INTRODUCTION

Author: Johan du Toit

Overview

In order for us to better understand the redemptive work of Christ, the spiritual aspects of our beings, the Word of God and spiritual matters in general, we need to understand how we were put together and how we operate in this world.

We differ from animals in the sense that we are spirit‐beings, while animals have a soul but no spirit. We did not evolve from apes or other creatures, as many scientists try to make us believe ‐ we were made in the image of God and since God is Spirit, we must accept the fact that we are, first of all, spirit‐ beings too.

The Bible has much to say on this subject and we’ll take some time to carefully investigate the Word to see what it teaches us concerning these things. Much is hidden between the lines, and we need to be sober when studying the Word in order to receive all the counsel of God. Religious tradition taught us only certain things and concentrated on a narrow range of it all, but avoided much of the wealth of wisdom which is available in the Word.

Everything God gave us is important, therefore it is important for us to know and understand these things. We have missed much of the purposes of God with our lives due to our own ignorance. God gave us His Word for a reason, and we need to study it and walk in the light of it as we grow in knowledge. Understanding God’s purposes with our lives will provide direction and fulfilment we’ll never have otherwise.

In this study we’ll look at the threefold nature of man, namely spirit, soul and body.

We are spirit beings because we were created in the image of God, and God is Spirit.

My spirit is the real me. It is the part which knows God and fellowships with Him. With my spirit I interact with the spiritual world.

We have a soul, which is our intellect, will, reasoning and emotions.

With my soul I can reason and think. My soul interacts with the intellectual world.

We live in a body, which is the visible, tangible house we live in during our stay on the earth.

With my body I interact with the natural, visible, tangible world.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

DEFINITIONS

Term	Definition
Spirit	The non-physical part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character.
Soul	The spiritual or immaterial part of a human being, regarded as immortal.
Body	The physical structure, including the bones, flesh, and organs, of a person.

1. WE ARE SPIRIT BEINGS

Genesis 1:26‐27 NKJV 
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. 

At this point in creation man existed ‐ in the spirit world. The Bible is very clear: it says God created them ‐ past tense. It uses the verb created in the past tense three times in this one verse. God is Spirit and since man was created after His likeness, he was a spirit‐being too. Male and female existed in the spirit. God even gave them their destiny: they were to dominate and rule over the works of His hands and be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.

Creation was completed, everything existed ‐ but not in the visible, natural world. It existed because God created it by His Word. That is why everything God created by His Word exists, even though it is not always visible to the natural eye.

Afterwards God formed man (he was first created) of the dust of the earth and breathed life into him, and he became a living being. The spirit man became clothed in flesh made of the dust of the earth. God first created him by a spoken Word, then He formed him and gave substance to him.   Two different verbs were used to describe the creative process.   For interest sake, when God clothed Eve He built her, and yet another verb is used. These are all very important as the New Testament is already being written here in shadows and patterns. Let’s look up some Hebrew words in the Lexicon:

God created man (male and female) ‐ Genesis 1:27. The Hebrew word used here is bârâ (baw‐ raw) [Strongs #1254] and it means to create. God created him as the first of a kind, as something that did not exist before; he was the product of God’s creativity.

Then God formed Adam of the dust of the earth ‐ Genesis 2:7. The Hebrew word used here is yatsar (yaw‐tsar) [Strong’s # 3335] and it means to ‘squeeze into shape’; to mould into a form, as a potter would mould a jar.

Later God built Eve from the rib of Adam, while he was sleeping ‐ Genesis 2:22. The Hebrew verb used here is bânâh (baw‐naw) [Strongs #1129] and it means to build. God took of the refined material of Adam and built it into a woman.

Create, form, build. But both Adam and Eve existed as spirit beings before substance was given to them.

Jesus existed with God before the foundation of the world. He was included in the “Let Us make man…” In the beginning was the Word ‐ He was the Word who created everything. Then, at a time ordained before by God, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1‐4). Jesus did not come into being the day He was born as a man on the earth ‐ He existed with the Father in the spiritual world. Just as the Father, He is also Spirit. We were created in their likeness as spirit‐beings.

The Holy Spirit was also present at creation. He was hovering over the face of the waters, and was included in the Us whom God spoke of when He said “Let Us make man…” As His name indicates, He is a Spirit. We were made in their likeness.

Now let’s look at some Scriptures to shed more light on this subject.

John 4:24 NKJV 
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. 

In order for us to communicate with God we must be of the same kind as He is. God doesn’t fellowship with animals because they don’t have spirits and they’re in a different class. He made us for His glory and longs for our fellowship.

That is why it is impossible for us to understand God mentally, because He is a Spirit and the only way we can know Him is by our own spirits. Nor can we touch Him physically, again because He is a Spirit. As spirit‐beings who live in natural bodies we have access to both the spiritual world and the natural world. God made us this way so we could rule over creation legally.

When we were born again, our spirits were born again; we became new creations spiritually. Physically we still looked the same; nothing changed. Mentally we were still the same; our minds were not born again and still thought the way they used to think. The inward change affected our thinking processes to some extend, but for the greatest part not much really changed in our minds.

John 3:3 NKJV 
Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 

Jesus told Nicodemus that without being born again, it would be impossible to even see the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, and cannot be seen with the natural eye. Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus said because he was carnally minded; he figured that he had to be born again physically.

John 3:5,6 NKJV 
Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (the cleansing Word) and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." 

What Jesus was telling him was that our sinful nature had to die and a new spirit, after the likeness of God, had to be created in us. That is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

II Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

King David longed for this experience, but it was not possible under the old covenant. His sins were only covered by the blood of animals, not taken away as ours are in the new covenant by the blood of Jesus.

Psalm 51:10 NKJV 
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 

The apostle Peter calls our spirit the hidden man:

I Peter 3:4 NKJV
...but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 

The hidden person of the heart is the real person living inside the body. The Bible sometimes calls the spirit the heart.

Note how Paul separates the inner man from the outward:

II Corinthians 4:16 NKJV 
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 

The inward man is the spirit and the outward man is the body of flesh. The inward man lives forever and is being renewed day by day as it feeds on the Word of God, but the outward man, the body, gets older and older every day and will eventually die.

Then Paul goes further and says that unseen things are eternal, while the visible things are temporary. All visible things are natural and subject to change, but the invisible things of the spirit world are eternal and never die. Our inward man, our spirit, never dies; it is eternal as God is eternal because we were made in His image. If we are born again, we will live with Him in His eternal kingdom, but if we are not born again, we will live eternally in hell ‐ which is death.

II Corinthians 4:18 NKJV 
While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

Because the unseen is eternal, that is where our attention should be focused. The Word of God is eternal; it was spoken once by God and cannot change. His promises are eternal, and will come to pass if we hold onto them without doubting. Doubt comes when we allow visible things to influence our thinking.   Our spirits are eternal, and should receive more attention and food than our bodies which are temporary.

Psalm 119:89 NKJV 
Forever, O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven.

John 6:63 NKJV 
The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 

But there is also a distinction between the soul and the spirit, both invisible dimensions within us:

I Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV 
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. 

Spirit and soul cannot be separated, they are like the two sides of one coin. But we can study their functions separately. God has a plan for the salvation of our whole being; spirit, soul and body. We already know that our spirit man must be born again in order to see and enter the kingdom of God. There is no other way! This is the God‐ordained way to enter His kingdom.   We will look at the soul and the body later on.

God has given us everything we’ll ever need ‐ in His Word. Spiritually they exist already, just as everything existed first in the spirit world and then manifested in the natural world. Our faith will give substance to those things we need and cause them to manifest in the natural world.

The fact that we cannot see in the spiritual world does not make it less real ‐ in fact it is more real because the things we cannot see are eternal.

Healing for our bodies already exists because Jesus took our sicknesses diseases upon Himself when He died on the cross; by His stripes we were healed (I Peter 2:24). God doesn’t have to heal us when we get sick ‐ He provided for it already in Christ, on the cross. We just have to take it by faith and bring it from the spiritual over into the natural world. So it is with everything else we might need. We have to receive those things in our spirit first before they will manifest in the natural. Our spirit, as the eternal, more powerful part, rules over the natural, which is the lesser, temporary part.

If our spirits are the stronger, dominating part, we’ll live in victory. If our flesh is the stronger one (because it is allowed to grow stronger by yielding to its dictates) we’ll live in defeat. If our souls (thinking processes) side with our spirits, we’ll have a majority and thus a victorious life. If our souls side with our flesh, by thinking constantly on the natural, carnal desires of the flesh, we’ll live in defeat. That is why the Bible has so much to say about our souls. The soul is where we win or lose our battles!

The flesh will never desire the things of God. It will always demand carnal things which lead to death.

Romans 8:5‐8 NKJV 
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 it be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  

But the born again spirit is made in the image of Christ: it is pure and holy.   Nothing can be added to the work that Christ did for us, the Father was fully satisfied with His sacrifice for our sins. Jesus took our sins past, present and future on Himself.

Hebrews 10:10,14 NKJV 
By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.  

Colossians 2:8‐10 NKJV
Beware that anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power.

Colossians 3:10 NKJV
...and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him...

II Corinthians 3:18 NKJV 
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 

II Corinthians 5:21 NKJV 
For He has made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

Our experience is different, though, as we often fail and stumble. We don’t feel righteous all the time. Salvation has nothing to do with feelings ‐ feelings come from the flesh, not the spirit. The Word of God declares us righteous and that is why it is true. The Word is the truth ‐ not our feelings.

As we were created with a free will, God left it to us to deal with the salvation of our souls, but we must first understand that our recreated spirit is a work of God, and therefore complete. Hallelujah for such a great salvation!

What about sin? Are we allowed to sin then, since we were made righteous and complete in Christ?

No!

Romans 6:1,2 NKJV 
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 

We’ll never be perfect in our walk on the earth; we are still in the flesh and sin is alive in the flesh. Therefore you can never trust your flesh.

I John 1:8,9, 2:1,2 NKJV 
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 

If you have sinned, confess it to the Father and receive full and complete forgiveness from Him with cleansing from all unrighteousness. He said it; He’ll do it.

2. WE HAVE A SOUL

Our soul is where our will, emotions, intellect, memories and reasoning are situated. It is the control centre of our beings.

While the salvation of our spirit through the new‐birth experience is a work of God through the Word and the Spirit, the salvation of our souls is a different case altogether. We are born again in an instant, but the process of the salvation of our souls will continue for the rest of our lives.

James 1:21 NKJV 
Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. 

The implanted Word of God is able to save our souls! We can save our souls by implanting the Word of God into them. Elsewhere the Bible calls it the renewing of our minds.

Romans 12:2 AMP 
Do not be conformed to this world ‐ this age, fashioned after and adapted to its external superficial customs. But be transformed (changed) by the entire renewal of your mind ‐ by its new ideals and its new attitude ‐ so that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in his sight for you. 

We are all products of our environment. We came into this world with a blank memory, knowing nothing about religion, politics or any such thing. We had no culture, self‐esteem nor idea about ourselves and no consciousness of sin. But, as we grow and develop, our parents, family members, friends, teachers, etc. begin to fill in that blank memory and instill in us the way the world thinks and operates ‐ we are being made to conform to the world we live in. People who do not conform to this world run into all kinds of trouble.

The Bible teaches us not to conform to this world as the carnal mind is enmity against God (Rom. 8:6‐ 8).   We cannot please God and the world at the same time, so we have to change the way we think. We have to change the way we think about God, ourselves, others, spiritual matters, the Bible, eternity, our destinies and so on. We have to think the way God thinks, and we can only do it by receiving the implanted Word of God in our hearts and minds.

We cannot change our lives if we do not first change the way we think. Note what Paul says about the spiritually mature man and woman:

I Corinthians 2:16 NKJV
For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

We can have the mind of Christ. Think about that.

Renewing the mind to the Word of God is a continuous process of speaking and doing the Word, instead of the customs of this world. In the world people respond to sickness by going to the hospital, but our renewed minds will cause us to receive healing from the stripes on His back. The world goes to the bank in a time of financial need, but the child of God draws on His eternal resources by faith. It is all in the mind!

Ephesians 4:17,18 NKJV 
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;... 

Colossians 3:1‐2 NKJV 
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  

Philippians 4:8,9 NKJV 
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy ‐ meditate on these things. 

Renewing our minds is the process of replacing the thoughts and reasonings of the world with the Word of God and beginning to think God’s thoughts. This is powerful living!

We cannot understand the ways of God, for His thoughts and ways are too high for us (Isa. 55:8,9). That is why He gave us His Word! We can put His Word into our minds and begin to think the way He does.

Isaiah 55:10‐11 NKJV 
For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. 

God made it possible for us to live in such victory by planting His Word inside of us. When we begin to think His Word instead of the ways of the world, we will certainly see the Word come to pass. The Word of God is anointed to cause itself to come to pass in our lives.

The salvation of our souls comes gradually as we renew our minds according to the Word of God. It’s a never ending process of hearing and doing the Word. This is the way He prepared for us!

Psalm 1 tells us the man who meditates in the Word of the Lord night and day is blessed and “whatever he does shall prosper.”

We will go to heaven if we are born again but our minds are not renewed, but we will live beneath God’s standards in life and never fulfil His purposes for us.

3. WE LIVE IN A BODY

Our body is of this world and cannot inherit the kingdom of God; it is destined for corruption (I Cor. 15:50). Sin dwells in our bodies (Rom. 7:18‐24).

Our body is the temporary house, the tent in which we live here on the earth (II Cor. 5:1). A day will come when this body will be exchanged for an incorruptible one:

I Corinthians 15:53 NKJV 
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

I John 3:2 NKJV 
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. 

We do not quite know what we will be like, but we will be like Him. After He rose from the dead, He had a glorified body ‐ he could even enter a room without going through the door. Our corruptible body will put on incorruptibility; we will have a glorified body too.

But here on the earth we have instructions concerning our bodies:

Romans 12:1 NKJV 
And I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  

A living sacrifice means living on the altar ‐ sacrificing the desires of the flesh.   Our flesh becomes strong against our recreated spirit when we keep on yielding to its dictates. It must be disciplined, for it will never do the will of God voluntary.

Galatians 5:17 AMP 
For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are opposed to the flesh; for these are antagonistic to each other ‐ continually withstanding and in conflict with each other ‐ so that you are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do. 

I Corinthians 9:27 NKJV 
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. 

Our bodies must be forced to become instruments of righteousness and in doing the will of God. By nature they will always desire to sin, but we should rule over them by our spirits and our renewed minds.

Romans 6:12 NKJV 
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 

Our bodies can be holy, and we should keep it under control of our recreated inner man.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hagin, E. (n.d.). The Threefold Being of Man.

Nelson, T. (1982). The New King James Version Bible. Thomas Nelson.