Against Heresies: Book V

NOW GOD WILL BE GLORIFIED IN HIS CREATION: shaping it to be like His own Son. Through the Father's hands, meaning through the Son and the Holy Spirit, humans, not just a part of humans, were made in God's likeness. Although the soul and spirit are part of a human, they do not make up the entire person; the complete human is the union of the soul receiving the Spirit of the Father and the blending of that physical nature formed in God's image.

This is why the apostle states, "We speak wisdom among those who are perfect," referring to those who have received the Spirit of God and who speak in all languages through the Spirit of God, just as he did. Similarly, we also hear many members in the Church who have prophetic gifts, speaking all kinds of languages through the Spirit and revealing hidden truths for the common good and declaring God's mysteries. The apostle calls these people "spiritual" because they share in the Spirit, not because their flesh has been stripped away and they have become purely spiritual.

If someone removes the fleshly substance, which is God's workmanship, and considers only the purely spiritual, such a being would not be a spiritual person but just the spirit of a human or the Spirit of God. When the spirit, united with the soul, joins with God's workmanship, the person becomes spiritual and complete due to the Spirit's outpouring, making them in God's image and likeness.

However, if the Spirit is missing from the soul, the person remains carnal and incomplete, possessing the image of God but not the likeness through the Spirit, making them imperfect.

Additionally, if someone removes the image and the handiwork, they cannot understand this as being a human, but just a part of a human, or something else. The flesh formed is not a complete human on its own, just the body of a human and part of a human. The soul alone is not a human but a part of a human as well. The spirit, too, is not a human, as it is called the spirit, not a human; the mixture and union of all these make up the complete human.

For this reason, the apostle clarifies that the saved person is both a complete person and a spiritual one, saying in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, "Now the God of peace sanctify you completely, and may your spirit, soul, and body be preserved whole without fault at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." What was his purpose in praying for these three—soul, body, and spirit—to be preserved until the Lord's coming, unless he knew about their future reintegration and union and their shared salvation? He declares that the "perfect" are those who present these three parts to the Lord without fault.

Thus, the perfect are those who have the Spirit of God within them, keeping their souls and bodies blameless, holding on to faith in God, and practicing righteousness with their neighbors.

THEREFORE: he also says that this handiwork is "the temple of God," declaring: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." Here he clearly states that the body is the temple where the Spirit resides. As the Lord also refers to Himself, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." It is said that "He spoke this about the temple of His body." The apostle acknowledges our bodies to be a temple, even the temple of Christ, saying to the Corinthians, "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?" He speaks not about another spiritual being, as such a being would have nothing to do with a harlot, but declares "our body," meaning the flesh that remains holy and pure, to be "the members of Christ." But when it becomes one with a harlot, it becomes the members of a harlot.

For this reason, he said, "If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy that person." How then is it not the greatest blasphemy to claim that the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the Father dwells, and the members of Christ do not partake of salvation but are led to destruction? Also, regarding our bodies being raised not from their own substance but by the power of God, he says to the Corinthians, "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

But God has both raised up the Lord and will raise us up by His own power."