What Man Cannot Take (Genesis 2:7; Matthew 10:28)

Genesis 2:7 – 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.

Matthew 10:28 – And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

As George Floyd lay prostrate on the ground with his hands cuffed behind him, and Derek Chauvin’s knee callously yet casually appended to his neck, his dying utterances included the plea “I Can’t Breathe,” an all-too-familiar refrain in the lexicon of police brutality involving unarmed blacks. If you recall, Floyd’s words hearken back to the 2014 killing of Eric Garner who eked out those very words among his cries and gasps for fleeting life.

Scripture is not unfamiliar with the record of individuals’ words as life leaves their physical bodies. Both Christ (Luke 23:34) and Christianity’s first martyr, Stephen (Acts 7:60), offer words of forgiveness to their murderers even as they die at said perpetrators' hands. Not to liken the effect of Floyd’s death to Jesus' sacrifice, but he does resemble the Lord in the desperate call for biological necessity during the transitioning moments. Among His last sayings, Jesus stated “I thirst” (John 19:28), indicating His need for hydration during the agonizing sojourn on the cross. Similarly, Floyd calls for breath, demonstrating his need for the repetitive, unimpeded rhythm of inhalation and exhalation during the nearly nine minutes of torture he endured. Further, as Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection were the genesis for a new faith movement, Floyd’s death became another tipping point for renewed movements against racism and brutality while policing. That said, the contrast lies in the fact that, whereas Christ had to die (Matthew 26:24), George Floyd did not.

But even as George Floyd’s breath was taken at the hands of man, there is something of which neither Derek Chauvin, nor any individual, could rob him. That is the death of the soul. Simply, we cannot take what we lack the ability to give. Genesis 2:7 records that, the breath that God gave to our progenitor Adam quickened not only the physical body but the soul as well. While a man and a woman can unite to create physical life, they cannot produce a soul. That is God’s jurisdiction. Conversely, we can take life through murder, accident, corporal punishment, or other means but we cannot take the soul. Thankfully, that is outside of our sphere of power. Hence, Jesus’ instructive words in Matthew 10:28, “fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul…fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Our ultimate fear, then, is for the One who can destroy both the physical body and the soul. The reason God can destroy it rests in the fact that He created it—breathed the breath of life producing a body and a soul. We, on the other hand, can produce and, unfortunately, take life. But we can do neither for the soul. Therefore, it behooves us to make sure that part of us, that man cannot touch, is in right standing with God.

The yet unfolding story of man’s inhumanity to man can lead to horrific results, among them the ability to wrest another fellow human’s physical breath, and therefore life. These are unfortunate realities in our fallen state. But there is a part that even man, despite his volitional intention and initiative, cannot take away: the soul. It belongs to our Creator, the One who provided it when He initially breathed into man’s nostrils and he became a living soul.

Reflect: How does it feel to know that there are parts of one’s existence, experienced solely between God and the individual?