 |
 What is Man
- Home l Back
- by T. AUSTIN SPARKS
CONTENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER 1 MAN'S HIGH PROSPECT AND DESTINY
An all-important distinction - The generally accepted position - The
position as in the Word of God, a comparison - unique in Creation.
CHAPTER 2 MAN NOW ANOTHER SPECIES THAN GOD
CREATED
Man as created and constituted - The function of the human spirit
- The nature of Adams temptation - Adam's probation - The creation
formula (Gen 2:7).
CHAPTER 3 WHERE PSYCHOLOGY FAILS
What is it that is born again? - What is the place of the soul?
CHAPTER 4 THE NATURE OF SANCTIFICATION
The problem of Romans 7, and 1 John 1:8,9,10; 3:4,6,8,9 - The place
in experience of Romans 7: Is it the experience of the regenerate
or unregenerate? - The effect of spiritual awakening - The place of
Romans 6 - Two possible evils in the Christian life, Romans 7, or
Antinomianism - Two doctrines of sanctification based on Scripture:
1. Objective faith and progressiveness; 2. Eradication and perfection
- The help of clearer translation of the text of Scripture - Sanctification
is regeneration carried on - The real key is the distinction between
soul and spirit - Phases of spiritual life - Spiritual education and
sanctification go together - Sonship - Deliverance.
CHAPTER 5 WHERE CHRISTENDOM IS DECEIVED
The attributes of the human spirit - God's special concern - The walk
in the Spirit, the walk of faith.
CHAPTER 6 THE SOUL AND DECEPTION
Man by nature now a deceived creature - The organ of deception - Methods
of deception-The peril of soulishness - A Divine safeguard against
deception - Psychical movements in the name of Christ - The infallible
test - Spiritual understanding.
CHAPTER 7 WORLD DOMINATION OR DOMINION?
The phenomenon of dictators - The eternal background - The historic
course - Man, Satan's medium - Antichrist; four things about him -
Behold the Man - The peril of man in Divine things - The One New Man,
the measure of Christ.
CHAPTER 8 THE CROSS AND THE NEW
Diagram: The history of man from God's standpoint and his own.
CHAPTER 9 THE RESURRECTION OR SPIRITUAL
BODY
The believer's life spiritual in origin, sustenance and consummation
- The psycho-physical body and the spiritual body - Satan hates resurrection.
CHAPTER 10 THE SOUL, THE SPIRIT AND THE
EVIL SPIRITUAL POWERS
Physical disorders and spiritual suffering - Demon domination and
demon possession - The key to spiritism - The deepest reality of the
child of God - Spiritual service or warfare.
CHAPTER 11 THE SPIRIT HIMSELF
The supreme importance of the Holy Spirit - The Holy Spirit's supreme
object in this dispensation.
APPENDIX
PREFACE
TO MY READERS I would say that, although the main subject of the
tripartite nature of man is such a controversial one, this book is
not entered as a part of the controversy. Such a course would only
be to contradict its main contention - that Divine things can only
be entered into by revelation and never by reason. Indeed, I have
no wish that anyone should read this book unless they are really exercised
about reality and spiritual things. I would ask for openness of heart
as the one concession to the Spirit of truth if, peradventure, He
might be ready to use what is written here for enlightenment.
No claim is made to any expert knowledge. The contents represent
more the result of observation and experience amongst Christian people
over a wide area during a good number of years, than of study of the
subject itself.
The book goes out with a prayer which comes from long ago, "that
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto
you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having
the eyes of your heart enlightened" (Eph 1:17).
T. AUSTIN SPARKS
Bible references in this book are taken normally from the American
Standard Version, but in some instances from the English Authorized
or Revised Versions.
- CHAPTER ONE
MAN'S HIGH PROSPECT AND DESTINY
"What is Man?" Psalm 8:4-6. Hebrews 2:5-8.
THAT NOCTURNAL MEDITATION and contemplation of the Psalmist, which
led him to ask this question and to answer it by placing man at the
centre of the universe, has bounded all the ages, gone back to the eternal
counsels of the Godhead before the world was, and passed on to the consummation
of those counsels in the inhabited earth to come, and beyond it. It
is a question as to the Divinely conceived destiny of a specific creation
called Man. Those thoughts had phases: "For a little while lower
than the angels"; crowned "with glory and honour"; "to
have dominion over the works of thy hands". The question of the
Psalmist is taken up and enlarged upon by an inspired Apostle . "Not
unto angels did he subject the inhabited earth to come ". "
Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet". But between
the Divine conception and its ultimate realization there is all the
tragedy of human disruption, and all the glory of Divine grace in redemption.
What is before us here is to say something of the nature of that disruption
as to man's own being, and therefore to see what conformity to the image
of God's Son means as to the overcoming of that disrupted state. It
is the question of man's own person, and what kind of person can alone
inherit the kingdom of God. For such a high and glorious destiny not
only a spiritual or moral state is required, but a certain type or species
of being. As the crawling caterpillar or silkworm has to spin its shroud
and yield that form of life in order to awaken in a new order, break
through into a new world as a beautiful moth or butterfly, so has man
now to pass out of one order and be constituted anew with faculties
and capacities for a higher. Man, according to God's mind, and according
to a dim and intangible sense in himself, is of a universal character,
with universal interests. But something has happened which, on the one
hand, makes the realization of God's intentions impossible in man as
he now is, and on the other hand, causes man to persist in a vain effort
to achieve such realization. This terrible contradiction of things at
the centre of the universe is the occasion of a new intervention on
the part of God in the person of His Son. This intervention has several
features. It shows what a man is according to God's mind; it secures
the removal of the man that is not so according to God; it brings in
the powers and constituents of a new creation; and it reveals and secures
what man will be when he reaches the mature form which was ever in God's
mind as the end and not the mere creation state of even unfallen man.
As we see it, this all hangs upon the setting right of derangement in
the nature of man whereby his living and full relationship with God
is renewed. This, in the main relates to one part of his being called
the pneuma or spirit, and it is here that we therefore need to have
enlightenment.
AN ALL-IMPORTANT DISTINCTION
On two occasions in his writings the Apostle Paul used a phrase which
is of peculiarly important application to the subject which is before
us. It is found in his letters to the Romans (2:18) and the Philippians
(1:10), and the marginal rendering is,
"distinguish the things that differ".
We cannot but feel that a very great deal of loss would have been prevented,
and gain would have been secured, if that distinguishing had been applied
to the matter of soul and spirit. This is no matter of merely technical
interest to Bible students, but one which involves and touches the spiritual
life of God's people at almost every point, and governs the whole question
of life and death in spiritual things. There are few things more vital
to fulness of life and effectiveness of service than this. It embraces
so very much of the meaning of the redemptive purpose of God in and
by the Cross of Christ. Many of the most perplexing problems which have
pressed upon the Lord's people and servants through the years have their
solution here. We might just mention one or two of these. Firstly, there
is the essential and basic difference between the New Creation and the
Old with which there is bound up that heart-breaking problem of totally
or largely unsatisfactory conversions: converts who seem to have given
evidence of the big change over, but who - all too early - reveal symptoms
that the really radical, regenerative, work is doubtful. This includes
that heart-burning enquiry concerning the large numbers who make a profession
under all the peculiarly favourable (?) conditions and provisions of
well organized and advertised evangelistic missions, and of whom so
great a proportion either drop back soon after the mission is over,
or are untraceable, or are only kept by a ceaseless provision of evangelistic
hot air and high tension atmosphere. It is said of one city in Great
Britain, that every second man you may meet has at some time been 'converted',
although now, of course, the great majority have nothing to do with
such things. This, surely, in turn raises other questions as to what
may be God's ways and means in the realm of evangelistic activity, and
what are men's.
Then there is the difficult problem of the very slow spiritual growth
of those who really have received Christ. That spiritual maturity is
a life-long matter is not doubted, but we are thinking of unduly delayed
growth, with all the long-continued features of childhood or even of
childishness. This is a matter deeply deplored by the writers of the
New Testament letters, and, indeed, represents the main occasion of
the mass of the New Testament itself. In the letter to the Thessalonians
(the earliest of Paul's letters) the distinction between soul and spirit
is just stated without discussion or explanation (1 Thess 5:23). The
letters to the Corinthians can be said to centre in the same matter,
when we remember that "natural" in chapter 2 verse 14 is really
"soulical" and then that there is so much about the "spiritual"
and "the spirituals", i.e. spiritual gifts. In the letter
to the Hebrews, again, the whole subject matter is to be viewed in the
light of "dividing asunder of soul and spirit" and "the
Father of our spirits". In every case it is a question of spiritual
progress or arrested progress.
There are many other questions, such as that of the small degree of
real and genuine spiritual value resultant from so great and so long-continued
an output of energy, devotion and resource. And what of that realm of
the prosperity and success of spurious and ultimately harmful spiritual
movements? Then the whole question of deception has to be seriously
faced. The deception of Christians so that they are either led completely
astray, or get into some state which renders them non-effectives in
the work of God and, often, a positive denial of the very foundations
of faith - this is, indeed, a branch of things which cannot be ignored,
neither can every such case be wholly a matter for the medical expert.
To the above, many more spiritual difficulties could be added, and
some of them will be mentioned and dealt with as we proceed. While each
may have more than one explanation because of peculiar governing factors
- and no one will think that we are claiming to have found the cause
and cure of all woes - we do believe that the failure to discriminate
in the matter of soul and spirit accounts for more of these conditions
than has been recognized by the vast majority of the Lord's people.
Having indicated the importance of this consideration, let us get nearer
to the actual matter.
WHENCE THIS BLINDNESS?
If all these - and many more - sorry conditions are largely due to
a failure to recognize a vital difference, we must ask why it is that
the failure has been so general. Of course, when we are seeking to trace
spiritual deflection we shall always reach back at once to its source.
As the one who has ever desired to spoil God's work and to frustrate
God's purpose, Satan would find very great gain in hiding this, and
in keeping God's people in ignorance as to so important a truth. This
he has certainly done; hence the prayer of Paul: "having the eyes
of your heart enlightened". But Satan has ways and means, and we
must recognize these in order to be delivered from the evil one as well
as from the evil. So we begin at the end.
THE GENERALLY ACCEPTED POSITION
As to the being of man, the well-nigh universal position is that he
is mind and matter, soul and body. Even in those directions where Christians
would accept the Bible phraseology - "spirit, soul, and body"
- either an inability to recognize the tremendous issues bound up with
this threefold designation, or a fatal carelessness, results in a going
on as though the differences were not there. But there are other and
more positive factors to be taken into account.
The teachers of God's people have failed! Why have they failed? Primarily
because they have not taken God's Word and definitely sought the enlightenment
and teaching of the Holy Spirit direct. Or may it be that the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit as Teacher has not been a reality in so many cases?
There may be a third explanation. Is it because of fear of appearing
unusual, singular, peculiar in running counter to so widely an accepted
position? This leads us to ask: Whence this position? Is it of heaven
or of men? Note the scriptural alternatives.
There are two quarters responsible for the present position and acceptance.
Consciously or unconsciously, certain pagan philosophers or 'Christian
Fathers' have influenced the whole course of interpretation in this
matter. So far as psychologists go, their basic conclusions are pagan.
The two who laid these foundations were Plato and Aristotle. We are
not stating the teaching of these, and while we recognize that Aristotle
could more easily be reconciled with the Biblical position (although
still with considerable maneuvering) yet we want to point out with emphasis
that neither of these had a Bible in hand, nor did they know anything
of a basick experience by which, through the Holy Spirit, the inner
man is renewed and enlightened. Theirs was only the light of natural
reason, the wisdom of this world, and only suitable for a realm of its
own kind.
Then as to the 'Christian Fathers', Augustine and others. They, in
turn, flirted with the teaching of the said pagan philosophers, and
came under their influence. If we could accept the infallibility of
these 'Fathers' on some other more obvious matters, we might modify
our attitude as to their position on this so much less patent issue;
but we cannot! The 'Fathers' of the Church would have acted wisely if
they had kept clear of the entangling alliance with Platonism, which
seemed to offer at first such advantages. Now, the position is, that
to be a teacher of God's people demands some understanding of man, especially
of what he is and what his purpose is. For such a knowledge, either
in the schools or in private study, the works of psychologists have
been taken up. All of these are built up on the aforesaid pagan foundation.
Of course, things have travelled a long way since Plato's days, and
there is a whole world of research and experimentation extra to those
pioneers; but - again - the basic formula is unchanged; man is said
to be dual - mind and matter, soul and body. It may be that in some
Bible institutes the more Biblical interpretation is taught, but how
necessary it is that it should come as a revelation and not merely as
a subject. It seems to us a crying shame that this matter has not been
recognized as to its tremendous and far-reaching consequences. It is
difficult to attend a convention of the most spiritual order, or find
some special effort for God, without perceiving the governing influence
- all unconscious - of the psychology which is not of the Word of God.
What tremendous things would happen - though perhaps unseen (much safer
so) - if influences were spiritual rather than soulical!
But what a change in the standard of values is necessary to let go
the seen for the unseen, the present for the eternal, the earthly for
the heavenly and the 'successful' for the real!
THE POSITION AS IN THE WORD OF GOD, A COMPARISON
The phrase "the hidden man" is but one expression used in
connection with this subject. But let it be seen at once to discriminate
between the 'inner' and the 'outward' man in a different sense from
what is meant apart from the Scriptures. It is not the discrimination
of the psychologists or philosophers as such, whether they be ancient
or modern, pagan or Christian. For them the 'inward man' is the soul,
and the 'outward man' the body. Not so in the Word of God. There the
"inward" or "hidden" man is the spirit, and the
"outward" man the soul or body, either or both. These two
terms or designations are respectively synonymous with "spiritual
man" and "natural man", and these two are capable of
being divided asunder by the sword of the Spirit - the Word of God.
It is as dangerous to make one what God calls two as it is to put asunder
what God makes one. The only oneness of the three - spirit, soul, and
body - is that they compose or comprise one man. The literal translation
of 1 Thessalonians 5:23 is, "your whole person", or "your
whole man", or "the whole of you, spirit, soul, and body";
and three distinct words in the Greek are used, as elsewhere. The Spirit
of God does not use words at random, just for variety's sake. Basic
spiritual principles are involved in words used by God. The very word
'natural', as applied to man, as we know, is the Greek word psukikos,
the Anglicised form of which is psychical. 'Spiritual' is the adjective
of 'spirit', and 'soulish' or 'soulical' the adjective of 'soul'. In
James 3:15, "sensual" is used, but "soulical" is
more accurate, and it is interesting and significant to note in passing,
that in that Scripture there are two descriptions of wisdom.
MAN UNIQUE IN CREATION
That which makes man unique in the whole realm of creation is not that
he is or has a soul, but that he has a spirit and a soul; and it may
be that the union in one person of soul and spirit makes him unique
beyond this creation in the whole universe. God is spirit. Angels are
spirits. There are many passages in the Scriptures which indicate the
difference between the inner 'I' of the spirit and the outer 'I' of
the soul. For instance, Paul says: "My spirit prayeth, but my understanding
is unfruitful" (1 Cor 14:14). Then, in 1 Corinthians 2:14, he says
that "the natural (soulical) man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God...and he cannot know them because they are spiritually
discerned", or, "are discerned by the spiritual (or spirit
ones)". This distinction is very marked in Paul's recounting of
the reception of his special revelation:
"I will come to...revelations of the Lord. I (the outward man)
knew a man in Christ (the inner man) above fourteen years ago, (whether
in the body, I (the outer man) cannot tell...God knoweth;) such an one
(the inner man) caught up to the third heaven. And I (the outer man)
knew such a man (the inner man) (whether in the body or out of the body,
I [the outer man] cannot tell: God knoweth;) how that he (the inner
man) was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words which
it is not lawful for a man (the outer man) to utter. Of such an one
(the inner man) will I (the outer man) glory: yet of myself I (the outer
man) will not glory" (2 Cor 12:1-5).
Here, in passing, we note that, unless the Lord gives the gift of utterance,
the things revealed to the spirit cannot be expressed by the outer man.
In another place the Apostle asked for the prayers of the Lord's people
that he might have "utterance" to speak the mystery. Many
other instances might be given, such as "I delight in the law of
God after the inward man", and Romans 7 as a whole.
Then we draw attention to the following:
"I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus...for
they refreshed my spirit" (1 Cor 16:17-18).
"The Spirit himself beareth witness, with our spirit" (Rom
8:16).
"To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of Jesus Christ" (1 Cor
5:5).
"...that she may be holy both in body and in spirit" (1 Cor
7:34).
In the New Testament there are very many occurrences of both "soul"
and "spirit", and inasmuch as our present and first purpose
is to distinguish between these, or to note that they are distinguished
by the Word of God, we must define a general rule by which they are
divided. This general division can be marked in this way the soul (often
translated "life"). relates to man in his own conscious life
here in this world; his good or evil; his power to do, to achieve, to
enjoy, to profit, to know and acquire what is of this world, and to
live as a responsible, self-conscious being, answering to God for himself
and his life, and so taking account of his life as to include the reality
of a Divinely intended higher destiny and intention than just to live
to himself and for the brief span of this life. The soul can be affected
by and responsive to something higher, but its immediate relationship
is not with God. Such relationship is indirect and secondary. The spirit
is that by which - given the necessary "renewing" - man is
directly related to things Divine. He is thereby constituted to be capable
of relationship with spiritual beings and spiritual things. This is
a broad and general rule, and if some passages seem to contradict it,
the difficulty will usually disappear if we remember the proviso that,
on the one hand, God holds man responsible as an intelligent, self-conscious
being who can at least choose and seek; and, on the other hand, when
the spirit has been renewed and brought into living touch with God,
the soul is affected thereby, and both receives from God and gives to
God by way of the spirit. All this will be dealt with much more fully
as we go on. A passage from Paul's letter to the Corinthians might well
and aptly be cited here:
"Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered
not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them,
that love him. But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for
the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For who
among men knoweth the things of a man, save THE SPIRIT OF THE MAN. WHICH
IS IN HIM? even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of
God. But we received...the spirit which is from God; that we might know
the things...of God" (1 Cor 2:9-12).
Each kingdom is governed by and limited to its own nature. A beast
and a man cannot go far in mutual intercourse. What is a Handel oratorio
to a dog?
So far we have but been paving the way for our real business, and now
we must come immediately to grips with it. But may we repeat, before
commencing a new chapter, that ours is no academic or technical undertaking.
For this we have neither ability nor inclination. We are burdened with
a great desire to see a real change in the spiritual condition which
exists today, and our object is wholly spiritual, and for God's pleasure
and satisfaction in His people.
Return to Index
MAN NOW ANOTHER SPECIES THAN GOD CREATED
THE ABOVE HEADING may be a little startling, but it will be as well
for us at an early stage to realize that we are dealing with a matter
of the most serious character. It is not merely that at some point man
had a lapse, took a wrong turning, or became a delinquent, an offender.
Neither is it only that he became a sinner, or even a sinful creature.
All of these may be true, but they are not the whole truth. Man is not
just on the wrong road and needing to be re-directed or put on to the
right one. Neither is man just the victim of an evil mood, or a fugitive
from law running free, sowing wild oats, and estranged from his better
self. The restoration of man to God and to his Divinely purposed vocation
and destiny is not merely the transference of his interests and energies
from one direction - self, sin, the world - to another - God, good and
heaven. When Christ, in speaking of the prodigal, used the words, "When
he came to himself", He did not mean just that he recollected and
reverted to another course. There is overwhelming evidence in Scripture
that salvation is something infinitely more radical than all this.
It is here that there lies the fatal flaw in so much evangelical effort,
and even in convention ministry. Surrender, consecration, yielding,
and such-like words or terms, are used as though they meant far more
than just a first, initial step which only represents an attitude taken.
God does not want, and the Bible does not teach, that the "old
man" should be consecrated to Him. The "old man" has
to be crucified, not consecrated! So often the young are exhorted to
consecrate to the Lord their talents, their energies, their abilities,
their enthusiasm, as
'Young, strong, and free;
To be the best that I can be,
For God, for righteousness, and Thee…'
But in the long run they discover a fatal lack, an inadequacy and a
breakdown, the greatest proof of which is the convention movement itself.
This movement is ever growing, and year by year, in all parts of the
world, hundreds of thousands of disappointed Christians are found together
with a view to finding the solution to the problem of non-victorious
life, or non-effective service. Those of us who have anything to do
with convention or conference work cannot smile upon these great audiences
and speak about them as though they represented a great success instead
of declaring the greatest and most heart-breaking of tragedies. If the
messages given are to be taken as the indication as to what conventions
are for, then there is no questioning what we have just said.*
*FOOTNOTE: Of course, we recognize another side of Christian conventions,
that of happy fellowship. But we are referring to the original and still
advertized object of such conventions.
But this is the negative side of the question, and we must come to
the positive. It is not a change of sides, or interests, or direction,
nor a reviving of energy and zeal that is called for. Nothing less than
a constitutional change in the being will answer the questions and meet
the need. To carry over natural abilities (inherited or acquired) or
energies to the things of God, and to make them the basis or means of
doing His work, is most certainly and inevitably to put the worker and
the work into a false position, with sooner or later any one or more
of the many possible seriously compromising and disastrous results.
Before we can move back to the beginning and see what had happened
as to man, there is one thing to bear in mind. It is always important
that matters of Divine truth should never be taken up just in themselves,
as isolated subjects, but that their full range and relatedness should
be recognized. Truth is a whole. There is no plural in Scripture as
to truth, that is 'truths', but there are aspects of the truth, and
no one of these can stand alone. It is essential to observe the beginning,
occasion and ultimate issue of every phase of the truth.
Then it must be definitely remembered that truth in the Scriptures
is progressive. In the early parts, matters are not stated in completeness
and preciseness, but there is much in the nature of inference. Only
as we get well on toward the end do we get more complete statements,
in the light of which all that has gone before has to be considered.
For instance, take the doctrine of the Divine Trinity. It is not really
until Christ's time that we have this definitely and fully revealed,
as in John's Gospel (Chapters 14-16); and not until the advent of the
Holy Spirit was this known experimentally. So it is with the matter
before us. Man's nature or being as spirit, soul and body, is not definitely
stated thus until we are well on in the New Testament. But there are
plenty of inferences as well as frequent fragmentary statements to this
effect much earlier. The explanation of this delay is a very part of
our whole subject, for it means that not until the era of the Holy Spirit
as an indwelling reality - with all that that implies - is it possible
for man to know the things of God in any adequate or vital way. Hence
the futility of making the Bible a text-book or manual of subjects to
be studied as such. So now, with all the fuller revelation of the New
Testament before us, we can work back to the beginning.
MAN AS CREATED AND CONSTITUTED
When we really see with enlightened eyes the Man, Christ Jesus, and
when we see what a child of God really is as in the New Testament, then
we see two things; one, what God's man is as from the beginning, and
what a fundamental change is represented by a man being truly born anew.
As to his constituting, we shall see that he was, and is, spirit, soul
and body. But to say this is only one half of the matter. That is the
fact as to man's components. The other half is that that represents
order and function. It was in the upsetting of this order that function
was affected fatally, and man became other than God intended him to
be.
We have already said, in a word, what the function of the human spirit
is, but more is needed.
THE FUNCTION OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT WHERE PSYCHOLOGY FAILS
MANY WHO READ THIS will be familiar with the position of psychology,
and it is just here that we find that point which makes all the difference
between the natural, which keeps God out, and the spiritual, which gives
Him His full place. For here we find that the scriptural description
of man runs entirely counter to the conclusions of 'scientific' psychology.
We have observed that the psychologist will not allow the threefold
description of man as spirit, soul and body, but only soul - or mind
- and body. But still, the psychologist has to confess to the existence
of a third element. He recognizes it, finds his chief interest and occupation
with it, builds up a whole system of experimentation around it, and
often borders on calling it by its right name. But to do so would be
to give too much away; and Satan, who has the mind of the natural man
well on leash, sees to it that in this, as in other matters, just the
word is not used. The psychologist, therefore, recoils and calls the
extra factor 'the subconscious mind', or the subjective mind', or 'the
subliminal self', or 'the secondary personality', etc. Listen to some
of the things which indicate the length to which such teachers go:
'The soul consists of two parts, the one being addicted to the truth,
and loving honesty and reason; the other brutish, deceitful, sensuous'.
Or again:
'There is a schism in the soul'.
'The existence of a schism in the soul is not a mere dogma of theology,
but a fact of science'.
'Man is endowed with two minds, each of which is capable of independent
action, and they are capable of simultaneous action; but, in the main,
they possess independent Powers and perform independent functions. The
distinctive faculties of one pertain to this life: those of the other
are especially adapted to a higher plane of existence. I distinguish
them by designating one as the objective mind, and the other as the
subjective mind'.
'Whatever faculties are found to exist in the subjective mind of any
sentient being, necessarily existed potentially in the ancestry of that
being, near or remote. It is a corollary the whatever faculties we may
find to exist in the subjective mind of man must necessarily exist in
its possibility, Potentially, in the mind of God the Father'. (All italics
ours.)
When we read things like this, two things press for exclamation: first,
Oh, why not call it by its right name! The other: What a tragedy that
pagan philosophers should have been their sphere of research and that
the Bible should have been set aside! It may be thought that it does
not matter much what you call it if you get hold of the thing itself.
But we hold that it is vital to read that we are dealing with two things
which are absolutely distinct and separate, and not with two sides of
one thing. It is error to speak of soul-union or -communion with God,
for there is no such thing. 'Divine union' is with spirit. "He
that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor 6:17), and however
highly developed the soul-life is, there is no 'Divine union' until
the spirit has been brought back to its right place and condition.
This opens a further big question:
WHAT IS IT THAT IS BORN AGAIN?
This experience is said by Christ to be imperative (John 3:3,5,etc.).
Nicodemus stumbled over the physical question, but was soon told that
"that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit". Firstly, then, and obviously, it is not
the body that is born anew. But neither is it the soul! "The sinful
body of the flesh was destroyed" (Rom 6:6), and "they that
are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts"
(Gal 5:24). The passages similar to these are too many to quote, but
look up "flesh", "old man", "natural man",
etc. The answer to the question is emphatically that new birth is the
requickening of the human spirit by the Spirit of God, an imparting
to it of Divine life, and thus a re-uniting of man with God by one life
in the inward man. This, of course, is solely on the ground of Christ's
resurrection, and is the believer's union with Him therein; implying
that all the meaning of His death as atoning, substitutionary and representative,
has been accepted by faith, although perhaps not understood. From that
time it is "in newness of the spirit" (Rom 7:6). The soul
may still be capable of its erstwhile fears, doubts, questionings, feelings,
etc., showing that it is not a new soul: but there is something deeper
than all this, and God is greater than our souls. That which is the
truest thing about the new-born is often deeper than consciousness,
and although the soul, and even the body, may derive good and enjoy
the blessing, God will seek to wean us as babes from the sensations
to the fact and to Himself. Such as must have, and demand, in the senses
continuous evidence of their new life will not grow up spiritually,
but will remain babes. More on this later. Seeing that we have seemed
to give the soul such a completely secondary place, we must hasten to
the third question.
WHAT IS THE PLACE OF THE SOUL?
What have we said and inferred as to the soul? We have indicated that
it was with his soul that Adam sinned. The result of this was that it
is with the soul that the evil powers have become allied. Further, a
consequence is that man has become pre-eminently a soulical being as
against a spiritual; that is, soul dominates. Thus man is in a disrupted
state, and represents an upsetting of a Divine order. This is only one
part of a much wider derangement through Adam's sin. In the new creation
in Christ the principles of the true Divine order are re-established.
The spirit quickened, raised, indwelt and united with Christ is set
to be the organ of Divine government over the rest of man, soul and
body. In a truly spiritual or born-anew person, the soul and body will
not have a place of pre-eminence, but in their right place will be very
fruitful and useful servants and instruments. By his soul, man functions
in two directions - from within to without, and from without to within.
The soul is the plane and organ of human life and communication. Even
Divine things, which cannot in the first instance be grasped or known
by the soul, if they are to become practical in human life, must have
an organ constituted to interpret, translate and make intelligible to
humans. Thus, what is received by the spirit alone with its peculiar
faculties (see later) is translated for practical purposes, firstly
to the recipient himself, and then to other humans, by means of the
soul. This may be by an enlightened mind for truth (reason); a filled
heart, with joy or love etc., for comfort and uplift (emotion); or energized
will for action or execution (volition). But it must ever be borne in
mind that to really serve Divine ends and to be of eternal value this
does not come in the first instance from our own souls, but from God
to, and through, our spirits. It must be truth by revelation (Eph 1:17,18
R.V.) not firstly of our own reasoning; joy and love by the Holy Spirit,
not our own emotion; energy and strength in Christ, not our own drive
and force of will. When these latter obtain, then again the Divine order
is upset, a false position exists, and the fruit will perish, although
it may seem very good for the time being.
Then, as to the opposite direction. The soul can recognize, appreciate,
register and apprehend everything of this world in the measure of its
capacity, natural or acquired. All this can stop there and be exhausted
upon itself, or it can be brought on to the higher ground and regulated
so as to be transmuted into spiritual value (which is eternal), made
completely subservient in life, or rejected. The spirit will thus, by
its touch with God, dictate as to what is good or evil, or only seemingly
good. The soul does not know this of itself. It must have a spiritual
organ with spiritual intelligence, conveying Divine standards.
Why is it that so many of the most artistic, poetic and soulish people
have been and are so morally defective, degenerate, lustful, jealous
and vainglorious? Why is it that dictators whose ego is so all-else-obscuring,
are so godless and God-defiant? Why is it that so many great intellectuals
are so proud, arrogant and often infidel? Well, the answer is obvious.
All this is soul! They know nothing of a balancing, adjudicating spirit-union
with God, and therefore their own souls are the last word in every matter.
It is not that they all dismiss God from the universe, for they sometimes
refer to Him. But there is no correspondence between Him and them, and
He exists to no practical moral purpose where they are concerned. We
leave this just for the present.
We have sought to show that the soul as a servant - not a master -
can, and should, be very fruitful and useful in relation to a superior
organ. And thus, when we speak of people being 'soulish', we only mean
that soul predominates, not that soul is wrong or necessarily evil.
Divine order is always a law of Divine fulness.*
FOOTNOTE: See Appendix - note on "Natural Man" and "Old
Man".
At the same time, we would be careful to point out that the soul is
a very responsible servant. Indeed, the human ego - the 'I' - as a conscious
and rational self-life, has to answer to God for its submission or vaunting
of itself; its 'laying down of its own life', or its exalting and asserting
of itself beyond its measure and province. Hence "the soul that
sinneth, it shall die" (Eze 18:4) was God's dictum, and still is.
Altogether apart from a renewed spirit by new birth, there is a responsibility
for God's Word.
In this connection, certain things must be made clear, as clear as
possible. While it may not be possible for an unregenerate person to
do the revealed will of God, because for this the enablement of the
Holy Spirit is essential, yet to such and all others that revealed will
makes an appeal and a demand. This may only be to the extent of taking
an attitude to be made willing and able. But, as morally responsible
creatures, that obligation rests upon us whenever the word of God is
presented.
Then with regard to those who are the Lord's people, there is no such
thing as an extra spirituality or revelation, which sets God's Word
on one side or transcends it. If God says a thing in the Scriptures,
that thing stands, and we stand or fall by it. By spiritual illumination
we may come into much fuller meaning of the Scriptures and see God's
thoughts and intents behind them. But that does not suspend their practical
obligation, provided that we are in the dispensation to which they apply
practically. We have met a certain type of Christian who, claiming to
be acting according to the spirit in relation to the will of God, has
been guilty of the most flagrant contradiction of the most obvious and
elementary obligations of honesty, righteousness, good faith, trustworthiness
and humility.
Sometimes a subtle mental evasion is betrayed by the attempted justification
of a course contrary to the Word of God in 'Yes, but the devil can quote
Scripture'. It seems incredible; had we not been met by this sort of
thing we would feel it too unbelievable to mention. It is, however,
something which touches our very subject. Let us ask, How often does
Satan try to turn an unregenerate person away from Christ by using Scripture?
Have you ever heard of his doing so? It must be the most remote case
if you have. No; it is those who are truly God's children with whom
he employs the method of using the Word of God. Why is this? It is because
he has something very much deeper in view. Let us get at it by taking
Christ's own case.
When Satan assailed Christ, our Lord met him with "It is written".
In effect, Satan said (within himself): 'Oh, that is your ground, is
it? Very well, then - "It is written, he shall give his angels
charge concerning thee", etc. He at once sought to defeat Christ
on His own ground. What was his real point of attack? The Lord Jesus
had definitely and deliberately taken up the position that He would
have and do nothing for or of Himself, but that all should be held in
relation to the Father and therefore only by the Father's permission;
yes, all things utterly and only for God, and self-interest, soul-gratification,
utterly set aside. The thing most likely to move Him from such a position
of abandonment to God would be to support any proposed movement or course
by the very Word of God itself. It would be useless to say to the Son
of God, the last Adam: "Yea, hath God said?" But to say "God
hath said" is much more subtle. It is the question of spirit (in
union with God) or soul (in self-direction) that is ever the point of
Satan's efforts. If Satan quotes Scripture, it is to destroy inward
union with God. But the Word of God itself never leads to that; and
no one would ever defend a course contrary to the clear Word of God
with the rejoinder that 'the devil can quote Scripture', or even have
such a thing in their mind, unless they were in themselves wanting to
go a certain way. How our soul-life will defend and save itself! But
how necessary it is for our own deliverance from our deceitful heart
that we are so subject to God that we are alive to the nature and implication
of the snare. We have here touched the key to the whole question of
the place of the soul. Two things have got to happen to it. Firstly,
it has got to be smitten a fatal blow by the death of Christ as to its
self-strength and government. As with Jacob's thigh or the sinew thereof
after God had touched it and he went to the end of his life with a limp;
so for ever there has to be registered in the soul the fact that it
cannot and it must not: God has broken its power. Then, as an instrument,
it has to be "won", mastered and ruled in relation to the
higher and different ways of God. It is spoken of so frequently in the
Scriptures as being some thing over which we have to gain and exercise
an authority. For instance:
"In your patience ye shall win your souls" (Luke 21:19).
"Ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth"
(1 Peter 1:22). "The end of your faith, even the salvation of your
souls" (1 Peter 1:9).
We must be careful that, in recognizing the fact that the soul has
been seduced, led captive, darkened and poisoned with a self-interest,
we do not regard it as something to be annihilated and destroyed in
this life. This would be but asceticism, a form of Buddhism. The result
of any such behaviour is usually only another form of soulishness in
an exaggerated degree; perhaps occultism. Our whole human nature is
in our souls, and if nature is suppressed in one direction she will
take revenge in another. This is just what is the trouble with a great
many people if only they knew it. There is a difference between a life
of suppression and a life of service. Submission, subjection and servanthood
in Christ's case, as to the Father, was not a life of soul-destruction,
but of rest and delight. Slavery in its bad sense is the lot of those
who live wholly in their own souls. We need to revise our ideas about
service, for it is becoming more and more common to think that service
is bondage and slavery; when really it is a Divine thing. Spirituality
is not a life of suppression. That is negative. Spirituality is positive;
it is a new and extra life, not the old one striving to get the mastery
of itself. The soul has to be taken in charge and made to learn the
new and higher wisdom. Whether we are able yet to accept it or not,
the fact is that if we are going on with God fully, all the soul's energies
and abilities for knowing, understanding, sensing and doing will come
to an end, and we shall - on that side - stand bewildered, dazed, numbed
and impotent. Then, only a new, other, and Divine understanding, constraint,
and energy will send us forward or keep us going. At such times we shall
have to say to our souls, "My soul, be thou silent unto God"
(Psa 62:5); "My soul...hope thou in God" (Psa 62:5); and 'My
soul, come thou with me to follow the Lord'. But what joy and strength
there is when, the soul having been constrained to yield to the spirit,
the higher wisdom and glory is perceived in its vindication. Then it
is that "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced
in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:46). The spirit hath, the soul doth
- note the tenses.
Return to Index
THE NATURE OF SANCTIFICATION
WHILE WE CANNOT EXTEND ourselves to a comprehensive consideration of
the subject of sanctification, we are sure that a very great deal of
confusion through false conceptions would be removed if it were seen
in the light of the difference between soul and spirit. For, indeed,
this is the key of the matter. As sanctification is but the continuation
of regeneration, because regeneration is but sanctification begun, it
has to be seen as in the same sphere as new birth. We have said that
in new birth it is not the soul but the spirit that is born from above
- or born again.
The soul remains prone to evil to the end. This fact constitutes the
basis for the whole doctrine of sanctification, inasmuch as the New
Testament is one big exhortation to spiritual progress by spiritual
ascendancy. There is ever an enemy to holiness in man's own nature,
and holiness in us is not fixed and static, it is progressive. All trial,
testing, chastening and suffering lose their meaning if there is no
ground or fear of failure. Enlargement has ever been, and ever is, by
conflict. There has only been One in Whose nature there existed no actual
and positive evil or sin.
The question of sanctification has been greatly confused because certain
Scriptures have been made basic which really were not meant primarily
to deal with sanctification in itself.
THE PROBLEM OF ROMANS 7 AND 1 JOHN, ETC.
For instance, we have Romans 7, and the first Letter of John. We cannot
quote the entire text, but we extract the salient parts.
"...the law is spiritual: but I am carnal...For that which I do
I know not: for not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate,
that I do...I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good
is not". "...I delight in the law of God after the inward
man: but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law
of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which
is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out
of the body of this death? (or, this body of death). I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve the law
of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There is no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus that the ordinance of the law might
be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit...They
that are after the spirit (do mind) the things of the spirit...the mind
of the spirit is life and peace...But ye are...in the spirit, if so
be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you...If Christ is in you...the
spirit is life because of righteousness...If by the spirit ye do mortify
the deeds of the body ye shall live" (Rom 7,8).
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us". "If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and righteous to forgive..." "If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us". "Everyone
that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness". "Whosoever abideth
in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth
him". "He that doeth sin is of the devil". "Whosoever
is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and
he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God". (1 John 1:8,9,10;
3:4,6,8,9).
On the face of it, these last Scriptures appear to present a contradiction
of the first magnitude, but as the Word of God cannot contradict itself
there must be some way in which they are all true.
But first let us repeat that these Scriptures were not written in the
first instance in connection with sanctification. Romans 7 was written
in relation to justification and deliverance from the law. 1 John was
written in relation to a true and a false Christianity, the genuine
new birth, and the claim of some to be Christians. The two categories
are represented by two clauses or phrases: "We know"; "He
that saith". One indicates living experience, the other the unsubstantiated
claim. Apostasy was in view with John.
But in both cases one thing is common; it is the nature of the new
birth and its outworking in life afterward. Sanctification comes up
as one with regeneration in nature, but as the issue and progressive
outworking of regeneration. We cannot therefore read Romans 7 without
going on into Chapter 8, and we cannot read 1 John without noting all
of its governing words, such as "walk", "abide",
"practise". We will touch that again.
THE PLACE IN EXPERIENCE OF ROMANS 7
We must first of all place this chapter. To what part of man's history
or experience does it belong? Is it the experience of one who has no
inward work of the Holy Spirit, or is it that of one who has been spiritually
quickened? We think that it is the latter. There are several reasons
for this conclusion. Firstly, the letter was written to believers, amongst
whom were Jewish converts whose clean cut with the law had not been
made, and who, on the one hand, were in a state of unsettled and restless
or uncertain spiritual life, really neither one thing nor the other
as to daily experience, failing and repenting, failing and repenting
in monotonous repetition, and almost despairing of victory; and, on
the other hand, needing further enlightenment and instruction as to
what being "in Christ Jesus" really means. They were not in
liberty or deliverance because of an inadequate apprehension of the
death and resurrection of Christ; that is, of its representative aspect
as in addition to its substitutionary. Secondly, Paul, having already
stated what identification with Christ really means (Chapter 6), goes
on to show that its result is to draw a line between the flesh and the
spirit in the believer, and makes the demand that the "walk"
shall be in the spirit. Failure to do this always produces the state
set forth in Chapter 7. It was a condition not uncommon amongst Christians
even in New Testament times, as see 1 Corinthians and Galatians, and
which drew out the mass of New Testament writings.
THE EFFECT OF SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
Thirdly (and this is a fairly strong point) writing many years later
the Apostle said that in his unregenerate days his position as to the
righteousness which is of the law was "found blameless" (see
Phil 3). He puts himself into Romans 7 and there says that the law was
too much for him; it smote him; it slew him; he could not stand up to
it. Under its burden he cried "O wretched man", not "found
blameless". Something must have happened to disturb his complacency
and make him such a divided man with civil war raging within. In the
unregenerate man conscience was hiding behind the ritual and observance
of the law. Rigid observance of its forms and rites made conscience
play deceiving tricks; saying peace, peace, when there was no peace.
But when the time of spiritual awakening comes, this kind of thing can
go on no longer. It cannot play deceit any more, and, while there may
be some flirting with sin on the part of the soul, the awakened and
quickened spirit hates and loathes its own soul and calls a spade a
spade - that is, calls sin sin! Instead of treating the ceremonial law
as an offset to the moral, it sees that the latter is the important
one, and that "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken
than the fat of rams" (1 Sam 15:22).
TWO POSSIBLE EVILS - ROMANS 7, OR ANTINOMIANISM
Unless the meaning and value of the death and resurrection of Christ
is known, and the truth of identification by faith therewith, one of
two terrible things, will follow. Either there will be a history such
as is set forth in Romans 7, a history of struggle, longing and defeat:
fear of going back on faith in Christ, and yet deep disappointment with
the Christian life: leading ever nearer to despair and gloom; or else
there will set in that terrible, conscious-searing, spirit-deadening
evil known as antinomianism. It might be useful to state here what that
doctrine is. The word is - anti, against, and nomos, law. The term was
first used by Luther as a designation of the followers of John Agricola,
who maintained that the moral law was not binding, as such, upon Christians.
But the thing itself existed long before Luther's time or the name given
to it. From the earliest Christian times, there have been those who
have denied that the law was of use or obligation under the Gospel dispensation.
It would appear from several passages in the New Testament (Rom 3:8,31;
6:1; Eph 5:6; 2 Peter 2:18,19), that the principle was at work even
in Apostolic times, for in those passages the Apostles warn their converts
against perversions of their teaching as an excuse for licentiousness.
At the heart of this doctrine there lies a mistaken interpretation of
the doctrine of justification by faith. Some have in the past even taught
that, being spiritual, their nature could not be corrupted, whatever
their moral conduct might be; or that an elect person did not sin even
when he committed actions in themselves evil.
Now, no one would sponsor such a doctrine deliberately, but the principle
may operate all the same. Justification by faith: having finality and
fulness of perfection in Christ: Final Perseverance, i.e. once in grace
always in grace: and suchlike beliefs, can - strange to say - produce
a hard and legal kind of Christianity if wrongly held, and result in
many things which may be either positively evil, questionable, or other
than according to the graciousness of Christ.
TWO DOCTRINES OF SANCTIFICATION
From the Scriptures it is possible to frame two mutually exclusive
doctrines of sanctification. One is that our sanctification is in Christ
Jesus, complete and perfect, and, having taken Him as our holiness objectively,
we must just trust that He answers for us in all Divine demands and
requirements. We in ourselves are not holy, and it can only be contrary
to faith, and an unhealthy introspection or subjectivity, if we become
intensely occupied with the matter of personal holiness. We must believe
that His Cross has done something which holds good in the sight of God
in spite of our state, and "looking unto Jesus", or the attitude
of faith, is the way, and the only way, of deliverance from despair
or unrest. We have no hesitation in saying that such is a mixed and
indefinite position. It uses certain glorious truths to obscure other
equally glorious truths. This is a position which makes it necessary
for those who hold it to keep ever on their guard lest their defences
are broken down. They are always having to go round to see if their
position is intact. It really does not settle the question when they
either fall into sin and its resultant shame, or meet another and more
desirable position in teaching, or those who have it. They know that
they cannot accept an alternative position which to them goes to the
other extreme, and so they have to dig themselves into that which is
not perfectly satisfactory.
The other doctrine is that which, with varying forms of words and phraseology,
and minor shades of differences, means that sanctification is the rooting
out, eradication, cleansing, destroying of all sin, so that a sanctified
person does not sin, and cannot sin; the sin nature has been fully dealt
with. To those who hold this, view sanctification - in this sense here
mentioned - is an act, a conclusive experience at a given moment, just
as is new birth; and it is to be taken as such by faith.
Here, again, we have to say that there is mixture and a position which
has brought a very great number of believers into confusion and despair.
We say that both of these positions have Scripture used for their support,
and when you look at the Scriptures, on the face of them, there seems
to be such support.
The passages cited from John's Epistle appear to present a contradiction:
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us".
"He that doeth sin is of the devil".
"Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him".
"Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not".
"Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin:…he cannot sin".
These words must be regarded as all addressed to Christians. This seems
proved by Chapter 1:7: "If we walk in the light...the blood of
Jesus his Son cleanseth (Gk., cleanses, or is cleansing; present active
tense) us from all sin".
Here, then, is the position. A child of God has to walk in the light,
confess his sins, acknowledge sinfulness, and, as he does so, the Blood
keeps on cleansing. At the same time "He that doeth sin is of the
devil", and "Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither
knoweth him". And yet, again, at the same time "Whosoever
is begotten of God doeth no sin...he cannot sin". The usual way
through the apparent dilemma is to correct the translation, and this
is certainly a help; but it does not give anything like a final clearance.
Let us get the help that lies in that course by trying to retranslate
the passages more accurately and literally. The reader of the English
will understand that different Greek words are used for one common English
word in certain places, and certain Greek words mean more than the English
word employed for them.
(1 John 2:29) "Everyone that practiseth (or, is practising) righteousness
is begotten of him".
(1 John 3:4) "Everyone who practiseth (or, is practising) * iniquity
practiseth lawlessness".
*FOOTNOTE: A.T. Robertson says: "The present active principle
(poion) means the habit of doing".
(1 John 3:6) "Whosoever abideth in him does not wander from (or,
miss) the right path" ("sinneth not", Gk. harmartano
= to miss the mark or the right way). Or, "Whosoever abideth in
him is not missing the mark".
(1 John 3:7) "He that doeth (or, is practising) righteossness
is righteous".
(1 John 3:9) "Whosoever hath been born of God is not practising
sin (or, is not missing the mark) because a seed of him abideth in him
and he cannot be practising sin" (moral aberration).
The help given by a knowledge of the actual words employed lies mainly
in the word 'practise' as representing both an habitual course and a
present - ever-present - conduct.
THE REAL KEY TO SANCTIFICATION
But all this does not settle the whole matter. We therefore submit
that the key to this dilemma is the difference between soul and spirit.
We have said that what begins in regeneration proceeds in sanctification.
The carry-over of the atonement as a sanctifying power is thus: there
is in the born-again spirit a striving after holiness as well as a new
desire for the Lord. When the spirit is renewed and quickened, something
happens. That spirit itself is that in man which is the image or likeness
of God (spirit). It has been dead - that is, it has been severed from
its life in God, and has ceased to function in any Divine way. The Holy
Spirit, in virtue of the atonement, first renews it by cleansing and
quickening, and also imparts Divine life (eternal life) in Christ to
it, thus making it one in nature and fellowship with God. The spirit,
when thus dealt with, is that seed or has that seed of God which is
said by the Apostle to be unable to practise sin - "cannot sin".
This new 'inner man' cannot be committing or practising sin. The dilemma
of many is that there are two natures and two springs of life in believers.
One gives forth sweet water and the other bitter, and the Bible says
that a fountain cannot do this." Can the Ethiopian change his skin,
or the leopard his spots?" (Jer 13:23). Therefore there must be
two fountains.
The soul, which is the fountain of the natural life, is poisoned and
impure. It is ever prone to evil, like the "flesh" in it.
The soul is that which has to be continually subdued, won and eventually
saved (Heb 10:39, etc.).
The renewed spirit is prone to good; its course is naturally upward.
The life in it makes it gravitate to its source - God. It judges and
condemns all the motions of the flesh. It strives, as energized by the
indwelling Holy Spirit, to make the whole man go Godward. Its nature
is Divine, although it does not become the Divine Person. It is here
that "there is a new creation" (2 Cor 5:17), and that which
"is being renewed...after the image of him that created him"
(Col 3:10). As we have pointed out elsewhere, this is all a deeper reality
than the life and motions of the soul, and registers itself continually
against ourselves in the natural. There are stages in spiritual experience,
more or less pronounced in different cases for certain reasons. The
first phase may be a great and overflowing joy, with a marvellous sense
of emancipation. In this phase extravagant things are often said as
to total deliverance and final victory. An earnest of the ultimate is
often given with the incoming of the Holy Spirit. He is that earnest,
and His advent in the human spirit is celebrated with glory.
Then there may, and often does, come a phase of which award conflict
is the chief feature. It may be very much of a Romans 7 experience.
This will lead under the Lord's hand to several things; firstly, to
the fuller knowledge of the meaning of identification with Christ, as
in Romans 6. Happy the man who has been instructed in this from the
beginning.
SANCTIFICATION AND EDUCATION GO TOGETHER
Then it will introduce to the way of spiritual education. Sanctification
and spiritual education are one, as Hebrews 7:1-13 makes clear. The
advance in this double course is marked by the growth of the spirit.
When the spirit is first quickened, it is barely able to show its existence.
It is far from able to show its mastery over soul and body. The advance
of sanctification is marked by a growth of the spirit. It begins to
assert its supremacy, to compel the physical and animal life to know
their bounds, and to obey God. The more sanctification advances, the
more marked is the spiritual intelligence, power and life, until at
last it reaches its coming-of-age in "the revealing of the sons
of God....conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:19,29). This
education and sanctification is the result of walking, "not after
the flesh, but after the spirit". Such a walk leads away from carnality
and babyhood, as 1 Corinthians 3 shows.
There may be crises in this course marked by definite and tremendous
experiences. But no such crisis is final: every one has to have an outgrowth
leading to greater fulnesses. It is fatal to relate everything to a
crisis or experience of years ago, and to stop there. So the distinction
between soul and spirit is the true key to sanctification, for sanctification
must not be negative like innocence, but positive in the sense that
it goes along with spiritual understanding and responsibility. Sonship,
which is all of a piece with sanctification (see Rom 8) is a matter
of spiritual and moral responsibility in God's house. We are born "children";
we are adopted "sons". "Adoption" in the New Testament
is not bringing an outsider into the family, but the born one reaching
his majority and being made his father's responsible representative
with 'rights'. Romans 7 has to do with condemnation by the law, and
the big question is that of deliverance from the death which has become
such a real, terrible and intolerable thing because of spiritual awakening.
Romans 6 shows that such deliverance from death and condemnation, is
by union with Christ's death and resurrection. Romans 8 transfers the
law from the outside as an obligation imposed, to the inside as a power
imparted. Thus, in the spirit, the new covenant is written by the Spirit
of the living God (2 Cor 3,4).
It will help us if we get Paul's mental picture again. He had in mind
the gladiators in the arena. (Remember, the letter was to the Romans,
and familiar scenes in Rome were drawn upon.) When the victorious gladiator
had been given the 'thumb-down' signal from the judge, which meant 'kill',
it was incumbent upon him to drag his victim's body round the arena
for the spectators to applaud. It was a horrible and loathsome thing,
and the one who had to do it would be longing to reach the exit. Paul
imagined such an one saying to himself, "O wretched man that I
am! who shall deliver me from this dead body?" and then, espying
an exit, he cried, 'Thank God, through here!' This was carried over
into Christian truth, and the way out for the "wretched man"
was "through our Lord Jesus Christ". This has been more fully
explained as being through His death, burial and resurrection. So then,
the death of Christ is something to be made good in a believer's life
by the Holy Spirit, through faith's deliberate identification. Then
the resurrection of Christ is likewise proved to be a present might,
delivering power; or the power by which the believer, by the spirit,
puts to death the doings of the flesh.
Return to Index
WHERE CHRISTENDOM IS DECEIVED
PERHAPS THE GREATEST FAILURE to Make the great discrimination with
which we are concerned is in relation to the difference between mysticism
and spirituality. It is here that not only the world is mistaken but
Christendom is deceived. Indeed, an overwhelmingly large proportion
of those who would regard themselves as Christians are unable to distinguish
between mysticism (pertaining to the sense of the beautiful) or asceticism
(the practice of self-denial) on the one hand and spirituality on the
other. The fact is that these belong to two entirely different realms,
and the Word of God cuts clean in between them, dividing them asunder.
When we speak of Cain and "the way of Cain", we are accustomed
to recall immediately his act of murder, born of jealousy and malice.
We remember his peevish, querulous, petulant, ill-tempered or even insolent
manner with God. But there is another side to remember, and we must
be fair to Cain, or we miss the whole point. Cain did not exclude or
ignore God. He was not in the usual sense of the word a godless man.
He acknowledged God. Then he built an altar to God. Further, he no doubt
selected the best of the products of his hard toil as worthy of God,
and brought them. Here was devoutness in religion. Cain worshipped with
his whole Aesthetic sense, and Cain - murdered his brother! The Jews
did the same in Christ's day. Christendom is largely constituted by
this sense - its architecture, its ritual, its music, its adornment,
its lighting (or lack of it), its tone, its atmosphere, its vestments
and so forth. All are of the soul. But Cain did not get through to God!
Neither did the Jews! Spiritual death marks that realm, and while there
may be intense emotions which make for resolves, 'high' thoughts and
desires, there is no genuine change in the nature of those concerned,
and repeated doses of this must be taken to maintain any measure of
soul-self-satisfaction which makes them feel good. All religions have
this soulish feature in common, more or less, and it is here that the
fatal blunder has been made by many religious people who contend that
other religions, which are undoubtedly devout and sincere, should not
be interfered with, but the good in them should be recognized and accepted.
It is the confusing of religion with what the Bible means by being spiritual.
Religion can rise to high levels and sink to terrible depths. It is
the same thing which does both. But that thing never rises above the
human level; it never really reaches God. Religion can be the greatest
enemy of God's true thought, because Satan's best deception. Asceticism
is no more truly spiritual than aesthicism. There is no more a brief
with God for rigours, denials, fastings, puritanic iciness, etc., as
such, than for the opposite. Simplicity may give God a chance, but it
is not necessarily spiritual. It may be a matter of taste. What sublime
thoughts and ideas, in poetry, music and art often can go hand in hand
with moral degeneracy and profligacy!
How near to the truth in perception and interpretation can the mystical
go! What wonderful things can the imagination see, even in the Bible!
What thrills of awe, amazement, ecstasy, can be shot through an audience
or congregation by a master soul! But it may all be a false world with
no Divine and eternal issues. It may all go to make up this life here,
and relieve it of its drabness, but it ends there. What an artificial
world we live in! When the music is progressing and the romantic elements
are in evidence - the dress and tinsel - and human personalities are
parading, see how pride and rivalry assert themselves, and what a power
of make believe enters the atmosphere! Yes, an artificial world. We
have been in it and know the reactions afterward.
How hollow, how empty; Dead Sea fruit! The tragedy in this melodrama
is that it is 'real life' to so many. This soul-world is the devil's
imitation. It is all false, wherever we may find it, whether associated
with religion or not.
Those of us who have tasted of this world's springs have recognized
the kinship between what is there and what is in religion so far as
that soul-nature is concerned. It is only a matter of difference of
realm, not of nature. What the music and drama of the world produce
in one way - the soul-stirring, rousing, craving: the pathos, tears,
contempt, hatred, anger, melancholy, pleasure, etc. - are all the same,
only under different auspices and in a different setting, and the fact
is, that it passes and we are really no further on. A little better
music, a change of preacher, a less familiar place, a few more thrills,
will perhaps stimulate our souls, but where are we, after all? How Satan
must laugh behind his mask! Oh, for reality, the reality of the eternal!
Oh, that men might see that, while a highly cultured soul with a keen
sense of the beautiful and sublime is immeasurably preferable to a sordid
one so far as this world is concerned, it is not necessarily a criterion
that such has a personal living knowledge of God - of God as a Person
- and has really been born anew! Occultism - the power to see deeper
than the average, to sense what most do not sense, to handle the abstruse,
to touch unseen forces - is not spirituality in the Divine sense. The
soul realm is a complex and dangerous one, and can take most people
out of their depths, but then land them into moral, mental and physical
ruin, with all hope gone.
When we pray for 'Revival' let us be careful as to what we are after
and as to what means we use to promote it, or carry it on.
Having been more precise as to the functions of the soul, we must go
a little further at this point, as to those of the spirit.
THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT
As the soul is a trinity of reason, affection, and volition, so is
the spirit a trinity. Its attributes are conscience, communion (worship)
and intuition.
"The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord" (Prov 20:27).
"Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the
law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves; in that
they shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience
bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing
or else excusing" (Rom 2:14-15).
When Adam sinned, he did so as the result of what seemed to him a sound
and right argument and reason, and a judgment of what was good and desirable.
But immediately he had so acted he became aware of a faculty within,
which rose up and condemned his judgment, reason and 'good (?) motive'.
Henceforth he lived under a sense of condemnation. The conscience which
accused him and caused him to excuse, could not restore him to God's
favour, but for ever kept God in his consciousness. Thus it is that
to live in and to be governed entirely by our souls is not to have rest
and real life. It is possible to put our wills so strongly behind our
reason and thought and desire, or so to surrender our wills to our emotions
and affections, as to muffle the voice of conscience so that we have
little or no conflict within. But should God come into "the garden
in the cool of the day", or, in other words, should we at any time
seek a living knowledge of God, we are in for a very bad time with regard
to this former mentality, these former reasonings, and this former affectional
life. But we are not saying that the human conscience is infallible
and always right. Most certainly it is not. We can have a sense of right
and wrong which is altogether misinformed and false, and Satan can play
tricks with conscience. We are only pointing out what conscience is
as an attribute of the spirit. For conscience to fulfil all of its Divinely
intended purpose in relation to God - not merely to keep man aware of
something beyond his own way - conscience must (as with the whole spirit)
be renewed in God and united with the Holy Spirit. Christ is God's perfect
standard for conscience, and union with Christ is the only ground of
life in the spirit. "Christ...was made unto us wisdom from God,
and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor 1:30),
and when Christ is received by faith, so that our standing before God
rests upon what He is and not what we are, then we "find rest unto
our souls" in this "yoke" (Matt 11:29), for we have our
"hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" (Heb 10:22). With
the whole human spirit, conscience must be quickened from above, raised,
enlightened, adjusted and related.
Having already spoken of worship in spirit and in truth, we can pass
on to see the function of spirit by intuition. Here the difference between
soul and spirit is very clear and definite. The spirit is the organ
of spiritual knowledge, and spiritual knowledge is very different from
natural or soul knowledge. How does God know things, and by what means
does God come to His conclusions, decisions? On what basis of knowledge
does He run the universe? Is it by reasoning inductively, deductively,
philosophically, logically, comparatively? Surely all this laboriousness
of brain is unknown to God. His knowledge and conclusions are intuitive.
Intuition is that faculty of spiritual intelligence by which all spiritual
beings work. Angels serve the will of God by intuitive discernment of
that will, not by argued and reasoned conviction. The difference between
these two is witnessed to by the whole monument of spiritual achievement.
If human reason, the natural judgment and 'common sense' had been the
ruling law, most, if not all, of the giant pieces of work inspired by
God would never have been undertaken. Men who had a close walk with
God and a living spirit-fellowship with Him, received intuitively a
leading to such purposes, and their vindication came, not by the approval
of natural reason, but usually with all such reason in opposition. 'Madness'
was usually the verdict of this world's 'wisdom'. Whenever they, like
Abraham, allowed the natural mind to take precedence over the spiritual
mind, they became bewildered, paralysed, and looked round for some 'Egypt'
way of the senses, along which to go for help. In all this we are "justified
in the spirit", not in the flesh. The spirit and the soul act independently,
and until the spiritual mind has established complete ascendency over
the natural mind, they are constantly in conflict and contradiction.
In all the things which are out from God and therefore spiritual, "the
mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the spirit is life and peace"
(Rom 8:6). This, then, is the nature of spiritual knowledge.
The only knowledge of God which is of spiritual value for ourselves,
or for others by our ministry, is that which we have by revelation of
the Holy Spirit within our own spirits. God never - in the first instance
- explains Himself to man's reason, and man can never know God - in
the first instance - by reason. Christianity is a revelation or it is
nothing, and it has to be that in the case of every new child of God;
otherwise faith will be resting upon a foundation which will not stand
in the day of the ordeal.
'The Christian Faith' embraced as a religion, a philosophy, or as a
system of truth, a moral or ethical doctrine, may carry the temporary
stimulus of a great ideal; but this will not result in the regeneration
of the life, or the new birth of the spirit. There are multitudes of
such 'Christians' in the world today, but their spiritual effectiveness
is nil.
The Apostle Paul makes it very clear that the secret of everything
in his life and service was the fact that he received his gospel "by
revelation". We may even know the Bible most perfectly as a book,
and yet be spiritually dead and ineffective. When the Scriptures say
so much about the knowledge of God and of the truth as the basis of
eternal life, resulting in being set free, doing exploits, etc., they
also affirm that man cannot by searching find out God, and they make
it abundantly clear that it is knowledge in the spirit, not in the natural
mind.
Thus, a rich knowledge of the Scriptures, an accurate technical grasp
of Christian doctrine, a doing of Christian work by all the resources
of men's natural wisdom or ability, a clever manipulation and interesting
presentation of Bible content and themes, may get not one whit beyond
the natural life of men, and still remain within the realm of spiritual
death. Men cannot be argued, reasoned, fascinated, interested, 'emotioned',
willed, enthused, impassioned, into the kingdom of the heavens; they
can only be born; 'and that is by spiritual quickening. The new birth
brings with it new capacities of every kind; and amongst these, the
most vital is a new and different faculty of Divine knowledge, understanding
and apprehension. As we have said earlier, the human brain is not ruled
out, but is secondary, not primary. The function of the human intellect
is to give spiritual things intelligent form for ourselves and for others.
Paul's intellectual power was not that which gave him his knowledge
of truth; but it was taken up by the spirit for passing that truth on
to others. He may have used his intellect well, as he certainly did,
to study and acquire knowledge of the Scriptures; but his spiritual
understanding did not come that way. It was the extra thing, apart from
which even his Bible (Old Testament) knowledge had not kept him from
a most mistaken course. The spirit of man is that by which he reaches
out into the eternal and unseen. Intuition, then, is the mental organ
of the spirit. It is in this sense - that is, the deadness of the spirit
in the matter of Divine union and the going on with religion in its
manifold forms of expression merely from the natural mind - that God
says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways" (Isa 55:8); and the measure of the difference is
as the height of the heavens from the earth, of the heavenly from the
earthly.
One of the chief lessons that we have to learn, and which God takes
pains to teach us, is that spiritual ends demand spiritual means. The
breaking down of the natural life, its mind, its energies, so far as
the things of God are concerned, in the bitterness of disappointment
through futility, failure, ineffectiveness and deadlock in real spiritual
fruitfulness, is a life work: but the truth mentioned above is the explanation
and key to the matter.
How important it is that every fresh undertaking in work for God should
come by revelation to those chosen for it. Because God has so spoken
and given revelation to some chosen instrument and a truly spiritual
work has been done, others have taken it as a model and have sought
to imitate it in other places. The result has been, and is, that they
are called upon to take responsibility for it - find the resources of
workers, funds and general support. This, in turn, issues in many sad
and pathetic, if not evil and worldly, methods and means being employed,
and those concerned find themselves in a false position. Conception,
hot imitation, is the Divine law of reproduction. Anointing, not human
selection, is the Divine law of succession. The fact is, that the work
of God has become a sphere for so many natural elements to find expression
and gratification. Man must do something, see something, have something.
Ambition, acquisition, achievement, etc., have found their way over
to Christian enterprise, and so, very often (let us be quite frank)
things have become 'ours' - 'our work', 'our mission', 'our field',
'our clientele'; and jealousies, rivalries, bitterness and many other
things of the flesh abound.
It is a very difficult thing, a crucifixion indeed, for the natural
man to do nothing and have nothing, and especially to know nothing.
But in the case of His most greatly used instruments, God has made this
a very real part of their training and preparation. The utter emptying
of all self-resource is the only way to have "all things of (out
from) God" (2 Cor 5:18). On this basis, even Christ elected to
live. We need not remind you of Moses' "I am not eloquent"
(Exo4:10), and Jeremiah's "I am a child" (Jer 1:6), and Paul's
"that we should not trust in ourselves" (2 Cor 1:9). These
were of a school in which the great lesson of the difference between
natural and spiritual was taught experimentally.
GOD'S SPECIAL CONCERN
This will help us to see that God's special concern is with the spirit
in the believer.
Firstly, we must realize that His quest is for sons of His Spirit.
The underlying and all-inclusive truth of what has come to be called
the parable of the Prodigal Son is the transition from one kind of sonship,
i.e. on the ground of law, to another, i.e. on the ground of grace;
from the flesh to the spirit. There is a sonship of God by creation
on the basis of law. In this sense, all men are the offspring of God,
and Paul used this phrase in quite a general way to the Athenians (Acts
17:28,29). But by the Fall - the "going astray", or "deviating"
(Gen 6:3) - all the Divine purposes and possibilities of that relationship
have broken down, and that relationship is no longer of value. "He
is flesh", hence he is separated from God - "alienated"
(Eph 4:18), in a "far country", "lost", and "dead".
Here grace enters and the Spirit through grace. The Spirit begins operations
in that realm of death and distance, convicting of sin "against
heaven" (Luke 15:21) (the only adequate conviction), compassing
the end of the works of the flesh in despair and destruction, constraining,
assuring, producing penitence and confession, and at length bringing
to the place of forgiveness and acceptance: from death unto life, but
not the same life as before. "That which is born of the Spirit
is spirit" (John 3:6). This man is the product of the travail and
energizing of the Spirit, and everything in the relationship afterward
is new; a "robe", the robe of Divine righteousness; "shoes",
a walk and a way in the Spirit (Rom 8:2,4); "a ring", the
symbol of authority, the right or jurisdiction of a son (John 1:12,13);
"the fatted calf", food such as was not his before, the best
of the father's house. Each of these points in the Scriptures has a
whole system of teaching.
The spirit of man, being the place of the new birth and the seat of
this only true sonship (Gal 4:5,6), is also therefore "the new
man", for it is "in newness of the spirit" that we are
to live (Rom 7:6,etc.). Here it is that all the operations of God in
our education, fellowship and co-operation have their base.
The 'prodigal's' knowledge of the father after his new birth' was such
as he had never possessed before. He really did not know his father
until grace came in. His spirit had been brought from death, darkness,
distance, desolation, chaos, and he then had not just an objective knowledge
of one whom he had termed 'father', but a subjective and experimental
understanding and appreciation of him, because the spirit of sonship
had been born within him or given to him whereby he cried "Abba,
Father". There is no saving relationship to, or knowledge of, God
except through grace and by new birth.
So, then, those who by being. born anew have become "little children"
(Matt 18:3) or "babes" in spiritual things (1 Cor 3:1) - not
wrong if we do not remain such - have to learn every thing afresh, because
"all things have become new" (2 Cor 5:17,18). Such have to
learn a new kind of knowledge, to live by a new kind of life, "newness
of life" (Rom 6:4). Paul says that we are to act as those who are
"alive from the dead" (Rom 6:13). We have to learn that our
life, our natural life, cannot do God's will, live as God requires,
or do God's work. Only by His risen life is this possible. An element
of offence in this truth is that it demands a recognized and acknowledged
weakness; it requires that we have to confess that, in ourselves, for
all Divine purposes, we are powerless and worthless, and that of ourselves
we can do nothing. The natural man's worship of strength, efficiency,
fitness, ability, meets with a terrible rebuff when it is confronted
with the declaration that the universal triumph of Christ, over hierarchies
more mighty than those of flesh and blood, was because "he was
crucified through weakness" (2 Cor 13:4); God reduced to a certain
impotency! And "God chose the weak things...to confound the things
that are mighty" (1 Cor 1:25-27). To glory in infirmity, that Christ's
power may rest upon him, is a far cry from the original Saul of Tarsus;
but what an extraordinary change in mentality! God has, however, always
drawn a very broad line between natural "might" and "power"
on the one hand, and "My Spirit" on the other (Zech 4:6),
and for evermore that distinction abides. This 'new-born babe' has to
learn a new walk, now in the Spirit as different from nature. There
may be many slips and perhaps tumbles, but such are not altogether evil
if they are marks of a stepping out in faith rather than sitting still
in fleshly disobedience or fear. We have shown that the nature of this
walk is that reason, feeling, and natural choice are no longer the directive
laws or criteria of the spiritual man. For such an one there are frequent
experiences of a collision and contradiction between soul and spirit.
The reason would dictate a certain course, the affections would urge
in a certain direction, the will would seek to fulfil these judgments
and desires; but there is a catch somewhere within - a dull, leaden,
lifeless, numbed something at the centre of us which upsets everything,
contradicts us, and all the time in effect says No! Or it may be the
other way round. An inward urge and constraint finds no encouragement
from our natural judgment or reason, and is flatly contrary to our natural
desires, inclinations, preferences or affections: while in the same
natural realm we are not at all willing for such a course. In this case
it is not the judgment against the desire, as is frequently the case
in everybody's life, but judgment, desire and will are all joined against
intuition. Now is the crisis! Now is to be seen who is to rule the life!
Now the "natural" man, or the outer man of sense, and the
"inner" man have to settle affairs.
To learn to walk in the Spirit is a life-lesson of the new man, and
as he is vindicated - as he always will be in the long run - he will
come to take the absolute ascendancy over the "natural" man
and his mind; and so by the energizing of the Holy Spirit in the spirit
of the new man, the Cross will be wrought out to the nullifying of the
mind of the flesh (which, in spiritual things, always ends in death)
and in the enthronement of the spiritual mind which is "life and
peace" (Rom 8:6).
This, then, is the nature of the walk in the Spirit, and its application
is many-sided. But we must remember the law of this walk, which is faith.
We walk in the Spirit but "we walk by faith" (2 Cor 5:7).
To walk by faith there must, in the very nature of the case, be a stripping
off of all that the outer man of the senses clings to, demands, craves
as a security and an assurance.
When the spiritual life of God's people is in the ascendant, they are
not overwhelmed by either the absence of human resources on the one
hand, or by the presence of humanly overwhelming odds against them on
the other hand.
This is patent in their history as recorded in the Scriptures. But
it is also true that when the spiritual life is weak, undeveloped, or
at an ebb, they look round for some tangible, seen resource upon which
to fasten. Egypt is the alternative to God whenever and wherever spiritual
life is low. To believe in and trust to the intuitive readings of the
Holy Spirit in our spirit, even though all is so different from the
ways of men, and even though such brings us to a Canaan which for the
time being is full of idolatry and where a mighty famine reigns: where
all is so contrary to what our outer man has decided must be in keeping
with a leading and a promise of God; to leave our old, sphere of life
in the "world", to break with our kindred, our father's house,
for this - this! and then to have to wait through much continuous stripping
off of those means, and methods, and habits, and judgments, which are
the very constitution of the natural man - this is the law of the spiritual
walk, but this is God's chosen and appointed way of the mightiest vindication.
Spiritual children and riches, and fruitfulness, and service, permanence,
and the friendship of God, are for such Abrahams of faith or such children
of Abraham in the spirit. God has laid a faith-basis for His superstructure
of spiritual glory, and only that which is built upon such a foundation
can serve spiritual ends. Let this be the test of our walk in all personal,
domestic, business and Church affairs. Here, again, we have a principle
which, if applied, would be revolutionary, and would call for the abandonment
of a tremendous amount of carnal, natural, worldly stuff in our resources
and methods. "Faith apart from works is dead" (James 2:26).
True, but the works of faith - of the spirit - are not those of the
flesh; the two realms are not comparable. The walk in the flesh is one
thing, but the walk in the Spirit is quite another. The things of the
Spirit are foolishness to the flesh. Men of faith see what others do
not, and act accordingly. This also being true of men who have lost
their reason, the two are often confused, and the children of the flesh
think the children of the spirit mad or insane. They are unable to discriminate
between even the insanity of men and "the foolishness of God",
which is "wiser than men" (1 Cor 1:25).
Abraham was fortified by his faith, but his walk by faith was intensely
practical, though so different from the walk in the flesh. A writer
has said that faith brings us into difficulties which are unknown to
men who walk in the flesh, or who never go out in faith. But such difficulties
place us beyond the power of the flesh to help, and make special Divine
revelations necessary, and God always takes advantage of such times
to give such needed education of the spirit. It is thus that the men
of the spirit are taught and come to know God as no others know Him.
Thus, faith is the law of the walk of the new man - the inner man -
which brings him by successive stages into the very heart of God, Who
crowns this progress with the matchless designation, "my friend"!
(Isa 61:8).
One other thing in general has to be mentioned. The new man of the
spirit has to learn a new speech. There is the language of the spirit,
and he will have to realize increasingly that speech with "enticing
words of man's wisdom", or what man calls "excellency of speech"
(1 Cor 2:1,4), will avail nothing in spiritual service. If all the religious
speech and preaching and talking about the gospel which goes on in one
week were the utterance of the Holy Spirit, what a tremendous impact
of God upon the world would be registered! But it is obviously not so
and this impact is not felt. It is impossible to speak in and by the
Holy Spirit without something happening which is related to eternity.
But this capacity belongs only to the "born of the Spirit"
ones, whose spirits have been joined to the Lord, and even they have
to learn how to cease from their own words and speak as they are moved
by the Holy Spirit. It is a part of the education of the inner man to
have his outer man slain in the matter of speech, and to be brought
to the state to which Jeremiah was brought "I cannot speak; for
I am a child" (Jer 1:6). Not only as sinners have we to be crucified
with Christ, but as preachers, or speakers, or talkers. The circumcision
of Christ, which Paul says is the cutting off of the whole body of the
flesh, has to be applied to our lips, and our spirit has to be so much
in dominion that, on all matters where God cannot be glorified, we "cannot
speak". A natural facility of speech is no strength in itself to
spiritual ministry; it may be a positive menace. It is a stage of real
spiritual development when there is a genuine fear of speaking, unless
it is in words "which the Holy Ghost teacheth" (1 Cor 2:13).
On the other hand a natural inability to speak need be no handicap.
To be present "in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling"
(1 Cor 2:3), may be a state which befits an apostolic, nay, rather,
a Holy Spirit ministry. The utterance of God is a very different thing
in every way from that of man. How much is said in the Scriptures about
"conversation", "the tongue", "words"
etc., and ever with the emphasis that these are to be in charge of the
spirit, and not merely expressions of the soul in any of its departments!
If it is true that only the quickened spirit can receive Divine revelation,
it is equally true that such revelation requires a Divine gift of utterance
in order to realize its spiritual end. It is possible to preach truth
without the preacher having any spiritual apprehension of it; that is,
from a merely mental apprehension. The preaching may be just natural
ability; but the grievous fact may be that neither the one who preaches
nor those to whom he preaches will be in the good of the living and
working values of the truth. The spiritual results are hardly worth
the effort and expenditure. The virtue of speech resulting in abiding
fruit to the glory of God, whether that speech be preaching, teaching,
conversation, prayer, is not in its lucidity, eloquence, subtlety, cleverness,
wit, thoughtfulness, passion, earnestness, forcefulness, pathos, etc.,
but in that it is an utterance of the Holy Ghost.
"Thy speech betrayeth thee" may be applied in many ways,
for whether we live in the flesh or in the spirit, in the natural man
or in the spiritual man, will always be made manifest by how we speak
and the spiritual effect of the fruit of our lips.
Oh, for crucified lips amongst God's people, and oh, for lips among
God's prophets, touched with the blood-soaked, fire-charged coal from
that one great altar of Calvary!
Return to Index
THE SOUL AND DECEPTION
ONE MATTER UPON WHICH the Bible is unmistakably clear throughout is
that of man's deception. All God's methods with man have had this fact
behind them. With and ever since the Fall the race is regarded as being
a deceived race. Not only was the race initially deceived in Adam, but
it is ever led on in its deception to deeper depths. Rather than escape
from this deception by what is called 'enlightenment', i.e. civilization,
education, culture, etc., these are only making the deception stronger.
This is seen in the fact that the most 'enlightened' and 'advanced'
nations are, at this late hour of the world's history, locked in the
grip of a force which compels them to use all their enlightenment for
producing the means of mutual destruction on such a scale and by such
devilish and barbarous ways as have never been known before. Let us
here introduce one or two passages of Scripture.
"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field...And
he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said..." (Gen 3:1).
"But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall
fall away...giving heed to SEDUCING SPIRITS. and doctrines of demons"
(1 Tim 4:1).
"This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but
is earthly, sensual (soulical), devilish" (James 3:15).
"And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that
is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was
cast down...and his angels...with him" (Rev. xii. 9).
"And cast him into the abyss...that he should deceive the nations
no more" (Rev 20:3).
"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire..."
(Rev 20:10).
In these passages, Satan is seen to be the deceiver, first of the woman
and finally of the whole inhabited earth. Deception was his first method,
and deception was the very heart of the Fall.
Man is by nature now a deceived creature. Deception is deception, and
the deceived never know it until they are enlightened or delivered.
It is like a disease. There are forms of mental sickness which cause
those who are so suffering to believe certain things which to the healthy
mind are ridiculous and impossible. It is useless to argue with them,
and futile to try to convince them of the untruth of their beliefs.
Indeed, it is cruel at times to oppose them. If you are to live with
them in any measure of peace and be at all helpful you have to take
the attitude of agreeing with them and deal with the situation along
some other line. Otherwise it is going to be continual clash. The only
way to change their convictions is to heal their sickness.
So it is with man. He believes many things as to himself, his ability,
potentialities, destiny, about God and about the world, which are not
true. He mistakes certain things for other things, but he cannot see
that he is deceived. It is useless to hold objects before a blind man,
and to tell him to see them; and it is foolish to be surprised or annoyed
that he does not do so. So the Scriptures say, "The natural (soulical)
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness
unto him; and he cannot know them..." (1 Cor 2:14). And again,
"The god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving"
(2 Cor 4:4).
Now, when we go to the source of this deceived condition, we find that
it originated in the soul. The Deceiver assailed the soul - desires,
reason, will - and drew this out as a basis of life apart from and independent
of God. The motive was to have things in the ego, the self, instead
of in God by dependence. Having succeeded in getting man to so exalt
the ego to independence and superiority, he captured man as now a suited
instrument for his purposes. Man ceased to be suited to the purposes
of God, for his very nature was changed. This man, changed by complicity
with Satan, is a false man, not a true man according to God's mind;
and is now suited to Satan's false kingdom. The history of man in his
natural state is the history of a lie, a false nature, a false expectation,
a false hope, a false faith and a false world. The end of that man and
that world is sorry, tragic disillusionment. By the aid of a spirit
which, while still existing, is no longer in the place of living fellowship
with God, this man faintly glimpses or senses something more of intention
and purpose in his being than he can grasp. It eludes him, he cannot
come into real touch with it; and so life mocks him, and he seeks satisfaction
in other and further deceptions and illusions. Thus he is a part of
the creation which the Word of God says is "subjected to vanity"
(Rom 8:20). Conscience still is more or less active, but always accusing
or excusing, never approving.
As we have said, not only was deception an initial work of the enemy
in the soul of man; he presses this advantage, or works on this vantage
ground; and whenever he has this ground of nature he seeks to advance
his own government and power thereby. As we shall see, the stronger
the soul-life in a person, the greater the peril to that one, and the
greater the advantage to Satan and the evil powers. The pursuit of this
course is by a multitude of ways, always adapted to the people with
whom he has to do. With the ungodly he employs one method; with the
religious, who recognize God, another. With the spiritual he resorts
to yet other ways, and for them his whole system of deception is by
counterfeiting God's system of truth.
He counterfeits God Himself. He "fashioneth himself into an angel
of light" (2 Cor 11:14). He counterfeits the Church of God with
his "synagogue of Satan" (Rev 2:9). He counterfeits the works
of God with his "signs and lying wonders" (2 Thess 2:9). There
is a counterfeit life, and there are counterfeit "gifts" (as
of the Holy Spirit). There is counterfeit Divine (?) power. There are
counterfeit conversions, spiritual (?) experiences, guidance. He uses
Scriptures in a false way to counter God's meaning by them. There is
counterfeit worship of God, counterfeit teaching, "doctrines of
demons". There is a counterfeit baptism of the Holy Ghost with
"tongues", etc. To those who know the Word of God, all these
things are not strange, but are exposed therein.
The point is this. Satan, as the Deceiver, could not bring all that
upon man from the outside. Man must first be constituted so that Satan
can find in him that which responds to his deception. There must be,
for all that, something in man which is the organ to be used. The play
of Satan upon the soul of Adam drew that soul out as the ground of procedure.
It stretched itself beyond its legitimate measure, and Satan impinged
upon it. Thus an alliance came about between man's psuche (soul) and
the powers of evil, "deceiving spirits". The object was gained
- the ability to know good and evil - and God admitted this. "The
man is become as one of us, to know good and evil" (Gen 3:22).
But at what a cost! Knowledge in itself is not evil, although it would
be well for man if he did not know some things. It is knowledge apart
from God that has rendered man a prisoner, a slave, and has cost him
that knowledge which is eternal life. "This is life eternal, that
they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send,
Jesus Christ" (John 17:3). The cost was a "darkened understanding"
(Eph 4:18). The Apostle Paul, who said that |
