Gospel Doctrine: Paul’s Non-Biblical Sources

In the Spirit
By John A. Tvedtnes

[Supplement to Gospel Doctrine New Testament lesson 32]

Responding to a question from a Samaritan woman, Jesus declared, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24).

On the surface, this passage seems to contradict a modern revelation given to Joseph Smith:

The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; [1] the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us. A man may receive the Holy Ghost, and it may descend upon him and not tarry with him (D&C 130:22-23). [2]

The solution to this “discrepancy” may be found in D&C 93:33, where we red that “man is spirit.” Yet mortals are comprised of a spirit clothed with flesh that, at the resurrection, will reunite, as the passage suggests:

The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy” (D&C 93:33-34).

The Lord further explained “that through the redemption which is made for you is brought to pass the resurrection from the dead. And the spirit and the body are the soul of man. And the resurrection from the dead is the redemption of the soul” (D&C 88:14-16).

Some New Testament passages also reflect this truth, i.e., that man is essentially spirit that has been embodied in flesh. The apostle Paul, writing of “the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:42), wrote that “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual” (1 Corinthians 15:44-46). [3] So Paul describes the resurrected body as “spiritual.” For this reason, he added “that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:50). [4]

In his epistle to the Romans, Paul noted that those who followed Christ “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1, 4). He added,

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his (Romans 8:5-9).

The apostle continued his message by declaring,

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, [5] Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together (Romans 8:13-17).

This passage, as also others, such as John 3:5-7, indicate that those who are born of God through the agency of the Holy Ghost become heirs of the celestial kingdom and have communion with God through the Spirit. [6] Paul explained this in his first epistle to the Corinthians:

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God (1 Corinthians 2:11-12). [7]

[1] When the resurrected Christ appeared to his disciples, they initially “supposed that they had seen a spirit” (Luke 24:37), but he told them, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39). The Bible tells us that the Father is not a being of “flesh and blood” (Matthew 16:17), while D&C 130:22 informs us that God has a body of “flesh and bones,” which is how Jesus described his resurrected body. In Ephesians 5:30, where Paul likened the Church to the body of Christ, he also used the term “flesh and bones.” See also D&C 129:1-2.

[2] Prior to the mortal birth of Christ, the Godhead comprised one resurrected being (the Father) and two unembodied spirits. Following the Savior’s resurrection, there remains but one unembodied spiritual being in the Godhead. Joseph Smith taught that “the Holy Ghost is God's messenger” (History of the Church 5:555).

[3] For the full context, read 1 Corinthians 15:42-46. Verse 46 says that the “natural” (physical) was first because he was taking into account only man’s present condition, followed by the resurrection, and was not describing our premortal condition. Cf. the words of King Benjamin in Mosiah 3:19: “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”

[4] Joseph Smith differentiated “flesh and blood” from “flesh and bones, quickened by the Spirit of God” (History of the Church 6:52). He also declared, “As concerning the resurrection . . . all will be raised by the power of God, having spirit in their bodies, and not blood” (History of the Church 4:555). “When our flesh is quickened by the Spirit, there will be no blood in this tabernacle” (History of the Church 6:366).

[5] This is the Aramaic term meaning “father.” Aramaic, a language closely related to Hebrew, was commonly spoken by the Jews of Jesus’ time.

[6] See Alma’s explanation of rebirth through the Spirit in Alma 5:14-26; 7:14; 36:4-5, 23p-26; 38:6, and cf. Alma 22:15.

[7] For the context of this passage, see 1 Corinthians 2:10-16.