Category: Nature of Man

Posted in Apologetics, Baptism, Doctrine, Expository, Heaven, Holy Spirit, Inspiration, Nature of Man, Resurrection

The Man Within

Posted on by Mac Deaver

My friend, Glenn Jobe, and I study together a lot over the telephone. We have wrestled together for years over various concepts and passages. We have studied together regarding death and what happens immediately following death. It has been very helpful to me in the light of my late wife’s passing on July 30 of 2021. We continue to study. Much of the thought contained in this article is due to Glenn’s wonderful thinking. Recently, in a telephone conversation with my good friend, Charles Pugh, we were discussing the resurrection. And, he and I (just as Glenn and I) were wrestling with some complicated matters involved in the resurrection and the resurrection body. Following that conversation, I was stirred to study with more focus in trying to solve some of the hard questions that arise regarding what the Bible says about what happens to us at death and what is entailed in the concept of resurrection.

It is good to note that in 2 Cor. 4:16 Paul refers to our “outward man” and our “inward man.” In Eph. 3:16 he again refers to the “inward man.” This article is putting extreme focus on the time at which Christians first are blessed with the “inward man.”

In working on the matter, the thought came to me several weeks ago that we already have the body that is to be raised on the day of the resurrection, and that body is within us now. I called Glenn to ask him if he knew of any passage that would “crush” this idea. We had a good and very profitable conversation. While a question still in our minds was not resolved regarding one passage, it seemed that the idea of our already having the resurrection body is possible. And in further contemplation and with another phone call to Glenn, it does seem to me that the Bible teaches that the Christian’s body that will be raised from the dead is a body that the Christian has presently within his physical body in this life. Furthermore, that body within is the very body that enters Paradise at physical death. That body is certainly not physical (1 Cor. 15:50). What does this mean then? Let us think about this very carefully. And I think that if what I contend for in this article is true, it unravels the complications of the resurrection that have baffled us for years. That is, the explanation provided here does at least two things. First, it preserves the distinction between the physical body and the spiritual body. Second, it shows how that there is continuity of personal identity that continues in a non-physical (spiritual) body following physical death that makes it possible for an actual resurrection to occur according to New Testament teaching.

According to Paul, two bodies are involved in discussion of the resurrection. There is the physical (or, “flesh and blood”) body (1 Cor. 15:50), and there is the “spiritual” (or, non-flesh and blood) body (1 Cor. 15:42-49). He gives a comparison of them.

He calls the physical body the “natural” body (v. 46). This body is “of the earth” (v. 47), and it is the first body that man receives. The second body is the “spiritual” body and is “of heaven.” The first body bears the image of the “earthy.” The second body bears the image of “the heavenly” (v. 47-48). The two bodies stand in stark contrast to one another. Not only do they differ in nature as to realm of formation (earth or heaven), but they differ, consequently, in their natures. The natural body is given to “corruption,” it is “sown in dishonor,” it is “sown in weakness,” it is “sown a natural body.” The second body, however and in great contrast to the first, is “raised in incorruption,” it is “raised in glory,” it is “raised in power,” and “raised a spiritual body” (v. 42-44). Remember, the first body (“first man”) is “of the earth,” and the second body (“second man”) is “of heaven” (v. 47). Thus, the two bodies have natures that fit the two environments: earth and heaven. This entails the conflict of flesh and spirit (Gal. 5:17). And as long as we are alive in this world, we are composed of physical body, soul, and spirit that comes from God (1 Thess. 5:23; Gen. 1:27; 2:7; Heb. 12:9; Mal. 2:14-15). The “soul” seems to be the animation or vitality initiated at the point of contact between flesh and spirit. When the spirit leaves the physical body, the physical body is dead or lifeless (Jas. 2:26). When physical death occurs, Solomon said the body as composed of dust goes back to the earth, and the spirit returns to God (Eccl. 12:7).

Now, the concept of resurrection entails the nature of man as composed of both body and spirit. Since man is made in God’s image and his spirit comes from God, then the separation of the physical body from human spirit necessarily implies two different consequences. Even the unsaved man who dies is immortal in that his human spirit is not quenched or snuffed out. He, too, enters eternity and faces judgment (John 5:28-29; Matthew 10:28; Jas. 1:27). There is no Bible description of the spiritual body of the wicked that enters eternity and goes to judgment.

But we do have in 1 Cor. 15 and 2 Cor. 5 elaborate discussion of the situation engulfing the righteous dead as to their spiritual or eternal bodies. Of course, language used is definite but accommodative to help us understand what takes place when we die even though it is difficult for us to get a clear picture of how it all is. But the new body is viewed as new clothing (cf. Rev. 3:4), just as the old (physical) body is (Jude 23). The spiritual body is a dwelling place “not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). It is new clothing “from heaven” (v. 2). If it were not for this new set of clothes, after death we would be “naked” (v. 2-3) [Compare this point to the “bare” (or naked) grain in 1 Cor. 15:37]. In this first body, we presently “groan,” and therefore long for a new and better one (v. 2; cf. Rom. 8:23, 26). When a person becomes a Christian, he is a new creation or creature living in the earthly body (2 Cor. 5:17).

A person becomes a Christian by faith, repentance, confession of faith and immersion in water and in Holy Spirit (John 8:24; Luke 13:3; Rom. 10:9-10; Acts 2:38; 1 Cor. 12:13). And while a believing, having confessed, penitent believer is still in the water of baptism, he is regenerated by the Holy Spirit (Tit. 3:5-6). This occurs as the Holy Spirit engulfs or surrounds the human spirit. That is why it is referred to as a baptism (1 Cor. 12:13). The Greek preposition ἐν in that passage should be translated “in” in English. No one was ever baptized “by” the Holy Spirit. Only Jesus is said to do that (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16; cf. Acts 2:33). Furthermore, it is the same preposition used of John’s baptizing people “in” water per Matt. 3:11 as the element in which they were baptized. If John baptized in the element of water, Jesus then baptizes us in the element of the Holy Spirit. Now, following this baptism in Spirit, the Spirit now enters inside the human spirit (Gal. 4:6). When the immersed person rises from baptismal waters, he is “in Christ” because he is now “in Spirit” (Rom. 8:9). This is why he can be said to be a part of the non-personal spiritual body of Christ on earth, which is the Lord’s church (Col. 1:18). From water baptism (which he leaves) and in Holy Spirit (in which he remains), he rises to walk in a new life (Rom. 6:3-4). Thus, this person is now a spiritually alive person and a new creature. And in addition to the physical life that he had before baptism, he now possesses spiritual life while he remains in his mortal or earthly body (Rom. 8:11).

He is now a new creature, spiritually connected to (being “one” with) the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). So, he can be renewed each day by this spiritual fellowship or “communion” with the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 4:16; 13:14). This is how the Spirit leads him (Rom. 8:14), enabling him to produce Holy Spirit fruit (Gal. 5:22-24; cf. Eph. 5:3-14). Being “led by the Spirit” enables him to rightly claim to be a child of God, to hold sin down, and to have continual cleansing of his sins (Rom. 8:14; 1 John 1:7). When a man forfeits the Spirit, he reenters “flesh” or, in other words, his physical body no longer has spiritual life in it (Rom. 8:11). The physical body is once again the sin-dominated body that the person had before he became a Christian (“the body of this death,” Rom. 7:24).

Just as we, in the past, could not yet see that the gift of the Holy Spirit is, in fact, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we could not yet see that the regeneration and indwelling of the Spirit is the initiation or production of the new spiritual body. We have viewed the conversion as the human spirit being regenerated (and rightly so). But we failed to comprehend that this new creation was not of a spirit without a spiritual body. We took it to be the production of a new creature but simply with his old, earthy body awaiting the future time when he would receive his new spiritual body in the resurrection.

Sometime back, I wrote an article claiming that the new spiritual body is provided immediately following death. That article, “A Tale of Two Bodies,” was published here in 2021. What I affirmed in it was progress, doctrinally speaking, in that it showed that the resurrection body is not given at the time of the resurrection but before it. And while this was an advance in the way to think about resurrection, now, looking back, I see that there is more to be said, and that, actually, the resurrection body is given a Christian earlier than the point for which I argued in that previous article. The more complete understanding of what Paul is saying in 2 Cor. 5 entails the idea—it now seems to me—that the new spiritual body that we receive is not received following death at all. Rather, it is received when we are converted to Christ! The regeneration and indwelling of the Holy Spirit actually constitutes the new spiritual body, the body that enters Hades if and when we die, and the body that will be either raised from Hades or changed at the last day (1 Cor. 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 2 Cor. 5:1-2).

Now notice, Paul is not saying in 2 Cor. 5 that Christians on earth will be given in the future a body from God or a “habitation” from heaven. He is saying that when we die (our earthly body being “dissolved”), we already have in place this other spiritual body in which we leave this earth at death! In other words, he is saying that one does not need to worry about being “unclothed” at death (in putting off this physical body) because his human spirit is already housed in his new body. He already has his new set of clothes. When we die, we are already dressed for our entry into glory and into the presence of God (cf. Rev. 22:4).

And when Paul says that we long for the day when we will be “clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven,” he is saying that we long for the day when we will no longer be burdened as we are now in this physical body. Having put it off, we will experience the revealing or manifestation of our spiritual body that we have had since our conversion. We will see Christ in glory as he is when we die (cf. Phil. 1:23). When Christ at his coming is manifested to faithful Christians living on earth, they will be like him for their spiritual body manifestation at that time will be observable by him and to them as well (1 John 3:2). This is the “revealing of the sons of God” of which Paul spoke in Rom. 8:19. It is “the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). The redemption of the body occurs at death; the resurrection of the body occurs at the last day. The redemption of the body concerns the saved; the resurrection of the body concerns all men.

Notice that in 2 Cor. 5 Paul affirms that God made it possible for Christians to have their new spiritual bodies by means of the Holy Spirit. God is the One who made it possible for us to have the new clothes or the new spiritual body by giving us the Holy Spirit, who is the earnest of our inheritance (v. 5; cf. Eph. 1:13-14). This is the Spirit that made it possible for us to have spiritual life in our “mortal bodies” (Rom. 8:11). So, when our mortal body (“earthly house”) is “dissolved,” our new house is revealed. It is not then given to us. Rather, having been given us at our conversion, we continue to have it so that the spiritual life that we had in the mortal body continues to exist without the mortal body. How? The spiritual life is in our new heavenly body. This new body is “from heaven” (2 Cor. 5:2).

As stated earlier, Paul distinguishes between the “outward man” and the “inward man” (2 Cor. 4:16-18). The “outward man” (physical man) is presently “decaying.” The “inward man” (spiritual man) is being “renewed day by day.” In this life, we can see the “outward man,” but we cannot with physical eyes see “the inward man.” However, Paul shows in this passage that we must see the “inward man.” It is one of those invisible things (v. 18) that we must by faith see (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7). Notice, Paul says that when this decaying outward man “be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). “Be dissolved” is an aorist tense verb, but “we have” is present tense. Paul is telling us that at the point when we Christians put off the “outward man,” we keep on having this “building from God” or this “inward man.” We already have it! It is “in the heavens” in the sense that this is the domain of all of our spiritual blessings. Paul said that all of our spiritual blessings are “in the heavenlies” (Eph. 1:3).

Now, think about this. Jesus had told Nicodemus, “Except one be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3-5). Water is of the earth, just as our first body is (1 Cor. 15:42-46). The birth from above is spiritual and concerns our human spirit (Rom. 6:17). Question: Can a man be born without a body? Answer: No. And Jesus called our transition from the world of sin to spiritual life a “birth.” Paul contrasted our outward man with our inward man. It has been very easy for us to miss the point that the inward man is actually a “complete” man. That is, we never concluded that the inward man had a body since we know that we are still in this first body. However, we have simply missed what we were being told. It is not the case that our human spirit (if we are Christians) is inside one body only (the earthly). He is within two bodies—the physical and, since conversion, the spiritual. Our inward man is a man. It is the same man that is in this earthly body which we can see. But our spirit is now also inside a new body which we as yet cannot see. It is one of those invisible things of which Paul speaks (2 Cor. 4:16-18). Paul encourages us to keep on looking at those things that keep on not being seen. But eventually, when the old, first body is laid aside, the new body will be seen. It is the new man that is being renewed day by day now (2 Cor. 4:16; Rom. 12:1-2). The spiritual body within is getting stronger day by day as our physical body gets weaker and weaker. And consider this point: The church is the non-personal and yet spiritual body of Christ. Christ’s personal glorified body is in heaven at the right hand of God (1 John 3:2; Acts 7:56). This is why I refer to our being the “non-personal” spiritual body of Christ. But also, note that if the church is actually now the spiritual body of Christ (Col. 1:18), then that is so by virtue of the fact that as Christians our spiritual bodies compose it! Our physical bodies cannot possibly be the spiritual body of Christ. Would anyone contend that the Lord’s spiritual body on earth is composed of earthly bodies? Would anyone on earth like to contend that the Lord’s spiritual body on earth is composed of human spirits who have as yet no spiritual body? How can they have no spiritual body and yet be the spiritual body of Christ?

At our new birth, we were given a new body from heaven (from above). This is our “building from God, a house” that God produced, an “eternal” body, “in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). But how is it “in the heavens,” if we have it now? It is like saying that we are not in the world because we are not of the world. We are certainly in the world in one sense (1 Cor. 5:9-10). But we are not of the world in another sense (John 17:16). Our new body is not of this world. John had written, “But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of will of flesh, nor will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). Christians have been born of God. They have been born from above. They are new creatures whose spiritual bodies are from heaven where their citizenship is.

Consider Phil. 3:20-21 carefully. (1) Our “citizenship is in heavens” (plural). (2) We are now currently waiting for the return of the Lord. (3) The Lord will “fashion anew the body of our humiliation,” (4) “that it may be conformed to the body of his glory,” and (5) this is accomplished according to the same power and authority by which he is able “to subject all things unto himself.” Paul is, of course, alive on earth in his earthly body at the time of this writing (before physical death has occurred; cf. 1 Thess. 4:13-18). In context, Paul had already referred to some of the Lord’s enemies who “mind earthly things” (Phil. 3:19). If what we said about 1 John 3:2 is correct, and if our contention is that our spiritual body was created at our conversion, how do we square those points with Phil. 3:21, where we are told that Jesus shall “fashion anew the body of our humiliation”?

In Greek, the word “shall fashion” (or change) means to remodel or transfigure (Harper, p. 267). Now, since “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50), and since we already have and are “our inward man” (2 Cor. 4:16), and since the first body is to be “dissolved,” how can the Lord “fashion anew the body of our humiliation”? In 2 Cor. 5:1 the word for “dissolved” means “to dissolve, to destroy, demolish, overthrow, throw down…” (Harper, p. 218). If there is to be both a remodeling or changing of the body and at the same time a dissolving (destroying, overthrowing) of the body, how can these things be?

I suggest that changing (or remodeling or fashioning anew) our body is simply a reference to the releasing of the new spiritual body from its attachment to the physical one. Flesh and blood are not remodeled. They are dissolved or destroyed. The Lord’s fashioning anew the body of our humiliation means that he he will release the spiritual body from the physical body when he returns. Its new form will be by virtue of its disconnection from the physical body in which it now resides. Remember, Paul is writing from the viewpoint of the those living on earth. He is not writing from the viewpoint of faithful Christians whose spiritual bodies have already been released from their earthly bodies. So, he is discussing the release of a spiritual body from a physical body and not the creation of a spiritual body at the Lord’s coming. This refashioning would be the equivalent of “the revealing of the sons of God” in Rom. 8:19.

Furthermore, let us remember that what Paul says regarding the Lord’s fashioning again the body of our humiliation (Phil. 3:21) has the background of his comments earlier made with regard to the Lord’s incarnation. Speaking of Christ Jesus, Paul wrote that he “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:7-8). He said that Jesus gave up “the form of God” (v. 6-7). So, he gave up the divine form (not the divine essence or substance) and took on human form. Jesus retained his eternal identity (John 1:1-2, 14) when he became the son of Mary (Luke 1:35).

Our new body that is conformed to the glorified body of Christ is the new form of the body of humiliation (the physical body). Jesus “humbled himself” in leaving divine form for human form (Phil. 2:8). He humbled himself in being formed as a man. The Lord’s physical body was the body of his humiliation as ours is to us. And notice that the transformation that obtains in our body of humiliation being conformed to the body of his glory is “according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:21).

Compare this to what Paul says in Col. 2:11-12. When we were baptized into Christ, Paul says that such constituted “the putting off of the body of the flesh.” Now, that is not the physical body that was put off; it was the body of sin or sin-dominated body. Paul said he was still in the physical body (Gal. 2:20). He is referring to the sin-dominated body or “the body of this death” (Rom. 7:24). And putting off the body of flesh, “having been buried with him [i.e. Christ] in baptism” (Col. 2:12), Paul says that we “were also raised with him through the faith [i.e. the gospel] in the working of God, who raised him from the dead” (v. 12). So, there is a “working” or divine operation that raises us up in our spiritual resurrection from spiritual death at the time of our conversion. That is our “first resurrection” (cf. Rev. 20:6). Regarding our second resurrection, God’s “working” changes us or conforms us to the Lord’s glorified body (Phil. 3:21). This is the fashioning anew of the body of our humiliation. Now, how is it if “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” that God can “fashion anew the body of our humiliation”? If the physical body goes back to dust, and the spirit goes back to God who gave it, then the fashioning anew refers to the release of the spiritual body within from the physical body without. The new form or fashion of the spiritual body is without its attachment to the physical one. Our glorified body is disconnected from the body of our humiliation. Presently our glorified or spiritual body remains within the body of our humiliation.

Consider some points Paul makes on death, burial, and resurrection in 1 Cor. 15:

1. Our physical bodies are not going to be raised from the dead because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (v. 50; cf. Gen. 3:19). The body goes back to the earth (Eccl.12:7), and the earth will finally be burned up (2 Pet. 3:10-12).

2. At the resurrection the righteous dead (those who will inherit the kingdom of God) will be “raised incorruptible,” and the righteous then-living ones will “be changed” (v. 51-52).

3. “Death is swallowed up in victory” (v. 54) as our spirit is released from its first set of clothes (the flesh and blood body characterized by its corruption and mortality; cf. Jas. 2:26).

4. Victory is obtained before resurrection and at the point of one’s death (v. 54).

5. Eternal clothing (or the new body) is already in place at the time of one’s death (v. 52-54).

6. The buried body is likened to the seed that a farmer plants (v. 36).

7. The seed has to die in order that and before its body comes forth (v. 36).

8. The seed is not the same as the body that it becomes (v. 37).

9. God prepares each body that each kind of seed becomes (v. 37-38).

10. There are various kinds of flesh (v. 39), two basic kinds of bodies (v. 40), and various kinds of glory (v. 41).

11. Paul then declares that the resurrection involves what he has just declared (v. 42). (1) A man must die in order that a body might come forth from the grave; (2) the man’s physical body (as seed) that is planted is not to be confused with the body that comes forth; (3) the body that comes forth, like all bodies, is designed by God (v. 37-38); (4) the identification of “fleshes” and “bodies” and “glories” (v. 39-41) indicates that the resurrection entails the full nature of man (both the physical body and the spiritual).

Remember, Paul is discussing the resurrection of the saved (v. 20-23). It is not a discussion of the resurrection of the lost, although certainly some points made would apply to all men. But the concepts of “incorruption,” “glory,” “power,” “spiritual body” refer to saved people only (v. 42-44). While all men who die will be raised (John 5:28-29), only the righteous are raised in incorruption, glory, power, and in a spiritual (or heavenly) body. The spiritual body is the “heavenly” body (v. 46-49). Remember, when we were baptized into Christ, we were born from above (John 3:3-5). We received that spiritual or heavenly body that is the one and only one of our two bodies (physical and spiritual) that will come forth from the grave.

Before listing several formal arguments, let me comment on 1 Cor. 6:13-20. In our second book on the Holy Spirit, Except One Be Born From Above, I explained the passage (p. 229-237), showing how Paul’s discussion of the Christian’s body actually entailed an identification of three different bodies: (1) the Holy Spirit-filled body, (2) one’s own body, and (3) the body of sin (p. 233). When a Christian, walking in the light (1 John 1:7), still commits a momentary act of sin, he sins without “the body of sin” or the sin-dominated body. But Paul says that when a Christian commits fornication, he sins against his own body (“the Holy Spirit-filled body”). And I wrote, “The Christian in the commission of fornication has created a situation such that the Holy Spirit has been driven out of his body…The Holy Spirit cannot indwell an unholy heart or remain in an unholy body (cf. 2 Cor. 7:1)” (p. 234).

In the past when I have been asked what happens to the personal presence of the Holy Spirit when a Christian apostatizes from the faith, I would answer that he leaves the body. Why is this? Because the Holy Spirit’s presence in the physical body of the saint is proof of the saint’s future inheritance in glory (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 5:5). This personal presence makes the saint’s physical body a “temple” of God (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19-20). So, if the Christian apostatizes from the faith, he forfeits the personal presence of the Holy Spirit in his body, whose presence constitutes the Christian’s “earnest” of his inheritance.

In Gal. 4:19, we find a most informative truth in Paul’s description of the apostates in the churches of Galatia. Some brethren had been led away from the purity of the gospel (Gal. 1:6-10). Some Jews had falsely instructed them that they had to submit to circumcision in order to be faithful to Christ. In other words, they were being told that Gentiles had to become Jewish proselytes before they could obey the gospel. Some of them fell for the falsehood, and Paul said of these, “Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” These were apostate brethren. They had stopped obeying the truth (5:7). He reminded them that if they were “led by the Spirit,” they were not under the law of Moses (5:18). This reminds us of Rom. 8:14, where Paul wrote, “For as many as are led by Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Now, in Gal. 4:19 Paul says, “I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.” Marshall’s The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament translates the Greek word ὠδίνω to mean “I travail in birth.” Harper’s Analytical Greek Lexicon gives this definition of ὠδίνω: “to be in travail (Gal. 4:27; Rev. 12:2); met. To travail with, to make effort to bring forth (Gal. 4:19)” (p. 282). For the Greek word μορφωθῇ translated “is formed,” Harper gives the meaning as “to give shape to, mould, fashion, (Gal. 4:19)” (p. 273). Thus, Paul is figuratively expressing the idea that he is in spiritual labor until Christ is formed or moulded or shaped in them once again!

Now remember, the formation of a Christian’s spiritual body happens originally when that having confessed, penitent believer is baptized into Christ (John 8:24; Luke 13:3; Rom. 10:9-10; Gal. 3:26-27; 1 Cor. 12:13). The formation of a convert’s spiritual body takes place when he becomes a Christian. That first formation entails (1) the surrounding of the human spirit by the Holy Spirit himself when the Holy Spirit enters his physical body. This is the immersion of a human spirit in the Holy Spirit, at which point the human spirit is regenerated (that is, given spiritual life—1 Cor. 12:13; Titus 3:5-6; Rom. 6:3-4). This the precise point when one is added to the church (i.e. becomes a part of the spiritual body of Christ). The formation of a person’s spiritual body also entails (2) the movement of the Holy Spirit to within the heart of the forgiven and now regenerated person who is, in fact, a Christian (Gal. 4:6). The process of baptism in Spirit plus indwelling (1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 8:9-11; 2 Tim. 1:14) constitutes the “formation” of the Christian’s spiritual body! Don’t confuse the human spirit with Holy Spirit. All humans have a human spirit (Gal. 1:26-27; 1 Thess. 5:23). Only Christians have been regenerated by and are indwelled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:32; 2 Tim. 1:14).

So, when Paul says that he is in spiritual travail until Christ be formed in the Galatian saints, since Christ is personally at the right hand of the Father (Acts. 2:33; 7:55), he can only be “formed” in them again by his Spirit whose form had been forfeited when they fell from grace. That spiritual form (or body) can be reinstated if they heed Paul’s instructions. Amazing!

Let’s conclude with a few arguments:

Argument One

1. If (1) our new birth entails being born of water and Spirit, and if (2) our new birth entails being born from above, and if (3) water is from below and Spirit is from above, and if (4) our human spirit was regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and if (5) we became a new man or a new creature by means of this birth of water and Spirit, and if (6) the concept of being born entails having a body, then we received a new spiritual body when we were born again and became a new man.

2. (1) Our new birth entails being born of water and Spirit (John 3:3-5), and (2) our new birth entails being born from above (John 3:3-5; 1 Cor. 12:13), and (3) water is from below and Spirit is from above (observation; Col. 3:1-4), and (4) our human spirit was regenerated by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-6), and (5) we became a new man or a new creature by means of this birth of water and Spirit (Titus 3:5-6; Rom. 6:1-4), and (6) the concept of being born entails having a body (Gen. 2:7, 23; John 1:13; 1 Cor. 15:47-49).

3. Then, we received a new spiritual body when we were born again and became a new man.

Argument Two

1. If the new birth is comparable to and superior to the old birth, and if the old birth essentially entailed the fundamental concept of a body, then the new birth essentially entails the concept of a body.

2. The new birth is comparable to and superior to the old birth (John 1:13; 3:3-5), and the old birth essentially entailed the fundamental concept of a body (1 Cor. 15:42-49).

3. Then, the new birth essentially entails the concept of a body.

Argument Three

1. If those who are born again or born from above already have a spiritual body within, and if the physical body will go back to dust at death, then it is the spiritual body that enters Hades at death to be raised on the day of the resurrection.

2. Those who are born again or born from above already have a spiritual body within (see Argument Two), and the physical body will go back to dust at death (Gen. 3:19; Eccl. 12:7).

3. Then, it is the spiritual body that enters Hades at death to be raised on the day of the resurrection.

Argument Four

1. If (1) the church’s condition as the spiritual body of Christ on earth is analogous to the condition of a Christian’s spiritual body following physical death, and if (2) that analogy is based on the church’s relationship to (being in) the Spirit now, and if (3) that relationship between the Christian and the Holy Spirit entails the fact that the Christian is a part of a new creation, then the church’s spiritual body following physical death is a body created by the Holy Spirit.

2. (1) The church’s condition as the spiritual body of Christ on earth is analogous to the condition of a Christian’s spiritual body following physical death (Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 15:44-49), and (2) that analogy is based on the church’s relationship to (being in) the Spirit now (Rom. 8:9-11; 2 Cor. 5:4-5), and (3) that relationship between the Christian and the Holy Spirit entails the fact that the Christian is a part of a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).

3. Then, the church’s spiritual body following physical death is a body created by the Holy Spirit.

Argument Five

1. If (1) a Christian’s spiritual body is a body created by the Holy Spirit, and if (2) it remains our body following our physical death, then we have our spiritual body before we die a physical death.

2. (1) A Christian’s spiritual body is a body created by the Holy Spirit (see Argument Four; and John 3:3-5), and (2) it remains our body following our physical death (1 Cor. 15:42-49).

3. Then, we have our spiritual body before we die a physical death.

Argument Six

1. If (1) what is sown is what is raised in 1 Cor. 15, and if (2) what is sown is sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body, then the body remains an individual’s body though it changed from natural to spiritual.

2. (1) What is sown is what is raised in 1 Cor. 15 (15:42-49), and (2) what is sown is sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:42-44).

3. Then, the body remains an individual’s body though it changed from natural to spiritual.

Argument Seven

1. If (1) an individual Christian’s body remains his own body but is changed from a natural body to a spiritual body, and if (2) his spiritual body is not a flesh and blood body, and if (3) his natural body puts on a spiritual body, then his spiritual body was within his natural body before he died a physical death.

2. (1) An individual Christian’s body remains his own body but is changed from a natural body to a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:42-49), and (2) his spiritual body is not a flesh and blood body (1 Cor. 15:50-58), and (3) his natural body puts on a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:53-56).

3. Then, his spiritual body was within his natural body before he died a physical death.

Argument Eight

1. If (1) the natural body (physical body) has spiritual life in it on earth by means of the Holy Spirit’s presence in it, and if (2) the natural body is the mortal body, and if (3) the spiritual body is the immortal body, and if (4) the natural body will not be raised but the spiritual body will be raised, then the natural body has spiritual life within it by means of a spiritual body within it.

2. (1) The natural body (physical body) has spiritual life in it on earth by means of the Holy Spirit’s presence in it (Rom. 8:9-11; 6:1-11), and (2) the natural body is the mortal body (1 Cor. 15:44; 2 Cor. 5:1-5), and (3) the spiritual body is the immortal body (1 Cor. 15:42-49; 2 Cor. 5:1-8), and (4) the natural body will not be raised but the spiritual body will be raised (1 Cor. 15:50, 42-49).

3. Then, the natural body has spiritual life within it by means of a spiritual body within it.

A Concluding Thought

Not only does the previous argumentation show that the Christian’s resurrection body is provided to him when he becomes a Christian, but it also provides a unique form of new apologetic argumentation for the inspiration of Scripture and, thus, for the existence of God. The myriad of details involved in the history of man, as told in Scripture, is such that from man’s first appearance on earth to his final destiny, his history reveals the necessity of the divine inspiration of the Book that records that history!

No one but God himself could have told the story of human experience (with all the essential features of it), revealing the necessity of divine redemption in such a complete and coherent way as to provide such a profound account of the nature, the condition, the purpose, and the need of man from time to eternity.

Argument on Inspiration

1. If the Bible provides an account of the totality of human experience (from time to eternity) which is impossible to be the written production of mere man or of any combination of men, then the Bible is the word of God.

2. The Bible provides an account of the totality of human experience (from time to eternity) which is impossible to be the written production of mere man or of any combination of men. [Note: The proof of this second premise is the story of Scripture beginning with man’s first appearance on earth and concluding with his resurrection and/or transformation into his final phase.]

3. Then, the Bible is the word of God.

Posted in Doctrine, Nature of Man

An Interview with Death

Posted on by Mac Deaver

Interviewer: Death, I appreciate your taking the time to talk with me. I know that you suggested that I call you Thanatos since that is the name for you in the Greek New Testament. And I will do that, but I wanted my English readers to know to whom I am speaking.

Thanatos: Fine. Let us proceed. I haven’t much time to linger here. There is work to be done—people I need to meet.

Interviewer: All right. I have just a few questions, please. The first one is: What are the various forms you have taken in pursuit of living men?

Thanatos: Well, there are three forms. When I take the life of someone, I can do it in two ways this side of eternity. The first way is simply to take his physical life. The second way is to take his spiritual life. There is a third way that has to do with the final and everlasting form which the New Testament refers to as eternal punishment or everlasting separation from God (Matt. 25:46).

Interviewer: I see. So, when Adam died. He died in two ways.

Thanatos: That is correct. But that truth has to be understood. He died physically in that he began to deteriorate, which deterioration would eventuate in the separation of his spirit from his body, which would mean that I had gotten him (James 2:26). This began because Adam lost access to the tree of life.

Interviewer: So, the physical death that came was an eventual thing that potentially began the moment he lost access to the tree of life?

Thanatos: Yes.

Interviewer: And his spiritual death was immediate in that he lost fellowship with God?

Thanatos: Correct. The spiritual death was immediate; the physical came immediately in potential but eventuated into actual physical death when Adam was nine hundred and thirty years old (Gen. 5:5).

Interviewer: So, when we read about you in the New Testament, the form that is referenced has to be decided by the precise language used and the literary context in which your name is called?

Thanatos: Yes. At times physical death is being referenced; at other times spiritual death is being referenced, and a few times, even eternal death is being referenced. And at times, even distant facts must come into play for the reader to correctly interpret a passage that uses my name.

Interviewer: Let’s consider an example. Paul wrote, “Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through the sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned” (Rom. 5:12). Is that spiritual death or is that physical death?

Thanatos: Well, think about it. The death referred to passed to “all” men. Earlier Paul had written, “for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). All Jews and all Gentiles had all sinned. But physical death had not passed to “all” men. I would have taken Enoch, but before I could get to him, God had already removed him from the earth (Gen. 5:24). Spiritual death had come to him because he, like all others, had sinned. But he was the exception to the rule regarding physical death. Years later, Elijah became an exception, too. I was not allowed to take him (2 Kings 2:11). The death that Paul referred to in Romans 5:12 did come to all men who sinned and it came because they sinned. That kind of death included Enoch and Elijah. That was spiritual death or the loss of spiritual fellowship with God. Fortunately, Jesus died for all men including Enoch and Elijah (Heb. 2:9; 9:15). All others for whom Jesus died, died or will die physically (unless they are in the group that is alive at the Lord’s final coming [1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 22:20]).

Interviewer: Let’s take one more passage. In Romans 6:23, Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Which death is here mentioned?

Thanatos: Well think about the contrast Paul made. Think of the opposite concepts he mentions that are antithetical to one another. In other words, think of the words before the word “but” and then think of the words after the word “but.” The nature of the first concept is countered by the nature of the second concept.

Interviewer: What do you mean exactly?

Thanatos: The verse ends with the words: “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is the opposite of what the wages of sin is! It is the remedy to the wages of sin which is death. What eternal life is counters what the death is that sin produces. So, since the gift is “eternal life” rather than spiritual life and rather than physical life, the death that constitutes the wages of sin is spiritual death rather than physical death.

Interviewer: Yes, that is clear. We must consider the context, the way the words are used, concepts employed, and all relevant facts that must not be contradicted. So, in Hebrews 9:27 when we read that death is an appointment for all men, we know it is physical death because the context (verses 23-28) is a discussion of the Lord’s own death (which was physical—not spiritual, and not eternal) as distinguished from all other authorized physical sacrifices for sin.

Thanatos: Indeed.

Interviewer: My second question is: How many people have you already claimed?

Thanatos: Do you mean by claiming them physically or spiritually?

Interviewer: I mean physically.

Thanatos: I have up to the current living generation, taken everyone with the exception of Enoch and Elijah. Since God performs no miracles today, there are no “Enochs” or “Elijahs” that get to pass to the next domain without my claiming them. I have always been the “general rule,” but God excused two men from my clutches. What men they were! However, now, no one escapes. It is, as the Hebrews writer referred to it, an appointment (Heb. 9:27). Jesus himself met that appointment. His was a special death for a special reason, but the death that he died was still his meeting that appointment. That is the writer’s very point in the passage. In other words, as other men had kept the appointment and as all men will continue to meet the appointment, so Jesus himself was appointed to meet me as well.

Interviewer: I sometimes like to say that we live by permission, and we die by appointment (James 4:15; Heb. 9:27).

Thanatos: That is a fair way to describe mankind’s condition regarding life and death.

Interviewer: Who was the first to die physically?

Thanatos: Well, as you read in Scripture, Adam and Eve were the first who began to die physically when they lost access to the tree of life. So, we can say that Adam and Eve were the first to die physically in a potential sense. As far as the first to die in an actual sense, that was Abel. The first historical physical death was the one Abel experienced. I reached out for him early in the history of man. And it is interesting in that the first actual, historical physical death that I initiated was a violent one in which a man shed his own brother’s blood (Gen. 4:1-8). That certainly was a foretaste of things in the sad and sinful history of mankind to come. Abel’s blood cried to God for vengeance; fortunately for you, the Lord’s own blood cried out for mercy (Gen. 4:10; Heb. 12:24).

Interviewer: Thanatos, how many ways or means have you used to get people within your grasp in order to end their physical lives on this earth?

Thanatos: Well, I have never counted them, but I will be glad to identify some of them. They are so common place, you will recognize each one that I describe. There are various ways to get to a person. And, of course, all that I do, I do by allowance (James 4:15). I have been stopped many, many times from accomplishing what I was about to do. Various things may prevent my grasping a person including the prayers of righteous men (James 5:16; 1 John 5:13-15). However, unless God intervenes, I have access to many methods of establishing my claim regarding physical death.

For example, as a broad category, I have taken, as with Abel, many a person through some expression of violence. Many men are so sinful that they engage in violent behavior one toward the other. The “golden rule” (Matt. 7:12) is not only flagrantly disobeyed; it is often held in absolute contempt. Many men murder other men. Not everyone dies who is assaulted, but I do claim a lot of people who are violently attacked. And in war time, I am especially busy. Regardless of the cause, I claim many a life as nation rises up against nation. It is a good harvest for me.

Other methods that I have used with men include sickness. People get sick for various reasons, and at times I am allowed to come in and take some of those people. People become diseased, and I may be allowed to move in and remove that person. A few people are overcome by animal predators (such as lions, bears, snakes, etc.). These deaths are not as common, and when they occur, the report may become a headline in a newspaper given the horror or the drama involved in the incident. Natural catastrophes take some (tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.). And all kinds of accidents account for the passing of many. And you might be surprised how many times I am solicited to come to the scene of homicides that have continued since the days of Cain and Abel. Many a man still marches “in the way of Cain” (Jude 11).

Interviewer: Why do we men fear you?

Thanatos: There are, I suppose, various reasons why a person on earth would fear me. No man living has yet to meet me personally. So, I am feared because though men know of me and know others who have met me, no one who has met me has revealed to the yet living what I am like. The living may have been close to others whom he watched as I took hold of them, but the yet living have never met me themselves. So, I am a mysterious stranger to them. Too, men may fear some pain or imagined pain or duress that they think is essentially connected with me as I come for someone. Also, the living fear me because of the pain my coming will cause to those loved ones left behind. No one wants his loved ones to have to grieve, but they must, and they will. Leaving entails loss for those who stay. No one enjoys grieving for those I have taken; no one facing me himself enjoys the prospect of grief for those loved ones that he will soon leave behind.

Interviewer: Should the living fear you?

Thanatos: That depends.

Interviewer: What do you mean?

Thanatos: Well, if you believe God and you are prepared to face judgment, there is no need for fear. In fact, death is a release to the righteous so that they are unburdened. Ever since sin entered this world and me through sin, this world has been a rough environment in which all men must live. If a man takes God at his word, obeys His will, and trusts His promises, he should in his maturity welcome me as the one who will make possible for him a much better situation.

Interviewer: I remember that Paul expressed the thought of a place very far better than this vale of tears (Phil. 2:23).

Thanatos: Indeed. But that place is only for believers—those who take God at His word and walk in His way (Rom. 10:17; Heb. 5:8-9). For them, I am a blessing. I provide a release; I become a relief. When I come for the prepared, they can gladly welcome my approach and look forward to blessedness about which they have read but regarding which they have never felt until they meet me. That is why the Scriptures tell you people that God views the death of the righteous as “precious” (Psalm 116:15). God wants His people to look at me that way, too, in regard to them.

Interviewer: But what about all the others? What about the unprepared?

Thanatos: That is another matter altogether. For the unprepared, I bring more heartache. I lead them to a metaphysical or spiritual domain but one in which their continued spiritual separation from God continues, and it will continue forever. I am an enemy to those people—all of them (1 Cor. 15:26). I bring them no joy but only that which is to be most dreaded. And the only way to escape this eternal prospect is to accept the salvation offered by God through Christ who was raised from the death in order to bring life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10). Jesus overcame ME in order that YOU humans can have spiritual life on earth and eternal life in glory. He “abolished” death not in the sense that men no longer die physically, but that though they die, given their spiritual life on earth, they may beyond earth and death live again!

Interviewer: Amen and Amen!!

Posted in Expository, Nature of Man, Old Testament

And Afterward (Reflections on Psalm 73:24)

Posted on by Weylan Deaver

The Psalmist’s plight is dire in chapter seventy-three. Even though “God is good to Israel” (v. 1, ESV), the writer’s “feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped” (v. 2). Spiritual catastrophe has come too close for comfort. How? The Psalmist has begun to envy the wicked (v. 3-12), who are “always at ease” and “increase in riches.” His thinking grows so skewed he begins to ponder that “in vain have I kept my heart clean” (v. 13). Surveying the scene of prospering sinners is leading him toward the conclusion that serving God is not worth the effort.

Trying to figure out why the wicked are blessed “seemed to me a wearisome task” (v. 16), that is, “until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end” (v. 17). Thankfully, a more accurate perspective sets in. The writer realizes that the apparent success of evil is fleeting, and that God will “set them in slippery places” and “make them fall to ruin” (v. 18). The unrighteous will be “destroyed in a moment” disappearing swiftly as “a dream when one awakes” (v. 20).

Then the Psalmist gets brutally honest about his own bad behavior. He humbly confesses to God that “my soul was embittered” (v. 21), and that “I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you” (v. 22). But, in spite of the author’s shortcomings, God is still holding onto his hand (v. 23). His salvation will be God’s doing, in spite of the writer’s painful flaws.

At this point the Psalmist pens a striking passage (v. 24-26):

24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Compared to the New Testament (which is rife with discussions of the afterlife), Old Testament passages teaching the soul’s immortality seem few and far between (there are several scattered verses, but they will not be considered here). What does the Psalmist mean by asserting, “and afterward you will receive me to glory”? Since God is “in heaven,” and the Psalmist desires “nothing on earth” (v. 25), to be received “to glory” is an apparent reference to heaven. This is reinforced by the writer’s statement that “My flesh and my heart may fail” (v. 26)—evidently referring to the eventual death of his physical body. Nevertheless, after he has been guided with divine counsel (v. 24), and after his flesh fails (v. 26), he will be received “to glory” (v. 24) because God is “in heaven” and nothing remains “on earth” to be desired (v. 25). This hopeful outlook is possible only because, with flesh failing, “God is the strength of my heart…forever” (v. 26).

Could Psalm 73:24 be a bold Old Testament claim on the soul’s immortality and eternal destiny? On this Scripture Keil and Delitzsch comment that, even though the “heavenly triumph of the church” had not yet been foretold, faith in God “had already a transparent depth which penetrated beyond Hades into an eternal life…It is just this that is also the nerve of the proof of the resurrection of the dead which Jesus advances in opposition to the Sadducees (Matt. 22:32)” (Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 5, pp. 493-494). Craig C. Broyles notes, “If verse 24 does point to some kind of resurrection, it is interesting to note how the writer arrived at this conclusion. He did so not by virtue of a supposed immortality of the soul but by virtue of God himself and the kind of relationship he establishes. Because ‘God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (v. 26), I shall therefore live on with God’” (New International Biblical Commentary on Psalms, pp. 304-305). It is worth observing that the Hebrew verb for “you will receive” in v. 24 is “identical to that found in Psalm 49:15 (‘But God will redeem my soul from the grave; he will surely take me to himself’) and Genesis 5:24 (‘Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away’), both of which seem to point to a divine act that transcends death” (ibid., p. 304). The Pulpit Commentary weighs in by quoting a professor who remarked about Psalm 73:24 that “the poet has that religious intuition which forms the kernel of the hope of immortality” (vol. VIII, p. 72).

The New Testament leaves Christians in no doubt about the afterlife, judgment, heaven and hell. But we need not think that people in Old Testament times had no clue about the soul. They had far less information than we, but God made sure they still had access to certain spiritual truths, including Psalm 73:24 and “the kernel of the hope of immortality.”

Posted in Abortion, Doctrine, Nature of Man

The God of Human Governance

Posted on by Mac Deaver

The Bible offers plenty of passages that bespeak the sovereignty of God and his complete management of human affairs. After all, why would God make man in his image and then leave him unattended? I think, however, that the attention divinely given to our affairs on earth is far, far more extensive and encompassing than many of us Bible students have in the past realized. God is not simply an occasional visitor or infrequent penetrator into man’s affairs. It is only by constant involvement that God could control the history that is recorded in Scripture. And it is only by constant involvement that God today moves history to his glory and to the good of his family. If the prayers of the righteous avail much, then God is very, very involved in our lives and what affects them. Divine intervention in the past at times entailed the miraculous; today it entails the supernatural non-miraculous. But divine intervention is an essential feature of our situation on this earth.

Scripture assures us that God calls the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:10), and he calls the things that are not as though they were (Rom. 4:17). He never lies (Heb. 6:18; Titus 1:2), and yet in the ultimate sense of control, God claims to be the One who deceives the deceived prophet (Ezek. 14:9). He arranged the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh in order that God’s name “might be published abroad in the earth” (Rom. 9: 17). No one can come close to the management of life’s affairs! And we must remember that man is not the center of reality. God is! “The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Prov. 16:4). How God can mix his determinate counsel and foreknowledge with man’s free will only he knows. But he does know, and he does do that very thing, including his use of evil men (Acts 2:23; Amos 3:6; Isa. 45:7). Let us briefly notice a short summation of his governance in the affairs of any given man.

God governs the WOMB. This is indeed a most fascinating thought. According to Scripture God is the One who decides who is conceived. Those that are conceived, God knows beforehand (Isa. 49:1, 5; Jer. 1:5). God controls barrenness. You might recall that on one interesting occasion God “had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech” (Gen. 20:18). Sarah’s barrenness was of divine design in order that in time she would become the mother to a child of promise in her older years (Rom. 4:19; Heb. 11:11). In fact, Paul says that while Ishmael was born “after the flesh,” Isaac was born “through the promise” (Gal. 4:23). And the definite article “the” is there in the Greek text. And Hannah became the mother of Samuel although earlier “the Lord had shut up her womb” (1 Sam. 1:5, 20).

The degree of the divine control of the womb comes down to a consideration of a single question: Does natural law determine conception in the sense that when natural law is in effect it “triggers” or necessitates human conception, or is it the case that God’s supernatural law governs natural law in procreation? In other words, is God’s power limited by human free will, or is human free will limited by divine power? Which is always the superior force: natural law or supernatural law? According to Hebrews 12:9, God is the father of our spirits. No human being is conceived unless God sends Holy Spirit to join human flesh! God controls natural law; he is not controlled by it. This is ultimately why abortion upon demand is wrong. Such would be the malicious taking of a life that God produced. God could have prevented the conception by simply not sending Holy Spirit. Human spirit comes from Holy Spirit (Mal. 2:14-15). And if God doesn’t send it to the womb, no child is conceived. Divine governance is extreme. If God knows when a sparrow falls and how many hairs are on each man’s head (Matt. 10:29-30), he certainly knows when and why he sends Spirit to flesh to form a human and when and why he does not do so.

God governs the ROOM. And just here by “room” I mean the space or the area or the atmosphere in which human lives operate. This is the place where we make our decisions as pilgrims and sojourners on the earth. Our choices are somehow attached to our will, and our will is a part of our rational and emotional makeup. Jesus once declared that salvation was determined by a man’s will (John 7:17). Salvation is not simply a matter of intellectual elevation. Rather, it is a matter of character and whether or not someone wants to do right and be right. And no one can ultimately want to do the right thing while having a heart that would reject the truth that demands the right thing (2 Thess. 2:10). There is a degree of trust that I must essentially have in myself as a truth searcher (Acts 17:26-28). But I know that my human capacity is inferior to God’s divine capacity when I personally come to the realization of his existence, and so when I find him, I trust him. The writer of Proverbs wrote, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Prov. 3:5-6). Here there is a definite line drawn between finally trusting in myself or in trusting God. But why should any man acknowledge God with regard to all of that man’s ways?

It is so because any man can see only so much. And it is not very much at all. That is why Jeremiah told us long ago, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps” (Jer. 10:23). It is in man to search for God and to find him (Acts 17:27), and it is in man that when he finds him he begins to lean on him. And when we lean on him, we are declaring the recognition of our need. We do need help in large amounts and all the time in all places! And the writer of Proverbs says that God will direct the paths of his people. Here our prayers and his paths intersect. The Proverbs writer also says, “Man’s goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?” (Prov. 20:24). There is altogether too much for one man to comprehend regarding his own situation: (1) why he was allowed to be conceived in the first place, (2) why his conception entailed the two people who became his father and mother, (3) how that genetic mix contributed to the personality that he could and would in time have, (4) why he has a specific ethnicity, sex, and inherent capacity that he has, (5) how he arrived at the current point and place in his life—his present situation, and (6) how it is that he is currently making a personal contribution to the accomplishing of the Lord’s will either on the good side or on the evil one. This is TOO MUCH for any of us to know. It is one reason why we always should say with Christ, “Let thy will be done.” God controls the room!

God governs the TOMB. James warns us about depending on tomorrow. So far, every tomorrow that we thought was coming has, in fact, come. But the next one may not. And the arrival of the previous ones was not because it was guaranteed. We simply have no divine promise of more time on earth (Jas. 4:13-17). James reminds us that we do not know what will happen tomorrow even if it does come. We are completely dependent on God for the preservation of our earthly lives. In verse 15 James says, “For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that.” Did you notice that James by inspiration declared that our continuation in life or the termination of our earthly life is a matter of divine will. There is no way to get around the fact that if a man is still alive on the earth, it is because God has allowed his life to continue. And when, for reasons some of which are known only to God, a given man dies, we have to conclude that there is a sense in which God was willing for that man to die. Not all death cases are the same, but there is an identical truth respecting all of them. Given all relevant factors involved in God’s will for human living and dying, God did not choose to allow that life to continue. Each life reaches its final earthly appointment (Heb. 9:27). According to James, we live by permission. According to the writer of Hebrews, we die by appointment. I am glad that regarding my forthcoming death, I do not know when, where, or how it will come. But I do know, unless the Lord comes first (1 Thess. 4:13-18), I am fast approaching it.

Posted in Apologetics, Doctrine, Logic/Philosophy, Nature of Man

God’s Fairness and Man’s Free Will

Posted on by Mac Deaver

Historically, controversy has raged with regard to the nature of man and his relationship to God. In Christian Apologetics, one would have to find a way to defend both God and man as to (1) God’s justice or fairness in making man in the first place (2) with a human will put to a purpose that would evoke divine justice in the form of punishment in the second place. This short piece cannot survey the total scene of all relevant aspects of the complete picture (even if we were capable of such a survey). However, we can identify and explore briefly some elements involved in this complex matter.

First, God knowingly and lovingly made man in His image, having in mind an eternal purpose to save him from sin, even before the first sin by Adam had been committed (Gen. 1:26-27; 1 John 4:8; John 3:16; Eph. 3:10-11). God desired to bring many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10). Giving man existence and giving him nature in the image of God made heaven a possible destiny.

Second, man was free from the beginning to choose obedience or disobedience. This is the significance of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). This provided man an opportunity for definite pure positive law choice in the expression of his free will. The punishment for the violation of the prohibition regarding the tree shows us that God considered man responsible enough to understand the prohibition and accountable for the violation of it. The initial punishment for the man and the woman (Gen. 3:16-19) enacted for the violation was based on the fact that the violation of the prohibition entailed a will that was (1) independent, (2) free to exert itself, and (3) accountable before God for the consequences that would follow.

Third, there was nothing wrong or imperfect about the nature of man as God made him. He was innocent and mature from the beginning. Solomon tells us, “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions” (Eccl. 7:29). Adam and Eve when made were certainly inexperienced, but they were not imperfect creatures. It is something essential to the creation of man. Of necessity a created man could have no past (experience). But he had to be mature by nature in order to be responsible from his initial moments of existence, and he had to come without experience if he was to come at all. While Adam was not deceived into sin, Eve was (1 Tim. 2:13-14), but neither one of them could sin without a good will that was his/hers to be expressed in the selection made.

Fourth, after sin entered the human domain, several things changed, one of which was that the human heart in every human being born (remember, Adam and Eve were not born) would be a heart that would choose evil early on in its personal history. This is what we learn in Genesis 9:21. After the flood, God said to Himself that He would never again curse the earth (cf. 3:17 and 4:12) or kill almost everything off as He had just done, because “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” The exception, historically speaking, consisted of Adam and Eve who never had a youth. But beginning with Cain and Abel, this truth that God later has Moses record in Genesis 9 represented the things that were in place regarding all who came after Adam and Eve. The flood became necessary because “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). The “evil from youth” fact was cultivated by Noah’s contemporaries to the degree that they were no longer fit to live.

Now, while many people have over the years opted for the view that man is evil from his conception or birth, the Scriptures never declare that. They do say, however, that sin enters the heart of any given person during his youth. This was my experience and yours, too.

Fifth, this means that the universality of human sin following Adam was inevitable. Even now, none of us is waiting for an individual to arise who will never commit sin. One of the ways in which Jesus was and is so different from the rest of us is that by His divinity He kept His humanity under complete control. His sinlessness is a characteristic that proves His deity. When Paul wrote Romans around 57 or 58 A.D., the fact was then as it stands now: “for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23). Furthermore, he later affirmed that after Adam “all sinned” (5:12).

Sixth, given the point just discussed, there must be an inherent “weakness” involved when Holy Spirit is joined to flesh so as to produce a mere human being. God is the Father of our spirits (Heb. 12:9), so there is nothing inherently weak about our human spirit. Our spirit comes from Holy Spirit (Mal. 2:14-15). After all, we are in God’s image (Gen. 1:26-27). However, when combined with flesh, there is essentially a weakness that obtains because of the connection now initiated because spirit is now made vulnerable. The lust of the flesh is the spirit’s expressing desire via the flesh. So, the weakness of the flesh is because of the power of the flesh to weaken spirit. This sets up our freedom of will (Gal. 5:17). Consider: God cannot be tempted, but Jesus could be (Jas. 1:13; Heb. 4:15). We are not born in sin. But we are born with a nature that is now weak! This helps us to understand the “why” of Romans 3:23. Remember the Lord’s admonition to three apostles that they needed to watch and pray to avoid temptation, for “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). Every person born from Cain and Abel forward has been born with this weakness. That’s how it could be truthfully declared that Jesus tasted death for every one of us (Heb. 2:9).

Seventh, since God knew that all men would sin, there had to be a plan whereby all could be saved. That is, the solution had to be as large as the problem. In fact, in the language of Scripture, the solution was much larger than the problem, and so we read of such things as grace abounding “more exceedingly” than sin did (Rom. 5:20-21) or of “the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7). There has always been an “over supply” of divine blessing to deal with the sin of mankind.

Eighth, in Scripture we read of many sinners lost in sin and some who found salvation. The two categories rest on the free will of the men involved. Since God was always prepared to save any man from his sin, the finally lost condition of any individual bespoke what that man had decided in life to be on his own, and the salvation of any man bespoke the fact that he had decided to become what God would bless him to be. Man has never been finally lost because of his weakness; he has been finally lost because he has chosen weakness over strength. In other words, he chose flesh over spirit! And the spiritual law of kinds informs us that our crop can be no better than our seed (Gal. 6:7-8).

Ninth, this means that when Jesus spoke of the impossibility of people coming to Him unless the Father drew them to Him (John 6:44-45), He was referring to the two categories of people whom Paul later identified as (1) “vessels of honor” or “vessels of mercy” and (2) “vessels of dishonor” or “vessels of wrath” (Rom. 9:21-23). Furthermore, when Jesus referred to people who could not believe Him because they “were not of his sheep” and because of such could not hear His voice and follow Him (John 10:16-29), He was referring to those whom John would later identify as people who were characterized by the spirit of truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4:5-6). That is, the two classifications of people (regarding salvation and damnation) are: (1) those who are of the world, and (2) those who are of God. Christians and all those bound to become such today are in Scripture language “of God” (cf. 1 John 4:4; 5:19). They have an “honest and good heart” (Luke 8:15). Notice the possibilities and impossibilities just here:

T F 1. One can have an honest and good heart.
T F 2. One can have an honest and non-good heart.
T F 3. One can have a dishonest and good heart.
T F 4. One can have a dishonest and non-good heart.

The first statement is TRUE. In fact, this is the only class that can be saved or ever could be saved! The second statement might at first be considered “true” if picturing a man before he is willing to come to repentance and would seem to show the possibility of a man squarely facing sad facts about himself but yet unwilling to do the right thing about his sin (cf. Luke 15:17; 2 Cor. 7:10). But, on the other hand, if he is unwilling to do the “right” thing about his sin, he is not being honest about his sin. So, it would appear that this statement is itself FALSE. The third statement is FALSE. No one can be both dishonest and good at the same time. The fourth statement is TRUE. A person can have a non-good heart (evil heart) partly composed of his dishonesty.

Now regarding the third statement in the above list of True-False statements, consider again what Jesus said in John 6:44-45. No one can come to Jesus unless drawn by the Father, and he cannot be drawn by the Father unless he has an honest and good heart (Luke 8:15). Verse 45 shows that the “drawing” is done by Scripture. And those who are “drawn” are those who are taught of God, have heard from the Father, and have learned. These are the only ones that can come and do come to Jesus! The Father draws and the Father teaches, but all these students who are taught, who hear, who learn, are the ones who then come to Jesus.

So, all whom the Father draws to Jesus are those who are taught, who hear, who learn and who come. They all come! There is no class of those who learn, in this context, but who still do not come. My father used to refer to the word “learned” in verse 45 as a learning “in the sense of this passage.” What John said in 1 John 4:6 helps us with some clarification here. “We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” Those who are “of God,” those characterized by “the spirit of truth,” those characterized by “an honest and good heart” upon hearing the truth are drawn by the truth. And they are the only ones drawn by it!

Tenth, if God wants all men to be saved, and He does (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9), then whatever are the full complexities of features that contribute to a man’s damnation, they all rest on the rock bottom foundation of a man’s own free will which (1) was given as a blessing and which (2) turned out to be a curse because (3) the man himself failed to use it as it was designed to be used (Acts 17:27; Eccl. 12:13-14). He used his own will against himself! Jesus once said it like this: “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself” (John 7:17). So, God can never be rightly criticized for the damnation of anyone or of everyone who is lost, but He can be and should be praised for the salvation that He has made possible (1 Tim. 4:10). And it is a wonderful thing that God is able and willing to use the evil purposed free will of men to His own glory and to the ultimate salvation of all those who love truth (Acts 2:23; 2 Thess. 2:10-12).

Posted in Christianity and Culture, Nature of Man

What Is Man?

Posted on by Weylan Deaver

By Weylan Deaver

“O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?” (Psalm 144:3, ESV). How we define ourselves—the human race—is tied to worldview and greatly affects how we live now, not to mention what we believe about the future. Notice the question is not seeking a definition as much as it is asking God why he cares so much for us. To the Psalmist, it was a given that God made man. Sadly, to many now, it is not.

Man is not a great ape, and it is not best to define us in terms of opposable thumbs, large brains, upright posture, tool use, complex societies, etc. The truth is far nobler and impressive: man is the only terrestrial creature made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27) who will live eternally in heaven or hell (Matt. 25:46; 2 Cor. 5:10). Man is also the only being on earth who can be described in relation to his personally named original ancestor. That is, mankind can accurately be defined as the descendants of Adam.

So many things separate us from all animals. Humans are self-aware. This is more than being alive; we can think about the fact we are alive and have individual, personal existence. Humans are able to ponder their own origin. No kangaroo wondered where the first kangaroo came from, or how Australia got here. Cosmology is not considered by canines and cattle.

Humans have an innate capacity to appreciate and reflect on beauty, whether it be outer appearance, personality, music, a work of art or a dazzling Texas sunset. Poetry and prose are not the province of the finned or four-footed. No aardvark has given us a treatise on aesthetics.

Humans ask about the right thing to do. Even if we sometimes arrive at the wrong answer, it is still because something in us seeks to define right from wrong. Dolphins do not have penal codes, courts of law, or crime statistics. Elephants do not philosophize on ethics. Animals operate on instinct. Calling people animals cannot nullify that we reason and behave on a higher plane, which gives the lie to our being labeled animals.

Humans have to do with time. We can ponder the past and plan for the future. Hounds do not study history, but people do. We are keenly, uniquely concerned with time. Squirrels may stash nuts for the coming winter, but they are not worrying whether there will be nuts left for their offspring twenty years from now. People, on the other hand, can plan long-term. Some of us even plan our own funerals and we leave behind wills to make sure our wishes are carried out when the clock no longer affects us.

And, humans think about what follows death. Even those who disbelieve the Bible still wrestle with the future and come to some conclusion about it—accurate or not. No horse ever entertained the concept of whether there would be divine judgment on its life, or decided it did not have a soul. It takes a human to grapple with such ideas. Eschatology is the field that studies last things, such as death, judgment, eternity, the end of the world. It is one more of the many areas where animals have no concern, and lack any capacity to have concern. Why is it we think on such things?

These facts, and more, should help us realize we are neither animals nor relatives thereof. To be human is to be different from every creature on earth in striking, undeniable ways. We can admit it and seek the One who made us like this (Acts 17:26-27). Or, we can kid ourselves in futile effort to deny the obvious. But, wherever the skeptic runs, he cannot get away from his own shadow. He, too, is man.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4). Here, again, is the question. The Psalmist begins to describe man, not in terms of physical traits, but that he is “a little lower than the heavenly beings,” and “crowned…with glory and honor” (v. 5). God has given man “dominion” over the whole of creation, including “beasts of the field” and “birds of the heavens” and “fish of the sea” (vv. 6-8). The conclusion? “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (v. 9). The right answer to “What is man?” should lead naturally and inevitably to praising the Lord’s majesty. If God is not worshiped because of our conclusion to the greatest question, then we have the wrong answer.