Both Physical And Spiritual

There's a number of biblical issues some people have a hard time understanding, which can easily be understood if you think of the physical and the spiritual reality.  Firstly, I should define what I mean by both.  The physical is material things in the world.  The spiritual is that which is heavenly and from God.  The thing is, what people often don't understand, the physical and spiritual realities are combined into one.  Lets take a look at one example that any average Christian knows of, and we'll move on from there.

Jesus is God, and Jesus was man.  Jesus was both 100% man and 100% God.  The physical reality, when Jesus was here on earth, was that Jesus was a man; He came in the flesh (2John 7).  The spiritual reality, and eternal reality, is that Jesus is God (John 1:1).  When people try to think strictly with logic, without any allowance for paradox, they find that this is a contradiction.  But its not a contradiction, its a paradox, and as we shall see, its not the only paradox involving the physical and the spiritual.  I mention this example to lay some groundwork to make a point with another issue, in which there seems to be less agreement among Christians.  With this example, there is agreement.  And the agreement is that Jesus was both man and God.  So it shouldn't be hard for Christians to understand the paradoxical reality when it comes to salvation.  The keyword in all this is -both-

Who does the work of salvation?  That is the question that Calvinists and Arminianists have been arguing over for years.  Calvinists say that God does the work of salvation; Arminianists say that man does it.  I say they're both wrong, or both right depending on how you look at it.  The fact of the matter is that -both- man and God do the work of salvation.  This is another paradox, just like the paradox of Jesus being 100% man and 100% God.  And if you're going to understand salvation, understanding this fundamental fact is essential.  Both man and God do the work of salvation.  The Holy Spirit works in us, and what the Holy Spirit does, we do.  In other words, what we do is a result of what the Holy Spirit does.  Consider this verse: continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (2Philippians 2:12-13).  So who is doing the working, man or God?  Both, and at the same time.

Think about it, we are the body of Christ, right?  And we did already establish that Christ is both man and God, right?  So doesn't that make -us- both man and God?  If you have been born again, that is who you are; you are both a man and one with God, because the Holy Spirit is in you.  You might think that sounds like blasphemy, saying that we are one with God, but that's exactly what Jesus says: On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you (Jesus in John 14:20).  The act of doing the will of God because of God doing it in you is exactly what unity is.  I am doing it, and God is doing it; my will is done by His will, and His will is done by my will.  That is what unity is.  And that is the paradox of the physical and the spiritual - they are two different things, but they are brought into unity by God.  Jesus was the first man to be both physical and spiritual, and Jesus is an example for us all.  What Jesus was and became, that is what we are and will become.  Just as Jesus died and rose from the dead, so shall we, because we are in Christ Jesus.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).  Just as Jesus displayed the paradox of being both physical and spiritual, so do we.  We are both physical and spiritual.