You are Primarily a Spiritual Being
You are a descendant of Adam and created in the image of God; you are a spiritual being temporarily housed in a mortal body of this earth. You will inhabit your body of the earth for a few short years and then it will be returned to the earth from where it came.
Your spiritual self, eternal and created in the image of God, will, on the other hand, live forever; there will never be a time when you do not exist in some form, somewhere in God’s creation. God has planned all of this from eternity past and his plan is completely unalterable!
You Were Chosen Before the World was even Created
A marvelous truth about you and all Christians is revealed in Ephesians 1:4-9 where it is written:
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.“
Faith, not Understanding
The realities associated with our creator are completely beyond our comprehension; the relationship we experience with our creator is a relationship of faith, not understanding. There is nothing that I truly understand about God; while I love and trust him, I don’t understand him. As my creator he is infinitely above and beyond me and understanding God is not possible for me. Fortunately, God does not expect us to understand him, just to love him and trust him with all our hearts.
I believe it safe to say God knew each of us by name before the universe was even created; he knew his plans for us and had numbered the days of our physical mortality. I delight in Psalms 139:16-17 where it is written:
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
We should not be surprised when we realize God saw us in Adam in the Garden of Eden; in the mind of God I believe we were a complete certainty in Adam at the time of Adam’s disobedience. We were there, in some manner beyond our understanding, and our spirits died right along with Adam’s and Eve’s. I’ll freely admit I do not understand what I’ve just written, but by faith I believe it to be true.
Let us consider the tragedy that befell the human race when Adam chose to directly disobey God; we all died spiritually alongside Adam in the Garden of Eden.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Paramount Pictures, 1931, Starring Fredrick March
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
In 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson published a short novel named, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” The book focused on the struggle between good and evil that all of us recognize as a part of our life even including the Apostle Paul as he described his frustrations in Romans 7.
Dr. Jekyll wanted to find a way to suppress the evil nature he felt within him and devised a serum which he hoped would work. To his distress, the serum did more to release his evil nature, who was named Mr. Hyde, rather than suppress it; needless to say there was an unhappy outcome to his story.
We too have a similar problem in that we are inhabited by two opposing entities, a sin nature, which we inherited from Adam, and a restored spirit we received at the point of salvation. The New Testament describes the struggle we face and provides the answers we need to suppress our sin nature.
That is where the title, “Your Dichotomy of Being” comes from; the two natures that struggle within you for mastery. I refer to this inner conflict as a dichotomy of being which will always require the enabling ministry of God, the Holy Spirit.
Now let us consider your dichotomous nature.
An Amazing Spiritual Truth
For purposes of clarity let us examine a dictionary definition of dichotomy.
“1: a division into two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities the dichotomy between theory and practice also: the process or practice of making such a division dichotomy of the population into two opposed classes”
I believe that is a particularly good word to describe the remarkable situation in which Christians find themselves; we have two contradictory entities within us, the good, spiritual entity, made in the image of God, and the evil, fallen entity we received at Adam’s fall. While our spiritual self was restored to life by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, our physical body, inhabited by a sin nature, is still under God’s curse and its disposal is inevitable.
Spiritually, as born-again Christians, we have been made spiritually alive, indwelt by God, the Holy Spirit, and seated on the right hand of God, the Father; we have also been made joint heirs with Christ and eternally joined to God’s family as his adopted children. Let me point out this spiritual reality will outlast our physical reality by any infinite number you can imagine.
The dichotomy comes in because we presently inhabit a physical body that has not been redeemed and is still laboring under the curse of the fall of Adam. In addition, it contains a sin nature which was crucified with Christ but can still inflict pain and suffering if we let it. We will also live out our mortal lives as soldiers of the Lord, fighting a spiritual war on the spiritual battlefield called Earth.
While this is not a pretty picture, I believe it is helpful to understand, as fully as possible, the key facts surrounding our mortal lives as Christians. In accordance with God’s eternal plans, Christians are not called home at the moment of salvation but are left on this earth to accomplish God’s will for their lives. I have written more on this several times including “Your Duty to the Family.”
Next time we will consider the tools God has given us to accomplish the goals that have been set before us.
Painting, “In His Own Image,” by Adele Bower ©
davidbowerkingwood 
Wonderful and comforting thoughts! I am looking forward to the post describing the tools that God has given us to accomplish the goals He has set before us! Thank you very much for writing and sharing all of these precious facts, David!
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By: Alison on November 27, 2018
at 6:42 pm
The Bible is a faithful source of great comfort, it has been a constant source of blessing to me for many years. Thank you for your comment.
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By: davidbowerkingwood on November 27, 2018
at 9:35 pm