Objection 72: When Stephen was martyred he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Acts 7:59. Christ on the cross said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” Luke 23:46. This proves that at death the real man, that immortal entity called the “spirit,” departs from the body.
The word here translated "spirit" is the Greek word pneuma (as with virtually every other instance of “spirit” in the New Testament). The primary meaning of pneuma is “wind” or “air.” Because life is associated so inextricably with the air we breathe—we cannot live long without air—pneuma also means “life.”
There is nothing in the word pneuma that suggests a disembodied consciousness, or the notion that a man can continue to be conscious and think after his body dies. A plain reading is that Stephen and Jesus asked God to receive back the breath that gives life.
Moreover, in asking God to receive his spirit, Stephen is acknowledging that he will no longer have it when he dies. If the immortal soul teaching were correct, we would expect Stephen to say, “Receive me.” If Stephen believed that the righteous dead remain conscious and go directly to heaven, he would have said, “Receive me into glory.” But he did not. Rather he asked God to hold that which made him Stephen until the resurrection of the dead, when he would receive a glorified body.
Stephen knew, with Job, that life is a gift from God: “The breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” Job 33:4. This great gift was about to leave him, and he wished to commit to the keeping of God that which he could no longer retain. He believed the truth, later penned by Paul: “Your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.” Col. 3:3-4.
Much of what has just been said regarding Stephen's words applies, most evidently, to Christ's words also. He commended to the keeping of His Father the life He was about to lay down for the sins of the world. On Sunday morning, the angel of God called Him forth from Joseph’s new tomb to take up once more the life He had voluntarily laid down.