THE NATURE OF MAN

The Psalmist said in Psalms 8:4-8Psalms 8:4-84 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than Elohim (God), and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than Elohim (God), and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

—Psalms 8:4-8

In verse 5Psalms 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than Elohim (God), and hast crowned him with glory and honour. , what is translated ANGELS in several bible translations should be GOD, Man was made a little lower than God, therefore we don’t look at Man to understand God, we must look at God to understand Man. There is a law in Bible School that is called “The Law of First Mention“. I never went to a Bible school, but I like that law because Jesus himself applied it when he said, “…but from the beginning..”. So we must go back to the beginning; when Man was first placed on Earth, to understand clearly what we are saying.

First of all, Who is God? Common Bible definitions exist, however, the simplest is that God is Spirit and Object of Worship.

These questions will follow suit, Does God have a Soul? Does God have a Mind? Does God have a Body? How invisible is God?—To every Bible question, there is a Bible answer, Yes, God has a Soul!

The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

—Psalms 11:5

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

—Hebrew 10:38 cf: Habakkuk 2:4

God says His Soul will have no pleasure in those who draw back and backslide. Yes, God has a Mind!

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

—1 Corinthians 2:16

The Lord has His Mind. Does God have a Body?

God as a Being, does have a Body! Now, if we start to explicitly explain that, we would increase the scope of this rotulus but we will address it a little and we will revisit this in another rotulus.

God as Spirit, has a WORD (LOGOS). This WORD is a SPIRITUAL BODY and the WORD is visible in the realm of the Spirit John 1:1John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. .

Today, the Body of God is the Word that was manifested in Jesus. The WORD (Logos) stood in the very beginning as the mediator between the ETERNAL SPIRIT (INVISIBLE GOD) and the INVISIBLE WORLD (the world that is not humanly visible), the WORD also stood as the mediator between the INVISIBLE WORLD and the VISIBLE WORLD and CREATION.

There are three levels we’ve highlighted here, the domain of the ETERNAL SPIRIT who is yet invisible even to the INVISIBLE SPIRITS, the domain of the INVISIBLE WORLD (dimension, realm, you can call it anything appropriate) where the INVISIBLE SPIRITS operate and the VISIBLE WORLD AND CREATION which we can see with a human eye-sight.

God is invisible, Spirits are invisible! , But if our eyes get open, we can see spirits and angels, However, there is no level to which our eyes will open that we will see God.

1 Timothy 61 Timothy 6:16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. says ”who alone hath immortality and dwell in light no man can approach, whom no man has seen nor can see” No man at any time have ever seen God nor will see God, only the begotten of the father has declared him John 1:18John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. .

Now God moved to start the work of creation, and the first mention of MAN is in Genesis 1:26,27

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

—Genesis 1:26-27

If you read carefully, you will see the following, God said: “let’s make man in our image and likeness“. Now a lot of people read that and add “our OWN image”. This is an addition to the word of God and is punishable according to the book of Revelation by removing your part from the Book of Life! If you check verse 27Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. , God only made man in His IMAGE, What about the LIKENESS? What is the Image of God? What’s the Likeness of God? Theologians believe that these are the same, but image and likeness are not the same!

“IMAGE” in Hebrew is “tselem” which means: a shadow, representation of substance, shade, resemblance. On the other hand, “LIKENESS” in Hebrew is “demooth”. It means shape, resemblance, similitude, the similarity of features between.

So God made man first in His IMAGE, God, being Spirit, made Man in that image. Therefore, that man of Genesis 1 was CREATED AS SPIRIT. He was in the Spirit and though he would not be visible to the physical eyes, yet he existed. The invisibility of a thing doesn’t nullify its existence! otherwise, I would be a fool to believe in radio because I do not see the frequencies. Also, the atheists expose their FOLLY by staying in lockdown because of the INVISIBLE CORONAVIRUS. Then we proceed to Genesis 2 where God now formed MAN in His LIKENESS.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

—Genesis 2:1-7

Now, look closely at verse 7Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. we see this, some version of that verse says Living Soul. The Hebrew word is actually “NEPHESH” and translated “living being, living soul, living creatures“. The Man which was formed dead became a LIVING soul/creature/being, as a result of the BREATH OF LIFE. We must understand that this LIVING spoken of here is in relation to the EARTH because MAN existed in the SPIRIT before a mortal/earthly body was formed for him in Genesis 2.

I watch a lot of documentaries and there I learned that Elephants mourn for a family member that dies. An elephant can stay away from a family member for 12 years, after those years, if they meet again, they will remember each other hence animals can exhibit MEMORY, AFFECTION, LOVE, CARE, etc. Now to the question of whether animals have souls or not? Yes, animals have souls! but their souls are not redeemable. That’s why science is confused. What made man a living being in relation to the earth is the BREATH OF LIFE.

All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

—Genesis 7:22

Let me ask a question, was the above verse talking only about humans? No! Did all the animals enter the ark? No!

Let me proceed with Man; we have heard it that Man is a TRIPARTITE being consisting of Body, Spirit, and Soul. I agree with this, however, this arrangement of Body–Spirit–Soul has a bias. I choose to arrange it as BODY–SOUL–SPIRIT and I’ll tell you why.

Before that, let’s try to define some things. The truth is that if we check all the Encyclopedias, Google, and any science-related materials, we will not be able to successfully define Soul and Spirit nor will we be able to get what differentiates them. We can only define Body because that is what we have been with all our LIFE. Understand this that the Soul is the Nature/Characteristic of the Spirit. If you check online or anywhere, you will observe that Soul and Spirit are often mixed up and used interchangeably. You will also observe that they often have similar definitions. In the Bible, due to inadequacy in translations, “Soul” and “Spirit” are also used interchangeably in several instances and places.

The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the inner depths of his heart.

—Proverb 20:27

 See the Spirit of Man from the above scriptures, it is that aspect of Man that God calls the “LAMP OF THE LORD“. Why? because it is more readily (as a matter of fact) the first (aspect of man) to receive anything Godly. We can call it the seat of God-consciousness and therefore the seat of Faith.  Nevertheless, we must understand that The Soul and The Spirit are so closely related and sometimes, separating them in contexts may be a Herculean task.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart

—Hebrews 4:12

Joints & Marrow—Thoughts & Intents—Soul & Spirit

Two similar things but different. Joints and Marrow almost similar, Thoughts and Intents almost similar, Soul and Spirit almost similar. Before we proceed, let’s still touch on the concept of the Soul by drawing some references. When Rachel was dying, the Bible said “as her SOUL was departing“, when Stephen was dying, he said, “receive my SPIRIT“. These show how both words are closely related. Let me lay this emphasis that  the soul of man is more related to his earthly life. 

And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben–oni: but his father called him Benjamin.

—Genesis 35:18

Man has always been existing as a Spirit, but to contact the EARTH, he became a living SOUL. Earth is in relation to the soul.

And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

—Act 7:59

In 1 Corinthians 2, the Bible says “it is the Spirit that receives the things of God.“

10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

—I Corinthians 2:10-12

Paul said further that “The (God’s) Spirit bears witness with our spirit“. This points out that the conversion experience is with the SPIRIT.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

—Romans 8:16

The Spirit is what RECEIVES God! The Soul is what EXPRESSES God! The Bible says: “My soul doth magnify the Lord“. The soul of a man expresses God and that is if the person is born again; if not, his soul will express the Devil.

We have been able to see the Spirit and Soul in relation. Now let’s watch the way Paul puts this.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

—1 Thessalonians 5:23

Paul was deliberate here in the way He listed it: Spirit, Soul, and Body. The Spirit first receives the Word, the Soul is the place that can be the victim of WAR, and the body will be saved eventually, This also reflects the stages of Salvation. Here in this rotulus, we won’t detail on the stages of Salvation (we will in a subsequent rotulus)

Let’s consider scriptures:

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

—1 Peter 2:11

The WAR is against the Soul. Yes, the person is Born-Again, yet he is in perpetual war and this war affects the Soul and that brings us to the Biggest Battle Ever Fought.

The understanding of salvation is lacking in most people or at the least, the explanatory idea of salvation is fundamentally wrong. Man thinks he has input in the work of Salvation. I have heard of scenarios or testimonies that “a preacher preached and it touched me and I decided to give my life to Christ“. No no! you had no CHOICE as a Sinner, Salvation is of the LORD. It was God that did a work in your Spirit man to receive his Word. That’s why Paul said there is no boasting in Salvation.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah

—Psalms 3:8

God willing, we will look at Predestination and Election in subsequent rotulus and what it is in relation to Salvation.

We know that this BATTLE is in the Mind and from what we have seen so far, the mind is linked with the Soul, therefore, I will list it as Paul listed it.

1. Spirit: FAITH/DOUBT is the sense here, depending on whether you are a child of God or not.
2. Soul: this houses emotions, feelings, choice and they are determined by Conscience, Affection, Memory, Reasoning, and Imagination—the 5 senses of the Soul.
3. Body: this houses the 5 physical senses (Smell, Sight, Feel, Taste, Hear)

As proven earlier, the Holy Spirit, when He comes into a man, is received by the spirit of man because that is where He bears witness with the spirit of man that he is a child of God.