ChristiansUnite Forums

There is a book entitled GOSPEL SALVATION by DAG HEWARD-MILLS. This book is so life changing and also stirs us up into evangelism. Consider the following

Man is a spirit, has a soul and lives in a body.
The fact that a human being is actually a spirit living inside a physical body is one of the lesser known truths.  When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he wrote that God should affect them in all three areas: spirit, soul and body.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.1 Thessalonians 5:23 

A human being is not just a piece of meat.  When Princess Diana died many people in this world reflected on the reality of spiritual issues.  I - spoke to somebody in the lobby of Novotel Accra.  He asked me what I did and I told him that I was a pastor.  “Oh, I see,” he said. “Do you believe in God?” I asked him. “Actually, I had just been thinking about this.” He continued, “When Princess Diana died I wondered whether I was just a piece of meat.” I told him, “You are not just a piece of meat.  There is more to you than a piece of meat.” When people speak in a very proud and arrogant way, it is because they are not aware of how real eternal things are. 

I will never forget my first day as a medical student in the laboratory in the University of Ghana Medical School.  It was about 2 o’clock in the afternoon when we were ushered into a large air-conditioned room containing twelve white marble tables.  On each of these tables was a dead human being lying stark naked. There were about ten men and two women.  My friends and I gathered around one of the tables.  There were stools around each table and I sat down staring at the dead body that lay before me.  On the chest of this human being was a plaster with a name inscribed.   The name of our cadaver was Cornelius.

  I wondered to myself, “Who was Cornelius during his lifetime?  What did he do for a living?  How did he come to lie before us, ready for eighteen months of intensive dissection?” As we sat there, our Anatomy lecturer came in.  He happened to be a Christian.  He said to us, “Go ahead and touch them, don’t be afraid!”  But in spite of his encouragement, most people were scared by the whole scene. This anatomy lecturer said something that has stayed with me since then.  He said, “This scene should make everyone of you seriously consider what life is all about.”  He added, “If life just consists of the physical then even goats are better.  Because when goats die they can be eaten, but human beings cannot be eaten.”

I thought about that statement and I realized that life must consist of more than what we see physically.  Man is a spirit.  The Bible says that God is the Father of spirits.…shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits, and live? (Hebrews 12:9). 

If God is the Father of spirits, then we His children are spirits.  That means that our bodies are just containers of the spirit.  The Bible describes the body as a house.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1). 

When Lazarus of Luke 16 died, the Bible teaches us that he was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom…Luke 16:22

I once passed by an unmarked grave.  I saw three men throwing dead bodies into the mass grave.  I went up to the car and asked, “What are you doing?”  They were hospital officials who had been sent to bury unclaimed bodies.  I immediately remembered Lazarus.  These were modern-day Lazaruses.  But that is not the end of the story.  After the body dies, the spirit lives on.

Lazarus himself, the real man, was carried into Abraham’s bosom.  Remember also the testimony of the rich man.  He had everything in life.  He had better health care so he lived longer than Lazarus. The rich man also died and was lavishly buried. But the story of a man does not end with the funeral. Let’s take a look at the biblical account of one rich man’s life, in Luke 16.

  And in hell he lift up his EYES, being in torments, and SEETH Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he CRIED [mouth/voice] and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his FINGER in water, and cool my TONGUE; for I am tormented in this flame. (Luke 16:23, 24)

Both Lazarus and the rich man were both alive, one in heaven and one in hell!