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In this chapter, we will share some very basic points about the parts of man. That is, we will see what is contained in each of the three parts of man and what is their condition at creation, after the fall, and in salvation.
Let us first look at the parts of man as God originally created him. Genesis 2:7 says, "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground." Without a doubt, this is a reference to man's body. God used the dust of the ground to form a body for man. All the constituents and elements of our body are exactly the same as those found in dust, such as copper, iron, salt, sulphur, etc. It was the body of man that God formed of the dust of the earth.
Genesis 2:7 continues to say that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." This is a reference to man's spirit. God breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils. This breath became the human spirit of man.
Finally, this verse ends with the statement that "man became a living soul." This, of course, is a reference to man's soul. When the breath of life was breathed into the body, the soul was produced. The body is without, the breath of life that becomes our human spirit is within, and the soul is the medium between the spirit and the body.
This word reveals that man not only has a soul, but is a soul. First Corinthians 15:45 confirms this: "The first man Adam was made a living soul." Our soul is our person. As a person, everyone is a soul. This is why the Scriptures often call human beings "souls." (See Gen. 12:5; Exo. 1:5; Acts 7:14.)
In the Scriptures the word "soul" refers sometimes to a person, as indicated by the above verses, sometimes to the soulish part of our human being (1 Sam. 18:1; Luke 1:46; Matt. 16:26), and sometimes to the soulish life of man (Matt. 16:25; John 12:25), but not the eternal life of God.
At creation, man as a soul had two organs: the outward organ of his body, and the inward organ of his spirit. Man's body as the outward organ was created to contact the physical world. Man's spirit as the inward organ was purposed to contact the spiritual world. Our physical body was made with dust, but our spirit was made with the breath of life. Therefore, it is not physical, but spiritual. The human life is not in the body or the spirit, but in the soul, for the soul is the person. Therefore, at creation, man with his soul was a soul, a human being, who had two organs: his body and his spirit.
Not long after God created man, man fell. When man ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan entered into the body of man through the fruit of that tree (Gen. 3:6), for the fruit, we know, entered man's body. Romans 7:23 tells us that sin is in the members of our body. Sin is the evil nature of Satan. However, to express it in this way is rather conservative. We could even say that sin is Satan. Since sin is in the members of our body, we may say that Satan has entered our body. Satan is called by the Bible "the evil one" (Matt. 6:13; 1 John 5:19, ASV). The Greek text simply says "the evil." "Evil" is Satan himself; therefore, sin is Satan personified. Satan is really sin itself.
Because Satan as sin came into man's body, his body was changed in nature. Man's body became the flesh. (In Romans 8:13, "flesh" and "body" are interchangeably used.) When sin was injected into the body of man, the body underwent a change in nature. It became corrupted and ruined by sin, and thus was changed into the flesh. This is why all kinds of lusts are in the members of our body (Gal. 5:24; Col. 3:5). Originally, man's body was not flesh; it was good and pure (Gen. 1:31). It became flesh because it was ruined by the Evil in it. We must realize that fallen man has Satan as sin in his body, and the by-product is the flesh.
The Scriptures use two more terms to describe the fallen body of man. Romans 6:6 mentions "the body of sin" and Romans 7:24 "the body of death." On one hand, the body of fallen man is a "body of sin," because it is filled with that evil element called "Sin." Therefore, man's body has become exceedingly sinful and active in sin. It actively commits sin because it is a body full of the power of sin. It is extremely alive to commit sins!
"The body of death" signifies that man's body is weak to the uttermost in doing the things of God. In regard to the law of God, the will of God, and all the goods things of God, the body is weak to the point that it is a "body of death." It is simply dead to the law, the will, and the goods things of God. It is impotent—a body of death. As far as sin is concerned, man's fallen body is very active, but as far as God's law is concerned, it is dead and powerless. In sinning, it is a body of sin; in obeying the law of God, it is a body of death.
When Satan entered man's body, he utilized it as a base to take over the soul. Man as a human being or soul, came under the influence and control of the flesh. The soul was then damaged and became the self. When the body became the flesh, it damaged, influenced, and even led the soul into captivity. Consequently, the soul became the self. We have pointed out in chapter two that Luke 9:25 and Matthew 16:26 prove that the soul of fallen human beings is the self.
Although we cannot find a verse which says that man's body is Satan, there is a verse which clearly indicates that the fallen soul, the self, is Satan. We have already seen that Satan as sin is in the body. Now, Matthew 16 shows that Satan not only has ground in the soul, but is also mingled with the soulish self. "Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan" (vv. 22-23). Then the Lord said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself" (v. 24). The two terms, "Satan" and "self," are used interchangeably in this passage. Furthermore, He said, "For whosoever will save his [soulish] life shall lose it...What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (vv. 25-26).
Four terms are in the above four verses: Satan, self, soulish life, and soul. Verse 23 refers to Satan, verse 24 to self, verse 25 to the soulish life, and verse 26 to the soul. By reading this portion carefully, we will realize that these four terms are used interchangeably. Beyond a doubt, it means that Satan is mingled with self! Self is the nature of the soulish life, and the soulish life is the life of the soul, the person.
Do we clearly see the correspondence? The Lord said, "Get thee behind me, Satan," and, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself." It means that self and Satan are mingled as one. Therefore, the very nature of the soulish life, which is the life of the soul, the man himself, is the satanic self.
The life of the soul is soulish, and the nature of this life is the satanic self. After Satan came into man's body, he used it as a base to invade the soul and even mingle himself with the soul. Hence, the satanic self is the nature of the fallen, soulish life. For this reason, the soul, or the man, is exceedingly self-centered. Self is the big "I," the "ego," the "me." Through the mingling of Satan with the soul, the soulish life has become the ugly, sinful ego. Fallen man's nature is actually that of Satan, for his soulish life is mingled with Satan in oneness. Thus, man displays the ugly self.
Now let us see the condition of man's spirit as a result of the Fall. Although the Bible clearly shows that Satan entered into man's body, using it as a base to mingle himself with the soul, we cannot find one hint in the Scriptures that Satan has ever entered man's spirit. This is very interesting. Not one verse shows that Satan has any ground in man's spirit. It seems that God must have drawn a boundary line, telling Satan to stop and go no further. Satan may be in man's body and soul, but not in his spirit.
Only one verse of Scripture says that man's spirit was defiled. Second Corinthians 7:1 speaks of the filthiness of flesh and spirit. Ephesians 2:1 and Colossians 2:13 tell us that we were dead in trespasses and sins. This certainly cannot mean that we were dead in body or soul, for the fact is that our bodies are still alive and our souls are still exceedingly active! Therefore, it must mean that we were deadened in our spirit. Fallen man's spirit has been defiled and even deadened, but it has never been taken over by Satan.
Ephesians 2 speaks of Satan being in the children of disobedience, but not in their spirit. He has come into man's body and has even invaded and taken over his soul, but there is no hint that he has any ground in man's spirit.
Since the heart of man is composed of all the parts of the soul and the conscience part of the spirit, it spontaneously becomes evil when the soul is taken over by Satan and the spirit deadened by sin. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Consequently, the mind of the heart is blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4) and becomes hardened (2 Cor. 3:14, ASV).
Thus, man who was created by God with the purpose of being His vessel to contain and express Him, has been completely damaged by the Fall. The body as the outward organ has been taken over by Satan and thereby corrupted to become the flesh. The spirit as the inward organ has been defiled and deadened—made dormant and put out of function. The soul as the person, the human being, having been mingled with Satan as one, has become the self. And the heart is deceitful above all and desperately wicked, with the mind blinded and hardened by Satan. This is the condition of fallen man.
When we received the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior, we believed in Him as the One who died for our sins and thus received forgiveness. Then we were justified and reconciled to God by His death (Rom. 5:10). To be reconciled to God means that all problems between us and God have been solved. Moreover, we who were deadened in spirit have been quickened or made alive in the spirit (Eph. 2:5). By the redeeming blood of Christ, the conscience of our spirit and of our heart has been cleansed (Heb. 9:14; 10:22). All filthiness has been purged away. But something more wonderful has happened: Christ, the Lord Spirit, has entered into our spirit as our life to make our deadened spirit alive! When He entered our spirit, we received another life, the life of God, and were regenerated (John 3:6). Christ, as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) is now in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), not in our soul.
Before we were regenerated, we had only the human life and were only one person or one man. Now we have both the human life and the divine life and are two men. Formerly, we were only one man in the soul, but now we are two men—one in the soul and one in the spirit. The man in the soul possesses the human life and is the soulish man. The soulish man is also the old (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9) and outward man (2 Cor. 4:16). However, the other man in our spirit possesses the divine life. This is the spiritual man, the new man (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10), the inward man or inner man (2 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 3:16).
Originally, we only had human life in the soul, and this soulish life was our person, our very being, while our spirit was simply an organ. However, after our regeneration, the situation has been radically changed. Since divine life came into our spirit, our spirit has become another person, another being. It is no longer an organ; it has now become our person, our very being. Our spirit, which now contains the divine life, has become our person, while the soul has become a mere organ, which is to be used by the spirit.
The soul as the person with its life has been crossed out. However, the faculties of the soul, such as those for thinking, loving, and choosing, are still there. The soulish life, the "ego" or the "I," has been crossed out, reducing the soul to only a functioning and useful organ for the spirit. Originally the soul was the person and the life, and the spirit was an organ. But now the spirit has become the person and the life, and the soul must become only an organ. We should no longer live by the soul, but rather by the spirit. The spirit as the person will then use the soul as an organ.
Today, is your soul your life or just an organ? Our soul must be reduced to be only an organ used by our spirit. We must not give our soul any ground or rights to be our life. Our soul may suggest: "I desire to go to the beach!" But we must tell our soul: "Do not say that. In fact, do not say anything! You have no rights; you are only an organ! When I want to do anything, I will use you as an organ. You are no longer the person or the life. As the life, you have been crossed out. My life is now Christ in my spirit."
We must not treat our soul as our life anymore. Our soul is now merely an organ to be used by our spirit. It has absolutely no rights, for it is no longer a life, but an organ. Our soul-life has been put away and crossed out; therefore, we should not henceforth live by it. Since our regenerated spirit has been mingled with Christ as our life, we must live by our spirit, keeping the soul only as an organ to fulfill the purposes of our spirit. When we love, we must love according to our spirit, not according to our soul. Our soul now is just an organ, no more the man. Our real man now is in our spirit.
When we live in our soul, we are living in the self; thus, we are immediately involved with Satan, sin, and the flesh. On the other hand, when we deny our soul, all the negative things are kept from us. We must rid ourselves of the soulish life, self, Satan, sin, and the flesh. Really, it is very simple. When we learn to live, walk, and act in our spirit, we are automatically out of the realm of all these negative things! Positively, we are enjoying Christ as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit in our spirit; negatively, we are separated from the old, outward, soulish man and all its involvements.
At the time the Lord regenerated us, He also renewed our heart. Ezekiel 36:26 says, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh." "A new heart" is the old heart renewed. "The stony heart" was the hardened heart. "A heart of flesh" is the softened heart. So, by the Lord's regeneration, our heart has also been renewed that we may have a new heart with abundant ability to love the Lord. Thus, the purpose of the heart has been fully recovered—to love the Lord that our spirit may contact, receive, and contain Him. Hallelujah! Now we have a new heart that can love the Lord and a new spirit that can contact, receive, and contain Him!
How necessary for the Lord's children to know these things. We do not need to know so many other things which are not of life, but we must know these things related to the inner life. May we always love the Lord with our heart and live by Him as our life in our spirit!
