Introduction

For a long time I have been sort of looking for an excuse to speak to some biblical teaching that is related to what is called the mind/body problem in philosophy. Recent circumstances have come together in such a way that I will try to address this topic today. My title is "Death, Resurrection and Judgment."

1A. Death

Let’s begin by trying to understand death. First, we know that death is the consequence of sin: for by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin so death spread to all men because all sinned (Rom. 5:12). Adam was told that the day of disobedience would be a day of death (Gen. 2:17) yet he did not immediately return to the dust from which he was made. When he disobeyed he died spiritually, was separated from God, and brought physical death into the world (and death by sin).

What is death? What does it mean to die? What happens when we return to the ground from which we were taken since being dust it is to dust that we return (cf. Gen. 3:19)? To answer this question I want to test a common explanation. Death involves spiritual separation from God in a fundamental sense so it is suggested that separation of the soul from the body is the essence of physical death.

1B. There are some passages that appear to verify this explanation.

1) Some passages lend themselves to this interpretation because they "denounce" the body in a way that suggests a kind of dualism with the body and soul at war with one another (Gal. 5:17; Rom. 6:12). The thought that comes to mind in the struggle may be to this effect: "I sure will be glad when I will be freed from this body."

2) Other passages speak of a "separation" of soul and body at death. The body is just a tent that we will soon leave; it is an earthly home (2 Cor. 5:1). So, we are either at home in the body and away from the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6) or away from the body and at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). Paul says to the Philippians: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ" in contrast to "remaining in the flesh" (Phil. 1:23-24). This may bring a gladness to leave the body plagued by decay.

2B. There are some superficial implications that are drawn from these passages

The superficial implications have various forms that can be summarized in terms of two philosophical models. Let’s call them the prison house model and the Cartesian model.

Some Greeks viewed the body as the prison house of the soul. There is the underlying tone here that the body is evil and that it corrupts a person keeping him from his fullest potential that can only be realized by the separation of the soul from the body (for some it was a freeing of mind to be merged with eternal being in some vague and abstract way).  Paul’s language sounds like the Greek view when he speaks of the passions of the body that constrain obedience from the person (v. 12, the body passions "make you obey"). Similarly, when Paul denounces the flesh (Rom. 7:8, those in the flesh cannot please God), it sounds like the physical body is evil. Thus it is concluded that Paul is rehashing a form of Greek philosophy.

The other prevailing view is Cartesian dualism in various forms. The name comes from the philosopher Descartes (1596-1650) who was a young man at the time of Dort (1618-1619). Simply put Descartes believed that the soul was like a ghost in machine. He considered the body to be more or less a hydraulic system with the heart as the pump (his science is obviously dated). In his famous position statement he speaks of "my body and the altogether other I." So we seem to have "separables" that will be separated at death and that is a welcome thing considering how evil the body is in the first place (flesh lusting against the Spirit).

3B. But there are problems with this explanation of these passages

1) The body is God’s creation and like all of creation (foods and drink) there is nothing evil in the material stuff of the universe (Gen. 1:31; 1 Tim. 4:4). Evil is found in the use of material things as that use runs on the path of disobedience.

2) There is no legitimacy to any idea that we are somehow victims of our bodies when we sin. The language of obeying the passions of the body is metaphorical for obedience to sin. It is sin that you are obeying. Expressing it this way (as obeying the body) says that you are obeying sin as a master in terms of your body. Clarity in these passages in Romans 6 comes when we accent the fact that presenting your members to sin is equal to presenting yourselves to sin (v. 13).

3) We have to stress the unity of man (of human nature)

Soul (self) is fundamentally a reference to the soul and body together (Gen. 2:7). So a better model is that of inner and outer man (2 Cor. 4:16-18). The true self is not the spiritual self, the soul, or the immaterial aspect of man. The true self is the material-immaterial unit. In other words, it is not simply that I have a body; as a matter of fact I am a body. When my eyes are fixed on an object, I can say that my eyes see it but this is inseparable from saying, "I see it." It is not that my body sees something and somehow communicates that to me, to my mind and soul. The self that sees is the body-soul unit. When a person is blind it is not simply that his eyes cannot see, indeed, he cannot see. In other words, it is the person that is blind or sees.

Because we can talk about the inner man in contrast to the outer man with the outer man dying daily but the inner man being renewed daily, a person is sometimes referred to in terms of the inner man or in terms of the outer man as a part that represents the whole. The outer man can be spoken of in ways that sound like it is somehow different or something different from the person. We have a real and good physical aspect of our person. But the person is the inner and outer man together. Paul uses "I" and "we" to refer to both the inner and outer man as a unit.

4) There is something counterintuitive about a separation of soul and body

How can you be separate from yourself? Thinking in the model of a body-soul dualism needs to be refined if not abandoned. It is not that there is this body and an altogether other I (Descartes). We do not just say "I have a body." We can also say, "I am a body." We point at the body to point at the person. When the eyes see, the person sees. It is not just a communication of information from the eyes to the brain as if the eyes see and pass that on to the mind. When your eyes see something, you see it. We are a material-immaterial unity by God’s creation. The body, soul, spirit, mind, conscience, and heart are aspects of the person. There is thus a basic sense in which it is incorrect to say at a funeral: that is Joe’s body but Joe is not there, the real person is now gone. Again, the person is body and soul Joe.

So then what is physical death? It is not that the person leaves the body he lived in on earth. Rather than a separation of separates it is more like a severing of an inseparable. Death is more like an amputation. If you lose an arm or leg, you could say that I left my leg back there at that hospital. I departed from it; it stayed back there. But it is better to say, I have been altered. Some of what makes me, me is missing. I have lost part of myself.

Death is more like an amputation on a large scale. Death is a radical disintegration of the self. It is something undesirable. It is thus compared with an uncomfortable state of exposure and nakedness (2 Cor. 5:3). It is due to sin; it speaks of the awfulness of sin. Thus even though being with the Lord without the body is better than being in the body but not with the Lord in heaven, still being in heaven without the body involves a radical alteration of the human person that is unnatural and undesirable. The comfort in this state is found in being with the Lord. Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord but we are "not all there" we are not there in all that makes a human person. This is therefore an intermediate and an incomplete state.

What then is meant by leaving the tent of this body? This is metaphorical language that speaks of the difference between this life and the life to come in light of sin and restoration by the grace of God. Leaving the body is a way of saying that a day is coming when death will come bringing with it the radical dissolution of the human person (like leaving an amputated limb behind). This body is subject to decay. I am subject to decay. The outer me is dying daily but the inner me is being renewed. But leaving this house is geared to finding another dwelling, which brings us to the great fact of the resurrection.

2A. Resurrection

Did Jesus come to save souls? Not at all, He came to save human beings, persons, body and soul. Our salvation will not be complete until the mortal is swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5:4). Salvation in Christ involves the safety of our entire existence both now and forevermore (this comprehensive fact is what lies underneath all the reasons to not worry presented to us in the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 6:25 in relation to 6:26-34). 

3A. Judgment

What does this conception do for us? We must recognize that the fact of death in the world and the fact of its impact on the people of God in history are testimonies to the true nature of sin before the holiness of God. So what perspective do we gain from knowing the that man, male and female, in the wholeness of our being is a body-soul unity? The following things at least begin to answer this question.

1) It helps us focus the primary aim of our existence for now and forever: to please the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6-9). It does that for us in light of the coming judgment seat of Christ. This judgment does not determine our justification because that depends solely on the grace of God through the work and merit of Christ. It is not so much a judgment of sin as it is a judgment of worth. Our works will be judged as to whether or not they are good or worthless (2 Cor. 5:10; cf. 1 Cor. 3:10-15).

2) It helps us focus on the fact that true Christian conduct comes to expression in all the externals of human existence. Thus the body is to be given to God as an instrument for righteousness unto holiness (Rom. 6:13). It is a reasonable service (Rom. 12:1-2) that we give our bodies to the Lord as living sacrifices. Thus we ought to live to please the Lord whether we are at home in the body or away; the judgment seat of Christ focuses on the deeds done in the body. This is not to fragment the person but to accent the practical, down to earth, and external reality of conduct that flows from the heart (it flows from the heart of the person as an immaterial-material unit).

3) It helps us find good courage for faithful service. Do not grow weary in well doing. How can this be done? We must fix our eyes on Jesus: consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners on your behalf and you will not grow weary or fainthearted (Heb. 12:3). After all, it is in the Lord Jesus that we will be raised (2 Cor. 4:14). He is the first fruits and what a marvelous thought expressed in a few words: we make up the harvest yet to come (1 Cor. 15:20).