The sole purpose of the gospel is to restore us to our original, right state of being. God created Adam in His own likeness and image (Genesis 1:26-27) which means that man was created as a being who possessed the Divine nature. The Divine nature is far superior to the worldly nature that Adam fell into. Therefore, other than dwelling in a body of flesh and blood, Adam was nothing like fallen man is today. He was ‘Christ-like’ with power and dominion over the physical world that surrounded him. This was so because his soul was one with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The life of the Deity generated, illuminated, and governed his mindset, all he allowed, all he consented to, said, and did. Nevertheless, because he was created as an intelligent being, Adam had his own will that could continue to be one with the Deity or turn away to something else.

The loss of life that occurred when Adam chose to have the knowledge of good and evil was not a physical death, but it was his spiritual death to the life of God that had generated, enlightened, governed, sustained, and empowered the life he had known. The consequences of Adam’s choice were no arbitrary punishment inflicted by God, but were the natural results of choosing to have his own sensibility of the good and evil of this world. The choice he made was to forfeit the Divine nature, and the life he had, for the sake of having the spirit and life of this world because this was the only way he could have a sensibility of its good and evil. This choice caused Adam to fall from his exalted state of being into a life that was now generated, enlightened, and governed solely by the spirit of this world working in his natural reason and those things that could be comprehended by his five natural senses. Adam had fallen into the worldly order of things where he was now subjected to all the good and evil that surrounded him. Now, man’s life was solely generated, illuminated, and governed by self-preservation, self-seeking, self-gratification, and self-exaltation with no more light than his natural reasoning capabilities and whatever his natural senses could comprehend. This is why God considers fallen man to have a ‘beastly’ nature — “I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and they might see that they themselves are beasts” (Ecclesiastes 3:18). Also look at 2 Peter 2:12 and Jude 10.

Man has a spirit, a soul, and a body (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).  The nature a person possesses, either worldly or Divine, is determined by the spirit that is one with their soul. The soul consists of the mind, the will, and the emotions. The nature of the spirit within a person is continually being communicated to the soul, where it is then conceived, and ultimately has an outward birth in the person’s life through their mindset, all they allow, all they consent to, say, and do. Look at James 1:13-15 saying, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death”. I want to focus your attention on the word ‘conceived’ in these verses. When the soul gives place to sin, by surrendering the will to it, the sin then gets ‘conceived’ and ultimately has its birth in the outward life. Before the coming of Jesus, the only spirit that had its life in man was the spirit of this world and therefore the only nature that could be communicated to, and conceived within the soul, was the fallen nature of pride, lust, envy, and wrath. This is why the Bible says that fallen man is a slave to sin until he repents and believes the gospel to receive the Divine nature. 

There are two great mysteries in the Bible — the mystery of iniquity, and the mystery of godliness. They are called ‘mysteries’ because both iniquity and godliness have their birth and life in the inward, unseen heart of man. To be saved, our soul must literally be freed from its union with the spirit of this world and it must literally be reunited with the Spirit of God. The apostle Paul writes about this in the first four verses of Romans 7 where he uses a physical illustration to reveal the spiritual reality I’ve been writing about. 

 “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”  Throughout the scriptures, in both the Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek, the word ‘spirit’ is written in the male gender and the word ‘soul’ is written in the female gender. Here, the husband represents the spirit within man, and the wife represents the soul. Just as a wife is bound to her husband, the soul is bound to the spirit in a union that can only be broken by death. The soul of man has been one with the spirit of this world ever since Adam ate from that tree in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-11). Being one with man’s soul, the spirit of this world keeps man enslaved to sin and his fallen condition (Read Romans 6 & Ephesians 2:1-10). 

Just as the husband must die for the wife to be freed from their union, the spirit of this world must die before the soul can be freed from sin. Jesus took the nature of sinful man upon Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21) and was nailed to the cross which provided that the spirit of this world could then be put to death in all of mankind. It’s interesting to note that the spirit of this world got its place in man by way of a tree and also lost its place in man by way of a tree. When an individual is compelled by the love of God and the testimony of Jesus to repent and believe the gospel, the spirit of this world is rendered lifeless in him/her. Romans 6:6 says, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin”. The “old man”, the former husband to the soul, has been crucified, freeing our souls to marry another- “Him Who is raised from the dead”! The selfish life that is generated by the fallen nature is the one Jesus says we must lose to be saved. “And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” (Luke 9:23-25). I sincerely hope you are seeing that fruit is produced by the union between the soul and the spirit that is one with it in much the same manner as children are produced by the physical union between and husband and wife. The husband imparts his seed into the wife where the child is conceived and ultimately born into this world. In like manner, the spirit of this world imparts the nature of pride, lust, envy, and wrath into the soul where it is conceived and ultimately gives birth to unrighteousness in the outward life. Or, in the case of a true believer, the Spirit of Jesus imparts His nature of selfless love, humility, long-suffering, and resignation to God into the soul where it is conceived and ultimately gives birth to righteousness in the outward life.  

While writing about the husband and wife relationship in the 5th chapter of Ephesians, Paul makes several references to the union of our soul with Jesus. Among them are verses 23-25 saying, “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it;” and verse 30 saying, “For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones”. Then in verse 32 we read,“This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church”. The “great mystery” is the union of the Holy Spirit with the soul of man that I have been sharing with you. It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory;” (Colossians 1:27). This is the power of the gospel. Christ, the Spirit, is the husband Who is the head of His wife, the church, which is made up of the souls of true believers, and He (Christ) is the savior of the body. Here, we can easily see the grace of God working His salvation in the spirit, soul, and body of a believer. By the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, our souls are freed from their union with the spirit of this world, whereby we are servants of sin, and then united with the Holy Spirit, whereby we become the servants of righteousness (Romans 6:16-23).

God has been revealing His plan for this union since the very beginning. Genesis 2 :18-23 says, “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man”. The animals that God made were not suitable to be one with Adam because they were of a different species and had a different nature. Adam needed one of his own kind to be a suitable “help meet” for him. God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and removed one of his ribs in order to create Eve. The rib represents Adam’s constitutional makeup. God literally took the stuff that Adam was made of and used it to form Eve. She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh which corresponds with Ephesians 5:30 that speaks of our oneness with Jesus- “For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones”. 

As the animals were not suitable to be one with Adam, sinful man is not suitable to be one with Jesus because He has the Divine nature while the nature of fallen man is beastly. Just as God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, He caused Jesus to die on the cross. And, as He took the rib from the side of Adam to form Eve, He took the stuff Jesus is made of to form us into creatures that are suitable to be one with Him. In John’s account of the crucifixion he writes, “But when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they brake not His legs: but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bear record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true that ye might believe” (vs. 33-35). The water and blood that flowed from the side of Jesus speak of what He is made of. The water represents the Word of God (Ephesians 5:26). 

Speaking of Jesus, John 1:14 tells us that the Word became flesh, and furthermore, Revelation 19:13 says, “He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God”. The blood that flowed from His side represents the Holy Spirit, Who is the “life” in Him (1 John 1:1-3, Deuteronomy 12:23). The person of Jesus was made from the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. In the same way that God took the rib from Adam to form Eve, He has now taken His Word and the Spirit from Jesus to form us into new creatures who are of His kind and possess the same nature whereby we may be one with Him. “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Most have heard some references to the “bride of Christ” and the “marriage supper of the Lamb”. These both refer to the union of Jesus with the souls of believers. God has not only purposed this union but has also made it possible. Our part is to be willing and have faith to receive our soul’s freedom from sin and its new union with Jesus Christ. We must receive what He has done to be saved. Speaking of the divine marriage, Revelation 19:7-8 says, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints”. The word translated as “righteousness” in this verse is from a Greek word that denotes “righteous acts”. Notice that the wife has made herself ready and that the fine linen is the righteousness of the believers.

According to Hebrew custom, when a virgin was betrothed to a man, the family of the groom provided her with all that was necessary to cleanse and beautify herself for the wedding. God, the Father, has given us everything we need to purify our souls for Jesus. We have His Word, His Spirit, His faithfulness, and His grace. Have you made yourself ready? 1 John 3:3 says, “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure”. Are you applying God’s provision to purify yourself? Have you put on your wedding garment- the robe of righteousness? 1 John 2:29 says, “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him” and 1 John 3:7 says, “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous”. Are you doing righteousness? Righteousness can not help but manifest in your life if the old man is crucified with Christ and your soul has come to be one with the Risen Savior. Yes, righteousness is a gift, but we must put it on and wear it. Suppose we were in the Arctic and you were freezing to death because you had no coat. I may give you a coat that would keep you from dying, but my gift would be of no profit if you did not put it on and wear it. Many people claim to have accepted God’s gift of righteousness, but it’s of no profit to them, or to His kingdom, if they’ve not given place for it to have its birth and life in them.

Jesus tells a parable about this very thing in Matthew 22. In the parable, a king prepares a marriage for his son and sends his servants out to invite the guests. Those who were first invited refused the invitation because they were consumed with their own affairs. Deeming them unworthy, the king sends his servants out again to invite everyone they can find. The parable goes on as follows:“So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen” (vs. 10-14). Many people are rejecting God’s invitation because they love the world and won’t give it up. Then, there are others like the man without the wedding garment. They are those who respond to the invitation but fail to put on and wear the robe of righteousness that God has given them. The Father doesn’t look on the outward appearance of men; He looks on the heart(1 Samuel 16:7). A person’s heart will be righteous, and his/her deeds will follow suit, if their soul has been freed from its union with sin and come to be one with Jesus Christ. Those who reject the invitation, as well as those who accept but fail to put on God’s righteousness, will be as the man without his wedding garment and find themselves in the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. “For many are called, but few are chosen.”