(Hebrews 4: 12)
The ignorance of Christians concerning
the distinction between " soul " and " spirit " is very
general, and is a primary cause of the lack of full growth in the spiritual
life
in many devoted and earnest
believers. G. H. Pember points out as the cause of this ignorance the popular
phraseology of " soul and body ", which has caused a deficiency in
the English language. He says that although we have the nouns " spirit and
soul "which are too often treated as synonyms-we have no adjective from
the latter, with the consequence that the omission of such an adjective has
almost concealed man's tripartite nature in the versions of the English Bible,
where the " Greek word which signifies ` pertaining to the soul ' "
is sometimes rendered " natural " and sometimes " sensual "
(see I Corinthians 2:14, James 3:15, Jude 19).
Of course Greek scholars know well the
different words in the original which stand for spirit pneuma; soul-psuche;
flesh-sarx; but to the generality of Christians these distinctions are veiled,
with the result that they are unable to discriminate in experience between
things that differ, and yet which vitally belong to their peace. The need of
knowledge is becoming of more
than academic importance, for the fallen Archangel, with his superhuman wisdom,
knows the make-up of human beings, and is now, as an angel of light, bringing
to bear all the power of the knowledge which he possesses, upon counterfeiting
the working of the Holy Spirit, and CREATING IN THE REALM OF THE SOUL such
perfect imitations of the pure life of the Spirit of God indwelling the man's
spirit, that the most earnest Christians are liable to be deceived. It is
therefore necessary that the teaching of the Scripture upon the distinction
between soul and spirit, should be brought within the range of the apprehension
of the youngest believer, and made as clear as possible from the Word of God.
The writer is not attempting to meet
the need of those who are able to go direct to the Greek Testament, and read
for themselves, but to assist those who must have other help, as they earnestly
seek the aid of the Spirit of God to enable them to grasp the truth, and
receive spiritual understanding of spiritual facts set forth in the Scripture
as necessary for their growth in life and godliness. Let the reader, then,
pause at this point, and in an act of faith take the promise of John 14:
26-" The Holy Spirit ... shall teach you all things . . . " and John
16:13, "He will guide you into all truth " with confidence that the
Spirit of God will fulfil His office to the teachable child of God. The Holy
Spirit is able to teach the believer in experience the distinction between
" soul and spirit ", without his ever knowing the truth
intellectually; and vice versa, the scholar may see clearly the difference as expressed
in the Greek without knowing all that the words mean experimentally-i.e., he
may hold the truth in mental instead of spiritual power, and then it is but the
letter of the Word without the spirit. Moreover, the believer who has been
taught experimentally by the Holy Spirit the dividing of " soul and spirit
" before apprehending the distinction with his intelligence, is better
able to understand, and " rightly divide the word of truth ", than
the reader of the Greek who is untaught of God, for back of the words in the
Scriptures there are spiritual verities which cannot be understood by the
natural man-i.e., the " pertaining to the soul " man (lit. I Cor.2:
I4)-and can only be known by revelation.( See I Cor.2:10-12)
But first as to the missing adjective
! G. H. Pember says that an attempt is being made to use the Greek word "
psychic " for expressing in English the adjective for soul. The word is,
however, too " Greek ", so to speak, to commend itself for general
use. In connection with James 3. 15, Pember uses the word "soulish ",
and this seems more nearly to express what is needed. Stockmayer also uses this
same word-" soul-ish "-to signify that which " pertains to the
soul ", for he says in reference to 1 Corinthians 2:14, " the Greek
text has it, the ` soulman ', or `soulish-man '. As spiritual is the adjective
of spirit, so is soulish the adjective of soul ". The word " soulish
" therefore might well be generally accepted by English readers as the
missing adjective, which will enable us to speak of the " soulish "
as well as the " spiritual "(I Cor. 3:1) or " carnal "
(fleshy), Christian, and the meaning be understood. For this purpose it will so
be used in the present treatise.
As to the distinction between soul and
spirit, Gall points out that not only in the English language is the
distinction made, but in every classic language from Hebrew downward. In the
English New Testament two passages only bring out the distinction clearly,
viz., Hebrews 4:12 Dividing soul and spirit "-and I Thessalonians 5:23 Sanctify
you, spirit, soul and body ". These two, however, are sufficient, for the
English reader, to see that man is tripartite, and not only " soul "
and " body ".
The " soul " (psuche) and
its functions
The next point for consideration is
the question, What is the ` soul' in distinction from the spirit, and what are
its functions ? " Here some quotations from other writers will help us
before we turn to the Scriptures, to discover what the Apostle means by the
" dividing of soul and spirit ", and thus more clearly understand how
spirit, soul and body " can be sanctified, and preserved blameless unto
the coming of the Lord.
Tertullian, one of the Fathers who
wrote in the early centuries of the Christian era, calls the " flesh
"-or physical being-the " body of the soul ", and the soul the vessel
of the spirit ". The soul stands between the spirit and the body, for
" direct communication between spirit and flesh is impossible; their
intercourse can be carried on only by means of a medium " *-the "
soul " being that medium.
The " soul was the meeting place,
the point of union between body and spirit ", also writes Dr. Andrew
Murray. " Through the body, man-the living soul (Gen.2:7)-stood related to
the external world of sense "; through the " spirit he stood related
to the spiritual world ".
Pember explains the function of each
very clearly when he says, " The body we may term the sense-consciousness;
the soul the self-consciousness; and the spirit the God-consciousness ".
Again he says, the body " gives us the use of the five senses "; and
the soul, the " intellect which aids us in the present state of existence,
and the emotions which proceed from the senses ", whilst the spirit is the
highest part which " came directly from God, and by which alone we apprehend
and worship Him ".
Dr. Andrew Murray accords with this,
when he writes that the gifts with which the soul was endowed when man became a
" living soul ", were those of " consciousness, self determination,
or mind and will "; and these were to be but the " mould or vessel
" into which the life of the spirit was to be received. Dr. Murray also
says " The spirit is the seat of our God-consciousness; the soul of our
self-consciousness; the body of our world-consciousness. In the spirit, God
dwells; in the soul, self; in the body, sense ".f
Again, Pember writes concerning the
creation of man, and how the tri-partite being was formed-" God first molded
the senseless frame, and then breathed into it the ' breath of lives ' (Genesis
2:7. The original is in the plural)," and this " may refer to the
fact that the inbreathing of God produced a two-fold life-sensual (in the
meaning of pertaining to the senses) and spiritual...." He adds, in a
footnote, that possibly the meaning of the use of the plural in the "
breath of lives ", is that " the inbreathing of God became the
spirit, and at the same time by its action upon the body, produced the soul
".
Briefly, we see that all these writers
practically define the " soul " as the seat of the personality,
consisting of the will and the intellect or mind; a personal entity standing
between the " spirit " with its openness to the spiritual world, and
the " body "-open to the outer world of nature and sense-having the
power of choice as to which world shall dominate or control the entire man for
instance, when Adam walked in the garden of Eden, the spirit breathed into him
by God dominated his " soul "-i.e., intellect, mind, will-and through
the vessel the " soul " shone out in, and through, the earthly
tabernacle of clay-the body-making it luminous with light, impervious to cold
and heat, and able perfectly to fulfil the object of its creation.
The Fall of Man
But-alas, that a " but " has
to be written-man fell, and after a time the result was seen as described by
the Lord Himself in His words, " Every imagination of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually " (Genesis 6:5, R.V.). The " Fall
" apparently began in the intellectual department of the soul, for it is
said that Eve saw that " The tree was to be desired to make one wise
" (Genesis 3:6 R.V.). The appeal of the serpent was not made to the vessel
of clay, or the outer man, for the body was then perfectly dominated by the
Spirit; but it was directed to the intellect and understanding of man, and
based on a lawful desire to advance in knowledge and power in the unseen realm
of another world. " Ye shall be as God," said the serpent, not "
ye shall be as the beasts ", created by God ! The temptation was
KNOWLEDGE, and the very knowledge which probably God meant to give in due
season, but grasped before its time, and out of God's will.
The words of the Apostle Paul in I
Corinthians1 19, are therefore very significant in connection with this aspect
of the Fall, for the " word of the Cross " is said by the Apostle to
be the power of God to " destroy the wisdom of the wise ". Since sin
entered through the avenue of the intellect, salvation comes by a Cross which
destroys the fallen " wisdom " by the very acceptance of its message,
for the preaching of " Christ crucified " is to the wisdom of men
" foolishness "(I Cor. 1:18-25) Thus God, in His wisdom, provides
salvation in a way which deals with the cause by which the Fall came about !
Therefore Paul writes, " If any man thinketh that he is WISE among you ...
let him become a fool, that he may become wise, for the WISDOM OF THIS WORLD IS
FOOLISHNESS WITH GOD " (I Cor. 3: 18,19 R.V.)
Eve, moreover, fell through yielding
to the very temptation which had caused the fall of Satan himself, for he had
said " I will be like the Most High . . . " (Isa. 14:13,14) The
tempter knew how to attract Eve, by suggesting to her something higher than she
possessed, for she was limited by a body made of dust, but had a soul capable
of appreciating knowledge and growth, through the higher part of the tri-partite
being.
The full effect of the downfall we do
not see until years afterward, when the record of the condition of the race
shows that the road down was rapid, for the " wisdom " which gave
knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden reached its ultimate in due
course, in a complete sinking into " flesh ", so that the part of
man's tripartite nature which he had in common with the animal creation,
obtained the upper hand. Then it was that God looked down upon the fallen race,
and said, " My Spirit shall not abide in man ... for in their going astray
they are flesh " (Gen. 6:3) And so it is, that not only has " death
reigned " over the fallen race of Adam, but every human being born in the
likeness of the first Adam is of the " earth, earthy ", and is
dominated by the flesh instead of the spirit; the soul, which is the
personality of " himself " (see Luke 9: 23) a slave of the flesh and
the earthly life, instead of being a handmaid of the spirit.
Thus the condition of the unregenerate
man is now (I) his human spirit severed from God, fallen and alienated from His
life (Ephesians 4: 18) " without God ", separate from Christ
(Ephesians 2: I2), and incapable of fellowship with Him; (2) the
soul-intellect, mind, will, self-consciousness may rule over the body, or (3)
the body in its desires and appetites may be enslaving and dominating the soul.
But while the human spirit is thus " dead " to God, and in darkness,
it remains as full of activity as mind or body. In some instances the spirit
part of the unregenerate man may be so large in its capacity that even in its
dark condition, it dominates the soul and body. Then the man may be said to be
" spiritual ", in the sense of possessing more " spirit "
than others, who are mainly soulish or fleshly. These are the ones who seek
intercourse with the spirit-world apart from the Holy Spirit of God, and become
" mediums ", capable of exercising " occult powers ", such
as clairvoyance, etc., bestowed upon them by satanic means, for unless the
human spirit of a man is regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, it
is in accord with the fallen spirits of Satan, and governed by the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit which now works in the children of
disobedience (Ephesians 2: 2, 3).
We see, therefore, that the fallen
spirit of man-bereft of God at the Fall-sank down, so to speak, into the vessel
of the " soul "; and the " soul " again sank down into the
fleshly body, under what Paul the Apostle calls " the power of the flesh
", so that in the unconverted " the soul, manifested sometimes in
intellectuality, some times in sensuality, often in both, reigns over them with
undisputed sway. This is what Jude wishes to set forth in his 19th verse, which
should be rendered, ' These be they who separate, men governed by soul, not
having spirit’.
Fausset very clearly brings out this
in his commentary on this passage, for he writes, " In the three-fold
division of man's being ... the due state in God's design is that ` the spirit'
. . . should be first, and should rule the soul, which stands intermediate
between body and spirit, but in the ... natural man, the spirit is sunk into
subserviency to the animal-soul, which is earthly in its motives and aims. The
' carnal' sink somewhat lower, for in these the flesh, the lowest element ...
reigns paramount ".
In regeneration it is the darkened and
fallen " spirit of man, which is quickened again and renewed ". This is the meaning of the Lord's words
to the " Master in Israel ", to whom He said, in spite of all that he
knew in intellectual religious knowledge, " Ye must be born FROM ABOVE
" (John 3:3) and later on to His disciples, " It is the Spirit that
quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing " (John 6:63).
The way that the new life from above reaches
the fallen spirit of man is shown in the Lord's words. " The Spirit
breatheth where [He] listeth ... so is every one that is born of the Spirit
" (John 3:8 R. V. m.); and the cause of the Spirit of God quickening the
spirit into new life, is given in John 3:14 as the death of the God-Man upon
the Cross in the place of the sinner, that "whosoever believeth into (lit.
Greek) Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
The Cross and the Fall exactly and
perfectly correspond -the one as the remedy for the other. First by the death,
of the Saviour on the Cross, the sin had to be put away, and the way made
possible for the Holy God to pardon the sinner, and secondly the sinner must be
given a way of escape from the bondage of soul and body into which he had
fallen. The tripartite nature of man could then be again adjusted, with the
spirit once more in domination, and the body acting merely as the outward and
material vessel-the instrument of the spirit through the soul.
This way of escape is made clear in
many parts of Scripture where we are shown the death of the sinner with the
Saviour. Its mode of application for deliverance we shall see later on, as we
consider the full meaning of the Cross.
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