Review:
- Man is intentionally embodied. The ongoing struggle is to NOT consider the body as unimportant or even a presentation of our sinful condition.
- Man is flesh. That is, he’s frail, he’s not here for long, he’s prone to wander.
- Man is/ has (a) soul. Technically, this simply means he’s a living creature, alongside other sentient beings. More broadly, it refers to the non-material aspect to man, that (unlike the body) cannot be decorated or disguised. Protecting the soul is more important than protecting the body.
- Man has a heart. That is, below all the decoration and posturing and gesturing and obfuscating and swirl of thoughts, emotions, and fears etc… there’s the real you – who you really are, what you really think, what is actually driving you. At their heart, mankind has a lot of shared concerns. Also, at heart every human is unique.
- Man has a spirit. “When reference is made to man in his relation to God, “spirit” is the term most likely to be used” – Stacey. “Spirit” denotes the aspect to man that is insistently God-ward. Whether he is aware of it or not, whether he honors it or not, man is always in relation to God.
Summary Statements and Applications:
- Psalm 64:6 – Humans are complex and run deep…something you’d expect from the imago Dei! There are sides to each person that no one gets (Proverbs 14:10). Various components don’t always align (Proverbs 14:13). There are aspects of ourselves that we don’t understand (Psalm 42; Jeremiah 17:9). There is a sense that we won’t know ourselves until Jesus makes us known to ourselves (1 Corinthians 13:12; Colossians 3:3). Christ will save the whole person.
- Humans are a unity of parts and capacities – ignore this at your peril. 1 Timothy 5:23 “Drink a little wine for your stomach’s sake.”
Millard Erickson: Humans are to be treated as unities. Their spiritual condition cannot be dealt with independently of their physical and psychological condition, and vice versa. Psychosomatic medicine is proper. So also is psychosomatic ministry (or should it be termed pneumopsychosomatic ministry?). The Christian who desires to be spiritually healthy will give attention to such matters as diet, rest, and exercise. Any attempt to deal with people’s spiritual condition apart from their physical condition and mental and emotional state will be only partially successful, as will any attempt to deal with human emotions apart from people’s relationship to God.
- Mark 10: 28-30; 1 Thessalonians 5:23: There’s a lot of overlap in how the different terms used to explain our humanity are used – be cautious of being too exact with definitions and applications. Related: there’s been ongoing debate about the tripartite vs bipartite nature of man. I’ve not seen the importance. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably. When terms are stacked on top of each other it’s a way of assuming complexity and emphasizing totality (Hebrews 4:12). Beware of false dichotomies: physical vs spiritual. Head vs heart.
- The challenge is always Psalm 103:1. See also Psalm 86:11. Also Psalm 119:37.
- There’s always a danger of being materially competent and/or affluent yet…Revelation 3:2, 3:17
- Christianity is a religion of the heart. We are to direct our heart. See Prov 23: 19-21
- The real Biblical polarization is old man and new man… Old Man in the race of Adam, not confronted by special grace. New Man in the race of Christ – righteous! 1 Cor 2:14 – Natural man = “Merely human”: The word he actually uses could be translated ‘soul-ish’ as opposed to ‘spiritual’–meaning someone who is directed and led simply by the ordinary human interior life (‘soul’) rather than by the fresh, gospel-driven wisdom or energy given by God’s spirit. Such a person (2.14) simply can’t understand what’s going on when the talk turns to the deeper things of the spirit. They become like a tone-deaf person at an opera: it’s all nonsense to them. Take that picture one step further. Imagine being the only musical person listening to a wonderful string quartet in a large room full of tone-deaf people. – Tom Wright