'spiritual' man has an acute, spirit' sense. He knows the action of his spirit, and
Someone asks me, Is there not a difference between the 'flesh' and the 'old man'? The Word of God throws light on this. In some passages we find Paul speaking of the 'flesh' as purely 'flesh and blood'. "Though living in 'the flesh', my warfare is not waged according to 'the flesh' " (2 Cor. 10:3), he writes. So in this sense we are 'in the flesh', even when the 'old man' is crucified. But the Apostle adds that even though we are thus "living in the flesh", we are not to act "according to the flesh", but "according to God in the spirit". "Living in the flesh," in a right sense, is not to be an excuse for yielding to it, or being governed by it in any degree. Now let us look at I Thessalonians 5:23, giving a summary of the work to be done in the believer, as the outcome of the finished work of Christ on the Cross. "May the God of Peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul, and body all together be preserved blameless, at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." Note the order:spirit first, then soul, then body. Note the word 'sanctify' - set you apart altogether for God, and keep you blameless. 5. The working of the Holy Spirit in the spirit of man:A passage in Rom. 8:16 very clearly shows this aspect of the spiritual life. "The Spirit bears witness with our own spirit that we are the children of God." This is not the 'understanding' or the mind. The Holy Spirit gives His witness in our spirits. Look at Eph. 3:16, "He would grant you strength by the entrance of His Spirit into your inner man". This is, says Moule, "Deep in it, penetrating far into it [the], the regenerate human spirit. . . ." Here is the truth made clear. The Holy Spirit dwells and works in the human spirit. It is His shrine, and His place of abode. He desires to penetrate far into it, so as to produce, shall I say, the fusion of the renerate human spirit with the Spirit of Christ, for the sole object of the working of the Spirit of God in us is to unite us to Christ, and to bring about in us conformity to His likeness. 6. A Bible picture of a 'spiritual' man:For this we turn again to I Cor. 2:1. The 'spiritual' man has an acute, spirit' sense. He knows the action of his spirit, and by his spirit knows all about himself. It is only when a man becomes really 'spiritual', with the 'soul' divided from his spirit (ie.. the mixture of mental and spiritual separated), that this is realized. The majority of people are in a 'fantasy', as an old writer says, about themselves. The mental perception is unable to penetrate into the depths of 'yourself' and make you know yourself as you really are. The man's own spirit, unmixed with the intellect, 'knows' himself, and he receives the Holy Spirit into his spirit that he may know God (verse 12). Then the spiritual man, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in his spirit, is given a spirit - faculty which enables him to understand the things of God, and to explain them to others. "These are things whereof we speak, in words not taught by man's wisdom, but by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to
spiritual men." The R.V. says "comparing spiritual things with spiritual", and the R.V. margin 'combining', and 'interpreting'. Conybeare says 'explaining', and in the R.V. margin of verse 15 we have the word 'examining' - the Greek meaning being 'to investigate and decide'. Now if we put all these renderings together, you have a striking description of the spiritual man in his dealing with the 'things of God' showing, too, that God desires us not only to trust Him, but to understand Him, and that the Holy Spirit is given to us with this object. Practically it means that when the man's spirit is actually 'joined' with the Risen Lord, the Holy Spirit gives him a spirit sense, or faculty, whereby he is able to compare, or 'examine' spiritual things, and 'combine' spiritual facts with spiritual. As the chemist in his laboratory compares, combines, examines, searches, so the spiritual man deals with spiritual things, combining, comparing, explaining, interpreting, examining; e.g., he 'investigates' the spiritual causes of spiritual phenomena until he is able to 'decide' their source! But where are the spiritual men able to do this in this perilous time? Ability to deal with the 'letter' of the Scriptures there may be, but alas, alas, how few can handle the 'things of the spirit' so as to be able to interpret these 'things' to others. I have been feeling lately the responsibility of those who know the Scriptures in the original Greek. Most of the errors among God's children come from a misuse of faulty translations of the original. And with all the aids to non - Greek readers available to - day, they do not take trouble to search, examine, and investigate what the God breathed Word says in the language used by the Holy Ghost. Oh that men who know the original Scriptures took trouble to explain the things of God to those who do not know the Greek language. There are deep wells of life from God, and fathomless depths of the deep things of God, hidden away in 'roots' of the Greek original Scriptures. Undoubtedly God chose that language as the one in which He could best make known spiritual things to His redeemed ones. But let us be of good courage. The Holy Spirit can teach us. I was once in a company of Convention speakers, when they asked me about some passage in the Word, and I said, "I do not know Greek, but the Holy Ghost does!" I have been amazed to find that when spiritual things have been opened to me truly by Him, they have always proved to be in harmony with the Greek original. This gave me confidence, and greater reliance upon the Holy Spirit to open to me the true meaning of the Word. It also made me careful not to say a certain verse meant this or that, until I was given His light upon it. Then when He truly gave the light, I have never found that those who knew the Greek could contradict what the Holy Ghost had opened. It made me careful also to search the Word of God, and to use every possible help for the understanding of the original. There are many such 'helps' today. If we honestly want to know what God says, and are willing to be delivered from human 'views' of the Word, He will teach us.