Contact us:
+1 (520) 226-8615
Email:
[email protected]
In Watchman Nee’s book The Christian Life and Warfare originally published in 1927, he clearly demonstrates from 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that man has three parts.
The Word of God does not divide man into two parts, the soul and the body. Rather, it divides man into three parts: the spirit, the soul, and the body. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “Sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete.” This verse clearly shows a distinction between the spirit and the soul. Otherwise, it would not have said, “Your spirit and soul,” but rather, “Your spirit-soul.” Since God has said this, we can see that there is a distinction between man’s spirit and his soul. From this we can conclude that man is divided into three parts—the spirit, the soul, and the body. (7)
A complete person has a spirit, a soul, and a body
The first chapter of Watchman Nee’s book The Spiritual Man is entitled “The Spirit, The Soul, and The Body.” Here, Nee further emphasizes and elaborates on the fact that man is composed of three parts.
First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete.” This verse clearly divides a person into three parts: the spirit, the soul, and the body. Here the apostle mentioned the believers being sanctified “wholly.” This means that the whole being of the believers is to be sanctified. What did he mean when he said that a person is to be sanctified wholly? He meant that a person’s spirit, soul, and body are to be preserved complete. This is very clear; a complete person has a spirit, a soul, and a body. (3)
God’s Salvation
God’s Salvation and the Three Parts of Man
The Three Parts of Man Spoiled by the Fall of Man
Created 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 man’s 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 God’s purpose.
The Human Soul Contaminated by Receiving Satan’s 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 God’s enemy to corrupt
man’s 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 man’s soul by touching the mind, thus causing the human
mind to begin to doubt God’s 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 God’s Word.
The second stage of the contamination of man’s 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 God’s 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 Eve’s 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 man’s 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 God’s 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 man’s 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 Deadened
Adam possessed a tremendous
potential to express and represent God
The serpent began his assault on the
human mind by injecting it with
doubt
The serpent sowed a seed of
resentment into Eve by lying to her
about God’s motive
We should never have any
confidence in our flesh
The ultimate consequence of man’s fall was that his spirit was deadened, thus becoming insulated from God and
losing its function toward God.
Ephesians 2:1 therefore says, “And you, though dead in your offenses and sins,”
referring to our fallen, deadened, state before we were saved. But in what part were
we dead? Since our body and soul were very much alive, this verse must refer to
our human spirit. We must make it clear at this point, however, that neither sin nor