How the Spirit Shapes the True Self

Today I want to deal with the total human personality, and particularly two elements of human personality. If we don't understand ourselves and how we are made up, we have a problem.

The total human personality, I believe, is unfolded in the verse that we quoted.

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify us completely, and may our whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless.”

So, completely means our whole spirit, soul, and body.

It says in Genesis chapter one that God decided to create man in his own image and in his likeness. That's Genesis 1:26. His image would refer to his outward appearance. There is something in the outward appearance of man that reflects the outward appearance of God. Let me point it out this way. It was appropriate that the Son of God should be manifested in the form of a male human being. He could not have come in the form of an ox or a beetle, because the male human being, in a sense, represents the image or the outward appearance of God.

“For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God.”

The other phrase that's used in Genesis is not image, but likeness. Likeness, I believe, represents the inner structure of the Godhead. The structure of the Godhead is triune: Father, Son, and Spirit. In that likeness, man was created a triune being: spirit, soul, and body. So man, in a unique way, represents God to the creation over which God set him as a ruler, in his outward appearance and in his inner composition.

We're not going to deal with the outward appearance, but with the inner structure of human personality, which is threefold: spirit, soul, and body. If we go back to the creation, we can trace the origin of each. The spirit came from the in-breathed breath of God. When God breathed into Adam, that produced spirit in Adam. Incidentally, the words for spirit and breath are the same, both in Hebrew and in Greek. The body was clay infused with divine life. The soul came about through the union of spirit and body.

The soul is the part that's difficult to understand. It is the unique individual ego. The thing in each of us which that can say, "I will," or "I won't." It's usually defined as consisting of the will, the emotions, and the intellect. So very simply, these are expressed or represented in three verbal statements: I want, I think, I feel. That's the nature of the soul. Those who are separated from God by sin are dominated by their soul. You'll find if you analyze it, that the life and actions of the natural man are controlled by those three things: I want, I think, I feel.

Now, let's consider what happened to Adam and Eve through the fall. First of all, the spirit died. God said in Genesis chapter 2 verse 17 to Adam,

“the day you eat of the fruit of the tree, you shall die.”

Adam did not die physically for more than 900 years, but he died spiritually the moment he disobeyed God.

At the same time, Adam's soul became a rebel. We have to bear in mind that every descendant of Adam, male or female, has in him or her the nature of a rebel. That is our biggest single problem. For that reason, it is not sufficient merely to have our sins forgiven, though that's wonderful, but the rebel has to be put to death. And that is part of the provision of the gospel.