The above heading may be a little startling, but it
will be as well for us at an early stage to realize that
we are dealing with a matter of the most serious
character. It is not merely that at some point man had a
lapse, took a wrong turning, or became a delinquent, an
offender. Neither is it only that he became a sinner, or
even a sinful creature. All of these may be true, but
they are not the whole truth. Man is not just on
the wrong road and needing to be re-directed or put on to
the right one. Neither is man just the victim of an evil
mood, or a fugitive from law running free, sowing wild
oats, and estranged from his better self. The restoration
of man to God and to his Divinely purposed vocation and
destiny is not merely the transference of his interests
and energies from one direction—self, sin, the
world—to another—God, good and heaven. When
Christ, in speaking of the prodigal, used the words,
"When he came to himself", He did not mean just
that he recollected and reverted to another course. There
is overwhelming evidence in Scripture that salvation is
something infinitely more radical than all this.
It is here that there lies the fatal flaw in so much
evangelical effort, and even in convention ministry.
Surrender, consecration, yielding, and such-like words or
terms, are used as though they meant far more than just a
first, initial step which only represents an attitude
taken. God does not want, and the Bible does not
teach, that the "old man" should be consecrated
to Him. The "old man" has to be crucified,
not consecrated! So often the young are exhorted to
consecrate to the Lord their talents, their energies,
their abilities, their enthusiasm, as
'Young, strong, and free;
To be the best that I can be,
For God, for righteousness, and Thee…'
But in the long run they discover a fatal lack, an
inadequacy and a breakdown, the greatest proof of which
is the convention movement itself. This movement is ever
growing, and year by year, in all parts of the world,
hundreds of thousands of disappointed Christians
are found together with a view to finding the solution to
the problem of non-victorious life, or non-effective
service. Those of us who have anything to do with
convention or conference work cannot smile upon these
great audiences and speak about them as though they
represented a great success instead of declaring the
greatest and most heart-breaking of tragedies. If the
messages given are to be taken as the indication as to
what conventions are for, then there is no questioning
what we have just said.*
* FOOTNOTE: Of course, we recognize another side
of Christian conventions, that of happy fellowship. But
we are referring to the original and still advertised
object of such conventions.
But this is the negative side of the question, and we
must come to the positive. It is not a change of sides,
or interests, or direction, nor a reviving of energy and
zeal that is called for. Nothing less than a
constitutional change in the being will answer the
questions and meet the need. To carry over natural
abilities (inherited or acquired) or energies to the
things of God, and to make them the basis or means of
doing His work, is most certainly and inevitably to put
the worker and the work into a false position, with
sooner or later any one or more of the many possible
seriously compromising and disastrous results.
Before we can move back to the beginning and see what
had happened as to man, there is one thing to bear in
mind. It is always important that matters of Divine truth
should never be taken up just in themselves, as isolated
subjects, but that their full range and relatedness
should be recognized. Truth is a whole. There is no
plural in Scripture as to truth, that is 'truths', but
there are aspects of the truth, and no one of
these can stand alone. It is essential to observe the
beginning, occasion and ultimate issue of every phase of
the truth.
Then it must be definitely remembered that truth in
the Scriptures is progressive. In the early parts,
matters are not stated in completeness and preciseness,
but there is much in the nature of inference. Only as we
get well on toward the end do we get more complete
statements, in the light of which all that has gone
before has to be considered. For instance, take the
doctrine of the Divine Trinity. It is not really until
Christ's time that we have this definitely and fully
revealed, as in John's Gospel (chapters 14-16); and not
until the advent of the Holy Spirit was this known
experimentally. So it is with the matter before us. Man's
nature or being as spirit, soul and body, is not
definitely stated thus until we are well on in the New
Testament. But there are plenty of inferences as well as
frequent fragmentary statements to this effect much
earlier. The explanation of this delay is a very part of
our whole subject, for it means that not until the era of
the Holy Spirit as an indwelling reality—with all
that that implies—is it possible for man to know the
things of God in any adequate or vital way. Hence the
futility of making the Bible a text-book or manual of
subjects to be studied as such. So now, with all the
fuller revelation of the New Testament before us, we can
work back to the beginning.
Man as Created and Constituted
When we really see with enlightened eyes the Man,
Christ Jesus, and when we see what a child of God really
is as in the New Testament, then we see two things; one,
what God's man is as from the beginning, and what a
fundamental change is represented by a man being truly
born anew. As to his constituting, we shall see that he
was, and is, spirit, soul and body. But to say this is
only one half of the matter. That is the fact as to man's
components. The other half is that that represents order
and function. It was in the upsetting of this
order that function was affected fatally, and man became
other than God intended him to be.
We have already said, in a word, what the function of
the human spirit is, but more is needed.
The Function of the Human
Spirit
The all-governing fact is that "God is
spirit" (John 4:24). Then certain things follow.
"We are his offspring" (Acts 17:28-29). He is
"the Father of our spirits" (Heb 12:9).
If it is a fixed law that "That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit" (John 3:6), then it is only in his spirit
that man is the offspring of God. Fatherhood presupposes
offspring; and there is no fatherhood without offspring.
God is spirit. God is also Father. The fixed law of
progeny demands a spirit ancestry for spiritual
offspring. But as Father—differing from
Creator—God is the Father of our spirits only.
God is not soul. This we shall see more fully when we
deal with soul-function. Therefore, God is not the Father
of our souls. God is not body; therefore our bodies were
not begotten of God, but created. The Word of God is
clear and emphatic that only spirit can know spirit (1
Cor 2:9-11). That is why the disciples of Christ really
did not know Him, in a living and true way, until
something had happened in them, and the Holy Spirit had
joined Himself with their spirits. It is ever so.
Only spirit can worship spirit (John 4:23-24; Phil
3:3). In this former Scripture, the words
"true" and "truth" are very
discriminating words. If the soul is—as the
psychologists truly teach—the realm of the reason,
will, and emotions, then surely the worship of Jews and
Samaritans was not devoid of these. Would it be quite
right to say that it was so mechanical and meaningless as
to have not even an animal's feeling or sense in it? But
granted all the feeling, reason and will possible, it
would still be other than what Christ meant by
"true", for soul is soul and spirit is spirit
yet! Only spirit can serve spirit (Rom 1:9; 7:6; 7:11).
Only spirit can receive revelation from God, Who is
spirit (Rev 1:10; 1 Cor 2:10). We shall return to this
later. Let it be understood that God determined to have
all His dealings with man, and to fulfil all His purpose
through man, by means of that in man which was after His
own likeness, that is, his spirit. But this spirit of man
for all such Divine intentions must be kept in living
union with Himself, and never for one moment infringe the
laws of its Divine union by crossing over to take counsel
with, or be influenced by, his own soul or self-conscious
life—the reason, desire or will—as an
independent thing.
This goes to the heart of our Lord's temptations, as
it does to the temptation of Adam. When this happened in
Adam's case, death entered; and the nature of death, in
the scriptural meaning of the word, is severance in the
union of the spirit with God. This does not mean that man
no longer had a spirit, but that the ascendency of the
spirit was surrendered to the soul. (This is borne out by
all the New Testament teaching on the spiritual man, with
1 Corinthians 2:11-16 as an example.)
The Nature of Adam's Temptation
Let us briefly state what was at the heart of the
temptation. By his union with God in spirit, man was
conditioned to have everything in relation to and by
dependence upon God. His knowledge and his power were to
be essentially spiritual, and the absolute lordship and
headship of his life was to remain vested in God. A spiritual
relationship and a spirit organ and function
made this possible.
The temptation was to have everything in himself.
This, it was suggested, was possible, and he could be a
self-directing, self-possessing, self-sufficient,
independent being. To gain this end, it would be futile
to appeal to the spirit in man, for this would only mean
that the matter would be referred to God. So the
self-conscious organ must be approached. Thus reason,
desire and will—the faculties of the soul—were
assailed. Instead of allowing his spirit to bring God in,
man acted independently, with several of the most
terrible results of which it is possible to conceive.
Firstly, God was set aside in His absolute headship
and lordship as to man, and Satan was given His place, as
one more to be hearkened to. This was what Satan wanted
above all things, i.e. to be "the god of this
world".
Then the spirit of man, being so seriously violated,
ceased to be the link between himself and God. Fellowship
with God, which is always spiritual, was destroyed, and
the spirit sank down into subjection to man's soul. So
far as that man is concerned, he died to God. "Dead,
through... trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1). So the
soul came to dominate the spirit.
Then again—as though this were not bad
enough—by an act of spiritual fornication, that
bridal spirit which was to be wedded to God was used by
man to let in Satanic elements, which are extra to the
soul but are—since the Fall—so much a part of
it that God looks upon them as one in the unregenerate
man. This is what is meant by the terms
"fleshly" and "carnal" in the New
Testament. Thus we can see that man has become an
altogether other type or species than God intended. The
main difference is that he is now a soul-man rather than
a spirit-man pre-eminently.
It does not require much intelligence to see how
utterly this creation is now a soul order. The whole
system of running this world is psychological. Everything
is based upon desire, emotion, feeling, reason, argument,
will, choice, determination. What a large place is held
by the various forms of soul activity! In one direction
we have fear, grief, pity, curiosity, pride, pleasure,
admiration, shame, surprise, love, regret, remorse,
excitement, etc.; in another direction, imagination,
apprehensiveness, fancy, doubt, introspection,
superstition, analysis, reasonings, investigations, etc.;
in a third direction, desires for possession, knowledge,
power, influence, position, praise, society, liberty,
etc.; and, in still another direction, determination,
reliance, courage, independence, endurance, impulse,
caprice, indecision, obstinacy, etc. We are not saying
that this is all wrong, but by these things, which are
all forms of soul-life, we can see that we live in a
world that is almost entirely a soul-world. But we are
not stopping there. Think how much of this has a place in
Christian life and service—from the first step in
relation to the gospel, through all the course of
Christian activity. It is here that we ask for patience
in pursuing the subject, when we make the tremendous
affirmation that all this—the sum-total of human
reasoning, feeling and willing—may be placed to the
account of the matter of salvation, either for ourselves
or for others, and yet be utterly unprofitable,
and of no account at all.
Multitudes have come to regard themselves, and to be
regarded by others, as Christians because of some
decision made or step taken under the impact of an
argument—a reasoning, an appeal to mind or emotion.
In the same way great missionary meetings, with their
atmosphere, their stories and their appeals, have led
many to believe that they had a call from God to His
service. But time has proved, in a great many cases, that
this was not born of the spirit, but of the
soul-force of man. We do not say that God never comes
through, or uses His word, at such times, but we have to
explain tragic facts and to correct popular fallacies.
The soul of man is a complex and dangerous thing, and
is capable of extraordinary things. It can entirely
mislead us and play us many tricks, as we shall see. Man
is now a disrupted and disordered creature, and we must
remember that the creation, including man, because of
this disruption has been deliberately subjected to
vanity. That is, it has been rendered incapable of
realizing its originally intended destiny, or coming to
full fruitage. For the unregenerate man, life is indeed a
mockery, for he can never reach his intended
objective. This is God's answer to his assaying to have
all in himself in independence (Rom 8:19-23).
There are certain questions which will arise from what
we have been saying. One will have to do with the point
in his probation at which Adam fell. Another will be
concerning the creation formula. A third will be as to
the right place of the soul. A fourth arises in
connection with more modern psychology. Let us consider
these.
Adam's Probation
It is important to realize that although Adam, when
created, was sinless and innocent, he was not perfect, as
God intended he should be. There was something to be
added if he was to attain to all that God meant, in his
nature and destiny. The link with God through his human
spirit carried with it a potentiality or a possibility,
not an absolute and final one-ness. Hence, he had to obey
God along the line of commands and orders—more in
the position of a servant than a son; or let us use the
New Testament distinction between "child" and
"son", and express the difference as between
one born, and one come to maturity. That which would in
Adam's case have made the great advance upon this
position, from childhood to sonship, from the outward to
the inward government, from the incomplete to the
complete, was eternal life through obedience of faith.
So that at that point the whole significance of the
tree of life has its place. That tree was a type of God
manifested in Christ as the life whereby alone man
reaches his intended destiny, even the sharing of Divine
life and nature. Adam, because of unbelief and
disobedience, did not attain unto eternal life;
therefore, that life is reserved for such as believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and are thus in Christ and also
have Christ in them. "Christ in you, the hope of
glory" (Col 1:27). In eternal life is found all
God's secret of all His eternal purpose in and through
man.
Then it must be kept in mind that eternal life is a
gift. The special object for saying that here is to
counter another error. There are two interpretations of
new birth, one the true, and the other the beautiful lie
which subverts the truth. This latter interpretation is
that spiritual life is a kind of renaissance, an inner
quickening brought about by the play of mystical forces
which hover round the soul, rousing it from torpor as the
spring sun wakens the sleeping seed, stirring already
existent but dormant energies into activity—a
lifting up of what we already possess to a higher plane,
or tide, and a consequent flooding of hitherto unvisited,
unvitalized areas, whose inhibited forces and functions
it straightway releases and relates to consciousness
within and to service without. The other, and true,
interpretation is that new birth is the reception of an
entirely new and different life, required to be generated
from above by a specific act of Divine
impregnation—a quite new and original endowment
which has never before been in our human life, and which
remains an altogether other life that is not in us by
nature, but a unique and miraculous generation—as
Christ is.
As every error has some element of truth in it, which
is like its claw for catching hold, so this one, which we
have mentioned, has its catch in a failure to
discriminate between three things; one, the soul; two,
the spirit; three, eternal life. Eternal life raises the
spirit from death, and energizes the soul. But neither
soul nor spirit is of any avail Godward—so far as
man's Divinely intended destiny is concerned—apart
from the 'altogether other' eternal life. This life is
God Himself, in Christ, by the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is "the Spirit of life" (Rom 8:2), and
Divine life, even when given to indwell the believer, is
still retained in the Divine Person. "God gave unto
us eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (1
John 5:11). The presence of the Divine Person in the
believer or in the Church is expressed by life. Lest Adam
should act with the same object of having life in himself
as out of relation to God, the tree of life was
deliberately protected from him and he was driven forth.
The symbolism is clear. This is something which is so
other than man—so Divine—and it can only be had
in God and by spirit-union with Him.
All this will gather into itself much New Testament
truth concerning Christ's representative life,
temptation, death and resurrection, and also concerning
the nature of new birth and the life of the believer.
It will have been observed that innocence in Adam was
but a negative thing. This can also be true, therefore,
of sinlessness in his case. It may, in one
sense, throw some light on the life-long testing of
Christ, although we say this with some reservations,
which we will not make a divergence now to explain.
Holiness is positive, and Adam's innocence was
accompanied by a capacity for holiness. Holiness is the
result of faithfulness under testing, in man's case. He
may go into testing innocent, but the very essence of
testing is a capacity to choose between two courses, his
own and God's.
Faith, obedience, loyalty to God, resisting evil by
resort to God, issue in a positive state which is
something more than innocence, i.e. more than the fact of
not yet having sinned in a specified way. The faculty
which governs and regulates in this is the spirit. Hence
the issue is either spiritual holiness, or spiritual
wickedness. They both represent a relationship
respectively to God the Holy Spirit, or to Satan
and evil spirits. Hence we see what the issue of
Adam's probation and failure is.
The Creation Formula (Genesis
2:7)
In taking up the statement as to man's constitution in
Genesis 2:7, we would recall you to what has been said
about the progressiveness of revelation. For here we have
a precise instance of things being but in germ form in
the first reference, needing the reflex of the later and
fuller light. We would not say that this passage is a
positive assertion, but more an implication. Later
Scriptures bear out the implication. It will be noticed
that we are not dealing with the account of man in
Genesis 1:26, which rather describes God's intention for
him than what actually is the case; that is, his place
and office more than his being. Here is Genesis 2:7:
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
lives;* and man became a living soul".
*FOOTNOTE: The word here is in the plural. We do
not propose to enter upon a discussion or enquiry as to
the meaning of this and so add considerably to detail,
but merely point this out for the present.
On the face of it, the statement appears to contradict
all that we are saying, and to support the contention
that man is dual or bipartite.
If we pass over to Paul's exact quotation of this
passage in 1 Corinthians 15:45, we find that it is used
to describe a difference between the first Adam and the
last Adam. The former was made "a living soul",
the latter "a life-giving spirit". This will
help us. But first let us note the synthesis. There are
three things:
(1) The material elements: "the dust of the
ground".
(2) The formative factor: "the breath of
lives".
(3) The final issue: "man became a living
soul".
We need not discuss the first; most people will accept
the material side of man's being. 'Adam', from adamah,
means 'of the earth'. (It also includes a colour element:
red earth.)
The second point brings us immediately to our present
object. Here we have two sides or aspects.
(a) "The Lord God"—the One Who effects.
(b) "The breath of lives"—the means He
uses.
Creation and emanation are not to be confused. When
the animal part of man is in view there is nothing said
which would support the idea that there is a oneness of
nature between the created and the Creator. But when we
are considering that part of man's being in which he is
the image and likeness of God, we have a higher nature,
and this is communicated, not created; the method is
different. The spirit of man is not an act of creation,
but rather in the nature of procreation. This breath of
lives is not man's soul, but his spirit. We shall see
later that this is not merely the abstract animating
element which marks the difference between man as a
living organism and inanimate matter, but something
which, being out from God, is an organ, or faculty, as
well as a function. From the general teaching of
Scripture we conclude that it was the Holy Spirit, the
Spirit of life, who breathed into man, and by this
breathing not only made him animate, i.e. put the
body-soul, physio-psychical life, into him, but formed
the link with God, for ultimate Divine purposes.
In Zechariah 12:1, we have the phrase "...the
Lord... formeth the spirit of man within him". The
word "formeth" is the Hebrew word yatsar,
which means 'to mould into form'. God formed man's body
out of the dust of the ground. He also formed man's
spirit within him. (There must have been a 'him'
there first.) Along with this must go the words of
Hebrews 12:9, "The Father of our spirits". It
is here that we are the offspring of God.
We must remember that the pneuma, or spirit,
is vested with the powers of a definite and independent
entity. Look at the following instances.
"Jesus perceiving in his spirit" (Mark 2:8).
"He sighed deeply in his spirit" (Mark 8:12).
"My spirit hath rejoiced" (Luke 1:47).
"Jesus rejoiced in spirit" (Luke 10:21).
"...worship the Father in spirit (John 4:23).
"He groaned in the spirit" (John 11:33).
"Troubled in the spirit" (John 13:21).
"Paul was pressed in the spirit" (Acts 18:5).
"Whom I serve in my spirit" (Rom 1:9).
"Serve in newness of the spirit" (Rom 7:6).
"The spirit of the man which is in him" (1 Cor
2:11).
"Absent in body, present in spirit" (1 Cor
5:3).
"That the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus" (1 Cor 5:5).
"My spirit prayeth, but my understanding is
unfruitful" (1 Cor 14:14).
"I will pray with the spirit" (1 Cor
14:15).
"The spirits of the prophets are subject to the
prophets" (1 Cor 14:32).
"...spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb
12:23).
There are those who contend that spirit, or pneuma,
is just the life of the soul and body, the animating
factor. We are aware that 'breath', 'wind', etc., are
sometimes used of the same original word as 'spirit', but
so they are of 'soul'. The usage in that case is because
of the invisible power and action which is
represented. No one will substitute 'wind' or 'breath'
for any of the above usages of 'spirit'; it would at once
be meaningless and absurd.
The relationship between soul and body is one which is
well beyond our power to explain. The Bible makes many
definite statements on the matter, but never explains it.
For instance, soul and life are often interchangeable
terms, and these are repeatedly said to be in the blood.
"The life is in the blood... The blood... is... the
life thereof" (Lev 17:11,14). Science has not helped
us at all to understand this, but, of course, the fact is
irrefutable. One thing is established—that while
life properties and qualities are in the blood, after a
given time they cease to be there, although the blood may
still be retained. But, when we come to the matter of
soul and spirit, not only are two so distinctly different
words used, but these are said to be separable without
either perishing, and each is vested with its own
responsibility, set of faculties and destiny.
At least by inference, as the marrow is deeper than
the joints, the spirit is more inward than the soul (Heb
4:12). As it is easier to reach the bone through the
body, or flesh, so it is easier to reach the soul through
the body than it is to reach the spirit through the soul.
Much soul-piercing and cleaving has to be done before the
spirit is really reached and dealt with. In other words,
the physical senses are an easy way to the soul, but it
requires the mighty energy of the Spirit of God to reach
the spirit. But note, the difference between soul and
spirit is only made manifest when the Word of God is
driven in by the Holy Spirit's energy and might.
But, to touch definitely on point
three,—"man became a living soul". First,
the animal being out of the dust; then the spiritual life
by the breath of God; and then the soul is mentioned.
What did man become? "A living soul". Was that
all? If that were all then what of the body? But this
"living soul" has a body. Is that all? No! This
living soul with a body has a spirit. This phrase,
"living soul", well sets forth the nature of
man's soul as in that first order as midway between
matter and spirit; "lower than the angels"
(pure spirits), higher than the brute. The quotation in 1
Corinthians 15:45 we said would help us. It does, in two
ways. "The first man Adam became a living
soul". The original of the last four words is egeneto
EIS psuchen zosan. The eis is interesting;
it is local, and implies that the soul is the meeting
place of two opposite natures, the body and the spirit.
The added clauses in Paul's statement make it clear, or
strengthen the conclusion, that in the first Adam the
soul is the terminus of body and spirit. The statement
helps us in a second way by showing that in the last Adam
the spirit is the terminus, or governing factor. Thus the
soul is the nexus between the higher and the lower
natures, not merely the difference between physical and
metaphysical; it is the ego.
Nothing that is said in this book is intended to infer
that soul, as such, is a wrong thing, i.e. that it is
wrong for man to have a soul, and that therefore it has
to be destroyed. What we are saying is that the soul of
man has become poisoned with a self-directive interest,
and has become allied with the powers which are opposed
to God. This is not known, nor imagined, to be so until a
real awakening has taken place in the spirit. It is
therefore wrong to live wholly or pre-eminently on the
soul side of our being—now. The truly spiritual
people will find their chief enemy in their own souls,
and God finds His chief enemy in the soul of man. When
the spirit is renewed, and Christ dwells and
reigns within—in other words, when we are
"filled with the Spirit"—then the soul can
come to serve the Lord as a handmaiden of the spirit to
real but governed usefulness.
So man awoke—so to speak—"a living
soul". He came to a threefold consciousness; a
world—or sense—consciousness through his
psycho-physical body; a self-consciousness in his soul;
and a God-consciousness by his—what? Does man arrive
at the knowledge of God as a Person, a living Person, by
his reason, feeling and volition? The Word of God denies
this, and, in the matter of living union with God as an
experience, man's history denies it. "Canst thou
by searching find out God?" (Job 11:7).
Philosophy gives a positive answer, inasmuch as it is the
most deadly thing to faith; and philosophy is an intense
activity of the soul, mainly on its reasoning
side. Multitudes have been lost to a true and vital
Christian experience through taking up philosophy as a
subject. When God had breathed into the already fashioned
man, something more than body and soul was there, and it
was this that determined everything in relation to God's
purpose through man. The soul was the meeting place of
body and spirit. Let the soul surrender to the body and
all is lost. Let it surrender to the spirit and all is
well.
To sum up. Man became a living soul, having a body and
a spirit. By asserting himself—the ego—in
favour of the body and not of the spirit, he became a
sinful soul. It is what he is, not just what is in him.
He has got to be saved from himself. This is
accomplished in two ways. Christ's death in its
representative nature is a potent thing to be entered
into by the "natural" man, so that, by a crisis
and a process, the power of Christ's death is wrought and
established in the soul-consciousness of man. He becomes
aware that he is forbidden to live and move on the basis
of the self—ego—life. On the other
hand, the resurrection of Christ is also a mighty power
in man's spirit, and by its introduction by the Holy
Spirit into man's inner being, he is made a spiritual
man, as over against a merely natural. His position
henceforth is most perfectly stated by the Apostle Paul
thus:
"I (the natural man) have been
crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live,
but Christ liveth in me: and that (life) which I
now live in the flesh I live in faith, (the faith) which
is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up
for (in place of) me"(Gal 2:20).
This is what Christ meant when in the undeveloped
truth He said: "If any man would come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and
follow me" (Luke 9:23).
Before taking the third of the questions mentioned
earlier it may be more helpful to take a fourth.