It is important in building our spirituality and doctrine we understand distinctions and divide the word accordingly. Take for instance 1 Thessalonians 5:

23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This body, soul, spirit distinction is an essential division to understand and the cause of great doctrinal confusion. In this instance we see sanctification applied to each 3 of the divisions and they manifest differently. You will also notice in context and by the prayer, that in some ways it is complete, but others is a process and we must be “preserved” through our earthly lives. Hebrews 4 goes further in how this process works out:

An astounding fact of the Gospel is that it always manifests in overflow and superabundance far beyond our needs. It is hard for our natural and religious mind under the influence of the "wage system" to comprehend such a fact. This idea of superfluity comes from the very nature of the heart of Agape love of the Father. Agape is a type of love that always is benevolent and seeks the good of others. God's heart has always been in the business of blessing simply because agape love IS His very nature. How did He prove this? By unveiling Christ! As this love works on our lives, it transforms us into His nature. Exhibiting the Christ like nature is a mark of maturity on a believer’s life. We lose our self-centered focus and become just like Him. Simply put, as we mature, we are no longer receivers, but we become manifestors. Rivers of living water then flow out of us to the world around us in superfluous fashion. Let's take a deeper look into this New Covenant benefit.

I am human. I live in a biological machine called a human body. No one else has a body identical to mine. I even have my own unique DNA exclusive to only me. The "conscious" real me is a spirit. I have my own unique personality that is only me. There will never be another identical. I express my will, thoughts, and emotions through my soulish me. 

I am a redeemed human. I have been attached to the spiritual vine in union with Christ. Though my mortal body is decaying and dying, my inward life is being renewed and transformed day by day. I am maturing and growing. My "soul" me is being transformed by the holiness that lives in my spirit. Though sometimes I make mistakes I am on the upward trajectory towards perfection in all my thinking and knowledge of Christ. 

We can always look back to the Old Covenant as a place where we see the types and shadows of what we have in the New Covenant. One of the most important doctrines in the New is our New Covenant command to enter into the Rest.

Now we know the Rest in the Old was given as a command in the Law. It was a day where all physical labor had to stop as a reflection of God’s resting on the 7th day of creation. As we know, in order to understand these Old Testament stories, we must behold them through the lens of the finished work of the cross. The Old Testament stories were always revealing the coming of Christ and the New Covenant. Therefore, the Old Covenant was a covenant of the flesh (self-righteous obedience to the Law) to reveal the future outpouring of the Spirit. The New Covenant is a covenant of the Spirit (the complete union we have with the Trinity through the finished work of Christ).

Let’s take a look at some more overwhelming evidence from scripture of a faith produced righteousness:

“16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)

The finished work of the cross is an essential concept to not only understand but to live from. When Jesus was about to die, he cried “it is finished” (John 19:30). What does this mean? It means that the work of salvation on behalf of mankind is accomplished. His mission to live under the law, live as a perfect human and carry the law and sin on our behalf to the Cross, thus fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law in his flesh.

He then created the platform (himself-his flesh) by which the human race could be reborn free of sin and perfectly innocent, righteous, and holy, and restored before God by becoming the perfect Lamb sacrifice. 

Our source of right standing with God under the old system was through obedience or self-righteous acts of the flesh, or to the Law. The problem of the Old Covenant is three-fold in that the Law:

1. It covered sin - sin was only "covered" temporarily by a blood sacrifice done by the Priest. It would have to be repeated the next time you had sinned. The covering did not fix the problem of the sin nature. Nor was the blood strong enough to permanently erase sin as animal blood was not good enough to accomplish the permanent removal of sin. (Hebrews 10:4)
2.  The Law is a "package deal", that means if we break one law, we have broken them all. James 2:10 tells us.......