A soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he is not able to know them because they are discerned spiritually. (1 Cor. 2:14)
A soulish man is a natural man, one who allows his soul to dominate his entire being and who lives by his soul, ignoring and not using his spirit. The following verse, verse 15, discloses another kind of man: “But the spiritual man discerns all things.” The soulish man is seen in verse 14, and the spiritual man is seen in verse 15. These verses tell us very clearly that the soulish man cannot receive the spiritual things of God. Only the spiritual man can discern them.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it. For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul-life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul-life? (Matt. 16:24-26)
Three things are emphasized in verse 24: first, “deny himself”; second, “take up his cross”; and third, “follow Me.” The “Me” in this verse is Christ in the Holy Spirit, who now indwells us. In verses 25 and 26 the Greek word translated “soul-life” is the word for soul. Hence, these two verses can be rendered, “Whoever wants to save his soul shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul for My sake shall find it. For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” We must lose our soul. In other words, we must deny the self.
He said to them all, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake, this one shall save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself? (Luke 9:23-25)
In verse 23 Luke adds a word that is not found in Matthew 16:24—the word daily, indicating that we must take up our cross daily. Furthermore, Luke 9:25 says, “forfeits himself,” whereas Matthew 16:26 says, “forfeits his soul-life.” This proves, therefore, that the soul-life, or the soul, is the self.
Brothers, even if a man is overtaken in some offense, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness. (Gal. 6:1)
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. (v. 18)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. (Philem. 25)
The first of these three verses speaks of “a spirit of meekness,” and the latter two, of “your spirit.” The spirit referred to in all three verses is the human spirit.
But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. (Rom. 8:10)
That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. (v. 4)
But I say, Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these oppose each other that you would not do the things that you desire. (Gal. 5:16-17)
In the two verses quoted from Romans, the word spirit refers to the human spirit. According to the context of Galatians 5, the word Spirit in verses 16 and 17 refers to the Holy Spirit, who dwells in and mingles with our regenerated spirit.
I wish to point out God’s economy and its mark again. We have seen clearly in the previous few chapters that God’s economy is to dispense Himself into us. The way God dispenses Himself into us is by the Father being embodied in the Son and the Son being realized in the Spirit. In other words, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Spirit. Not only the person of the Son is in the Holy Spirit; the accomplished work of the Son also is in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit includes God the Father, God the Son, the divine nature and the human nature, the human life of Christ with the enduring power of His earthly sufferings, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, the power of Christ’s resurrection, Christ’s ascension, and the enthronement of Christ. All these elements are combined together as an “all-inclusive dose” in the Holy Spirit. It is through this all-sufficient Holy Spirit that the fullness of the Triune God has been dispensed into us.
This all-inclusive Spirit is now in our human spirit. In the types of the tabernacle and the temple there were three parts: the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. In this Old Testament figure the shekinah glory of God and the Ark are clearly shown to be in the Holy of Holies (Exo. 40:20-21, 34; 1 Kings 8:6, 11). Therefore, God’s presence and Christ are neither in the outer court nor in the Holy Place but in the Holy of Holies. The three parts of the tabernacle and the temple correspond to the three parts of man—the body, the soul, and the spirit. The New Testament declares that we are the temple of God and that Christ is with our spirit (1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Tim. 4:22). There are two verses that prove that the Holy Spirit today is working with our spirit. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God,” and 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” The Lord Himself is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), each one of us has a spirit, and these two spirits are mingled as one spirit. This proves that the Lord today dwells in our spirit. If we desire to enjoy Christ fully, we must know how to discern our spirit. For this very reason Hebrews 4:12 tells us that our spirit must be divided from our soul. Hebrews also tells us to enter the Holy of Holies, which is our human spirit (10:19, 22). If Christ is to be enjoyed as our divine portion, we must know how to enter into this holiest place, our human spirit.
In the past centuries a number of books have been written concerning the book of Hebrews. We believe that the best book was written by Andrew Murray, who entitled his book The Holiest of All. The title is correct, for Hebrews reveals how we may enter the Holy of Holies, the human spirit, where Christ dwells. It is in our spirit that Christ is everything to us.
If we desire to partake of Christ, we need to locate Him. You may say that He is in heaven. Without a doubt, that is right, but if He is only in heaven, how could He be enjoyed here on earth? Praise the Lord, He is not only in heaven; at the same time He is also within us. The electricity in our home is the same as the electricity in the generator far away from our home. In like manner, Romans 8:34 says that Christ is in heaven at the right hand of God, but the same chapter says that Christ is in us (v. 10). Thus, the Christ who is in heaven is also in us. If He were only in heaven and not in us, how could we experience and enjoy Him? Praise the Lord, today Christ is not only in heaven but also in our spirit!
Christ in our spirit is the mark of God’s economy. God’s economy is to dispense Himself into man as the all-inclusive Triune God, and the mark of His economy is the indwelling Christ in our spirit. Whenever we turn to our spirit, we meet Christ. Again using electricity as an illustration, if electricity has been installed in my house and I wish to use it, what should I do? The answer, of course, is that I should simply turn on the switch. The switch in our being is our human spirit. Many Christians can recite John 3:16, but they are ignorant of 2 Timothy 4:22—“The Lord be with your spirit”—which is just as important as John 3:16. God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son, and we have received Him (1:12). We have believed into Him and received Him, but where is He? Into what part of us has He come? For many years we had Christ as the treasure within us, but we were ignorant of the fact that He was in our spirit. But now, praise Him, we know where Christ is. Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is in our spirit.