Introduction – Breathing In the First Morning
Picture the very first morning on Earth.
The sun has just risen over a brand-new world.
The air is clean and full of promise.
Then comes a breathtaking moment:
“The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Slow down and let that scene play in your mind.
God stoops down, shapes a body from the dust, leans close, and breathes His own life into that form.
And with that breath—heart beating, lungs filling, eyes opening—a living person stands up.
Notice what the text does not say.
It does not say God made a body and then tucked a soul inside like a note in a bottle.
It says the man became a living soul.
From the first heartbeat, human life is a single, seamless gift—body and breath together, animated by the Creator’s own presence.
Now think about our everyday speech.
At funerals we hear, “Her soul has gone to a better place.”
When someone is very ill we may say, “He’s just a body in a chair.”
Those phrases carry a different story—a Greek idea that the “real you” is an invisible spirit and the body is just a shell to escape.
That idea crept in over centuries, but it isn’t the Bible’s story.
And it matters.
How you see yourself shapes everything: how you treat your body, how you love your neighbor, how you grieve, and how you understand what Jesus came to save.
So this morning we’ll simply walk through the Bible’s story of us.
We’ll start where life began, watch what went wrong, rejoice in what Christ has already done to make it right, and look forward to the day He brings His work to completion.
Think of it as one sweeping journey—from the first breath in Eden to the final trumpet of resurrection.
________________________________________
Creation – God’s Beautiful Design of Wholeness
Genesis tells us not just that God made us, but how and why—and those details carry profound meaning.
Formed from Dust
Our bodies are woven from the same elements as mountains and rivers.
God calls that matter “very good” (Gen 1:31).
Your body is not a throw-away container; it is part of God’s masterpiece.
Breathed Into Life
The breath in your lungs is more than oxygen; it is the sign that every heartbeat is a gift.
“As long as I live,” sang the psalmist, “I will praise the Lord” (Ps 146:2).
Life is sustained moment by moment by God Himself.
Became a Living Soul
The Hebrew phrase nephesh chayyah means a living being, a whole person.
The Old Testament uses nephesh for human beings, for animals (Gen 1:20), even for a lifeless body (Lev 21:11).
It never means a ghost-like essence that can float free.
This is good news.
It means the physical and the spiritual are never enemies.
Everyday acts—working, eating, resting, laughing—are not “less holy” than praying or singing hymns.
God cares for the entire person He made.
Correcting Today’s Extremes
Some people practically ignore their bodies, as if health doesn’t matter because “the real me” is spiritual.
Others idolize the body, chasing beauty or fitness as though youth can last forever.
Genesis cuts through both mistakes: you are a living soul—body and breath together, precious and beloved.
And for anyone who struggles with illness, aging, or disability, this is deeply hopeful.
God’s plan is not to discard your body and start from scratch.
It is to raise and transform the very self you are: “this mortal shall put on immortality” (1 Cor 15:53).
Life Is Always Holy
Because we are whole, all of life is holy ground.
Worship involves bodies (singing, kneeling, embracing).
Relationships involve bodies (meals, hospitality, presence).
Service involves bodies (hands that build, feet that go, tears that weep).
There isn’t a “merely physical” act for a child of God.
________________________________________
The Fracture – Sin and the Death of the Whole Person
If creation reveals God’s beautiful design, Genesis 3 explains why the world we know is filled with pain and funerals.Something went terribly wrong.
The serpent’s whisper—“You will not surely die” (Gen 3:4)—was more than an invitation to snack on forbidden fruit.It was the first false teaching about human nature.
It implied: You have life in yourself. You will go on anyway. You don’t need the Giver to keep the gift.
But God’s verdict is clear and devastating:
“Dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19).
Death is not a friend or a graduation; it is the undoing of the whole person.
How the Cracks Spread
• Toward God: Adam and Eve hide in fear.
• Toward each other: blame and mistrust spring up.
• Toward creation: pain, thorns, sweat, and finally death.
Paul says creation itself now groans (Rom 8:22).
Sin isn’t just breaking a rule; it’s breaking reality.
The Bible’s Realism About Death
Scripture calls death “sleep” (1 Thess 4:13–14).
It says the “soul”—the person, the life—can die (Ezek 18:4).
Jesus warns that God can “destroy both soul and body” (Matt 10:28).
The Old Testament treats contact with death as the deepest uncleanness, not a doorway upward but the negation of life with the Living God.
The idea of a naturally immortal soul—so common in Greek philosophy—simply doesn’t appear in the Hebrew Scriptures.
To be human is to be an animated body.
Remove the breath and you have a lifeless person, not a floating ghost.
Why This Matters for Salvation
If we are indivisible unities, God’s salvation cannot be a spiritual escape plan.
Christ did not come to rescue a ghost and leave the rest.
The gospel is re-creation—the restoration of the whole person in a renewed world.
________________________________________
Redemption – Christ Restores Wholeness
Into this fractured world came Jesus.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
If the body were disposable, why would the Son of God take one forever?
Hebrews 2:14 says He shared “flesh and blood” so that by dying He could break death’s power.
Our Redeemer entered our condition, not as a costume, but as His own.
The Cross
On the cross Jesus didn’t endure only a spiritual pang while His humanity was optional.
He truly died. “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” and “He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46).
The breath given at creation He willingly surrendered, entering death to defeat it from the inside.
The Resurrection
Early Sunday the tomb was empty and history tilted. The risen Jesus was no ghost.
He ate fish, showed His scars, invited His friends to touch Him (Luke 24:39–43; John 21).
Paul calls Him the firstfruits (1 Cor 15:20).
Because He lives, we shall live also (John 14:19).
He “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:10)—not immortality as a human possession, but as a gift in Christ.
Salvation for the Whole Person
• God-ward: We are justified and at peace with God (Rom 5:1).
• Neighbor-ward: Hostility is broken down; a new family is formed (Eph 2:14–16).
• World-ward: Our bodies will be transformed to be like His glorious body (Phil 3:21).
Christ redeems everything sin has broken.
The gospel is as wide as creation and as personal as your heartbeat.
Whole-Life Discipleship – Living as “Living Souls” Now
Redemption is not only about what happens after we die.
Because Jesus has already conquered death, His new life begins reshaping us today.
Paul puts it simply:
“Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).
Notice he does not divide life into sacred and secular compartments.
He doesn’t say, When you pray be spiritual, but when you cook or exercise that’s just physical stuff.
No—because we are living souls, everything we do can become worship.
Your Body as a Temple
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit…? Therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
For Seventh-day Adventists this has always carried special meaning.
Caring for health—balanced diet, fresh air, rest, exercise—is not merely self-improvement.
It’s an act of gratitude and stewardship, enabling stronger service and clearer minds to hear God’s voice.
Holistic living guards against two opposite mistakes:
• Neglect—overwork, poor sleep, unhealthy habits because “the real me is spiritual anyway.”
• Idolatry—making appearance, fitness, or bio-hacks the measure of worth.
Both miss the truth: your body is God’s good gift to steward, not a husk to discard or a god to serve.
Ordinary Acts as Holy Ground
This truth baptizes the everyday:
• A family meal becomes communion and fellowship.
• A morning commute can become prayer on wheels.
• Exercise or gardening is care for creation and for the vessel through which you serve.
• Honest work is integrity as worship.
Because we are whole beings, every action—mundane or sacred—is spiritual when offered to Christ.
Relationships Reimagined
We also see people differently.
They are not simply minds to persuade or spirits to harvest.
They are whole persons to love.
Jesus modeled this perfectly:
He healed bodies, fed the hungry, welcomed children, touched lepers, and preached good news.
His ministry met physical, social, and spiritual needs together.
As His followers we practice:
• Hospitality—opening homes and hearts.
• Compassionate service—visiting the sick, helping the oppressed.
• Truth in love—sharing the gospel as life, not just doctrine.
To love God is to love neighbor (Matthew 22:37-39).
There is no purely “vertical” piety that ignores human relationships.
Sabbath: A Weekly Rehearsal of Wholeness
Every Sabbath we practice this truth.
The day gathers rest, worship, and fellowship into one seamless experience.
It proclaims that our value does not lie in endless productivity but in belonging to the Creator and Redeemer.
Each Sabbath is a standing invitation to live whole lives in God’s rhythm.
Natural turn:
If redemption transforms daily life now, it also guarantees the life to come.
The same Lord who breathes new creation into our present will one day raise the whole person.
________________________________________
The Blessed Hope – Resurrection and New Creation
From Job to Revelation, the Bible’s consistent hope is not an immortal soul flying free, but a bodily resurrection and a restored world.
• Job declared, “In my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:26).
• Isaiah promised, “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise” (Isaiah 26:19).
• Daniel foresaw “many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake” (Daniel 12:2).
• Jesus said, “I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40).
• Paul rejoiced, “The Lord himself will descend… and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
For Paul, immortality apart from a resurrected body was unthinkable (2 Corinthians 5:4).
Death is not a friend but “the last enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26).
Death as Sleep, Not Life in Another Form
Because death ends all conscious activity, the Bible often calls it sleep (John 11:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13).
Those who die in Christ rest securely, “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3), awaiting His call at the resurrection.
They are safe, but not watching us from some balcony of heaven.
They wait in perfect trust until the trumpet sounds.
Jesus the Firstfruits
Our confidence is anchored in a Person.
When Jesus rose on that first Easter morning, He carried humanity through death and out the other side.
His glorified body is the pattern and pledge of ours: incorruptible, powerful, radiant.
“Because I live,” He promised, “you also will live” (John 14:19).
Cosmic Restoration
Resurrection is personal but not private.
Romans 8:21 says creation itself will be freed from decay.
Revelation 21 pictures “a new heaven and a new earth” where God lives with His people and wipes away every tear.
The Christian hope is not escape from the world but the re-creation of the world.
Comfort and Courage
This blessed hope brings comfort at every graveside.
What looks like final silence is only seedtime.
God will call, and His children will answer.
Because the grave is not the end, we can forgive freely, serve generously, and live with courage, knowing that “your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
________________________________________
Conclusion & Appeal – Whole Persons, Whole Salvation
Let’s gather the story we’ve walked:
• Creation – God formed us from dust and breathed into us His life. We became living souls—whole and indivisible.
• Fall – Sin fractured every relationship. Death entered as God’s “No” to the whole person.
• Redemption – Jesus, the Word made flesh, bore our death and rose bodily, bringing life and immortality to light.
• Hope – At His return the dead in Christ will rise, and all creation will be made new.
This is not abstract theology; it is the story of every human life—your story.
Whole-Life Response
What does this mean for tomorrow morning?
• Your body matters. Caring for it—through rest, nourishment, and balance—is an act of worship (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
• Your relationships matter. Reconciliation, hospitality, and compassion are not optional extras; they are core to loving God (Matthew 22:37-39).
• Your daily tasks matter. Honest work, patient parenting, diligent study—these become holy when done in Christ’s name (Colossians 3:17).
Nothing in a believer’s life is “merely physical.”
Everything is spiritual because the whole person belongs to God.
Living With Resurrection Eyes
With this hope we face hardship with courage, serve with generosity, and grieve with expectation.
Every tear shed in Christ is a seed of joy that will blossom when He calls the sleeping to life.
Invitation
Perhaps today you sense the Spirit calling you to deeper wholeness.
Jesus promises, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
Abundant life is whole-person life—body and spirit, mind and heart—restored by Jesus now and raised in glory when He returns.
Will you surrender your entire being—habits, health, relationships, ambitions—to the One who gave Himself for you?
Will you trust Him to keep your life safe until the day He calls your name?
Imagine that day:
graves opening, loved ones rising with radiant, incorruptible bodies;
the Lord descending with a shout;
and the redeemed of all ages lifting the victorious cry:
“O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).
This is not wishful thinking.
It is the guaranteed outcome of Christ’s own resurrection.
Closing Prayer
Lord of life, You formed us from dust and breathed into us the breath of life.
Through Jesus’ death and resurrection You have redeemed us completely.
Sanctify us—body, soul, and spirit—so that when You come we may stand whole and joyful in Your presence.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
