My understanding is that God created us physical and temporary:
1Co 15:43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
There are two bodies as Paul points out. A natural body and spiritual body. Paul goes through great lengths in this chapter to explain it.
On the other hand there IS a "spirit of man":
1Co 2:10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
1Co 2:11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
1Co 2:13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Paul is making the case that though there is a spiritual component to man, it's not the same as the spirit of God. The spirit of man can't comprehend the things of the spirit of God. This spirit of man is what gives us our intellect...it's the difference between us and the animals.
If we don't have spiritual life, then how can we be ...
... "absent from the body, present with the Lord" ?
2Co 5:6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
2Co 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
2Co 5:8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
Paul knew when we have eternal life:
1Co 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.
1Co 15:43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
It happens, according to Paul, at he resurrection. When you read the "absent from the body" you're presupposing that Paul meant that we was going to go to heaven right away. He didn't say that. He said that when he didn't have a physical body he would be with the Lord. Completely true.
Didn't He descend into hell to preach to the spirits which were imprisoned there ?
1Pe 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
1Pe 3:19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
1Pe 3:20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
The spirits in prison are demons:
2Pe 2:4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
2Pe 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
Jud 1:6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
Christ preached to them either after being glorified back to spirit...or back in the days of Noah before he incarnated.
My understanding is that God created us physical and temporary:1 Cor 15:43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.There are two bodies as Paul points out. A natural body and spiritual body. Paul goes through great lengths in this chapter to explain it.
1 Cor 15:44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
Yes ... we are born with a natural body ... and we await the gift of our spiritual body.
But, we have also been gifted with the Spirit of Christ.
And the Spirit of Christ testifies to our spirits that we are already the children of God.Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.We are already kings and priests in God's kingdom.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God
From the letter to the seven churches which were in Asia ...Revelation 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.