Objection:
Paul says, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16. This proves that the real man—the soul—is something different from the body and flourishes despite the perishing of the body.
Answer:
Believers in the immortal soul doctrine seem to feel that if a Bible writer speaks of a contrast between one part of man and another, between the body and the spirit (or soul), that proves the validity of their doctrine beyond question. But we also believe there is a difference between body and spirit or between body and soul. We are to glorify God in our body and in our spirit, the Scriptures declare (See 1 Corinthians 6:20). We simply insist that the Scriptures nowhere say that the soul, or spirit, is a distinct, separate, immortal entity encased within a shell, the body.
Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about his being “absent in body but present in spirit.” 1 Corinthians 5:3. Would anyone have the hardihood to say that Paul wishes us to understand that he left his body one place and flew away to Corinth? Then why seek to discover the immortal soul doctrine in his words: “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day”?
In several passages, Paul speaks, in variant language, of this “inward man.” To the Ephesians, he wrote, “That he [Christ] would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” Ephesians 3:16-17. Again he writes, “You have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” Colossians 3:9-10.
It is evident that the “inward man,” or “inner man,” is, in the case of the Christian, known as the “new man.” And what is this “new man”? The new nature—the new heart and spirit—that comes to us when, on accepting Christ, our “old man,” or old nature, is crucified. As Paul declares, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. The “inward man” is renewed daily by the presence of the indwelling Christ who causes us to grow constantly in spiritual stature even though the body may be wasting away.
So far from proving the immortal soul doctrine, 2 Corinthians 4:16 is not even discussing the subject of immortality.
