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.”
As I have already alluded to in the previous section, the soul of man can be further divided into three separate parts. The first part of the soul that we will discuss is the mind. The mind of man is where the reasoning, intellect and emotions of man reside. Unlike the spirit of man which becomes a new creation when we are born-again, 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, 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 second part of the soul of man which we will discuss is the will of man. Again unlike our spirits which become new creations when we are born-again, the will of man also 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.
Michael E.B. Maher
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