Man is a
tripartite being. This means that he is of three parts: a spirit, a soul, and a
body.
“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” – 1st
Thessalonians 5:23
I’ve had
to explain to people several times the difference between the spirit and the
soul. Unlike the body, the spirit and the soul are not seen, but they are NOT
the same. It’s sad that even preachers of the Word get this wrong. I
particularly like how Reverend Hagin puts it. He said, “Man is a spirit. He has
a soul. And he lives in a body”. That is exactly what it is.
You see,
man is a spirit being. You are not your body. You are not fat or skinny, tall
or short, beautiful or ugly based on your body. Your body is just a casing that
houses your spirit and your soul. When “a man” dies, it’s really only his body
that dies. His spirit and his soul lives on. Ecclesiastes tells us something
critical that happens to the spirit of man when his body dies.
“Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return
unto God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes
12:7. The “dust” here refers to the
body.
So man is
a spirit. Everything that reflects on the outside is determined from the spirit
– the real man. We learned in the first lesson of this series that God is a
spirit being. Hence, we communicate with God through the spirit.
“God is a
Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth.” – John 4:24
Also, we
either accept Christ or reject Him from our spirit. Romans 10:10 says, “For
with the heart, man believes…” It is important to note at this point that the
word “heart” is interchanged with “spirit” many times in the bible. So we can
reword that phrase, and say, “With the spirit, man believes…” God pointed out once
about the Israelites that they honor Him with their lips, but their heart was
far from Him – their “spirit” was far from Him. – Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8.
When Jesus
came to die for our sins, and to save us from death and damnation, He saved our
spirits – us; not our souls or our bodies. So the New Creation that we became
on the day we accepted Christ isn’t our souls or bodies – the new creation (Gr:
kainos ktisis) is our spirit – the real us.
If you
think about it very well, you’ll remember that when you got saved, you didn’t
automatically want to stop doing all those worldly things you did before you
accepted Christ. You still wanted to do them. That’s because your soul wasn’t
what got saved. It was your spirit that got saved. James actually tells us that
we are the ones who will act to save our souls.
“Wherefore
lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive
with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” – James
1:21
So what then is our soul? How does the soul differ
from the spirit?
The soul
is the seat of intellect, emotions, and reasoning. The Bible refers to it many
times as our mind. It not us, but it reflects a great deal who we are. Remember
in Matthew 7 where Jesus talked about being known by their fruits?
“A good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good
fruit.” – Matthew 7:18
He was
saying here that an evil/unregenerated spirit will translate to an evil mind
which will then do evil things. While a righteous/regenerated spirit will
produce good outcome. Your spirit cannot have the sinful nature in it, and
produce good/righteous/holy fruits. It is not possible. Your thoughts and
reasoning, etc, are a reflection of the kind of spirit you are – either a
spirit indwelt by God, or that indwelt by the sin nature. But note: a
regenerated man (spirit) can have a carnal soul. How? Let’s find out.
Your soul
is your mind. When you become saved, you work on your soul. God does not do
that for you. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” – Romans 12:1.
“That ye
put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness.” – Ephesians 4:22-24.
So a man
who refuses to work on his soul can have Christ in his spirit and do carnal
things. Romans 8:6 – “To be carnally minded is death.” Note that Paul spoke to
believers in the Book of Romans.
It is in
your spirit that you actually get to know that you’re a Christian (Romans 8:16);
usually the soul/mind only catches up to this knowledge much later on. When God
speaks, God speaks with your spirit and when you hear God, you hear God first
in your spirit, as 1st Corinthians 14:2 explains.
It is in
your spirit that you are completely and totally united with God (1st
Corinthians 6:17)!!! Glory. You see, since God is a spirit, He can only give
birth to spirits as John 3:6 explains. So deepen your understanding my dear
friends and see that you’re actually the spirit; you don’t own the spirit
inside your body! You are the spirit inside the body. Your thinking component –
soul – is meant to be under the control of you – the spirit. Living
victoriously as a believer involves placing your soul and body subject to you –
the spirit. Paul did that…
“But I keep
my body, and bring it into subjection…” – 1st Corinthians 9:27a
Friends
let us live victoriously today!!! After all, a main purpose of the Word is to
first teach you to distinguish between you - the spirit, your soul and your
body Hebrews 4:12. Live victoriously, live strong.
Next time,
we’ll learn the significance of our body as “man”.
“For the
Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
- Hebrews
4:12
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