Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Three-Fold Nature of Mankind

1 Thessalonians 5:23 "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

At our Wednesday night Man’s Bible Study, the discussion came up about the difference between the Believer and the Unbeliever, the regenerate person and the unregenerate person and the apostate; the saved and the unsaved. In our study of Ephesians 2: 1-3, it was brought up that mankind is a tripartite creature; created by God from the earth with a three-fold nature of body, soul and spirit. What died when Adam & Eve sinned was the "Spirit" nature of man. Genesis 2:15-17: Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The late Dr. J. Vernon McGee of “Thru the Bible Radio” (www.ttb.org) explains: The first nature is the physical, the Body with natural senses and biological functions and processes to function and preserve that need and desire to be cared for and maintained. Food & hunger, water & thirst, air & breath, tired & sleep, et cetera. When this life is over, that 15 element body returns to the earth – dust to dust. Genesis 2:7 “The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
The second nature in mankind is the Soul, our Psuche (where we get our word psychology). The soul is the psychological nature (mind, will & emotion), which directs us in our approach to the physical universe today. The soul is self-conscious and carnally sensual in behaviorism that uses the mind, will & emotion to fulfill desires for physical and psychological needs (actual & perceived), as well as desires for beauty, music, entertainment, including the immoral sin nature (adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like - Galatians 5) of the natural man, lacking the Spirit and walking after the flesh. The natural man (in body & soul nature only) is a sinful nature because it controls the body & soul. Those of the flesh think and seek after the physical and sensual desires, which is carnality and death, because living in the “lower” nature (without the spiritual nature) has no relationship with God. The carnal-minded man can not be reformed because the psychological nature cannot be brought into obedience to God. Fellowship is broken. 1 Corinthians 15:42-49 “So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

Romans 7:24 to 8:1-14 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons (and daughters) of God.”

The third nature in mankind is the Spirit, the Pneuma (where we get our word pneumatic), God’s breath of life. The spiritually-minded nature that longs for God, that seeks the Lord, thinks after the Spirit of God, and desires to worship. In the “Fall of Man” in the Garden of Eden, Sin caused the spirit nature of Adam to die. Because of “original sin”, we walk around physically alive, but spiritually dead. You are in the spirit when the Spirit of God dwells within you. At conversion, while spiritually dead in trespasses & sins, we hear the gospel of Jesus, by the grace of God the Spirit of God applies the gospel to our heart and we trust & believe in Christ. Being “born again”, born of the Spirit, our Spiritual nature is reborn, regenerated, quickened, given life by the Holy Spirit and we have a capacity for God. There is no power in the new nature, but the Holy Spirit now dwells within the Believer, to help us, teach us, mature us in sanctification, and interpret the Word of God for us. There will be conflicts and struggles between the spirit (fruits of the Spirit) and the soul (the desires & works of the flesh), this side of Heaven. The flesh pulls man down and the spirit pulls man up. But if we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Jude 1:17-21 "But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."

In Christ, Brian

1 comment:

Alice said...

Great post. I also see us as a trichotomy and not a dichotomy, although I know scholars disagree.