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“ Summary, Part 7 (final) ” 5. A SPIRIT HAS PERSONALITY [50:21]. Personality involves self-awareness, which is expressed by personal pronouns. By this, we distinguish ourselves from others. In angels and demons: LUKE 1:19; MARK 4:9; MATTHEW 8:29, 31. In humans: taught in almost every page of the Bible, but it is starkly illustrated in disembodied humans (LUKE 9:30; ACTS 16:23-31; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:8; PHILIPPIANS 1:23; REVELATION 6:9-10). Scripture clearly teaches that God is a personal being, not an impersonal force (many texts, but consider ISAIAH 45:22). APPLICATIONS TO BE CONSIDERED NEXT LORD’S DAY.
Ian Migala (7/21/2014)
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
“ Summary, Part 6 ” To be unmoved is to be un-Christian, and it leads to the church looking to the world for wisdom on emotion. 4. A SPIRIT HAS MORALITY [45:18]. Spirits are free moral agents. This consists of two parts: a. MORAL CAPACITY involves the personal consciousness of right and wrong, and with it the capability to discern right and wrong and to commend what is right and to condemn what is wrong. Scripture often calls this capacity ‘conscience’ (ACTS 24:16; ROMANS 2:14, 15; etc.). In humans: PROVERBS 20:27. In angels and demons: GENESIS 3:5; 2 PETER 2:4; REVELATION 12:10. b. MORAL CHARACTER. Moral character also is associated with spirits. Understand that spirits are never morally neutral: they are either good or evil, righteous or wicked. In angels and demons: 2 PETER 2:4; JOHN 8:44; 1 SAMUEL 16:14, 16, 23; MATTHEW 3:43. In humans: 2 CORINTHIANS 7:1. In God: GENESIS 3:5; JOB 40:8; DEUTERONOMY 32:4.
Ian Migala (7/21/2014)
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
“ Summary, Part 5 ” All spirits feel in a manner consistent with their nature. God’s capacity for emotion (His emotivity) has been denied by some, but more often neglected by others. Those who deny God’s emotivity say that the capacity to feel is incompatible with God’s purity, immutability, and sovereignty. But that reduces many of the texts we’ve cited to figurative language. Scripture states that all spirits possess the capacity of emotion. Anthropomorphic language for God in the Bible is figurative, meant to capture something important about Him. But emotional language for Him is literal, because affections are of the spirit. Men’s denial or neglect of God’s capacity to feel does not honor God or His word. It does not grow from careful interpretation of the Bible, but often comes from self-justification and prejudice. There has been a Western, specifically northern European cultural bias imposed on God’s character. God is not a stoic, unemotional being unmoved by His creation. This grave error has led to prayerlessness and cold doctrinarianism. Moreover, because man is the image of God, this denial of God’s emotivity tends to undermine the dignity of human emotion, which in turn tends to undermine the cultivation of a godlike emotional life by God’s people.
Ian Migala (7/21/2014)
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
“ Summary, Part 4 ” 3. A SPIRIT HAS FACULTY [25:10]. These faculties are composite; though distinct, they are to be considered together. As higher spirits, humans, angels and demons, and God all possess these faculties. a. INTELLECT OR MIND [26:45]. In humans: PSALM 77:6; PROVERBS 20:27; 1 CORINTHIANS 2:11. In angels and demons: REVELATION 12:12. In God: 1 CORINTHIANS 12:11; MARK 2:8. A dead body, though it has a brain, doesn’t know, perceive, or understand anything. b. WILL [29:26]. In humans: EXODUS 35:21; MATTHEW 26:41. In angels and demons: LUKE 4:6. In God: 1 CORINTHIANS 12:18; EPHESIANS 1:5, 11; ACTS 21:14; ROMANS 9:18; JAMES 4:15; 1 CORINTHIANS 12:11. Will is also called spontaneity. c. AFFECTIONS (or feelings) [32:32]. In humans: EXODUS 6:9; NUMBERS 5:30; JUDGES 9:13; 1 SAMUEL 1:15; PROVERBS 18:14; LUKE 1:47; PHILIPPIANS 4:7. In angels and demons: JOB 38:7; REVELATION 12:12; LUKE 15:10. In God: EXODUS 20:5; JUDGES 9:13, 10:16; PSALM 90:11; ISAIAH 42:1; JOHN 11:33, 35, 17:24; ROMANS 1:18, 9:13, EPHESIANS 4:30; PHILIPPIANS 4:18.
Ian Migala (7/21/2014)
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
“ Summary, Part 3 ” 2. A SPIRIT IS A LIVING BEING [14:10]. The second property of spirits is life, or animacy. Spirits are not inanimate objects, but living beings. They’re not only living, but life-giving (JAMES 2:26, GENESIS 2:7). Without a spirit, a body becomes a corpse which disintegrates into the dust. ‘Soul’ stresses the animate nature of spirit, and ‘spirit’ stresses its animating character. After death, the righteous continue to live with Christ (REVELATION 20:4; HEBREWS 12:23) and He doesn’t stop being our God (LUKE 20:37-38; cf. EXODUS 3:6). But what is life? What does it mean to be animate? The Bible doesn’t offer a clear-cut definition, but it does distinguish the animate from the inanimate. The distinguishing trait is that animate creatures act on their own initiative (HEBREWS 4:12); dead, inanimate objects cannot do this. If ‘soul’ emphasizes action, ‘spirit’ emphasizes a specific type and pattern of action, namely breathing. In fact, the Hebrew word for spirit (‘ruach’) also means breath. All of this indicates that God is alive. As life is marked by power and action, it is a property of all spirits.
Ian Migala (7/21/2014)
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
“ Summary, Part 2 ” DEFINED: a spirit is a non-material and living being, having faculty, morality, and personality. This describes human spirits, angels, demons, and God Himself. Reformed theologians call spirit a communicable attribute of God. 1. A SPIRIT IS A NON-MATERIAL BEING [8:03]. LUKE 24:36-39 – the disciples thought they were seeing a spirit and not a material being. But Jesus reassured them by negation: explaining what spirits don’t have. Still, the Bible tells us that spirits are real and non-material. That is not a contradiction, but an acknowledgement that a non-material realm exists. It is as real as the material realm. In virtue of its non-material nature, a spirit is invisible (COLOSSIANS 1:15; 1 TIMOTHY 6:16) and indivisible: it cannot be separated into parts. Again: a spirit, because it is non-corporeal, is impassible. It doesn’t have bodily appetites or passions. In LUKE 24:41-43, Jesus requested food to show the disciples that He was not just a spirit. Finally, because a spirit is non-material, it is immortal; it is not subject to dissolution. Only God is inherently immortal, but the human spirit returns to Him upon death.
Ian Migala (7/21/2014)
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
“ Summary, Part 1 ” [Pastor Nutter credits his former professor, Pastor Greg Nichols of Grace Immanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the outline of this message, which can be found in Pastor Nichols’ book, *What does the Bible say about God?: The Biblical doctrine of God*.] III. THE SPIRITUALITY OF GOD. JOHN 4:24 – this passage is the epitomizing text for our study. It rests three grounds: the existence of spiritual beings, that God is a spirit, and the importance of God’s spirituality for believers. A. THE BIBLICAL CONCEPT OF A SPIRIT [starting at 3:00 of the audio]. We learn about spirits from Scripture. Created spirits, in the broadest sense of the word, may be divided into two categories: the ‘lower spirits’: which are the spirits of beasts, which sustain no continued existence apart from a material body; and ‘higher spirits’: the spirits of angels and men, which can and do sustain existence apart from a material body (HEBREWS 1:14, 12:23). ECCLESIASTES 3:21 – like the beast, man returns to dust; this is to humble him. Yet unlike the beast, man’s spirit does not extinguish upon death, but rather returns to the God who gave it (ECCLESIASTES 12:7). And so the higher spirits can and do exist independent of a material body. We will only concern ourselves with higher spirits.
