by Christopher Talbot
(Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a four-part series which reproduces Chris Talbot’s seminar from the 2024 Free Will Baptist National Convention. We are posting it in this “episode-like” format since the length of the talk is more conducive to this approach. We thank Mr. Talbot for allowing us to share his remarks here. Any responses/questions will be sent directly to him. Please note that these posts have only been lightly edited so as to preserve the original form of this seminar.)
Introduction
Who are we? Who are you? Who am I? These questions of identity rank among Leroy Forlines’ “inescapable questions of life.”[1] As Forlines notes, this inquiry of identity is not a question of mere curiosity, but one by which our entire being cries out for, seeking an answer.[2]
Understanding who we are, both in body and soul, is tantamount to understanding our purpose and perception in and of the world. As we see the rise of various secular ideologies, we may also ask the question of “what are we?” Much of the foundation of our lives and our practice is dependent on how we understand who and what we are, in substance, function, and purpose. Matthew Lee Anderson is right in noting, “What the body is shapes what the body does.”[3] The nature and substance of the human person, whether body and/or soul, directs how the person behaves.
The Bible does not leave us without an answer in this area. C. S. Lewis wrote so clearly in Mere Christianity: “Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body—which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty, and our energy.”[4] We not only have an answer to the question of who and what we are, but an answer that is both unique and essential to our faith.
As we begin to think about what we are as humans, I would like to begin by offering a tentative definition of mankind that may be helpful as we work our way through these ideas. For the purpose of this presentation, I will define man as:
A creature made uniquely according to God’s image, consisting of both body and soul, created to love and glorify God.
I would also like to offer a few caveats for our larger discussion. I will generally use the word “soul” to refer to the immaterial part of man, and the word “body” to refer to the material part of man. While some scholars refer to the immaterial part of man as “spirit”, or more philosophically, the “mind,” I find “soul” to strike a balance both philosophically and biblically. Second, I use the word “body” in distinction from the word “flesh.” As we’ll note later, the New Testament especially tends to treat “flesh” with a negative connotation, often implying physical temptation. The body, on the other hand, seems generally to refer to the physical or material part of the human person.
Further, this presentation will follow what I hope is a fairly clear outline. First, we will begin with a brief exploration of what the Bible says about the human constitution. Second, we will situate the biblical data within larger theological, philosophical, and even briefly historical discussion regarding the relationship of the body and soul. Lastly, we will seek to apply this theological anthropology to a modern issue; namely, transgenderism. In doing so, my aim is to help you to think more biblically about the human constitution, and to think more critically and practically about how this applies to our current cultural moment.
The Bible
It is vitally important to understand what the Bible has to say about the human body. As will be noted more fully later, it is in discussing the body that so many bioethical issues are at play, as well as multiple other areas of concern. What a person thinks about the human embodiment has implications for human agency, personal identity, the soul, Christian worship, the spiritual disciplines, use of technology, abortion, fetal research, reproductive technologies, human cloning, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, end of life care, human sexuality, and gender, and much, much more. Theological anthropology seems to be the pertinent doctrine of our time.
Greg Allison enumerates the wide-ranging implications and concerns of human embodiment as it relates to Christian doctrine:
(1) an understanding of God’s creation of human beings and his design for human flourishing (thus, the theology of creation); (2) the constitution of human nature (thus, theological anthropology); (3) the somatic effects of the fall and sin (thus, hamartiology); (4) the nature of the incarnation (thus, Christology); (5) the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of, and divine action through, redeemed human beings (thus, pneumatology and soteriology); (6) the strangeness of disembodiment in the intermediate state and the completion of God’s redemptive work through the general resurrection (thus, eschatology); (7) numerous contemporary moral and social issues such as heterosexuality and homosexuality, transgenderism and gender dysphoria, and body image and body modification; and (8) an exposé of the devastating impact of Gnosticism/neo-Gnosticism on the America society and church.[5]
To be sure, the questions surrounding anthropology are myriad, as are the doctrines that are implicated, and the ethical areas that are affected.
As evangelical Christians, we should always turn first to the Bible as our sufficient authority in all things concerning faith and practice. Even though any given person may or may not have misconceptions about the body and the soul, we must listen intently to the words of Scripture. Moreover, we would do well to start at the beginning of that Word, beginning with God’s creation of the first humans. Therefore, let’s begin by looking at key verses that speak to the human constitution.
First, Genesis 1:27 offers a refrain in the creation narrative, stating “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.” God’s immediate command for his newly created humanity is for them to be fruitful and to multiply, and to have dominion over the earth. Many argue that it is here that God is giving man the creation mandate, one that is repeated later to Noah and his offspring.
Genesis 1 includes a few key components that contribute to a theology of embodiment. Recorded in this narrative is that when God created man according to His image, that he distinctly makes both male and female. This is pre-fall humanity. Thus, the distinction between men and women, between male and female, is good and God’s intention for humanity. Furthermore, it should be noted that in a fairly quick description of the creation narrative, Genesis 1 stops long enough to clarify that the way in which man is created: that mankind is made up of both men and women. In their bodily creation, God decided to not just make two of the same, but two complementary bodies that would propagate the human race. Thus, the creation of material bodies here includes a distinction between male bodies and female bodies. I would add, maleness and femaleness are more than mere biology, but they are not less.
Whereas in Genesis 1 we receive a broader vision of creation, Genesis 2 gives a more focused and specific depiction. Genesis 2:7 tells us, “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” We know from Genesis 2 that while Adam is created by God’s decree, he is also formed from material things—from the dust of the ground. Adam, the first created human, is not created or identified as an immaterial being, but instead is constituted from both material and immaterial. While he is made from the dust of the ground, he also receives the breath of life from God, and the combination of those two things (possibly those two substances) makes Adam a living thing. Of course, Eve is like him, being of the same kind but not identical, distinguished by her femaleness to Adam’s maleness. In this account, we are told that once the creative act is complete, that Adam is quite literally a “living soul” or a “living creature.” We are left to think that there is something very unique about Adam and his helpmate Eve compared to the rest of creation.
As we think about the what the Bible says concerning the human body, we must pay close attention to what the Bible says about our own Lord’s incarnation as well. We learn from Genesis that the body is created good before the Fall. When we find ourselves in the Gospels, we hear that “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” (John 1:14) The Word that was there at the beginning when mankind was made according to the image of God, has now incarnated, become like His unique creation. Paul recites a creedal hymn in 1 Timothy 3:16, mentioning Christ’s incarnation. I appreciate the International Standard Version’s translation here because it captures the poetry nicely:
In flesh was he revealed to sight,
vindicated by the Spirit’s might,
adored by angels singing.
To nations was he manifest,
believing souls found peace and rest,
our Lord in heaven reigning!
Timothy Tennent notes the eschatological significance of Christ’s incarnation. He writes, “we are saying that God’s creation of the body is physical, representative, and anticipatory preparation of God’s grand work in and through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The body points to the deep mystery of God’s redemptive plan… Our created bodies all point to Christ’s incarnation, and in turn, his resurrected body points to our physical, bodily (not just spiritual) resurrection at the end of time.”[6] Christ’s incarnation—His taking on of a human body—is not an asterisk of God’s redemptive plan. Instead, it is central to our own physical resurrections. Matthew Anderson succinctly states, “The God in whose image we are made took on human form. The incarnation established that God is with us in all the dust, the sweat, and the tears of our physicality.”[7] These ideas about our resurrection body are parsed out more fully in 1 Corinthians 15.
First Corinthians 15 beautifully emphasizes the goodness of the body in light of our eschatological hope and resurrection. As Anderson notes, “The resurrection of the body means that to be human with God is to be with him not as disembodied souls, but as people with noses, faces, arms, and legs that are similar to those we currently have.”[8] Though we are promised a “spiritual” body, I do not think that means we will have immaterial body. Instead, the passage is clear that we will still be our bodies. The whole emphasis on the latter half of that chapter is on our bodily resurrection in light of Christ’s bodily resurrection. To note, some have argued that the appeal to “spiritual” is to focus on Who will fully animate our bodies in the New Heavens and the New Earth: the Holy Spirit.[9] Ultimately, we see our resurrection in light of Christ’s resurrection. That is, Jesus was raised bodily, and so will we.
There are numerous other passages that allude to humanity being a combination of both body and soul. Matthew 10:28 admonishes us to fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell. Ecclesiastes 12:7 seems to say that at death the body that the soul/spirit separates. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 states: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 7:34 tells us to be holy in body and in spirit. We are commanded to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind (Mark 12:30). James 2:26 tells us that “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” As noted, the biblical account seems to assume that the man is necessarily both body and soul, though other views on human constitution abound.
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[1] F. Leroy Forlines, The Quest for Truth: Theology for Postmodern Times (Nashville: Randall House, 2001), 135.
[2] Forlines, The Quest for Truth, 135.
[3] Matthew Lee Anderson, Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter to Our Faith (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2011), 53.
[4] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 1952), 99.
[5] Gregg R. Allison, “Four Theses Concerning Human Embodiment,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 23.2 (2019): 157–158.
[6] Timothy C. Tennent, For the Body: Recovering a Theology of Gender, Sexuality, and the Human Body (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Reflective, 2020), 25.
[7] Anderson, Earthen Vessels, 60.
[8] Anderson, Earthen Vessels, 60–61.
[9] Anderson, Earthen Vessels, 61.