Part 7 of 14 - Comparing: Angel Spirits, the “Spirit of Man” and “the Spirit of Life That Is In Christ Jesus”

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called The Essential Spirit.

The Spirit of Man and “the Spirit of Life That Is In Christ Jesus”

Since the day of Adam’s creation, the human spirit of man is within every man at his physical birth. This “spirit of man” is nothing less than God’s very own spirit …“on loan.” This “spirit of man” enlivens man completely, spirit, soul, and body. The “spirit of man” has within it a key faculty, the working conscience, through which God convicts a man and draws him to Himself (John 14:6); to receive Christ’s Spirit of life. Having such an essential human spirit gives man a spirit-receptacle for receiving the eternal resurrected “spirit of life in Christ Jesus” at regeneration; this is being born-again.

Christ, as the Seed of God, is the essential Spirit element added to a believer’s human spirit. John 3:6 …That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. We must not confuse “the spirit of man” with the resurrected “spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2), which is immediately received by every person upon believing in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus as the Son of God (Rom 10:9-10).

To be born of God (1John 3:9, 4:7, 5:1, 5:4) is to have been conceived of God’s One Seed (Greek, sperma), which is Christ (Gal 3:16) who humanly came out of the line of Abraham, via Mary’s body.

1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word (Christ) of God, which liveth (zao, has spirit-life) and abideth for ever.

Galatians 3:16b … thy seed (sperma), which is Christ.

In this way a man may be joined to Christ’s resurrected Spirit-life. Only then can a man become truly eternal, to gain never ending, limitless, Spirit-life. These following verses clearly equate Christ’s spirit-life with eternal life for man.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth (trusts) in him should not perish (apollymi, be totally destroyed), but have everlasting (eternal) life (Zoë, spirit life). 1 John 5:11-12 … God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life (Zoë); and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life (Zoë).

1 John 5:11 …God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

What about angels, aren’t they spirits also?

Yes, the angels also are spirit, but angels were made differently in their origin. Angels never possessed God’s Spirit-life. They are created spirits who are entirely separate from God who is spirit. This is why Peter says the ansgels desire to look into the things that pertain to the believers who receive Christ’s Spirit. 1 Peter 1:12b (AMP) (It is these very) things which have now already been made known plainly to you by those who preached the good news (the Gospel) to you by the [same] Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Into these things [the very] angels long to look!

Now let’s contrast the angels with man. The angels were enlivened at their creation as spirits separate from God Himself. God’s very own children were first created in God’s image and likeness (Gen 1:26), and then they were rebirthed by receiving the “spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” His “only begotten Son” (John 1:14). The individual members of “the body of Christ” then are partakers of the life of God’s One “only begotten Son.” Initially, man, created in the “image and likeness” of God, looked like the real thing, but lacked the content of the real thing; just as a shadow is similar to a real thing but lacks the substance of a real thing. Thus, a man becomes completed only when He has received God’s substance and reality by receiving the“spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Knowing the presence of the indwelling “spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” is our realization and our experience of Christ alive in us as our new essential self. Galatians 2:20 (KJV) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…