Who Are You 4

In our quest for wanting to know who we are, dissect man with me.

Triunity of persons:
Though controversial, Scripture seems to say man is created tripartite. The triunity of man is seen in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are those who believe man is two part, body and soul. Because of the Thessalonians passage and because God is a triunity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), it seems to fit better to see man as three parts of a whole.

Many authors and speakers have used the circle diagrams to depict man, however, my first exposure to it was with Charles Solomon who teaches on the “Exchanged Life.” I am indebted to him.

Can you picture three circles on a white board in front of us. Each circle has three concentric circles. Looking at the circle on the left, (the circle depicting union of God and Adam -body, soul, spirit) the outer circle within the circle depicts the Body: the five senses, systems and motor responses.

The second inner circle represents the Soul: the source of reason, emotion, volition, memory, imagination, curiosity, perception, desires. The most inner concentric circle represents the Spirit: prayer/communing with God, revelation from Him, fellowship with other believers, spiritual fruit and gifts, warfare.

1. Before the fall: God planted a beautiful, fruitful garden and placed Adam in the Garden (of Eden) to tend and care for it. Adam, with God wisdom, named all the animals God had created. God then gave Adam a wife, Eve. Adam and Eve, untarnished by sin had intimate communion with each other and with God. They lived out their Image-bearing role perfectly, receiving and displaying the life of God. Paradise.

But man marred that image. Adam and Eve responded to the temptation of the evil one, disobeyed God and man fell from his position of intimacy with God. Fallen, depraved, in search for love, security, significance and identity, (all that Adam and Eve had with God before the fall). Something happened to the spiritual dimension of man. It died.

Referring back to the three circles on the white board in front of us, the middle circle diagrams the spirit dimension as dead. Body and soul are the same but the spiritual connection with God died.
Romans 5:17 tells us that the sin of the first man, Adam was passed on to all of us.
The Amplified version of Ephesians.2:1-2 describes this “walking dead man”:
And you He made alive, when you were dead (slain) by your trespasses and sins in which at one time you walked habitually. You were following the course and fashion of this world, were under the sway of the tendency of this present age, following the prince of the power of the air (satan). You were obedient to him and were under his control, the demon spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience, the careless, the rebellious and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God.

Man in this state sins automatically because of his true nature. This is hard for some “nice” people to accept. Some non-believers act more Christian then some believers in Christ act. “Me, a sinner? I don’t think so. I give to charity. I go to church. I’m more patient and kind then that deacon at church.” Yet the Bible tells us that without a saving faith in Christ, we are doomed eternally and can not enjoy fellowship with God now.

The world's value system is the guide to living for the non-Christian. The deep God-given longings are sought to be met not in God but in people, materialism, pleasure, lust, greed, status-seeking and other self-absorbed activity.
Let’s be reminded that the non believer not only lives according to the world value system, but is actually obeying satan. EPH.2:2KJV "You walked...according to the prince of power of the air (satan).
But man doesn't have to endure this fate. Paul, following the Ephesians 2 verses, wrote in Ephesians 2:4,5 "But God is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again when he raised Christ from the dead.”

More on this tomorrow.