:
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)
Paul is reminding them about what happened to them—their identity. He’s saying, “Listen, you are now an eagle! I know you were born a chicken, but you are not a chicken any longer! Why would you want to sit in that barnyard with those other chickens, pecking around on the ground? You were made for more! You are regal! Stop acting like someone you’re not! You weren’t made for KFC buckets; you were made to soar!”
Now, can an eagle stare at the ground and act like a flightless bird? Sure. But just because an eagle chooses to do something so strange, that will never change its DNA structure. It’s an eagle. Period. Forever. Same with us as reborn children of God! We are heavenly spirits! We are saints! Not by what we do, but by birth!
So, lastly, what is the soul? It’s our mind, free will, and emotions. Another way to look at our soul is this: it’s our thinker, our chooser, and our feeler. Your soul is the beautiful spark that makes you unique—consciousness, some call it. Your mind is your inner toolkit for thoughts and ideas; your emotions are like the passing weather that can feel sunny or stormy. Free will is your internal power to choose your own path, acting as your navigator, deciding which way to go regardless of the winds around you. Plainly stated, your soul is what expresses you at any point in time, giving off a flavor—but that taste does not change your substance. Happy, sad, mad, glad, indifferent—you are still a child of God!
So today, my friends, know this: God gave you your flesh so you can be a part of this physical world. He gave you your soul so you can enjoy this world and make your own choices. One of those choices He longs for you to make is to believe Jesus has forgiven you. When you do, your spirit is made brand new and you’ll live on forever in heaven with Him! But more than that, He makes His home in your spirit, your soul, and your body—unified and complete in Him right now.
A prayer for you: Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching me the truth of my own trinity—my spirit, soul, and body. With this knowledge, I understand so much more about myself and Your grace. I ask that You continue to teach me more so that I can go deeper into Your wisdom. Thank you. Right now, I lift up all who are reading this directly to You. So many of them have been taught that their poor choices define them, but they do not. I ask that You open their minds to the truth of who they are because they’ve trusted Jesus. Teach them that as believers, You now live in them, and they’ve been completely remade for good. Now that they know this truth, help them to live it out as they simply rest and be themselves. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
This devotional is from 60 Days for Jesus, Volume 3. Get your copy here!