The Source of Man's Inner Life Part 5

Today’s message concerns the question, Is man dichotomous or trichotomous? Man is a tripartite being. A casual reading of the Scriptures might lead one to believe man is dichotomous; however, when a technical study of the Scriptures is made on the subject of anthropology, one must conclude that man is trichotomous—a threefold being. I Thessalonians 5:23 distinguishes man’s body, soul, and spirit: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (NASB UPDATE). The writer to the Hebrews also distinguished them: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12 NASB UPDATE).

God created man as a tripartite being. The body is the center of world-consciousness. The soul is the center of self-consciousness. The spirit is the center of God-consciousness. There is one part of every person, Christian or non-Christian, that is conscious of God (Rom. 1:18-32). Those who make no distinction between soul and spirit say that God created man trichotomous, but Adam fell and became a soulish person, not having a spirit. They believe that apart from grace he was dichotomous and did not become trichotomous until God performed a work of grace in his heart.

At his creation Adam was implanted with two kinds of principles. He had the inferior principle of human nature. He possessed self-love with its appetites and passions. He had the superior principle of uprightness (Eccl. 7:29), called original righteousness by some, which was inseparably connected with human nature until his fall in the Garden of Eden. By the power of the superior principle, he held moral virtue in check; but at his fall, he lost original uprightness. Only the inferior principle remained. He was then filled with self-love and desired to satisfy only his own appetites and passions.

Man is dragged down by the natural factor within him. Original uprightness was mutable. This superior principle, which God gave Adam, was the golden bridle that controlled the inferior principle. Adam could not have been pronounced very good without original uprightness.

Adam could not have been unchangeably upright. Unchangeable uprightness is attributable to God alone and cannot be ascribed to any of His creatures. Adam’s uprightness was created. Therefore, it was finite, and finite uprightness is capable of sinning. It did sin in Adam’s case, and we all sinned in him (Rom. 5:12). He was necessarily finite because the infinite God cannot create infinity. God cannot create God. Whatever He creates must be inferior to Himself.

Adam did not lose the image of God in the fall. To avoid any misunderstanding at this point, one must determine whether to be created in the image of God refers only to original uprightness or if it included man’s nature which was clothed with original uprightness. Adam lost original uprightness, but he did not cease to be man. In the study of the Divine image, one must carefully distinguish between the wonderful organism called human nature and the direction in which human nature moves. When Adam lost original uprightness, he began going in a different direction. He no longer loved God. He possessed only self-love. That is the condition of every person separate from the grace of God.

Adam’s posterity come into this world under a natural, inferior principle. They do not possess a superior principle by which they can be guided and guarded from natural desires and passions. Every person comes into the world depraved, with no righteousness and no desire to please God. Not until God performs a work of grace in his heart, giving him a superior rectitude, can man conquer his passions and desires. The four soils described in the parable of the sower (Luke 8) describe this. Some seed fell by the wayside, but birds plucked the seed. Some seed fell on stony ground and sprang up, but the plants soon withered and died. Some fell on thorny ground, but the cares of this world soon choked the plants. In each of these three soils there was only an inferior principle; therefore, no fruit was produced. Some seed fell into good ground and brought forth fruit because God had implanted the superior principle.

Adam defiled the whole frame of his nature in the fall. All his posterity likewise defiled themselves because of their complicity with him. Is it reasonable that God should depart from His original law respecting man’s generation because man departed from obedience to the law of God? Nature itself does not do that. Stolen seed will produce harvest. Is God unjust to give fruit from stolen seed? Is God unjust to give souls, even if generation may be unlawfully begotten in adultery or fornication? Illegal conception does not deter God from placing a soul in that person.

God’s immediate agency to bring the soul of a child into being is as much according to an established order as His immediate agency in the works of nature. In the established order of nature, good qualities of a tree may be wanting in its branches and fruit. Adam may be considered the root with many branches. He was deprived of original uprightness; consequently, the branches come forth without it.

God creates souls impotent of good without any impeachment of His holy character. Souls become defiled the moment they are united with bodies in wombs. That union constitutes one a child of Adam. Bodies of men differ, but souls are equal in their original nature and value. There is no dissolution of the soul. Man cannot destroy it, and God will not. In His creation of the soul, God inspires no purity or impurity. He infuses only its naked essence. The Holy God cannot inspire any impurity; however, He remains just and righteous in creating souls destitute of holiness and righteousness. God in His incomparable glory and majesty creates souls. No science or theology can unveil to anyone the mystery of man.

God is Author of soul and body. Therefore, He values human life, and man should value it. The penalty for shedding man’s blood is capital punishment (Gen. 9:6). Scripture condemns not only premeditated murder but manslaughter (destruction of human life through negligence). The very possibility of killing must be avoided. Therefore, the possibility that abortion is destruction of a human being is enough to determine the course of a Christian’s action. Judaism and Christianity have condemned abortion and infanticide, both of which were permitted in ancient, pagan societies.

The Mosaic Law has three parts: the commandments to curb moral life, the judgments to influence social life, and the ordinances to direct spiritual life. The judgments prohibit abortion: “If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise” (Ex. 21:22-25 NASB UPDATE). If death occurs to the woman or the child, the person causing it shall give life for life. The offender must be punished, even if the injury does not result in death.

A medical doctor said that we were from the beginning what we essentially are in every cell. Another said that the fetus is a new and separate human being, even though it has direct dependence on the mother. A newborn infant is as dependent as a fetus on its mother for survival. The fetus is not less than human. Medical science states that a fetal cry has been heard from within the uterus.

There is no proof that the unborn child is anything less than a human being from the point of conception. There is no principle of Scripture, science, or philosophy authorizing or allowing us to pinpoint a time between conception and birth when a human being emerges from something less than a human being. The word of God teaches that an unborn child is not merely a part of his mother’s body. He has a special, independent significance. David saw his sinful nature as something originating at the time of his conception: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5 NASB UPDATE). The Lord’s concern for human life is asserted in Psalm 139:13-16—“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth” (NASB UPDATE).

John the Baptist was a human being while he was in Elizabeth’s womb: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41 NASB UPDATE). What caused the baby’s movement? Some say it was caused by the mother’s reaction. However, she unquestionably intended that she felt something supernatural and Divine. Scripture proves that Jeremiah was a human being while in his mother’s womb: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5 NASB UPDATE). There is not a time during pregnancy, while the fetus is in the womb, that the child becomes something other than what it was. Every fetus in a womb is a human being. To take that life is to kill a human being.

There are three views concerning the image of God represented in man: (1) Roman Catholics teach that original uprightness does not belong to the Divine image; it belongs to the human nature as something superadded. (2) Lutherans teach that the Divine image is original uprightness; therefore, when Adam fell, he lost the image because he lost original uprightness. (3) The reformed theory harmonizes with all the Scriptures. This theory confesses that man’s whole being, not merely original uprightness, is the impress of God’s image.

Original uprightness was lost in the fall, and Adam’s nature was reversed. Therefore, the image of God was not lost but marred. Man remained man; he did not escape his responsibility to God. If man had become dichotomous, how could he be responsible? He is responsible to God; consequently, he is trichotomous.

Man’s inexcusability rests in his responsibility (Rom. 1). The condition of every person who comes into the world is described in Psalm 14:3 and 4—“They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. Do all the workers of wickedness not know, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call upon the LORD?” (NASB UPDATE). Sin disturbs the whole man. In the midst of this corruption, sinful man escapes the isolation that threatens him and lives in the midst of common humanity. Although he is corrupt, he lives among human society. Cain illustrates this. He killed his brother; then he fled from the presence of God. In his flight from God, he was preserved in his social life (Gen. 4:17). We have all gone our own way (Is. 53:6). Cain followed his way in the humanity he retained.

Corruption is evident throughout all of life and comes from the depths of the depraved, human heart. Man is alienated from the life of God (Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21). The life of every person outside of Christ is one of sin and guilt while living in sin. It is a life lived in the lust of the flesh, under the wrath of God, and in disobedience to God. It is a life of hardness, impenitence, ungodliness, unrighteousness, vanity, darkness, foolishness, and uncleanness (Rom. 1 and 2). Lost man’s spiritual concept is soulish. It rises from his natural part: “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (I Cor. 2:14 NASB UPDATE). He is held down in his depraved condition by his soulish desire. Sin disturbs the whole of man’s life. The grace of God alone can remedy it.

Man was a tripartite being before, during, and after the fall. Man may be likened to a three story building: his spirit, the third story; his soul, the second; and his body, the first. When he fell, the top story fell into the second; and they both fell into the basement. (1) The body was affected in the fall: “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them” (Rom. 1:24 NASB UPDATE). (2) The soul was affected by the fall: “For this reason God gave then over to degrading passions...” (Rom. 1:26 NASB UPDATE). Degrading passions proceed from the soul which is the seat of self-consciousness. (3) The spirit was affected by the fall: “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved [reprobate] mind, to do those things which are not proper” (Rom. 1:28 NASB UPDATE). A reprobate mind includes the spirit because the spirit of man is that part of man that is able to comprehend truth.

Someone may raise the question, If man has been given over to a reprobate mind and he does not have a spirit of God-consciousness, how can he really possess a spirit? The first chapter of Romans proves that man does retain, even in his depraved condition, some recognition of God. He does not love God, but he does have a natural knowledge of Him which cannot save his soul. Man retains some knowledge of God; therefore, the spirit of man must not be eliminated from him in a state of depravity. Depraved man knows God; consequently, he knows that God exists (Rom. 1:19-25). The natural knowledge that men have of God’s existence is not used advantageously. It can never save a soul. That natural knowledge acquaints men with the judgment of God (Rom. 1:32). That is the reason he fears God.

The word total (total depravity) is often used in theological circles. Total does not indicate that each sinner is as completely corrupt as he could be. The word is used to indicate that man’s whole being—body, soul, and spirit—has been affected in the fall. Self-love is the root of depravity. Self-admiration, self-will, and self-righteousness are variations of self-love.

The testimony of Holy Scripture evidences that man is completely affected by the fall (Ps. 14:2, 3; Rom. 1; Eph. 2:1-3). History proves that man is depraved (I John 5:19). Although circumstances, manners, customs, and religions of the world have undergone changes, the world system continues to lie in the lap of the devil. Mere observation causes one to acknowledge that man is totally affected by the fall. Man loves to think, but not about God. He delights in activity, but he has no heart to act for God. He takes pleasure in conversation, but he does not want to converse about the Holy God. He delights to tell news, but not the good news of the gospel of God. Man is totally depraved—body, soul, and spirit.

The devil, knowing that man is a tripartite being, arranged all his attacks against his threefold being: “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6 NASB UPDATE). Eve saw the fruit, desired it, and took it. She saw with her physical eyes. The activity of her heart (soul) was involved in her desire for the fruit. Thus, the seat of her affection was at work. Her will was affected by her desire, and she took the fruit. Her whole person—body, soul, and spirit—was involved in her sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was tested by Satan in the same manner in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). Nevertheless, thank God, testing coming from without had no effect on the blessed Person of Christ.

Satan continues to follow the same method of procedure. Therefore, Christians are exhorted: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (I John 2:15, 16 NASB UPDATE). Satan’s assaults appeal to each phase of man’s being. They may be overcome by the Christian. He must overcome the lust of the flesh by fleeing (II Tim. 2:22). He overcomes the lust of the eye by faith (Eph. 6:13-18). He overcomes the devil by fighting (I Tim. 6:12). Flee, have faith, and fight are the watchwords by which believers overcome Satan’s assaults.

Man’s tripartition may be compared with the tabernacle (Ex. 25-40). Man is a temple. When Jesus Christ came into the world, He tabernacled (dwelt) among men (John 1:14). Jesus Christ assumed a human body. He also had a human soul and a human spirit. The tabernacle consisted of two rooms, the holy place and the holiest of all; and there was an inner court with a fence around it. The outside appearance only was visible to man. The court represents man’s body; the first room symbolizes his soul; the second room typifies his spirit.

Scripture distinguishes soul and spirit. The Hebrew word nephesh in the Old Testament is translated “soul” in the majority of times that it is used. The word also refers to animals in some cases. An animal has a soul, but it does not have a spirit. The spirit is that which distinguishes man from the beast. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word ruach is translated “spirit” in most cases. The word signifies breath or wind. The New Testament word for “soul” is psuche. The New Testament word for “spirit” is pneuma. Soul and spirit are not used synonymously; and they do not mean the same thing.

When death occurs, the soul goes to be with the Lord, and the body goes back to the dust of the earth. A departed soul can communicate, hear, and feel; therefore, it has form. The apostle John saw souls under the altar: “When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also” (Rev. 6:9-11 NASB UPDATE). When a man’s flesh goes back to the dust of the earth, his soul continues to exist. The soul has form, and the spirit is encased within. A certain rich man died; and in hell (hades), he lifted up his eyes in torment. According to his request, he could look into the past, present, and future. He had form because he could see and feel (Luke 16:19-31).

Adam was created a trichotomous person; he remained thus after the fall; and his posterity is likewise trichotomous. All men are without hope until the Lord intervenes in grace and gives His elect a new spirit. Then, by the Spirit of God, that man has a new principle and lives above old, natural desires.