Four parts of the inward man
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
Romans 1:9 “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.”
As we will see in this section, scripture reveals to us that our inward man is made up of four separate parts. Those parts are our spirit, our mind, our will, and our conscience. The first part of the inner man which we will discuss is the spirit. In the passage of scripture quoted above the apostle Paul speaks about the fact that he served God with his spirit. It is the spirit of man that is born-again and becomes a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). And so because Paul’s spirit had been born-again he could therefore serve God with his spirit. It is the spirit of man that gives life to the body of man, for the Holy Spirit teaches us that the body without the spirit is dead (James 2:26). And so we see that all men, believer and unbeliever alike, have a spirit, which makes up part of their inner man. There is a difference between the spirits of believers and unbelievers however, in that the spirits of believers are alive to God whereas the spirits of unbelievers are dead and thus separated from God, which is why they must be born-again. Spiritual death is not the same as physical death however, which is cessation of existence, but rather spiritual death is a perverse state of existence in that it is the opposite of spiritual life. The spirit of man is the primary part of the inner man and depending on its condition, displays either the nature of God or the nature of the devil. Those who are born-again display the nature of God (2 Peter 1:4) while those who are unregenerate display the nature of the devil (John 8:44). The spirit of man is located in the centre of man i.e. the abdomen, for it is from this region of man that the rivers of living water flows out of man, referring to the Holy Spirit (John 7:38). The King James Version of John 7:38 speaks of the “belly of man”, which is the more accurate translation of the word rather than the “heart of man” that some other translations use.
Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
The second part of the inner man which we will discuss is the soul, which as we will see in this section is further divided up into different parts. And so the first part of the soul that we will discuss is the mind. Unlike the spirit of man which becomes a new creation in Christ, the mind of the believer remains unchanged when we come into the kingdom of God, which is why the Holy Spirit in the passage of scripture quoted above counsels believers to renew their minds. When we are born into the earth we come in with a clean slate, so to speak. In other words our minds are like a blank hard drive that still needs to be programmed. And so as we grow in life our minds become programmed to think as this world thinks, and by the time we come into the kingdom of God we have mindsets that the bible refers to as being carnal, which is a mindset that is completely against God (Romans 8:7). It is for this reason that the Holy Spirit counsels believers to transition their minds from carnal thinking to spiritual thinking, for the spiritual mind thinks in line with the kingdom of God (Romans 8:5). The process of renewing our minds begins when we come into the kingdom of God and continues throughout our time on the earth. Because of the role that the mind has to play in influencing the will of man that it is vital that all believers are diligent in the area of renewing their minds. Sadly because many believers are not diligent in this area they continue to live just as this world lives, for ultimately it is the way we think that determines the way we behave. The mind of man uses the physical organ of the brain to operate through, and is therefore located in that part of man. Nevertheless the mind as part of the soul is not a physical component of the brain.
Luke 22:42 “saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”
The third part of the inner man which we will discuss is the will of man. Unlike our spirits which become new creations when we are born-again, the will of man does not change after salvation. In other words after we are saved we have the same will that we had before we were saved. Let me say at the outset of this discussion, that if God had created us without a free will we would be no better than an extremely sophisticated machine, incapable of having true fellowship with our Creator. Sadly there is a strong belief among many ministers in the church that the sovereignty of God precludes any possibility of any of His creations having a free will, for in their carnal thinking they naturally assume that the moment God gives any of His creations free will then He loses sovereignty over that creation. However God is well able to give His creations free will and still maintain His sovereignty over them. Without realising it these same ministers almost accuse God of narcissism. So why do I say that? I say that, because when these individuals accuse God of being incapable of creating any of His beings with a free will they therefore imply that God pretends that His creations desire to worship and have fellowship with Him, whereas all they are doing is simply what He has “in His sovereignty” programmed them to do. I have noticed that “ministers” of the gospel that hold this view are very intellectual in their arguments, but display no close relationship with the Lord. And the reason for that is obvious, for their erroneous belief forces them to view their relationship with God as one of Master and slave, not Father and Son and certainly not friend. So what about the free will of man? We all know the account of how Adam and Eve sinned against God by rebelling against their creator. Because God knows everything, when He created Adam He knew that Adam would rebel against Him, but He gave Adam his free will anyway. And so we see from that account that man’s will reigns supreme in the makeup of man, to the point of even being able to rebel against his maker, for it was as an act of Adam’s will that he rebelled against God. As revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, the Lord Jesus who came to the earth as the Son of Man also has a free will. Unlike Adam however, who as an act of his free will rebelled against God, our Lord Jesus, as an act of His free will, submitted Himself wholeheartedly to the will of God our Father. The will of man also uses the physical organ of the brain to operate through, and is therefore located in that part of man. Nevertheless the will as part of the soul is also not a physical component of the brain.
Acts 24:16 “This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.”
This brings us to the fourth component of our inward man, which is the conscience of man. God has given the conscience to mankind to guide them to choose good and reject evil. In other words man’s conscience acts as referee that blows its whistle when the individual chooses to do that which is evil, and gives them the green light when they choose to do that which is good. All men have a conscience, believer and unbeliever alike, and the conscience performs the exact same function in all men, for you will recall that it was the consciences of the unbelievers that prevented them from stoning the adulteress when they accused her before the Lord Jesus in the temple (John 8:9). And so we do not get new consciences when we come into the kingdom, for our conscience performs the same function after we are saved as it did before we were saved. Although we do not receive new consciences, we can however either weaken or strengthen our consciences. We strengthen our consciences when we obey them. In the passage of scripture quoted above the apostle Paul speaks of always living his life in a way that did not violate his conscience. Those who choose to violate their consciences however will weaken them over time (1 Corinthians 8:7). The Old Testament makes no mention of the conscience of man, and the first time that man’s conscience is mentioned in the bible is in John’s gospel. Nevertheless as we will see in this teaching, the conscience of man has always been a part of man. Again this highlights to us the fact that under the New Covenant, we have greater revelation than the saints had under the Old Covenant. As we will see in the following section, unlike the will and the mind, the conscience of man is a physical component of the brain and is thus located there. And so strictly speaking, the conscience should be described as being a part of the outward man. Nevertheless because of the interaction that the conscience has with the mind and the will of man, we list it as being part of the soul to more easily understand its function.
The above diagram is an illustration of the various parts of man and how they function in relation to each other. As we have already discussed, the will, mind, spirit and conscience make up the inward man, while the body is the outward man. We can see from this diagram that the mind, the conscience, the spirit and the body all assert their influence on the decisions that men make as an act of their will. We can also see from this diagram that the mind is the filter through which the conscience, spirit and body of the believer try to exert influence on our wills. And so we can see why the condition of the mind of believers is so important, because if the mind is more disposed toward the spirit and conscience, i.e. spiritual, then it will allow those parts of man to have the stronger influence on the decisions of their will. If however the mind is more disposed toward the body, i.e. carnal, then it will allow that part of man to have the stronger influence on the decisions of their will.
Michael E.B. Maher
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