We have seen what the flesh is, but it is more difficult to see what the self is. In Matthew 16:24 the Lord says that we must deny our self and bear the cross. Apparently, we are very familiar with a scriptural term such as self, but if we go into its details, it is hard to find a proper definition.
According to Matthew 16 and Luke 9, the self is equivalent to the soul. Matthew 16:26 says, “For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul-life?” Similarly, Luke 9:25 says, “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself?” If we compare these two passages, we can see that according to the Lord’s word, the self in Luke 9 is the soul in Matthew 16. However, if the self is exactly the same as the soul, it seems that there is no need to have two terms. Therefore, there must still be a definite meaning to self.
As we have seen, the flesh in its full meaning is the fallen man as a whole. In this fallen man there are three parts-the fallen body, the fallen soul, and the fallen spirit. All three parts of the human being are fallen to the extent that the whole person becomes flesh. Man becomes flesh simply because his whole person is under the control and influence of the flesh. The fallen body is the main part of the fallen flesh. The next part of the fallen being is the fallen soul, and the least part of the fallen being is the fallen spirit. According to the Scriptures, especially the New Testament, the fallen spirit has very little to do with the flesh, the fallen man as a whole. The fallen spirit is simply dormant, sleeping, and dead. The fallen body of the fallen person, on the other hand, is very active. If we look at today’s society, the human community, we can see how active the fallen body of fallen man is. Within the fallen body is the most evil matter, which is sin. Romans 7 tells us that sin dwells in the members of the body.
It is easy to explain what the body and sin are. The body is the form, the vessel, made by God, while sin is something from Satan other than the body which came into the body. The Scriptures do not say that sin is equivalent to the body. However, they do reveal that the self is equivalent to the soul. Therefore, it is difficult to explain the difference between the self and the soul.
With the fallen soul there is another evil matter, which is the self. With the fallen body there is sin, while with the fallen soul there is the self. Therefore, with the fallen man as a whole, as the flesh, there are two problems: sin and self. Sin is in the body; self is in the soul. If we could eradicate sin and self from the fallen person, he would be pure. After we become Christians, we need to deal with sin, and we need to deal with the self. We must be released from sin, as taught in Romans 6, and we must deny the self, as taught in Matthew 16:24.
To say that we deal with the body means that we deal with sin. Likewise, to say that we deal with the soul means that we deal with the self. There was nothing wrong with the created body. The body created by God was good. What made it wrong was that sin and lust came into it from Satan. This was something other than what God created. In the same way, there was nothing wrong with the soul as created by God. The soul created by God was good, but within the soul there is now the self, which makes it wrong. God created a soul, but God did not create a self.
When the soul is under the control of the spirit and dependent on God, it is a pure and right soul. This is the condition of the human soul as created by God. Due to the fall, however, the soul created by God declared independence from God. In the fall, man took the fruit of the tree of knowledge into his body, but before that, he took the thought, suggestion, opinion, and idea of Satan into his soul. In this way, man declared independence from God in his soul. If man had kept his soul dependent on God, he would never have disobeyed God and taken the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Because man’s soul became independent of God, the soul became the self.
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