Now what about our friend’s reference to James 2:26, that “the body without the spirit is dead”, does this not prove his point?

He states, “The body is the only part of man that dies at physical death. The reason it dies is because the inner man, the life of the body, leaves the body. It then goes back to dust and is spoken of as being asleep.”

Let us begin by first clearing up what precisely James meant when he stated, “The body without the spirit is dead”, as many have stumbled on this particular point (including myself). In Chapter 2 James was attempting to emphasize the necessity that works should accompany our faith that we prove our faith by our works, by what we do, even as Abraham’s faith was proven by what he did, not merely by what he believed. Then in conclusion or summary to all that he had to say on the matter in this chapter he ends with, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

Here James was using an analogy, invoking the picture of human life. Natural life is composed of two elements- body and breath forming a living soul: And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Gen 2:7).

So, James reasons, Spiritual life is composed of two elements: faith and works. Faith supplies the body, the organism. Works keep that organism functioning. Without the action of breathing, the natural man would die. Without the active functioning of works, the spiritual man will die.

As to the latter half of our friend’s statement quoted above he is mistaken as to what the “inner man” consist. The inner man spoken of in the scriptures does not relate to the life source of the body or organism (the breath of life), but rather to the new nature, the new creature in the consecrated believer.

Let us attempt to explain.

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” (1 Pet 3:18)

 If Christ our Head, who was sinless and just, had to suffer as an evildoer, we should not be surprised to suffer likewise. Although Jesus suffered in a specialized sense (“the just for the unjust”), in principle we should also try to suffer unjustly.

Jesus was “put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” The reasoning of Peter in this verse is similar to that of Paul in 2 Cor 4:16, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” Progression is shown here. The outward man perishes progressively as the inner man is being renewed.

Christ also suffered for sins, as we are supposed to do, but in his case the thoroughly just One suffered for the unjust (i.e., for the Church and the world). The thought alluded to here and stated in 2 Cor 4:16 is not merely that the Christian dies because he was born in sin and shaped in iniquity, and hence has the seeds of death in him through Adam’s fall, but also that the Christian’s “outward man” perishes from the standpoint of sacrifice. (Suffering in the flesh is part of the sin offering.) The inner man is being renewed or is growing up at the same time, but both processes (the perishing of the outward man and the growing of the inner man) terminate in a definite conclusion: death of the flesh.

This is what the Apostle Paul referred to when he said, “I keep my body under (the outward man), and bring it into subjection, lest I, after preaching to others, might become a castaway.” Paul’s inward man had the assurance of the Lord that the glories of the future would be proportionate to the trials faithfully endured.

This of course applies only to the spirit begotten believer and has nothing to do with the rest of mankind; nevertheless the same is equally true of both when they die, “His breath (the breath or power of life) goes forth (returns to the source of all life); he (the soul or sentient being) returns to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish,” (Psa 146:4) and there he remains awaiting the resurrection.

We will take a look at more of our friend’s comments in our next post.