The Scriptures define “man” as the creation of God, a union of body and soul, that is, a unity of physical and spiritual elements, as it is written: “Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground (adamah: אֲדָמָה) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (nishmat chayim: נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים), and the man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). The miracle of creation means that God imparted his own neshimah (נְשִׁימָה), his own “breath,” to give life to the man, who was named “Adam.”
Note then that man was made in two distinct stages. First the LORD “formed” (יָצַר) his body (גוּף) from the “dust of the earth” (עָפָר מִן־הָאֲדָמָה), and then the LORD breathed (נָפַח) into this body a “soul” (נֶפֶשׁ ,נְשָׁמָה), that is, the consciousness that represents the self or the “I” that inhabits the body. This is sometimes called the “image of God” (צלם אלוהים), the “I am” of self-consciousness, the ability to reason and to make decisions, to discern intuitions of logic, to apprehend moral and aesthetic reality, to wonder and glory over the the beauty and greatness of the Divine Presence, and so on. The image of God means that man reflects (analogically) God’s very attributes and characteristics.
The Scriptures also refer to the soul of man as “ruach” (רוּחַ), generally meaning “breath” or wind (Psalm 78:39). The unity of the body and soul is called “nefesh chayah” (נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה), a “living being.” The body serves as a “habitation” for the soul as it lives in this world, and the separation of this unity, that is physical death, causes the body to return to the dust, though the soul continues to exist (Psalm 90:3; Eccl. 12:7).
According to “kabbalistic” (i.e., neoplatonic) interpretations of Judaism, the individual soul goes through distinct stages in its “journey” emanating from God and then returning back to God. The first stage is nebulous “preexistence,” or the soul before it enters a body while being suspended in the “treasury of souls”(הָאוֹצָר); the second stage is physical life, when the soul “falls” into the body and where it is actuated, imprisoned and tested in human form. The soul then works to remove the barriers to spiritual life in this world, and upon death of the body is released to either to Paradise (heaven) or to Gehenna (hell), but finally, the soul will have a share in the “world to come” (olam haba) after the resurrection of the dead. In some forms of kabbalah the soul is reincarnated until it attains success in its mission that was given before it “fell” to the realm of this world (olam ha’zeh). The final vision of the world to come is unified into one world that is inhabited by God in all fullness.
It should be noted that such a kabbalistic vision is not biblical, though it includes some biblical truths…. Let’s therefore review Scripture to get an understanding of the human soul and its ultimate end. So we begin at the beginning, where Torah clearly states that God created Adam as a union of body and soul. First Adam’s body was formed from the dust of the earth, and then Adam’s soul was imparted when God breathed it into his body (Gen. 2:7). Note that Adam’s body apart from his soul is not alive, and it is only after the soul is imparted to the body that man is called “nefesh chayah,” a living creature. So at the outset of creation God made Adam “for life” and worship in the paradise of Eden. That was the original ideal.
Death is first mentioned following the account of the creation of the man, when the LORD commanded Adam not to eat from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע): “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17). In this connection we note that the Hebrew phrase that warns of the dreadful consequence of eating from the forbidden tree is “mot tamut” (מוֹת תָּמוּת), literally “in dying you will die,” which both implies the spiritual nature of death as separation from the divine life, but also the repeated experience of death – the ongoing knowledge of decay, dissolution, and loss…
Though it is not explicitly stated in the narrative, it is implied that Adam would have understood the meaning of the commandment and would have had some idea of the implications of what death meant, even though he had never directly encountered death in his life before. Adam would understand death to mean the loss of life, and moreover that death was the penalty for transgressing God’s will. When Adam later transgressed God’s decree, God invoked the just penalty by saying: “You shall return to the earth, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). “Returning to dust” (אֶל־עָפָר תָּשׁוּב) implies the disintegration of Adam, the separation of his body from his soul. I will consider some of the spiritual implications of this shortly.
Contrary to the idea that death is a “natural” part of a larger “evolutionary narrative” that explains it as an inevitable (i.e., mechanistic) “mutation” of biochemical organisms, the Scriptures understand death as God’s judgment upon sin, both in the individual sense of the “curse” of decay and the dissolution of the human body, but also in a cosmic sense of the dissolution of biological organisms and “heat death” of the very universe itself.
After Adam’s original sin, human nature itself “fell” and was corrupted, and all of his subsequent descendants would inherit the curse of death, and therefore all subsequent generations of people would eventually die (Rom. 5:12). This furthermore meant that all people would be born in a state of spiritual alienation and under judgment (guilt) derived by virtue of Adam’s “federal headship” as the original father of the human race. In addition, and as mentioned above, the curse of death extended to the creation itself, since Adam was created to exercise godly dominion as God’s steward and mediator of the world (Gen. 1:26). Adam’s transgression forfeited his divine right to rule creation, and his authority was usurped by the devil who had deceived him (Gen. 3:1-19).
So in the biblical sense, “death” (i.e., mavet: מָוֶת) is far more than just the cessation of physical life, that is, the dissolution of the body, but concerns the soul’s relationship with God, and therefore it is rightly called spiritual death (מוות נַפשִׁי).
Spiritual death is a “mode” of existence that may appear “alive” but it is actually cut off, separated, and alienated from God. It is in fact a “similitude” of life – death disguised as life. The Apostle Paul calls this godless and carnal energy “the flesh” (Rom. 7:5, Rom. 8:6), though Jewish tradition has often referred to it as “yetzer ha’ra” (יֵצֶר הָרָה) the inclination to be selfish and evil (the word yetzer first appears in Genesis 6:5 where the wickedness of man is described as “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart (יֵצֶר מַחְשְׁבֹת לִבּוֹ) was only evil continually”).
The wicked are dead while they ‘live;’ the righteous are alive while they ‘die.’ As strange as it may seem, people are born in a state of death, enslaved to their carnal nature, and “dead in sins” (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13; Psalm 51:5; Jer. 17:9). The underlying problem of death, therefore, is the curse of spiritual death (קִלִלַת הַמָּוות הַרוּחָנִי), for unless that is somehow remedied, there is no lasting hope, even if the physical body were to continue to live into perpetuity. And this is the message of the gospel itself, that God, in compassion for your soul, redeems you from the curse and delivers you from spiritual death by the sacrificial exchange of Yeshua on the cross for your life. “For God made him who knew no sin to be sin for you, that you might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).
But note that just as the death of the body does not mean the death of the soul, so the death of the soul does not mean the end of its existence… In relation to the soul, death is something spiritual and therefore concerns the immaterial nefesh, the “self,” and its separation from the divine life. As I mentioned above, the nefesh is the “I am” of inner consciousness, but being a person necessarily involves relationship, a “dialog,” and ultimately this dialog must transcend the individual to be grounded in relationship with God.
There are two relationships we can never escape and that are eternal: the relationship we have with ourselves, and the relationship we have with God. If we have healing and peace in our relationship with God, we have a happy sense of self that will be grounded in eternal reality, but if we are hostile and offended in our relationship with God, we will have a self locked within itself in endless inner dialog that will be unhappy and full of blame, anger, grumbling, and shame. This is the worst kind of death, called “eternal death” (מוות נִצְהִי) which is the sealed judgment upon those who have willfully chosen reject God’s mercies by remaining spiritually dead during their allotted time on earth.
All this is devastatingly sobering. If a person physically dies in a state of alienation and rebellion against God, that is, if they refuse God’s remedy for the sickness of their condition of spiritual death, then their soul will be consigned to Hades, a temporary “holding cell,” until the final judgment that will be pronounced and enforced at the end of the world, at the Great White Throne, wherein they will then be resurrected to rejoin their souls with their bodies and then eternally separated from God forever and ever. Tragically, the only remnant of the soul that will be retained will be consciousness of the revelation of God’s justice and judgment upon their sin forever and ever. The Apostle John calls this the “Second Death” (הַמָּוֶת הַשֵּׁנִי) in the “Lake of Fire” (Rev. 20:11-15).
On the other hand, those who do teshuvah (repent) and are regenerated by God will be given spiritual life (חַיֵּי עוֹלָם) imparted by the Holy Spirit (John 3:1-8). A “new nature” is created, a new heart (נֶפֶשׁ) and a new spirit (רוּחַ) is given (Ezek. 36:26). This is a matter of “ontological” change, not simply a matter of faith (2 Cor. 5:17). Just as physical birth resulted in being in the earthy realm, connected to Adam as our primordial father, so spiritual birth results in being in the heavenly realm, connected to Yeshua as our “Second Adam” and “Father of Eternity” (Isa. 9:6; 1 Cor. 15:45; Eph. 1:5). An intimate sense of God as “Abba” is implanted in the heart, and new desires – a hunger and thirst to know and walk in God’s ways – begin to take root (Rom. 8:15; 1 Pet. 1:23). Although there will ongoing struggles with “the world, the flesh, and the devil,” a real transformation from a life characterized by spiritual death to one of divine life and godly character will begin to be manifest. The “old self” (הָאָדָם הַיָּשָׁן) is crucified with Messiah and the carnal connection with Adam severed “so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6:6). Our connection to death will die; the power of sin will be radically broken, and we will experience freedom to do what is right in God’s eyes (Eph. 2:5). “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and goodness, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious powers (i.e., ἐπάγγελμα, the substance of what has been promised), that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Pet. 1:3-4).
Of course “salvation is of the LORD” (יְשׁוּעָתָה לַיהוָה), which means God is the Author and Finisher of our salvation, and we are powerless to generate new life in our souls. Indeed, the gospel speaks precisely to those who know they cannot save themselves. There are no “works of righteousness” that we may do, no rituals or special prayers that will unlock the blessings of true spiritual life: It is the miracle of God; it is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit of God. Nevertheless, in this present age, physical death is inevitable and is a matter of God’s decree (Heb. 9:27; Psalm 139:16). This is a result of living in a fallen world. The essential issue is what death means in light of salvation in Messiah. In the case of the unregenerated person, as we have seen, the separation of the body and the soul leads to the continuation of spiritual death, and ultimately to eternal death (Luke 16:19-31). In the case of the regenerated person, however, the separation of the body and the soul leads to the continuation of spiritual life and entry before the presence of God in paradise, and ultimately to life to heaven itself (John 5:24; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23).
We are given eternal life (חַיֵּי עוֹלָם) when we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and our regeneration is a present possession even as we live in this temporal realm (John 5:24). The life we are given in Messiah is a possession of the “inner man,” that is, a new nature and spirit, and though the “outer man” may perish, the inner man is renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). The Greek word used for “renewed” in this verse (ἀνακαινόω) means being transformed into something new, “raised up from death” into a new kind of life. We no longer know ourselves “after the flesh” (Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 5:16); there is a new principle at work, the “law of the Spirit of Life” that sets us from the “law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2). Death has lost its power over us because Yeshua has overcome death on our behalf and will rescue us from its claim on our souls. But we have this treasure in “jars of clay,” to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4:7) Therefore, as Paul affirmed: “whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord’s (Rom. 14:8).
But why must we physically die, if Yeshua took upon himself the curse of death and died in our place? Because the spiritual life he imparts to us will be fully manifest upon our death, as we share in his resurrection power. Then, at the appointed time when we are reunited with our bodies at the time of the rapture, in a “twinkling of an eye,” the people of God will be physically restored to serve in the Millennial Kingdom at the time of the Second Coming. For the believer, death will then be “swallowed up” into life forevermore. It should be noted that this restoration of the body is unlike the resurrection of the spiritually dead before the White Throne judgment at the end of the age.
Though the prospect of physical death is fearful, we have peace with God as we trust in his sovereign work to save our souls. Yeshua is the way, the truth, and the life: he has tasted death for us and overcome all its terrors (Rev. 1:8). He takes our place as our Scapegoat upon the cross, and our atonement from the penalty for our sins is thereby made eternally secure. In this life he quickens us with spiritual life and a new nature; as we live out our days he guides our way, and when we die, he will receive us into the presence of his glory. We will live and reign with him forever and ever to the glory and praise of the LORD our God. Amen.
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 73:24 reading:
Psalm 73:24 Hebrew page (pdf)