The Letter Kills, but the Spirit Gives Life

Difference Between Spirit and Soul

The Bible without the Spirit is the letter from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. John 6:63 says, “It is the Spirit who gives life” because God is spirit (John 4:24). The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17). When we use the Scriptures apart from the Holy Spirit, it becomes the letter that kills people, because the letter without the Holy Spirit cannot give life, but demands that we be good people. God desires that we be in spirit. In our spirit, the Lord Spirit dwells.

The difference between the letter and the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:6) is the difference between the Old Testament dispensation and the New Testament dispensation. Under the law in the Old Testament, humans were always trying to arrive at the standard of the law. We Christians, still exalt the law, remaining in right and wrong. The central focus of the New Testament is that we believe in Christ. To believe in Him is to receive Him. God wants us to believe in Christ and live in Him rather than to try to do good. Living in Christ means setting our minds on the Spirit (Rom. 8:6) and living and acting according to the Spirit.

In order to live according to the spirit, we need to know the three parts of humans. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, "May your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete." The human spirit refers to our deepest part, the conscience. We pray to the Lord in our conscience and act according to the inspiration given by the Lord. This spirit can be said to be conscience, fellowship, and intuition. The function of the spirit is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus, contact Him, enjoy His word, and live according to the guidance of His word and the Spirit.

We believers use our soul. Since the soul has the mind, emotions, and will, we use these functions appropriately, with knowledge, experience, and the word of God, depending on our situation. Many Christians rely on their souls, making them complicated and confused. But the Lord says in Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

The most important key for believers is to find the place where the Spirit of the Lord dwells. That is our human spirit. The Samaritan woman asked Jesus, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, yet you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship?" (John 4:20). The Lord answered her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness" (vv. 21, 24).

When the mind of the believers becomes the spirit of the mind (Eph. 4:23), our faith begins to grow and transform. Christians who do not grow and transform demand from others the performing of the laws that they cannot keep themselves and judge others as good or evil. We no longer want to be people who remain in the soul, but those who turn to the spirit, and are being transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2).

We need both to grow in life and to be transformed in life. Transformation is a profound matter, both deeper and higher than growth. The making of petrified wood is a good illustration of the process of transformation by way of the flowing of the divine life. The Petrified Forest National Park is located in northeastern Arizona in the United States, where one can see many petrified trees. Originally the wood was natural, having no mineral element whatsoever to give it the substance of stone. As water flows, it brings in the mineral element, carrying away the natural wooden element and replacing it with a solid mineral element. The flow of the current produces an increase of the mineral element and also causes transformation. Eventually, after many years, the wood that has been immersed in the flowing of this current is petrified. This is an illustration of the process of transformation into the divine life.

In the New Jerusalem, there is nothing of mud or wood, but human nature is either muddy or wooden. We believers need transformation. We muddy people need to be transformed into precious stones, and we wooden people need to be petrified. The process of petrification is for the water current to flow through the wood, carrying away the wooden substance and replacing it with a solid mineral element. Likewise, when we open ourselves to the Lord and receive the divine dispensing in our inner being, the indwelling Spirit works in us, enlightening us and revealing our unclean nature to cause us to repent and confess our sinful nature. By the divine element flowing into our inner being, the old element is discharged and the new element is added.

The Holy Spirit supplies life to believers, renewing their mind and transforming their behavior. Gordon D. Fee states: “Conversion involves the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in forbidding the kind of behavior in which they [the converts] formerly engaged.” Just as the letters that do not give life are different from the Spirit that gives life, the Scriptures apart from the Holy Spirit are empty religion. Hebrews 4:12 proves that the spirit is distinct from the soul. Since Jesus is the Spirit, we cannot experience Him apart from our human spirit. May the Lord shine light on us so that we may be delivered from the entangling soul and live out Christ in the spirit.