What is the biblical definition oflife?

Life is that by which a created being enjoys the place in which the Creator has set it. God breathed into man's nostrils 'the breath of life; and man became a living soul.' Gen. 2:7. Sin having come in, this life is forfeited and God claims it, saying, "surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man." Gen. 9:5. This instituted capital punishment for murder, which law has never been rescinded or altered.

Life in itself is a very simple thing, though to give an accurate description of it in words would, I have no doubt, puzzle the wisest. It has been defined as power to enjoy the relationships in which one is placed, and though this definition of it may be far from perfect, I know no better. Of course, life can be seen to exist apart from the consciousness of surrounding objects, as that of a newly-born child, a man asleep, or one rendered unconscious through misfortune. The latter is mere animal or, better, physical life; the former, moral; one the life lived, the other the life essentially. The latter is what is referred to in Acts 17:25-28, “He gives to all life and breath,” and “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” This can scarcely refer to life in moral relationship with God, for man in his natural condition is dead in sins. (Col. 2:13). Again, He says, “If He set His heart upon man, if He gather unto Himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust” (Job 34:14-15).

Genesis 2:7. The creation of man is here more particularly described, and his distinction from the rest of the animated creation is still further developed. His body, it seems, was first formed of the dust, and without life. Then, into the nostrils of the frame thus constituted, the Lord God breathed the breath of life: and man became a living soul. He consists, therefore, of two parts — a body formed out of the dust, and now, in consequence of sin, to return to the dust whence it was taken, and a soul — a living soul — received from God Himself, and which, when separated from the body, returns to God who gave it. This soul, capable of receiving the knowledge of God, endowed with understanding, memory, affections, and will, is what renders man a responsible being. He is not inanimate, like a stone — insensitive, like a plant — irrational, and blindly governed by instinct, like an animal, but, unlike all these, capable of observation, recollection, judgment, decision; he is the subject of hope, fear, love, hatred, joy, sorrow, confidence, distrust, and, above all, he is susceptible of knowing the One who has so formed and constituted him, and of finding in Him the object of the suited exercise of all these wondrous faculties.

In the first section, we have necessarily man's first relationship, the foundation of every other — that to God; and here, God's breathing into him is characteristic of this. No beast has it; and although there is no direct statement, — the language is, as we say, phenomenal, — yet there is implied in this certainly some communication from God Himself, by which (and not by the bodily form,) is conveyed the idea of kinship. Yet the language is more phenomenal even than in the common version, which we have followed. It is literally, "God breathed into his nostrils the breathing of life," where indeed the fact that it is in the nostrils shows what is meant. Compare the full expression in Gen. 7:22 as we have given it. Neshamah is always the activity of the ruach, whether this stands for "breath" or "spirit." The effect, and the effect as seen, is alone depicted. This is in reality favorable to the deeper thought. It is not mere "breath of life" which is imparted, but the whole living activity, as expressed in this, is the result of the divine impartation. And if man thus becomes a living soul, good reason it is why his soul should not die, as the beast does. (Matt. 10:28.) In the fact of being a living soul, he does not differ from the beast, but he does in the way he becomes one.

"A living soul" means anything that lives by blood and breath. I say this because it says, "whereinsoever was the breath of life, died"; all animals were living souls. Man was, and the animal was; but the essential difference was that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living soul. This might be separated from his body, and the body return to the dust. That is what is referred to in "for we also are his offspring." As I said to an Annihilationist, Do you mean to call a pig God's offspring? Neither would Adam have died if he had not eaten of the forbidden fruit. His body is formed first without life, and the way he gets life is by God's breathing into his nostrils the breath of life; he receives it as a creature, but direct from God. Adam was not made as other animals were.

Verse 7 is very important, giving us man's spiritual constitution by God's original creative act. The material part of man — his body — is composed of the elements that are found in the dust of the earth, but there is also the immaterial part. He is a living soul, as were the animals whose creation is recorded in Genesis 1. It is the way in which man became a living soul that altogether distinguishes him from the animal creation. Only man became a living entity by the Lord God breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. As the result of this Divine act man became possessed of spirit as well as soul.

Next, we come to a revelation of transcendent moment, the formation of man, not merely as chief of the earth's denizens (Gen. 1), but for living relationship with Him Who made all. Here, not in the previous chapter, we learn the particulars of man's constitution. "And Jehovah Elohim formed Man [ha-Adam] of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils breath of life; and Man became a living soul." To this, the apostle refers in his sublime comparison of the first man with the Second in 1 Cor. 15, which every believer should weigh well and make his own. Here it is simply the first man; but what is said is great indeed: dust from the ground the outer man; the inner animated by the breath of Jehovah Elohim. Certainly it was not everlasting life, but none the less an immortal soul. The immediate in-breathing of the Creator is the ground of its immortality. Other animals of the waters or of the earth are called "living souls," and justly so; but man alone from God's in-breathing.

There are two striking occasions when we are told that “God breathed,” and in both cases it is connected with life. The first occurs in Genesis 2:7, where we read that, “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed [Hebrew, neshamah, breath] into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Here we have given to us the beginning of human life on this earth. This is very far removed from the theory of evolution, but tells us of God as Creator, the Fountain Head of all life, and how He bestowed human life on man.

24 In this chapter God forms man dust from the "ground," i.e., he had his form first of all without life, and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God Himself was the source of life to him, "for we also are his offspring." He was Ha-adam (Man) from ha-adamah (the ground), and then got life from God; it was thus Adam became a living soul. That man, and man only, had life from God, not simply by will as an angel might, but communicated from God and in a body, is evident, but only as life - existence. As to animals, they are formed from the ground, but they are brought to Adam to name as the paramount lord; it is their relation to Adam here, not their nature; all refers to Adam's place before God. Alive, through the breath of God in his nostrils; responsible; in the garden he had been placed in to enjoy; lord of the animals by God's authority; and God, interested in his estate, gives him a helpmeet taken out of himself, made for him, not a human being with him.

Man has, then, a living soul; nay, he is one. How he became so Gen. 2:7 informs us: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Now, upon the most cursory glance at this, it is evident that something more took place in man's creation than in the creation of the brute. It is plain that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and that He did not into the brute's. Roberts, indeed, contends that Ps. 104:25-30 supplies what is omitted in Genesis. He obtains this by means of the old confusion between God's Spirit and the breath of life. Nor does any one deny that "God giveth unto all life and breath and all things." The question is why was the gift given in this especial way to man alone? "No matter," says Mr. R., "if they all have it." But the point is, did God come in in this special way to give merely the same gift after all? The language is phenomenal, as Old Testament language largely is, and that makes one only the more to ask, is this breathing of God not a form of expression pointing to the communication of something from Himself, and more akin to Himself, than is implied in water or earth simply producing?