Gods Salvation Gods Salvation and the Three Parts of ManThe Three Parts of Man Spoiled by the Fall of ManCreated with a spirit to receive God, a soul to express God, and a body to maintain his existence, the first man, Adam possessed a tremendous potential to express and represent God. Before this potential could be realized, however, Satan came in to damage and ultimately annul the proper function of each of mans three parts. The fall of man thus was not merely an act of disobedience and transgression; rather, it had the effect of corrupting all three parts of his being, thereby preventing man from fulfilling Gods purpose. The Human Soul Contaminated by Receiving Satans Thought, Feeling and Will
All three parts of man were spoiled by the fall: First, his soul was contaminated; second, his body was transmuted into the sinful flesh; and third, his spirit was deadened. It is crucial that we see the tactics employed by Gods enemy to corrupt mans soul (his mind, emotion, and will). This awareness will equip us to discern the strategies he continues to employ to keep man from receiving and enjoying God and thereby expressing and representing Him.
Satan began to contaminate mans soul by touching the mind, thus causing the human mind to begin to doubt Gods Word. In Genesis 3:1 the serpent began his assault on the human mind by injecting it with doubt: Did God really say, You shall not eat of any tree of the garden? By responding to the serpent in verses 2 and 3, Eve opened the door of her soul to the serpent, allowing him to take another step to further contaminate the human mind. In verse 4 the serpent went on to assure Eve, You shall not surely die! By this time the serpentine venom had infiltrated her mind, causing her to doubt Gods Word.
The second stage of the contamination of mans soul was mounted against his emotion, causing man to begin to dislike God. In this stage, the serpent sowed a seed of resentment into Eve by lying to her about Gods motive: God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:5). This word incited Eves emotions, causing her to feel that God was withholding something good from her. Thus, the human emotion that was created to love God was spoiled, poisoned instead with an actual dislike for God. The third stage of the contamination of mans soul took place in his will, enticing man to choose the satanic tree of knowledge rather than the divine tree of life. Genesis 3:6 records, And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make oneself wise, she took of its fruit and ate. This consummated the contamination of the human soul, by means of the seduction of the human will to choose the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge (Witness Lee, Basic 35-37). The Human Body Transmuted into the Flesh
The body as originally created by God was a pure vessel containing only one created essence, the human nature created in Gods image and likeness. But this pure body was changed in nature, that is, transmuted into the fallen flesh when a foreign element was introduced through the fruit of the tree of knowledge. This foreign element, called indwelling sin, now resides in mans flesh. This is why Paul says in Romans 7:17, Now then it is no longer I that work it out, but sin that dwells in me. Because this evil substance has fully occupied and saturated our body we should never have any confidence in our flesh (Witness Lee, Life-Study 238). The Spirit DeadenedThe ultimate consequence of mans fall was that his spirit was deadened, thus becoming insulated from God and losing its function toward God.
Thus, each of the three parts of man was damaged by the fall. The entire soul (mind, emotion, and will) was contaminated, the body was changed in nature, and the spirit was deadened. Nevertheless, this hopeless state of mans sets the stage for Gods salvation, which we will examine in the next section (Witness Lee, Life-Study 239). Spoiled by the Fall | For the Three Parts of Man | The Divine Life Dispensed
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