What is the Spirit? Where did it Come From? Can it Die?

Genesis 1:26-27 – Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.

People are made in the image of God. God is God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. There are three “parts” or Persons of God.

People also have three parts. We are made up of our body, our mind, and our spirit. The body houses the mind and the spirit. If the body dies, the mind also dies, and the spirit departs.

But what about cases where the brain stops functioning and someone is in a vegetative state without a conscious awareness? What happens to their spirit, then? Is it trapped in that person’s body until the life-support machines are turned off and their body finally dies?

The spirit is in the body until it dies, just as the mind is, but in a non-functioning capacity. Neither is the spirit an independent consciousness within the body. The spirit does not think on its own and therefore does not feel trapped in a vegetative body. It does not want to leave the body. It is simply there, like any other part of you, say a hand or an eye, until the body dies. Then, it leaves.

So, the body dies, and the spirit lives on. But can the spirit die at some point? Do we have such a thing as an immortal soul?

Though originally given to us by the breath of God, our spirits are not immortal. Only God is immortal. God created our spirits, and our spirits live on only because God wills them to do. God is the only thing that absolutely cannot die.