Now we need to consider practically what person we are living by today. Are we living by the first person or by the second, by the soul or by the spirit? If we live by the soul, we are soulish men, but if we live by the spirit, we are spiritual men.
Although the soul represents our whole being, it is only one part of our being. The soul is composed of three parts: the mind, the emotion, and the will (Prov. 2:10; Psa. 139:14; 1 Sam. 18:1; Job 7:15). We have a mind to think, to consider, and we have an emotion to love and to hate, to like and to dislike, and to be happy, angry, and sorrowful. We also have a will with which to make decisions. However, we have a spirit that is deeper than our soul. Often when we are about to do something, we first consider whether it is reasonable and right to do. This reasoning is according to our mind. Then in our emotion we may like it and desire to do it. Following this, our will makes the decision to do it. However, while we are making the decision, we sense that something within us that is deeper than our mind, emotion, and will is protesting against what we want and intend to do. This is the innermost part of our being, our spirit. Hence, our experience confirms that besides our soul there is another part within us, our spirit, which is deeper than our mind, our emotion, and our will.
As regenerated Christians, we should live, walk, and do things by our spirit, not by our mind, our emotion, or our will (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16). To live by the mind, the emotion, and the will is to live by the soul, and to live by the soul is to live by the old self, the old man. Sadly, many Christians today still live and walk by the old self, the soulish man, the soul-life, the natural self, that is, the soul with its mind, emotion, and will. Instead of living by the soul, we should live by the spirit, which is much deeper than the mind, the emotion, and the will.
In order to live by the spirit, we need to see that the old man, the soulish life and nature, and the self have been crucified (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20). As believers, we must realize the fact that our old man has been put on the cross and has thus been put to death, terminated. We should not allow this dead old man to come alive again. The Lord said in Matthew 16:24, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Here the Lord Jesus told us that if we want to follow Him, we must deny the self, the soul, the old man. Since the Lord has put the old man on the cross, we must bear the cross. On the one hand, we must keep ourselves on the cross and not put the cross away; on the other hand, we must deny our self. Actually, to bear the cross is simply to deny our self, because the cross has put us, the old man, to death. We need to recognize this fact and apply to our self, our old man, and our old nature what the Lord has accomplished on the cross. In other words, we must reject the old man absolutely and not live by the old man, that is, by the mind, the emotion, or the will. Instead, we should simply follow the Lord by the spirit, walking in our spirit and according to our spirit. If we live in such a way, we are spiritual men.
In order to live and walk according to the spirit, we need to discern between the soul and the spirit, between the old man and the new man, between the natural life and the spiritual life, and between the self and Christ. Hebrews 4:12 speaks of this discernment: “For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Our spirit must be clearly divided from our soul. As Christians, we need to discern what is of our spirit and what is of our soul, because we need to reject the soul. We must realize that our old man, our self, our natural life, has been crucified. The old man is the soul, and the self is the natural life. We must divide what is of the spirit from all the things that are of the soul so that we can reject the soul. This is to deny the self and apply the cross to our old man, that is, to bear the cross by keeping the old man continually on the cross.
Many Christians today have the mistaken concept that to bear the cross is to suffer. In actual fact, however, the cross is not merely for us to suffer but for us to be put to death, terminated. We must realize that we have already been put to an end and that our self, the old man, is good for nothing other than to be crucified. The Lord has put this old man on the cross, and we should simply recognize this and leave him there. This is the correct meaning of bearing the cross. We must learn to bear the cross, to continually put our old man, our self, our natural life, to death by denying and rejecting it and living by the spirit. Then we will be spiritual men.
In the foregoing chapters we have seen how to apply and experience Christ and how to have a church life to realize the Body of Christ. In reality, the only way to experience Christ is in the spirit, and the only way to have a church life to realize the Body of Christ also is in the spirit. We must live, walk, and do things in the spirit. Then we will truly experience Christ, and it will be possible to realize the Body of Christ. We will have a genuine church life by living, walking, and conducting ourselves in the spirit.