THE TWO PARTS OF MAN
By Bruce Shaulis
Paul paints a vivid picture of the makeup of man. He states that there are TWO parts of a man. It is an accepted belief that man is spirit, soul and body but what is the difference between the spirit and the soul? The bible states only a slight difference between the two but a difference is clearly stated. In this blog I will investigate the difference between the spirit, soul and body of man and the inner and outer man.
We all know what the body is. Paul says that it is the outer man. It is the part of man that desires self destructive behaviors. This is where what the bible calls SIN is actually acted out. Jesus said that a man has already committed sin if he lusts in his heart. Clearly then, the outer man or body of a person is manipulated by the inner man or the spirit and soul which the bible refers to as THE HEART.
The inner man (the HEART) is where our thoughts are conceived. There is a thing called conscience that resides here. The conscience is a navigation device, if you will, and the source of reason which is as individual as the fingerprint. Our God given free will is exercised here and is what gives us individuality. According to Wikipedia the conscience is:
Conscience is an aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment that assists in distinguishing right from wrong. Moral judgment may derive from values or norms (principles and rules).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscience
It would seem then that the conscience of man was first tested in the Garden of Eden when Eve first took a bite of the forbidden fruit because it was then that Adam and Eve realized that they had been given a free will to choose something outside of the commandment of God. The conscience then let's us know if we are in the will of God or not. You could consider it kind of a GPS (God Positioning Satellite) for the soul. So then the soul appears to coincide with the conscience in the inner man.
Hebrews 10:2 For then would they (sacrifices) not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more CONSCIENCE of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
The writer of Hebrews was explaining in this chapter that people desire a CLEAR CONSCIENCE and tried to gain it by sacrificing animals. Clearly then our conscience reveals our standing with God and the need for justice to make up for our wrongs committed against His laws. People under the law of Moses could never clear their conscience of their sins by the sacrifice of an animal because they knew that they alone were guilty.
Jesus told Nicodemus in JOHN 3 that a man must be BORN AGAIN to see the Kingdom of Heaven. He explained that things that are born of flesh are only flesh but things born of the spirit are spirit. He said unless a man is born of water (flesh) AND the Spirit, he cannot enter into Heaven. So then the inner man comes as standard equipment when we are conceived. We don't have to do anything to get a soul because we became a soul when we were conceived. That is; we were given our individuality at that moment.
PSALMS 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
If we consider then that the soul is the consciousness of man we can see from the Psalms that God is the one who created our soul and body in the womb. But Jesus said that we must be born of water AND spirit to enter into Heaven. Could it be that we are born a living soul with a life force that gives us the ability to live? Paul states in
1 CORINTHIANS 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a LIVING SOUL; the last Adam was made a QUICKENING SPIRIT.
As Jesus told Nicodemus, we must be born of water AND spirit to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Thus the term being BORN AGAIN. The inner man then is who we are but
JOHN 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth (gives life); the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
We were created in the IMAGE of God that is; we are a spirit and soul inside a body of flesh. This is how God revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. He created a flesh body in the womb of Mary and filled it with His entire soul and spirit so He could speak to us face to face and so He could die in our place. Since God CANNOT die He had to make a flesh body that was HOLY and subject to die to clear the WAY back to the tree of life. Since the only one who is HOLY is GOD, GOD had to become flesh to be the PERFECT sacrifice for our sins. We call that body, JESUS the SON OF GOD as was prophesied by the prophets. ISAIAH 9:6, MATTHEW 1:21
In conclusion then: We have learned that our soul was created by God and put in our body at conception where God forms all of the members of the flesh before birth. We were created in His image which is the image of His Son Jesus. We were given a spirit to allow us to live in the flesh. We have learned that God created a flesh body in the womb of Mary and placed His own Spirit and Soul in it so that He could become the PERFECT sacrifice for our sins. He proved that the flesh body of Jesus was His flesh by raising it from the dead to be glorified in Heaven with Him. We have learned that we must be BORN AGAIN of the Holy Spirit who is God to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven by accepting the Lord's Great Sacrifice that cleared the way back to the Tree of Life that provides eternal life to all who eat of it.
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