Man's tripartite being - spirit, soul, and body

Chapter 16 

MAN'S TRIPARTITE BEING -

SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY

Man is revealed in Scripture to be a tripartite unity, we believe. But the importance of this does not seem to be generally appreciated, especially the difference between 'soul and 'spirit. One scholar has summed it up like this: "Human nature is most frequently spoken of in the N.T. as consisting of two parts ... the material and the immaterial part. But sometimes ... a tripartite division is recognized, body, soul, and spirit; the immaterial part being sub-divided into the lower part, soul ... and the ruling faculty, the spirit... by which alone communication is maintained with God.

The fact that man has a spiritual faculty challenges, of course, the theory that he is no more than a superior animal.

Man is a trinity in unity. The difference between 'soul and 'spirit does not divide man into separate compartments', so to speak. We are a unity. The close link between 'body and soul is recognized in medicine in psychosomatic disorders. Physical illness makes us depressed; depression affects us physically. So too with 'soul and spirit'; they are distinct yet interacting.

We are only concerned to point out this distinction because of its importance and helpfulness in understanding sanctification, and also how and why the Lord deals with us as He does. It also provides us with a valuable key to many of the problems we meet in personal and in church life.

The body is the place of world-consciousness, giving us contact with the world around us, which is under the control of the evil one. Through our bodies we express ourselves and communicate with others. The importance of the body is stressed throughout the Bible.

The Soul is the place of self-consciousness, personality, or individuality. We may understand it, that is ourselves in terms of, WILL, volition, choice; EMOTION, affections, feelings; MIND, thoughts, ideas. This is what we are as human beings - ... and man became a living soul.

The Spirit, the human spirit (not to be confused with the Holy Spirit) is the place of God-consciousness, and possesses the higher faculties, enabling us to have contact with the spiritual world beyond time and space. The three features of the human spirit are: (i) the capacity for worship and communion with God; (ii) Conscience, which only functions properly under the Lord's control and when instructed by His Word; (iii) Perception or intuitive knowledge, given by the Lord when needed. John writes of this in his First Letter, because of false teaching in the church.

We may say then that man, as created, is a living soul or being, with a body and a spirit or spiritual faculty.

Note: our spirits have been affected by the Fall, and need to be cleansed, renewed, and made alive to God in Christ Jesus. Unless possessed and governed by the Holy Spirit, they provide Satan with a means of deceiving and controlling us.

At new birth, the Holy Spirit enters our human spirits to make them His base'. He then seeks to bring us totally under His sway, to possess our 'souls' - our wills, emotions, minds - and our bodies, capturing the whole man for Christ. It is not that our Wills, Emotions and Minds are wrong in themselves. On the contrary, they are essential to being human. But they have been badly affected by sin and need to be conquered and subdued. Satan obviously uses the wills, emotions, and minds of unbelievers against the Lord, to keep them in captivity, but our 'souls' remain a problem area and battlefield in Christians too.

Let us try to explain a little. Our souls' can be activated, stirred, affected, used by ourselves, or manipulated by others, in many ways. For example, 1) By the Spirit of Christ indwelling our spirits; 2) By Satan acting through our fallen natures or the fallen world around us; 3) By ourselves, using, for example, will-power or some meditation technique; 4) By 'nature', the beauty of sight or sound, e.g. sunset or music, etc; 5) By others, a group atmosphere, surroundings, emotional meetings, forceful preaching, and so on.

The crucial question is always, Who or What is activating or influencing us? Our WILLS can be forced into making decisions and acting on them, but we know God never works like this. He calls, invites, urges but never forces. Our EMOTIONS can be stirred in many ways, as we have shown, but we know God never 'works on' or plays on' our emotions, though they may be involved. He never creates tension or imbalance. He touches us powerfully yet quietly. Our MINDS can be indoctrinated or ruled by tradition, upbringing, inflexible systems of doctrine or interpretation, and so on, but God only presents the truth and waits for our response. The Lord Jesus put no pressure on people - He simply presented Himself to them. This helps us distinguish the true from the false 'forces' acting upon us. In general, the false operate through pressure, noise, and tradition, while the true operate through persuasion, quietness, and the Scriptures.

Hebrews 4:12 gives us another vital clue in distinguishing between what originates with us in our minds or feelings, and what is of the Lord. The word of God ... pierces even to the dividing of soul and spirit...". Our difficulty in distinguishing between these explains much of the confusion and controversy among Christians, and why guidance is such a problem to us. The Lord's 'transmitter' is all right, but our receivers' are faulty, and so reception' is poor at our end. But the Word of God distinguishes unerringly between soul and spirit, between our ideas and His will, between true and false experiences', between what originates in us and what comes from the Lord, which is another reason for saturating our minds in His Word.

It is all too easy to be controlled by our ideas and feelings. An emotional person will tend to be up or down, depending on circumstances, state of health and so on. A person with a good brain, will tend to use it, study the Bible, think things through, without depending on the Lord. But spiritual truth is only really grasped at a deeper level than the mind, though not without it. This is why people cannot be argued into the kingdom and explains the terrible confusion in theology. It is futile and dangerous to try to understand spiritual things before you are born-again. Only in the hands of the Lord is the human mind safe and valuable. Then, a person with a strong will, a forceful personality, will tend to live in his own strength, until he reaches his Jabbok'. We must learn to live under the control of the Holy Spirit, and not under that of our 'souls'. This is one of the most important lessons the Lord is trying to teach us.

Mk. 2:8. John 4:23-24, 5:40, 6:63. Acts 23:1. Rom. 1:9, 2:14-15, 6:11-14, 12:1. 1 Cor. 6:19-20, 8:7, 14:14-16. 2 Cor. 7:1, 10:5. Eph. 2:1-3, 4:23. Col. 1:21. 2 Tim. 1:3. Tit. 1:15. Heb. 12:9,23. 1 John. 2:26-27, 5:19. Gen. 2:7.32:24.