Message of the Latter Rain - Kelvin M. Duncan

ook of Hebrews makes this distinction.
"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two
edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of
the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart" (Hebrews 4:12).
Through the Word of God, we are able to distinguish between that
which comes from our own souls and that which comes from the Holy Spirit
speaking to our spirits. The fact that the Word is to separate (i.e., divide)
between these lets us know that the "soul" and the "spirit" are not
synonymous. Therefore, there are three distinct aspects of the human entity.
The Scriptures teach that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Not
merely a "spiritual death" is noted here, but complete and eternal death of
body, soul, and spirit. Scripture defines death as a complete absence of
consciousness (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10). God did not say to Adam, "The day you
sin, a part of you will die." He said that "the day you eat of it, you will surely
die" (Genesis 2:17, NKJV). The question is: Why did Adam continue to
live? More to the point, we need to know why we are still alive, in spite of
the fact that "all have sinned" (Romans 3:23).
Did God mean what He said, or was He only bluffing? How is it that
God could declare that the result of sin would be death, that day, yet Adam
continued to live on for hundreds of years? We need an understanding of the
gospel which will reconcile the apparent discrepancy between the infallible
word of God to Adam and the reality which we see today. God said, "Thou
shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). Why then does life continue in this sincursed
world? A discontinuity seems evident in the spiritual space-time
continuum. One law applied before sin, but it appears to have been
immediately set aside when Adam sinned.
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