In the beginning, God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). This shows that man does not have a soul as something separate inside of him, but that he himself became a living being when body and breath came together. When man dies, the body returns to the dust of the earth (Genesis 3:19), and the breath of life returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). The person no longer lives, for the soul, the living being, cannot exist without both body and breath joined together. The Scriptures tell us that in death there is no memory, no praising of God, and that the dead lie in silence (Psalm 6:5; Psalm 115:17). Jesus explained this clearly when He said that death is like sleep, as He told His disciples about Lazarus, that he was asleep, though He meant that he was dead (John 11:11–14). Just as a sleeping man knows nothing until he awakes, so the dead know nothing until the day of resurrection. This is the hope that Jesus gave, for He said that the hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth, some to everlasting life and others to judgment (John 5:28–29).
Jesus also explained that in the resurrection people will not marry nor be given in marriage, but will be like the angels of God in heaven (Matthew 22:30). After His own resurrection, He showed us what the new body will be like. Though the doors were shut, He stood among His disciples (John 20:19). Yet He was not a ghost, for He said, “Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39). He even ate food before them to prove He was real (Luke 24:42–43). His risen body was physical and touchable, but also transformed, no longer subject to death or weakness. He promised that those who belong to Him will share in this same kind of resurrection, for He said, “The righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).
So the soul does not go on living apart from the body, but man rests in the grave, silent and still, until God calls him back to life at the resurrection. On that day, those who hear the voice of the Son of God will rise, not as disembodied spirits, but with a real and glorious body, like the one Jesus Himself revealed after His resurrection, filled with everlasting life and the glory of heaven.
