In this chapter, we will share some very basic points about the parts of man. That is, we will see what is contained in each of the three parts of man and what is their condition at creation, after the fall, and in salvation.
Let us first look at the parts of man as God originally created him. Genesis 2:7 says, "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground." Without a doubt, this is a reference to man's body. God used the dust of the ground to form a body for man. All the constituents and elements of our body are exactly the same as those found in dust, such as copper, iron, salt, sulphur, etc. It was the body of man that God formed of the dust of the earth.
Genesis 2:7 continues to say that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." This is a reference to man's spirit. God breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils. This breath became the human spirit of man.
Finally, this verse ends with the statement that "man became a living soul." This, of course, is a reference to man's soul. When the breath of life was breathed into the body, the soul was produced. The body is without, the breath of life that becomes our human spirit is within, and the soul is the medium between the spirit and the body.
This word reveals that man not only has a soul, but is a soul. First Corinthians 15:45 confirms this: "The first man Adam was made a living soul." Our soul is our person. As a person, everyone is a soul. This is why the Scriptures often call human beings "souls." (See Gen. 12:5; Exo. 1:5; Acts 7:14.)
In the Scriptures the word "soul" refers sometimes to a person, as indicated by the above verses, sometimes to the soulish part of our human being (1 Sam. 18:1; Luke 1:46; Matt. 16:26), and sometimes to the soulish life of man (Matt. 16:25; John 12:25), but not the eternal life of God.
At creation, man as a soul had two organs: the outward organ of his body, and the inward organ of his spirit. Man's body as the outward organ was created to contact the physical world. Man's spirit as the inward organ was purposed to contact the spiritual world. Our physical body was made with dust, but our spirit was made with the breath of life. Therefore, it is not physical, but spiritual. The human life is not in the body or the spirit, but in the soul, for the soul is the person. Therefore, at creation, man with his soul was a soul, a human being, who had two organs: his body and his spirit.
Not long after God created man, man fell. When man ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan entered into the body of man through the fruit of that tree (Gen. 3:6), for the fruit, we know, entered man's body. Romans 7:23 tells us that sin is in the members of our body. Sin is the evil nature of Satan. However, to express it in this way is rather conservative. We could even say that sin is Satan. Since sin is in the members of our body, we may say that Satan has entered our body. Satan is called by the Bible "the evil one" (Matt. 6:13; 1 John 5:19, ASV). The Greek text simply says "the evil." "Evil" is Satan himself; therefore, sin is Satan personified. Satan is really sin itself.
Because Satan as sin came into man's body, his body was changed in nature. Man's body became the flesh. (In Romans 8:13, "flesh" and "body" are interchangeably used.) When sin was injected into the body of man, the body underwent a change in nature. It became corrupted and ruined by sin, and thus was changed into the flesh. This is why all kinds of lusts are in the members of our body (Gal. 5:24; Col. 3:5). Originally, man's body was not flesh; it was good and pure (Gen. 1:31). It became flesh because it was ruined by the Evil in it. We must realize that fallen man has Satan as sin in his body, and the by-product is the flesh.