BIBLICAL BRIEFS 32
First and foremost, we must distinguish between the natural man and the spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:14-15), which are BOTH resident in the believer. The spiritual man has a spirit, soul and body, and the natural man has a spirit, soul and body. The spirit of the natural man is the ability to breathe and to live; the soul is the will, intellect, emotions and other facets of the human character, personality, talents, and so forth; the body is its fleshly palace. When the natural man dies or yields up the spirit (Matt. 27:50), it so happens, as is spelled out in Ecc. 12: 7, “then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it”. Simultaneously, the natural soul will also perish. There is no such thing like an individual having an eternal soul (Eze. 18:20; Jonah 4: 3). With the creation of Adam, God made man in His own image and according to His likeness. Since God is Spirit (John 4:24), the first man originally, in essence was a spiritual being, with a living soul (Gen. 2: 7) and a spiritual body that, in no way succumbed to death nor disease. The spirit of the spiritual man is the ability to have intimacy with God; this soul is a collective engagement with the Body, also called “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), as it were the soul’s dimensional ability in a collective spiritual Body, also called a glorified body, known in the New Testament as “the Body of Christ”. All animals, like all natural human beings, have the breath/spirit of natural life (Gen. 1:30), otherwise, they would not have been able to breathe or live. Thus, all living animals are also living souls! It has to be realised now that natural man has a natural, temporary body, a living soul, as well as a living spirit. This natural spirit allows him, like with animals, merely to exist; this is not in accordance with the previous definition regarding spiritual man’s spirit having the ability to have intimacy with God. With the fall of man, Adam and consequently mankind’s spiritual man died, although Adam’s natural man died much later when he was 930 years old (Gen. 5: 5). Nothing can, therefore, fill any carnal man, which is “from the earth, earthy” (1 Cor. 15:47), with the attributes of spiritual life, with immortality, or imperishability except rebirth. This is why Jesus explains to Nicodemus in John. 3: 3 and 5 that no person who is not born again would be able to see nor enter the kingdom of God, “except a man be born again” (IAV). Jesus puts it in an interesting way – “If anyone is not born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” He does not use the words may not, he CANNOT! It is strictly speaking impossible for a natural man to enter into the spiritual realm! There is no access from the lower realm to the higher realm except to be born “from above” – thus, the matter regarding the spiritual man is settled. Therefore Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:16: “though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”
Dr. Tom Gouws
