At His baptism the Holy Spirit of God descended upon Jesus and remained upon Him throughout His ministry (Luk 3:21-22, Joh 1:33). Then, at the end of His ministry, in the Garden of Gethsemane, which name means an olive press, He was pressed for the oil of His Spirit by the weight of the decision before Him: would He subject Himself to the will of the Father, as He had always done, even unto death, so as to give up His Spirit by laying down His life? See Luk 22:44. He knew what was about to happen, and could have escaped as He had done many times before. Three times He expressed His own will not to drink from the cup of sufferings that was set before Him but that it might pass from Him. Nevertheless, in order that the Spirit of His life might be poured out to save us from our sins (Tit 3:5-6), each time He also prayed, “Not as I will, but as You will” (Mat 26:39). Now, after three hours of darkness upon the cross, as the Spirit of His life ebbed from Him, the light of the gospel began to break forth. All had been accomplished, and with the last of seven words He spoke from the cross Jesus entrusted His Spirit to the capable hands of His Father, offering Himself up as a pleasing sacrifice. His food had always been to do the will of Him who sent Him and to accomplish His work (Joh 4:34), and now in the ultimate expression of divine fellowship He yielded up His Spirit, setting before the Father His own life as the sacrificial communion meal. In this way He would show His disciples the way to life through the very death that holds men in bondage to the devil (Heb 2:14-15). For in demonstration of His faithfulness to those who surrender their lives to Him, the Father would give Jesus back His life, raising Him from the dead three days later as the first fruits of all who follow Him in the way of the cross. Then, fifty days later on the day of Pentecost, just after His ascension to the right hand of God, Jesus would pour out upon His Betrothed the Spirit of His life He received back from the Father (Act 2:33), that she might partake of His resurrection life in preparing herself to become His Holy and eternal Bride while furthering His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
As the body without the spirit is dead (Jam 2:26), in yielding up His Spirit we understand that it was at that moment that Jesus breathed His last or expired. What does this teach us about what it is that animates our body and gives it life? Should we imagine then, as evolutionists do, that even if, with all of their scientific wizardry, they were able to put together all the physical components of life, that they would then be able to create their own living being? Is our spirit the same as our soul? See 1Th 5:23, Heb 4:12. Although fallen men often think of their person as a body having a soul, scripturally we are actually a soul that is created when the breath of life or spirit from God is breathed into our physical body; see Gen 2:7 which literally says that man came into being as a living soul when God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of that which He had formed from the dust of the earth. The soul is who we are—immortal because of the breath of God’s life that created us in His image—but according to our creation having both a physical body and a spirit from God that gives life to that body. Hence, we are not a body that has a soul or spirit, but a soul that has a body as well as a spirit from God that gives life to that body. Still though, our soul, who we are, is inextricably connected to both our physical body and the life or spirit from God that animates it. Without a body that was alive to interact with the rest of God’s creation in different ways we could never have become the unique soul that we are. Who we are is also a result of the unique living bodies and experiences of all our ancestors as well. Since who we are is intimately related to our living, physical bodies, what should we understand about the importance of caring for them according to God’s wisdom to keep them healthy? How does this also help us to understand that the things that are truly good for our body are those things that are also good for our soul, and it is those things that are truly life-giving to our soul that are also life-giving to our body? Cf. Deut 8:3, Rom 14:14-20, 1Co 6:12-20, 10:23-33, 1Ti 4:3-5.
At death, what does Scripture say happens to the body and the spirit? See Gen 3:19, Psa 104:29, Ecc 12:7. As the physical body returns to the dust from which it was created, and the spirit that gave it life returns to God, what then happens to the soul, which is the real person? See Gen 35:18, Num 16:30,33, 1Sa 28:11-19, Psa 16:10, 89:48, Isa 14:9-11; cf. 1Ki 17:22. Note that before Christ’s death and resurrection the dead souls of men are described as rapha (רָפָא), shades, ghosts, departed spirits, or spirits of the dead, residing in a physical location within the earth called Sheol, which the LXX translates as Hades; cf. Job 26:5, Psa 88:10, Pro 2:18, 9:18. Within Sheol or Hades was believed to be a place of peace and rest for the righteous referred to as Abraham’s bosom (Luk 16:22-23) or Paradise (Luk 23:43), as well as a place of punishment and torment for the wicked, referred to as hell or Gehenna (Mat 5:22,29,30, etc…), and perhaps a separate place of punishment for angels who sinned called Tartarus (2Pe 2:4). However, there is reason to believe that at His death Jesus descended into Hades and released the souls of the righteous dead from their captivity to death and led them forth to heaven when He ascended on high; see Eph 4:8-9, Col 2:15, 1Pe 3:18-19, 4:6; cf. Zec 9:11. Hence, it is believed that since Christ’s ascension, the souls of true Christians who now die depart to be with Him in heaven while their physical bodies metaphorically “sleep” in the grave, awaiting the promised resurrection and return to the fulness of their life that requires not just a soul but an animated body; see 2Co 5:6-8, Phil 1:23 and Act 7:59-60, 1Co 15:6. Thus, when Christ returns Paul writes that He will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep to be reunited with their glorified, resurrected bodies; see 1Th 4:14-16, 1Co 15:20. On the other hand, at death the souls of the unrighteous still descend to Gehenna, the place of torment in Sheol or Hades, where they are kept in punishment until the general resurrection; at that time their bodies too will be raised and their whole person will be cast into the lake of fire along with death and Hades; see 2Pe 2:9, Rev 20:5-6,11-14; cf. Isa 26:19.