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, 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.
Michael E.B. Maher
Opmerkingen