Man: Natural, Carnal, Spiritual
MAN: NATURAL, CARNAL, SPIRITUAL
“Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: and he cannot know them because they are spiritually judged.”—1 Cor. 2:14.
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not able to bear it; nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk after the manner of men?”—1 Cor. 3:1–3.
“And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly: and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.”—1 Thess. 5:23, 24.
The Bible has its own account of man. It does not profess to be exhaustive, scientific, or complete. It is an account consistent with its own special purpose. Scriptural history is recorded as the vehicle of Revelation. Whatever is extraneous to that specific object is omitted without regard to its value to other departments of knowledge. The purpose settles the principle of selection. That purpose from first to last is religious and not scientific. The story of man’s creation is told not to furnish a complete account of the processes by which the worlds were made, but to make plain man’s relation to God. It asserts the fact of the Divine origin of all created things; reveals God as a personality distinct from creation, existing before all worlds, and Himself their Creator; and manifests the unity of God through all the manifold operations. The account is written for the correction of all possible errors concerning God’s relation to the universe. The fact of Divine origin is the answer to the Atheistic interpretation of the world. The distinct personality denies the theory of the Pantheist, who regards Deity as inseparable from the universe, all things being the sum total of Divinity. The unity of the Creator corrects the Polytheism of idolatry which attributes the creation of the various elements to different deities. It was to reveal the Unity, Personality, and Creative Energy of God, that the Bible account was written. It is not a scientific treatise; that lies outside its purpose. Neither is it a complete history; it is a selection of events with a view to a specific object.
But though the Bible is non-scientific it is never un-scientific. Revealed truth can never be out of harmony with anything that is true, and it anticipates all ultimate developments of truth. Every new discovery in the principles and method of the operations of nature sheds new light upon the revelation of the Word, and corrects false conceptions and erroneous interpretations, but there can be no ultimate antagonism between truth scientifically established and truth that has come by revelation. Truth is one, and at the last, truth discovered will confirm truth revealed.
The philosophy of the Bible is just as specific as its account of creation. It does not profess to give us a complete explanation of man’s nature, much less the complete story of his development and history. In a strikingly picturesque and simple way it sets forth his primitive state as neither highly civilised nor barbarously savage. He was placed in a garden in a state of innocency and simplicity, with his final destiny unrealised and unknown. The fact of his probation is indicated by the simple laws by which he was to live. Under the seductive pressure of temptation he snatched prematurely at his destiny and fell under sin. He was not, however, utterly lost even as to his destiny. Grace broke his fall. The promise of redemption and restoration proves him redeemable. No essential part of his nature was utterly lost. God undertook his salvation. The story of the Scriptures is the story of man’s Redemption, Regeneration, Sanctification, and Glorification. It covers the whole distance from his fall through sin to his ultimate restoration through grace.
As the Biblical account of man is specific, so is its terminology peculiar. Non-Biblical philosophies divide man into mind and matter; the Bible divides him into flesh, soul, and spirit. It also classifies man according to this threefold division as Natural, Carnal, and Spiritual. These terms are the subject of much controversy into which we cannot now enter. Our purpose is to understand their Biblical meaning as it bears upon Christian life and experience.
Flesh, Soul, Spirit
The non-ethical use of the word flesh does not here concern us. When S. Paul speaks of his flesh as an active principle opposed to righteousness, he does not refer to the flesh and blood of his natural body. The bodily organism has no moral quality in itself. When ethical and moral qualities are attributed to it, the term is always figurative and special. In Pauline terminology “flesh” is used to denote the principle, or the seat of the principle, which in fallen human nature resists the law; which is in antagonism with man’s higher nature which consents to the law; and which, in the regenerate, wars against the Spirit. The same principle is variously described as “the old man,” “the body of sin,” “the body of the flesh,” and “the body of death.” The explanation of this evil association of the word is not that the flesh is the only occasion of sin, for we read of “sinful desires of the mind” and “the defilement of the spirit,” as well as of the lust of the flesh. But it is so largely through the appetites and passions of the flesh that men are tempted, that the Apostle makes the medium the figurative representative of the principle itself. It therefore stands for the principle of sin in man.
What is the distinction between soul and spirit? Are they separate or identical? Are they separate qualities or simply two aspects of the non-material in man? There are only three passages where the words occur together, and in two of them the third term occurs also. The reference in 1 Corinthians 15:45 is to the Resurrection, and indicates the difference between Adam and Christ, one being made unto the race a living soul, and the other a quickening Spirit. The second occasion is in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, where the Apostle prays for their complete sanctification and entire preservation in spirit, soul, and body, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The third is Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.” This does not mean that the various parts mentioned are distinct and separable quantities, dividing soul from spirit and joints from marrow, but that the interpenetrating power of the Word lays bare the true nature of every part of man.
The terms, like the term flesh, have to be considered religiously rather than psychologically, and there is no warrant to justify the recognition of three distinct elements in human nature. As flesh is used for the seat of the principle of sin, so soul is the region of feeling, affection, impulse; and the spirit is the realm of spiritual consciousness and the shrine of the Divine indwelling. The terms are adopted for practical purposes, body and soul, flesh and spirit, being interchangeable expressions for the nature of man. In soul and spirit the one immaterial principle is distinguished as it is related on the one hand to the world of sense through the body, and on the other to the world of spiritual realities. The soul comes between the higher and the lower elements of our being, and is common to both body and spirit. It is the sphere of our desires and passions, the moral quality of which is determined by their direction. Allied with the flesh they become worldly and sinful, controlled by the spirit they become innocent and holy. The spirit in man is the element which is turned to God and capable of God. Dead or dormant in the unregenerate, it is quickened into life by the Holy Spirit, and when entirely possessed by Him who quickens, man dwells in God and God in him. He knows God, communes with God, discerns God in all things and sees all things in Him.
A Threefold Classification
This threefold distinction in the elements of man’s being leads to a threefold classification of man’s moral and spiritual character. Men are described as Natural, Carnal, and Spiritual. The Natural man or “animal,” as it is always rendered in the margin of the Revised Version, is the man in whom the soul has not been quickened into fellowship with spiritual realities. He is the man Christ speaks of as “born of the flesh,” and whose soul lies in the sphere of sense. He has no discernment of spiritual things and is without the knowledge of God, and as the life of the soul is in the knowledge of God, he is dead to the spiritual realities for which he was created. He is soulish, animal, sense-bound. The spiritual man is born of the Spirit, discerns the spiritual realities, offers spiritual sacrifices, and enjoys spiritual fellowship. He is quickened into a new life, is born into a new Kingdom, judges all things by a new standard, and lives in the flesh a new life of the Spirit.
The Natural and the Spiritual thus correspond to those born of the flesh and those born of the Spirit, upon which is based the decisive classification of the New Testament of all men into two classes. But what of this simple division when a third class is added? We read of some who were sanctified and yet not spiritual, in Christ yet carnal, called saints and yet fleshly. The kingdoms of the flesh and spirit are diametrically opposed, and yet the fleshly has overlapped into the spiritual. The old man lives in the new life. Regenerate men live carnal lives. What can this mean? The Apostle does not say they are flesh, but that they are fleshly. There is a great difference between the earth and things that are earthy, between ground that is stone and soil that is stony. One is the very nature of the thing; it is rock—solid, unrelieved stone. The other is the incidental characteristic of another substance; the ground is soil but the soil is stony. So he says of these regenerate people, that, though they are within the realm of the Spirit, they are fleshly rather than spiritual. Just as some men are in the world but not far from the Kingdom, so these people are in the Kingdom but not far from the world. The Corinthian Christians were born again, but were only “babes in Christ,” and the trend of their lives was still after the old order rather than the new.
That saints should be carnal seems utterly illogical, but it is true to experience and consistent with the laws of all life that the new-born should be babes. The new birth starts impulses and emotions within the soul that seem to be irresistible in their power. The whole current of life is reversed, the old nature is changed, a Divine influence pervades and impels the soul. Old things have passed away and all things become new. The old allurements are loathed, old desires changed, and old ties broken. The whole nature is vitalised with a new energy that sweeps the soul God-ward with a mighty sense of unconquerable life. All things are possible in the thrilling enthusiasm of a new-born soul. The possibility of inward conflict or slackness seems to be lost in the rapture of a new sense of the Infinite. The spiritual life will surely be as natural to the new nature as the fleshly life was to the old. It will be instinctive, automatic, irresistible. After a time the new man is confronted by a resurrection of the old. He has a will that rebels, an old lust that revives, old habits that clutch his soul. Regeneration is only a birth, and a birth is but a beginning. Things of the flesh do not retire without a contest; the new life has to fight for its existence and to conquer before it can be supreme. Sin in believers may be a perplexity to both believers and unbelievers, it may be condemned as illogical and inconsistent, but there can be no doubt of its existence. The seventh chapter of Romans seems impossible after the sixth, but it is the only way to the eighth. The new life, though Divine, needs defence, cultivation, and discipline. Babes in Christ are beset with carnalities.
What are the Characteristics of Babes? They live by impulse rather than by principle, are impressed by externals, contend for non-essentials, and are of feeble digestion. A babe does not reason, has no idea of values, is without sense of proportion, and must be fed with milk. The life is soulish. The same characteristics appear in babes of the spiritual realm. They are dominated by the senses and influenced by carnalities. It is fleshly to walk according to the impulse and desires of the mind. Spiritual babes live on emotion rather than walk by principle, and judge by feeling rather than by faith. What the soul likes counts for more than what God wills. When the feelings are lifted up, the soul rejoices. What the heart desires, that it seeks. “I don’t like it,” or “I do” becomes the unreasoning and unreasoned ground for every judgment and the guide for every choice. Born of the Spirit, they still walk after the flesh.
It is the same childish element in men that is more impressed by externals than by inward realities. These “Babes” elected their rival favourites among the Apostles according to the judgement of the flesh. The preference for Paul, Apollos, or Cephas was purely personal and selfish. The choice was made on grounds of personal gratification. The preacher was preferred because he flattered and gratified the intellectual, emotional, or social qualities. Sugar-plums count for much in the preferences of babes. In worship they are influenced by the sensuous and spectacular rather than by the inward and spiritual. Ritual always appeals to the nursery. The millinery, drapery, processions, and awesomeness of ritual impress those who have no deeper vision. It is meet and appropriate for those who have not yet learned that God is Spirit, and that all acceptable worship is spiritual. The less perception there is of the spiritual, the greater is the demand for the perfection of the carnal. When a service becomes a performance, it ceases to be worship.
The same dependence upon the external is seen in their conduct. They need to have everything carefully labelled. Spiritual men have an anointing of the Holy One and know all things. They are led of the Spirit, and have no need of minute instructions from others. But labels are necessary for nurseries. The rule must be by precept, an unequivocal “Thou shalt,” and an authoritative “Thou shalt not.” They must be told specifically what is right and what is wrong. The things of the conscience are too deep and perplexing for their tender minds; an over-lord must be found to undertake for them. A spiritual instructor is needed to supply the lack of spiritual perception. Tutors and governors are inseparable from our nonage.
Another mark of childishness is the readiness to quarrel over trifles. Nothing is too trivial to become the occasion of wrangling among children, and one is filled with astonishment at the magnitude of the strife over trifles among grown-up people. Sensitiveness is often only petulance and selfishness writ large. Home and Church are often disturbed by the petty jealousies and wranglings of people who ought to know better. The Church at Corinth is not the last of the Churches to be cursed with the carnalities of its people; the writer to the Hebrews makes the same complaint. Men who by their years ought to have been teachers were still at the rudiments of religion, without experience, without sense, and without discrimination, babes who had to be fed on milk. The explanation of their ungrown condition is that they are carnal, and not spiritual. They are babes whose mental and spiritual faculties are undeveloped, overgrown in years and undergrown in character. The Churches are overstocked with overgrown babes, and cursed with the carnalities of Spirit-born people.
From Carnal to Spiritual
The writer to the Hebrews exhorts the babes “to cease to speak of the first principles of Christ, and press on unto perfection.” Let childish things be put away. The childishness can be cured only by the carnalities being uprooted, and they can be uprooted only by the completion of Regeneration in the Entire Sanctification of the man. This is the Divine purpose in man’s salvation: “This is the will of God, even your sanctification that ye abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of lust.” “God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit.” Entire sanctification is the complete sanctification of the entire man. The Apostle’s prayer for the Thessalonians is the most comprehensive statement of this doctrine. It asks for an absolute and unrestricted sanctification “negative and positive, perfect in whole, and perfect in parts, at once consummate and progressive, confirmed for time and for eternity.”
There is a sense in which sanctification is entire in regeneration. It is a mistake to imagine there can be laxity and defect in the work of conversion. To the measure of every man’s light the surrender to God must be without reserve, and the cleansing of the heart from an evil conscience is as entire as justification is complete. “By one offering, He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” At conversion we become the Lord’s and are laid upon the altar of sanctification. That sacrifice must always be entire. No part can be withheld if the offering is to be acceptable, and whatever is laid upon the altar is sanctified. No Christian can live in sin, or knowingly withhold anything from the Lord.
Though sanctification is in this sense complete at conversion, in the purpose of God and the experience of the believer, much is left to be accomplished in the nature of the sanctified. The carnalities need to be purged out. Entire Sanctification completes the work of Regeneration, pervading every part of the renewed nature. The spirit is sanctified wholly; the reason is filled with the all-pervasive presence of God realised in the consciousness. Every faculty of the mind is not only cleansed from defilement, but in every part there is reflected the mind of God. The soul is sanctified wholly; its desires are holy, its passions clean, its thoughts pure, its impulses God-ward, and its delight is in the will of the Lord. The tugging of the old nature with its evil lusts is over. The body is sanctified wholly; its members become instruments of righteousness; it is a temple of God, cleansed, sanctified, and filled with the glory of His presence. The sanctification of the parts is not a separate process. The work is one, and is accomplished in the sanctification of the man. The parts are mentioned to set forth the completeness and entireness of the work of God in redeemed and sanctified man. It is entire, complete, without restriction, and without defect. Every part is cleansed, perfected, and pervaded with the energy of the Divine Presence. The fleshly is eradicated and the spiritual prevails.
In this state of entire sanctification the entire man is preserved without blame. The God that sanctifies, keeps. He that is able to do, is able to maintain what He has done. The words of the Apostle are chosen with the utmost care. He does not pray that they may be kept without fault, but without blame. Many blameless things are faulty, and many faulty things are blameless. A work done from purest love and to the utmost capacity may be full of faults but entirely free from blame. A picture is often hung in the home that has a value apart altogether from the judgement of the Academy. Faultless? Not by a long way. But a pure soul put its best into it, and soul is more than precision. Faultless? Nay, for though the sanctification be entire, it is not final. The glorification is not yet. Until it comes the spirit will be beset with limitations and infirmities, the soul will be hampered in its aspirations, and the body will continue to be an imperfect instrument preventing with its weakness the will of the spirit. Not faultless, but blameless. Without reproach, without condemnation, and in all things acceptable before God!
That is the promise and possibility of grace. The worship of man’s spirit, the desire of man’s heart, the functions of man’s body a blameless, perpetual sacrifice unto the Lord Most High. Blameless, not merely according to the low ideals of mortality, but in the searching light of the eternal at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thought can climb no higher. It is exceeding abundantly, above all we could ask or think. No wonder the Apostle pledges the Almighty to the task. God has called us unto this perfection, and He also will do it. He is faithful, and cannot fail. The prayer is a promise, and God is pledged. When, when shall it once be? Even here and now the promise is ours, and the sanctifying power waits upon our faith.