Now we come to the history of our spirit. Of course, man’s spirit was also firstly created by God, yet after man’s fall, his spirit became deadened and lost its spiritual function toward God. One crucial hint in the Bible concerning the human spirit has been missed by nearly all the Christians. If you read the Bible carefully with your experience of the spiritual life, you could realize that even after the fall of man, God preserved man’s spirit. Man’s spirit was not only created by God, but also it has been preserved by God. It was influenced by man’s fall so that it became deadened and lost its function, but it was not invaded by God’s enemy. It seems that God drew a line of separation around man’s spirit. This is based upon the teaching of Job. Job was attacked by Satan, but his life was preserved by God. Job speaks about the human spirit in a strong way. Job 32:8 reads, “But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding” (ASV).
You have to realize that human life actually is the human spirit. We may say that human life is in the human body because there we have a kind of physical life. Temporarily you can say that. The Greek word bios is the root for what medical doctors refer to as biological life. But it is difficult even for the medical doctors to tell you what is life in the human body. Actually, when man’s spirit goes away from his body, the life is gone. And that life is not the physical bios. That is the real life of man, and according to God’s creation in Genesis 2:7, man’s spirit came from the breath of God. That breath is man’s spirit. We know this from Proverbs 20:27 which reads, “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all his innermost parts” (ASV).
That breath is also man’s life, because Genesis 2:7 indicates that when the breath of God came into the nostrils of man, man became a living soul. You cannot divide or separate the human life from the human spirit. Actually, the human spirit is the life of man. This is hard to understand because life is altogether a mystery. But anyhow you do have this hint in the Bible that the human spirit is the human life. When God preserved Job’s life, it means God preserved Job’s spirit. Satan touched Job’s body, and he touched Job’s mind, but he never touched Job’s life, his spirit. His spirit was preserved by God.
Even a fallen sinner, an unbeliever, has a spirit that has been preserved by God. When you were doing sinful things before you got saved, deep within you, a part was different. You would say that was your conscience. That is right. The conscience is the leading part of your spirit. With even the most fallen person, the spirit is preserved. If a fallen person would take care of his conscience, he would never rob a bank; he would not steal; he would not go to sinful places. All of the sinful things are against the conscience, and the conscience is the leading part of the spirit. You have to realize that your conscience has never sinned, even before you were saved. This means that even before you were saved your spirit was preserved. Do you know what is the genuine and real gospel preaching? It is to touch the human conscience. This is because the human spirit is preserved by God.
The history of our spirit is that it was first created by God and then preserved by God. Third, our spirit was regenerated by God! Satan never came into our spirit, and sin has never been in our spirit. Only vacancy was in our spirit. Before we were regenerated our spirit was vacant. One day the very Creator, the source of life who is even life, came into our spirit. Right away we were regenerated. The Redeemer, the Savior, came into our spirit. When we believed on Him and called on His name, receiving Him as our Savior, He came into our spirit.