Who Am I?
This very simple question has profound implications, since it asks us to define who we are at the most basic levels: where we came from, why we are here, and what our future holds. Our basic composition is body, mind, and spirit.
I Thessalonians 5:23. “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray that your whole spirit and souland body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
spirit (4151) = pneuma, “a current of air, breath, a breeze; by analogy a spirit, i.e. (human) the rational soul.”
soul (5590) = psuche, “breath, i.e. (by implication) spirit (the animal sentient principle only).” This term means the “breath” or “breath of life”, the vital force that animates the body and shows itself in breathing, as in Acts 20:10. It can refer to life of animals as well, as in Revelation 8:9. It refers to “life” in Matthew 6:25 and I Corinthians 15:45. Psuche can also mean “soul” as the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, or aversions, as in Luke 1:48 and 2:35, but it can mean also a “moral being designed for everlasting life” (III John 2; I Peter 2:11). Even more, Psuche can mean an essence that differs from the physical body and is not dissolved at death (Matthew 10:28; Revelation 6:9).
body (4983) = soma, “the body.”
With this three-fold characteristic of us, one may say that, in general, the parts of the human being are …
1. The physical body (“body”)
2. The essence of God that lives within the body and motivates it (“spirit’)
3. The principle of life that activates the flesh (“soul”)
Our flesh and blood (“body”) are fairly straightforward to understand. See Genesis 2:7. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground ….” The “soul”, however, is the living principle that enables us to be active, that drives the cells of our body to metabolize and multiply. See Genesis 2:7 again: “… and breathed in his [Adam’s] nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
living (2416) = chay, “alive, hence raw, fresh, strong, life.”
soul (5315) = nephesh, “a breathing creature, i.e. animal of vitality.”
Nephesh and psuche are usually equivalent terms in the Old and New Testaments. Nephesh also applies to other beings such as animals, birds, and fish (Genesis 1:20-21). Paul stated that “… the body without the spirit [pneuma] is dead” (James 2:26).
The Intertwined Soul and Spirit
The “soul” and “spirit” are intertwined very closely, as is evident from Hebrews 4:12.
“For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
joints (719) = harmos, “an articulation of the body”, or a joining or joint.
marrow (3452) = muelos, “the marrow [of bone]”.
Even as the marrow of the bone is in close proximity to the joints, and both are part of the same body, so are the soul and spirit intrinsically tied and linked. Interestingly, the “joints” here are in parallel with the “soul”, and the “marrow” with the “spirit”; the marrow produces red blood cells that bring oxygen and life throughout the body, whereas the joints only help animate and articulate it. Thus, the “marrow” [spirit] is seen to have more deep-seated impact on life, to give the “joints” [soul] the possibility to move and accomplish.
Is it possible, then, to essentially link the “soul” [vital life force] with its basic in-born desires that have little discipline, and the “spirit” that expresses the “essence of God”? Either can direct the body to act, but the soul is party to inborn animalistic desires — satisfying the “lusts of the flesh” — whereas the spirit satisfies the will of God who gave it (or of an evil spirit which can motivate the individual to serve the flesh).
Romans 7:14, 18, 22-25. “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not, for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that I do …. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not …. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ Our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Our entire being is made in the “image of God” (Genesis 1:26-27), so in most every way we are like Jesus Christ was when He was a human being on earth, and thus we are like the Father Himself (John 14:9).
image (6754) = tselem,”to shade, a phantom, i.e. (fig.) illusion, resemblance, hence a representative figure.” Note Genesis 5:3, where Adam begat Seth in his “image” [tselem], and in I Samuel 6:5 tselem means “replica.”
While God is spirit and we are flesh, yet we contain the same attributes as He does. As “imagers of God” we have the same destiny as Jesus Christ, as His brothers (Romans 8:29), to become sons of Elohim at the Father’s right hand (Revelation 3:21; Psalm 132:12). We are made male or female, although Adam initially was like God, being a combined male and female complete being.
Genesis 2:21-23. “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
Since the male and female were separated they long to return to one another, and are incomplete without each other.
Genesis 2:18. “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.”
Genesis 3:16. “… and your [the woman’s] desire shall be to your husband ….”
Notice that the angels, and presumably other spirit beings, are not male and female and do not reproduce in the spirit realm.
Matthew 22:30. “For in the resurrection they [people that are resurrected] neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”
The Real Me
God defines the “real person” as the “I am”, as it were, the spirit that He puts within you.
Philippians 1:23. “For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”
II Corinthians 5:8. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
II Timothy 4:6. “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.”
Since “… flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (I Corinthians 15:50), but only those whom the Father calls (John 6:44) and grants His spirit (Romans 8:9), then it is clear that the spirit given by the Father, that continues beyond the grave where it waits until the resurrection (Ecclesiastes 12:7; I Thessalonians 4:15-17), constitutes who we really are. Truly, as those receiving His spirit we have put off the old man and are new creatures.
II Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Galatians 6:15. “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”
I Corinthians 15:22. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Romans 8:21. “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
While we now are restricted by the flesh to an earthly existence, we will some day, at the resurrection, be translated into a spirit-plane existence. Notice that Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:11). He asked the very question that is the subject of this study! God then said, “I am that I am; and He said, thus shall you say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you”(Exodus 3:31).
The Eternal, living God revealed Himself to Moses by claiming His past and future eternity. Likewise, as God’s sons and Christ’s brothers we are promised that same eternal life, so we can turn around Moses’ question “Who am I?” to “I AM”!
John 4:14. “But whosever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Some Final Thoughts
“Who Am I?” We know the Father has existed forever, as has the Son, Jesus Christ (John 17:5; Philippians 2:6-8; Hebrews 1:1-3; John 1:1-4, 14). We, the saints, shall be like He is (I John 3:2), brothers of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29), sitting on the Father’s throne with Christ (Revelation 3:21). Is it possible that we, like Jesus Christ, have also existed in the spirit realm and have been predestined from the foundation of the earth to be kings and priests, known personally all that time by our heavenly Father (Ephesians 1:4-11; Romans 8:29-30)? Note this often overlooked scripture.
Hebrews 2:13-14. “And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God has given Me. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that has the power of death, that is, the devil.”
This truth is restated in John 17:18. “As you [the Father] sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” Note that the analogy here is with Jesus Christ coming from the spirit world — from being with the Father — and the saints also being sent into the world from this same place. If Jesus Christ lived as a spirit and then “partook of flesh and blood” — which He did — then the analogy here is that we, “the children”, also did … something to ponder.