The spiritual is that which addresses our spirit which is the essence of our being i.e. our identity, our sense of value, our glory, our capacity to love and be loved and partake of and participate in God who is love, value, and glory.
We are also told God is Spirit. This is not arbitrary but essential to who God is and to understand not only God but ourselves. What makes God a person is not his physicality (he not physical but is Spirit). Therefore, as his image bearer, it is not the essence of our being a person ¹either as image bearers. Since God is not physical, this can not be the essence of who we are i.e. how we are like God. To say it another way, we don't say we have a nose like God (He doesn't have one) but we can say we give and receive love and have value like God - though only in quality, not quantity.
We are also told God is Spirit. This is not arbitrary but essential to who God is and to understand not only God but ourselves. What makes God a person is not his physicality (he not physical but is Spirit). Therefore, as his image bearer, it is not the essence of our being a person ¹either as image bearers. Since God is not physical, this can not be the essence of who we are i.e. how we are like God. To say it another way, we don't say we have a nose like God (He doesn't have one) but we can say we give and receive love and have value like God - though only in quality, not quantity.
We are the way we are because God is the way he is. We are like God. To say it another way, if we wish to understand who we are as spiritual beings, we must understand who God is as Spirit.
The love of God is manifested as the Spirit of God. We are told God is love, and he is Spirit. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. The essence of God is love. When the bible says God is Spirit, it is saying God is love, and when it says God is love it is also saying God is Spirit.
American theologian Jonathan Edwards says while ²the Word (Christ, the eternal Logos/Word) is the perfect self-understanding/ knowledge of God i.e. the light (truth) of God, the Spirit is the perfect love of God for himself as revealed in his Son. To say it another way, the Spirit is the "heat' or passion/love of God for Christ who is His perfect "self-image" if you will. Christ is the perfect expression of the truth/word/understanding
of God and the Spirit is the perfect expression of the love/emotion/ passion of God for himself as manifested in the Son.
When the bible says God is love, it is also saying God is glorious. His being Spirit and glorious are primary ways of describing God as a being of love i.e. what makes God all glorious is because he is infinite love within himself as Father, Son, and Spirit, which overflows out to others like him i.e. us who are His image-bearers.
The union/communion/ relationship that exists between the Father and Son is one of love manifested in, by, and through the Spirit.
In order to partake in this exchange of love within the triune being that is God, we had to be like God i.e. have a spirit or be spiritual. This means we had to have the capacity to receive the outpouring overflow of love between the Father and Son in and by the Spirit and reflect it back to Him and out to others (other image-bearers of God).
This dynamic of who God is and who we are is encapsulated in the 1st and 2nd commandment to love God with all we are and have and our neighbor as ourselves.
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¹Though we are physical and our physicality is still good and not bad, it is not the essence of our being. The body can be dead, but we live on.
And the value of the body is confirmed because we, as His children, will be given new bodies once our "earthly" body dies. So our body is important and will continue to be throughout eternity. We will exist through eternity as physical being but in a glorified state as Christ himself now does.
of God and the Spirit is the perfect expression of the love/emotion/ passion of God for himself as manifested in the Son. When the bible says God is love, it is also saying God is glorious. His being Spirit and glorious are primary ways of describing God as a being of love i.e. what makes God all glorious is because he is infinite love within himself as Father, Son, and Spirit, which overflows out to others like him i.e. us who are His image-bearers.
The union/communion/ relationship that exists between the Father and Son is one of love manifested in, by, and through the Spirit.
In order to partake in this exchange of love within the triune being that is God, we had to be like God i.e. have a spirit or be spiritual. This means we had to have the capacity to receive the outpouring overflow of love between the Father and Son in and by the Spirit and reflect it back to Him and out to others (other image-bearers of God).
This dynamic of who God is and who we are is encapsulated in the 1st and 2nd commandment to love God with all we are and have and our neighbor as ourselves.
____________________________________
¹Though we are physical and our physicality is still good and not bad, it is not the essence of our being. The body can be dead, but we live on.
And the value of the body is confirmed because we, as His children, will be given new bodies once our "earthly" body dies. So our body is important and will continue to be throughout eternity. We will exist through eternity as physical being but in a glorified state as Christ himself now does.
Nevertheless, our body is the vessel that contains or holds the essence of who we are as God's image-bearers and will be glorified when we are with Christ face to face.
Having a ³body is good and so significant Christ took on a body and is in that body to this very day and will be throughout eternity. Granted it is a glorified body and so will ours be as well.
²For a further discussion of these distinctions within the Trinity click here.
For a discussion of how we are empowered by the Spirit click here.
³Christ existing throughout eternity in physical form says something of the goodness of creation as well as the value God places in it.
Having a ³body is good and so significant Christ took on a body and is in that body to this very day and will be throughout eternity. Granted it is a glorified body and so will ours be as well.
²For a further discussion of these distinctions within the Trinity click here.
For a discussion of how we are empowered by the Spirit click here.
³Christ existing throughout eternity in physical form says something of the goodness of creation as well as the value God places in it.
It also demonstrates the humility of Christ and the willingness to be local and not everywhere present.
But possibly most of all, the greatness of the love of Christ in being willing to thoroughly identify with us in this most complete way.
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Jim Deal