The Nature of Man

We've been looking at the fact that he did create all things, but more specifically and more focused, we've been looking at the fact that he created mankind. And we've looked at that in quite a bit of detail to some great extent. The last few weeks, we've looked at the biblical record of creation. We've looked at the fact that there are attempts to combine evolution with the biblical record and fit evolution into the Bible, and we looked at the weaknesses of those kinds of views. So we spent a good bit of time on that, and now we're ready to move into other sections of our study of what the Bible teaches about man. And we're going to look tonight, probably next week, also, at least for a couple weeks, on the nature of man. Basically, the fact that man is made up of a material part and an immaterial part, a body, and then what all is on the inside. All that's on the inside, the immaterial part will call it for now. And we're going to begin by talking about the material part of man, but on the immaterial part we'll talk first about the image and likeness of God. And then we'll get into the discussion of some of the different components of man, soul, spirit, mind, conscience, will, all of those kinds of things. Okay, so let's kind of give you an idea of where we're headed in the next few weeks, at least. Let's begin tonight by talking about the material part of man, man's nature basically made up of two parts, the material, which is the body, the material meaning that which we can see, touch, experience, the immaterial, meaning that which is not bodily, not physical, but is on the inside. So we're going to begin with the material part of man tonight and good place to start is where did all that come from, the source of body materials in order to find that we need to look at Genesis chapter two. So open your Bible Genesis two, the source of body materials, Genesis two, verse seven, then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life and the man began to be a body material. So what did God use to form the body of Adam? It was the dust of the ground. It's interesting that in Genesis three, in verse 19, after Adam had sinned, part of the curse is this Genesis 3, 19 by the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground. So the Bible says basically our physical bodies came from the ground, from the dust of the ground. And God did take the elements that are found in the ground, in the dust of the ground and from it made us. There are scientists who have kind of broken down the different components of the human body, even the percentages, which I won't bore you with, but the basic elements of the human body are oxygen, salt, water, calcium, carbon, chlorine, phosphorus, iron, sulfur, glycerin, and fat. So those are the basic components of the human body. Those are the chemicals that our human bodies are made of and most, if not all, are found in the dust of the ground. So God literally formed and fashioned our bodies from the dust of the ground and then breath into us the breath of life. But we have the same components in our bodies that are found in the dust of the ground. And because of that, a lot of people have tended to discount the body. And to think that the body is something that we really should be rid of, and we will be in our most perfect state when we get rid of this body, when we get out of this body. The Bible does not teach that. I want to highlight this evening the importance of the body. The Bible talks a lot about the importance of the body. And I want to contrast that with the view that is often present in many Christians, hearts and minds, that the body is evil. The body is something which holds us back from being all that God intended us to be. And so when we get rid of this body, everything will be great. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but when we get rid of this body, we're going to trade it in for another one. Now, I will readily admit that the one we're going to get is much better than the one we've got now. And that's what the joy and hope is. But we will never be without at least ultimately, eternally, we will not be without a body. God has made us to inhabit a body. So let's begin here in Genesis 2.7 with the importance of the body. God formed a man from the dust of the ground. He formed our bodies. The body is formed as a part of the act of coming to life. It is part and parcel of being human is having a body. That's just the basics from creation. But I want us to look at a couple of passages in the New Testament, which highlight the importance of the body as far as what it means to be, what God wants us to be. First Corinthians 6 is the next passage I want us to look at. First Corinthians 6. It really is Greek philosophy that started with Plato, that taught that the body was evil, anything material is evil. And it's only the immaterial, the spiritual, the unseen, which is of any benefit or value. And that thinking which seat into Christianity in the early centuries, by the way, is not biblical. It is platonic. It came from Plato, came from Greek philosophy. And so we need a more biblical, well-rounded biblical view of what God made us to be as humans. And the body is an important part of that. So look at the highlight of the body in 1 Corinthians 6. Beginning in verse 12, Paul says, I have the right to do anything you say, but not everything is beneficial. And then notice again quotation marks, most of your translations will have, I have the right to do anything, which indicates he's quoting something the Corinthians have said, something they have ever been taught or been deceived into believing, I have the right to do anything. Paul says, not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but wait a second, I will not be mastered by anything. And what he begins to do now is to describe a tremendous problem that was present in the Corinthian church. And that was the problem of sexual immorality. And he's going to talk about how sexual immorality was excused on the part of some Christians on the basis that really the body doesn't count anyway. It's really what's on the inside, really the spirit that God's concerned about. God's not concerned with the body. And by some kind of twisted logic, they took that Greek philosophy, really it was not biblical thinking, but they took that Greek philosophy to mean God doesn't really care what we do with our bodies. Because really as long as we are right with him, spiritually right with him, it doesn't matter what we do with the body. So they use that kind of thinking in kind of a twisted logic to mean I can send, I can, I can commit sexual immorality. And that's okay because that's not really important to God. What happens with the body, what you do with your body is not important. That's why Paul begins by quoting them and every day one of the things they said to quote this was, I have the right to do anything. You say, but Paul says, wait a second, not everything is beneficial. You may feel like you have a certain freedom, but not everything works to the advantage of making us more like Christ. It's not beneficial in that sense. We say, well, I have the right to do anything, but Paul says, I will not be mastered by anything. In other words, I will not let anything control me and enslave me. Now he goes on to describe more what they're saying, verse 13. You say food for the stomach and the stomach for food and God will destroy them both. Now that saying is intended to communicate again the concept that doesn't matter what you do with the body. I mean, one of the ways you can see that is the food, food goes into the stomach, stomach was made for food. God's going to destroy them both. So really the whole body thing doesn't matter. That doesn't count for anything, but notice what Paul says. The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. In other words, there is a close high value that God places on our bodies because they are a part of us that is to be dedicated to the Lord. You can't dedicate your soul to the Lord without dedicating your body to him. They come together. And so Paul saying, you can't make this distinction that was made in Greek philosophy that you can do anything you want with the body after all. The body just made for food, food goes into the body, God is going to destroy them both. It doesn't really matter what you do with the body. I don't know. Paul says, if you're going to dedicate yourself to the Lord, it's body, soul, spirit, mind, conscience. It's everything, everything including the body. Now notice Paul's reasoning as he goes on, verse 14. By his power, God raised the Lord from the dead. Jesus went into the grave in a human body. And if the human body were of no count, then he would have just had some kind of spiritual resurrection, what didn't matter about the body. But no, God raised him from the dead in a body, a glorified human body. And he will raise us also. So if the body is going to be resurrected, that shows that God places value on the body. So given that argument, verse 15, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? In other words, we are united with Christ. And that's not just a spiritual thing. It's the fact that all of us, bodies, soul, spirit, everything is his. So here's his point, having clarified that the body is important to God. It's a part of who we are. It's a part of our dedication to the Lord. He says this, shall I then take the members of Christ? In other words, our bodies and unite them with a prostitute? Never. Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, the two will become one flesh, voting from Genesis two. But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Now basically what Paul is saying is that when you, when you have this philosophy that I can do anything I want to with my body, including sexual immorality, and I can separate that from my spiritual life. Paul says, it doesn't work that way. You are one person. And when you are united with the Lord, you are united with him in spirit, but your body is also the Lord. It all comes together. So then he drives home his point in verse 18, flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body. This is a sin that highlights the body because it unites two bodies in one flesh. Verse 19, do you not know? These are really verses, but sometimes we miss the context. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you receive from God? You are not your own, you are bought to price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies. Now those two verses are often used in weight reduction classes. And that seems to be their single focus. That our body or temples of the Holy Spirit so we should lose weight. That's not at all what Paul is thinking about. It might apply that way, but Paul is talking about since your body belongs to Christ and it's a temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. Don't take your body and unite it with a prostitute and commit sexual immorality thinking like the Greeks taught doesn't matter what you do with your body. No, no. Paul says the body is an important part of who you are. It's an important part of your dedication to the Lord. And so your body should be used to honor God with purity, with godliness, not sexual immorality. That's what Paul is talking about. But in addressing the problem of sexual immorality and the Corinthian church, he highlights the value and the importance of the human body. God made us an inseparable unity of body, material part and immaterial part. God would have paused for a moment because our last passage really ties all this together and shows how the two are inseparable. You cannot be a person without a body. Okay. But any question or comment before we go any further? Yes. He remembers that we are dust, Psalm 103. Yes. The point there is, is he remembers that we are frail human beings. And so he understands that we are weak and thus we will fail sometimes. And that's why in the context of Psalm 103, it's talking about he does not hold our sins against us. He removes them as far as the east is from the west. He puts them in the bottom of the deep sea. And he does that part of his, part of his grace and mercy in that is he understands that we're just frail human beings. And so really knowing that we are dust basically is the idea of knowing that we're human. We came from the dust. It's not just strictly talking about the body, but it's not the fact that we're human. And we fail and we sin and God understands that we're weak. The new body is definitely not just a step but a light years ahead of the old one in perfection and does not have any of the effects of the fall, the curse. So no aging, no weakness, no sin that has affected us at all, no deterioration in any way, no decay. None of that. First Corinthians 15 describes it as an incorruptible body, one that does not decay. So it is, it is a great step above what we have now. And that's what we're looking forward to and that's really what second Corinthians 5 is talking about. We'll get to that in just a moment. But any other question. All of the effects of the curse, including sin, will be taken away when we are with the Lord. It really is the introduction of sin into this world that brought everything along with it, including death. And the inevitable progression toward death, which certainly affects our bodies, how we function. Okay, let's kind of wrap this up. This whole concept of the importance of the body with second Corinthians 5. I think this is the strongest passage to show it deals a death blow to Greek philosophy, the idea that the body is evil. And by the way, that did seep into the Christian church, even in the book of 1 John in later epistles of the New Testament. The teaching had already started to arise that Jesus could not have had a human body because the human body is wicked and evil. So Jesus could not have been human. He could not have inhabited a body. That was just some kind of apparition. And that's really what John is combating in 1 John 4. Anyone that says that Jesus Christ has not come in the flesh is a deceiver, he says in 1 John 4. See, the first, the first doctoral controversy concerning the person of Christ was not over his deity, but over his humanity. And that was because of Greek philosophy, which said that the body is evil. So there were teachers who were teaching Christ could not have had a human body because that's evil. Well, Paul is going to tell us here in 2 Corinthians 5 how important it is that God made us to have a human body and that we will actually have a human body in eternity. He says in 1 John 4 we know that if the earthly tent we live in, that's a beautiful poetic description of the body. We live in, that's obviously we live in our bodies. He's not talking about our house, the brick and mortar or a tent that you camp out in. He's talking about our body and that will become clear as we go through the passage. If the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands. Meanwhile, we grow longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling. Because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. Now it's clear that he's not talking about living in a physical structure house. He's using those terms, house dwelling, tent, so forth to refer to the human body. If the earthly body is destroyed and it is, all of us are in that process and eventually we will die, but if that's destroyed, we have another house to live in. In heaven, which is another body, right now we're longing to be clothed with that heavenly body because if we're clothed, we will not be found naked. In other words, when you die, God never intended that you spend eternity as a spirit, just kind of floating around without any body. That is described as an inappropriate state called nakedness. So God never intended us to spend eternity just kind of floating around the clouds or floating around in heaven somewhere as spirits. He intended us to inhabit a heavenly body. Now verse 4, he says, for while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened. Can you amen's there? A few. Yeah. Because we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling so that what is mortal, there it is, mortal, that's a description of the human body consistently in Paul's writings, especially in first and second Corinthians. So that what is mortal, this physical human, may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose. So God has made us for this purpose, not to float around as naked spirits in eternity, but to inhabit a heavenly body, a new glorified body. He's made us for that purpose. The one who's made us for this purpose is God who has given us the spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body, okay, now he says it plainly. He's been using picturesque terminologies up till now, tent, dwelling, so forth. Now he says it plainly. We know that as long as we are at home in the body, this human body, we are away from the Lord. We're not yet in heaven. For we live by faith, not by sight, we are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him whether we are at home in the body or away from it. Now let me summarize his point this way. Paul is willing to be absent from this decaying, deteriorating, dying human body because if we escape that body, then we are at home with the Lord. But the goal is not to be bodyless. It's not to be some kind of spirit roaming around without a body. That's not what we were made for. God fashioned us to inhabit a body. So the good news is when I get rid of this decaying, deteriorating, dying body, I get to trade it in for a perfect one, a heavenly body. The Bible does not teach that the body is some kind of prison of the soul and we're to get loose from it. We're to get out of the body and away from the body. The real state of mind that is to be desired is to be out of the body. Not only is that great philosophy that is also filtered away into Eastern religions. The connection with the body and soul is normal and desirable. Some kind of dismembered state, this embodied state is called nakedness and God didn't make us for that. He made us to be clothed with a human body. The good thing is the one that's been wrecked by sin and the curse is going to be traded in for one that is heavenly and perfect and does not suffer the deterioration of the curse. For that reason, we long for not the soul to be escaped from the body, but we long to trade in this deteriorating body for a resurrection body, for a glorified body. That's the goal. God made us as human beings to be a unity of body and soul and spirit and the rest of the internal immaterial part of man. Not to be imprisoned in a body. That's not the thinking at all. The body is an important part of who we are and we are to glorify God in our bodies by not using them for immoral purposes. That's Paul's whole point. Questions? That's a great question. Cremation. Does cremation go along with a biblical view of the body? Throughout the centuries, let me be careful how I say this, throughout the centuries, the Christian church has looked more favorably upon burial as the hope showing better the hope of the resurrection. We are buried, we will be raised again. As far as the hope of the resurrection is concerned, it doesn't make any difference obviously whether the body is burned, lost at sea, eaten by sharks or deteriorates eventually in the ground, because God will bring us back from whatever decomposition state we are in. As far as the resurrection is concerned, that's not an issue. There are many who still believe that burial does protect the dignity of the body better than cremation. I think there may be something to that. I wouldn't use expression that may not be appropriate. I wouldn't die on that hill. Let me say this. I wouldn't start a new denomination on that, but I think there is maybe something to be said for burial showing more regard for the dignity of the body. As far as the resurrection is concerned, it doesn't make any difference. Certainly bodies are going to deteriorate anyway. It's not the sanctity of this body that has been wrecked by sin, it is eventually the glorified body that God is concerned about. That's a great question. I may have given an invasive answer but it's not an easy one day to answer. John Davis, who was one of my Hebrew professors at Grace Seminary, wrote an excellent book on cremation. I would encourage, I've got it in my library, I'd encourage you to read it. He deals with all of these issues. I think we have to understand you can't make a hard and fast rule that you should never be cremated. There are parts of the world where there is no possibility of burial. There are cities in the Orient, for instance, Singapore and other places that don't have any more burial ground to be used. It's mandated by law that you're cremated. I don't think we can go so far as to say that is immoral or simple. There may be a sense, and I want to carefully guard what I'm saying, there may be a sense in which burial does give better testimony to the Christian hope of the resurrection and the dignity of the body that God will raise. But ultimately the resurrection, it doesn't matter. The only verses that are used, and I can't pull any references, but the only verses that are used to teach that there should be no cremation, are verses in the Old Testament that forbid Israel from burning bodies. But John Davis clearly points out, and very well points out, that was because of pagan religious practices that were associated with burials in that time, much as they are in Hinduism and other religions which have these huge funeral piers where they burn the bodies, that is a religious ceremony. And that's the reason why the Bible in the Old Testament says, don't burn any bodies. Israelites were forbidden to burn bodies at death because that was a religious ceremony that pagan nations all around them did, and it was a part of idolatry, pagan religion. So that, I don't think you can use those verses to argue against cremation. The only thing that comes close to it is 1 Corinthians 15, and I'd be careful about using this rigidly, but 1 Corinthians 15 talks about the body is sewn, placed in the ground like seed, and it comes out a spiritual body, a resurrection body. So that seems to indicate at least the picture of being planted in the ground, and then, but again, even if our bodies are planted in the ground, eventually they're going to decompose, right? Eventually they're going to decompose, even with the best of, of mortuary services. Many times, ashes in an urn are interred, not always, many times they are, yes. No. No, it doesn't make any difference what condition the body is in after death, because take the people that are buried at sea, what happens to them? Sharks probably eat them, okay? Are they not going to be able to be resurrected now? Well, of course not. God, the God of all miracles is able to take bodies from whatever locations they may be in, wherever they are, and bring back the elements together and make a resurrection body from that glorified body. So that's no problem to God. Yeah, I don't think you can make a biblical argument against organ donation and so forth. I don't think you could make a real strong biblical argument against that. The only thing that might be kind of tricky is if the rapture comes, I don't want to be too facetious there. I mean, some do so may lose a high that you gave them or something, but, but no, I think God is able to bring back the body from whatever state it's been in. Wow. They're great questions, and I'm not sure I'm, I'm fretting on thin ice here. I know. Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking you were, you were talking about Saul and his sons, whose bodies were, they were beheaded in their heads were, were hung up in their bodies. We're hung up on the city wall and J. B. Gilliad and I'm thinking that the Israelites rescued their bodies and buried them, but they may have burned them. I'm not sure I can't remember. And there may be another story that I'm not thinking of. Well, obviously again, any kind of cremation, whether it was in a crematorium in Nazi Germany and a concentration camp, wherever does not preclude that God will put that body back together and raise it. He's entirely capable of doing that. So again, I say as far as the resurrection is concerned, it doesn't matter what happens to the body after death. It will be raised and changed in the case of a believer into an incorruptible, glorious body like Christ's. Right. Exactly. You can think of so many ways that people die that the body is just completely destroyed, vaporized and God will resurrect that body. He has the ability, miraculous, but pulled together all those elements and resurrect that body. It does not have to be carefully placed in a grave somewhere in order to be resurrected. But the point of the passage we've looked at tonight is basically to argue against the concept that finds its way into some Christian thought that somehow the body is inherently evil and wicked and God never really intended us to be imprisoned in this body. And they would get to escape it. Thank God. No, we don't really. And God made us to inhabit a body. It's just that this body is going to be changed into a glorified body. So it won't have any more deterioration and decay and death and all that. It would be a perfect body, but it will be a body, a human body. And that's the way God intended us to exist. So the dualism of Greek philosophy found its way into the Christian church and it is effective. It's ever since. It's just not biblical. So that's really, really all we're stressing is the importance of the body that that needs to be a part of the Christian world view of how we view things. That's part of it. Right. Let's begin talking tonight about the immaterial part of man. Now basically we're going to find out that man is made of two basic parts material. That's the body immaterial. It's everything else. Now that everything else is going to be subdivided into numerous descriptions in the Bible. And we'll look at those later like soul, spirit, conscience, will, emotion, mind, conscience, all of those things. And others are part of the immaterial part of man. But what are where I want to begin is with this description of man being made in the image and likeness of God. What is that all about? What is that talking about? First of all, I just want to note the major scriptures where that expression is found. I'm not going to dissect them do a lot with them. We'll kind of do some of that as we go through the rest of this over this week and next week. And it looks like maybe a little even beyond that. As to what the image and likeness really mean, but let's just get a grasp for the passages first. Obviously the first major passages in Genesis 1 verses 26 and 27. And these will be on the screen for you because we're going to jump to them fairly quickly. Then God said, let us make mankind in our image in our likeness. They're both words are found. So that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky over the life stock and all the wild animals and overall creatures that move along the ground. So man is made in God's image and likeness. It is described here. Genesis 5.1. This is the written account of Adam's family line when God created mankind. He made them in the likeness of God. Where's the word image not found here just the word likeness. Okay, chapter 9 verse 6. Whoever sheds human blood by humans shall their blood be shed for in the image of God has God made mankind. Oops, where's the word likeness in this passage? It's not there, just the word image. So you're getting a little bit of a clue here that in describing the same thing, the same event of creation, sometimes both words are used and sometimes just one of them is used and either one of them can be used. Okay, that ought to give us a little clue. But we're going to hang on to that. Couple other New Testament verses 1 Corinthians 11 and 7. The man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. Now please, I'm not going to get into the head coverance tonight. I'm not going to get into what this verse is saying about that. That's way off our topic. There's plenty of good material for you to read on that. Go after it, but we're not going to do it tonight. My whole point is just to refer to this verse. This is one of the verses that declares we are made in the image of God. So let's move quickly to James 3.9. James 3.9. With the tongue, we praise our Lord and Father and with it we curse human beings who have been made in God's likeness. Okay, 1 Corinthians 11 says, image here it says likeness. Again, both words are used. You can pick up a lot just from these verses. We originally created in God's image and likeness. Those words are used somewhat interchangeably. It seems. But being made in the image and likeness of God is still used as an argument to support theological truth even after the fall. Here we are encouraged not to use our tongues to curse people and at the same time bless God because people are made in the image of God. So when we bless God and think that's great, but we curse people, we're cursing the very image of God. So whatever the image and likeness are, they're not completely lost in the fall because they are still used as a rationale for not committing sin in this case with the tongue. Okay, so those are the major scriptures. Let me say one other thing and then we'll wait till next week to get into the study of those two terms, image and likeness and really study them in some depth. But I do want to say this one thing, the image and likeness of God is not a bodily likeness. It does not mean that physically we look like God. Why isn't that the case? God is spirit. He has nobody. So when God made us in his image and likeness, it could not have been talking about he made us to physically look like him because God did not have a physical body. He was spirit. Now there's one passage that is often used to indicate that God made us in his image and that means a physical likeness. And it's a Cleesiancethe 729. This only have I found Solomon says God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes. There are those who say that this phrase God created man upright means that he is upright in the sense that he stands on two feet upright physically. He doesn't crawl on all fours or all eights or hundreds or how many ever. You have he made him upright and that's a physical description, but it's not that we saw earlier. Solomon was talking about I've not found one upright man or not found one upright man among a thousand. It's talking about moral uprightness. God created us morally perfect and and pure, but of course sin entered in and took care of that. So this is talking about moral uprightness, not physical posture, not physical stature. And some people think that this physical description, at least that's the way they interpret it, indicates that God made us in his image that we look like him upright. So God must be one who stands up on two feet, but that's not what that's talking about. Okay, now next week we're going to get into the actual terms image likeness. Are they different? Are they the same? What do the Hebrew words actually mean? And are they used interchangeably in the scriptures? And then what are they talking about? What do image and likeness, even if they're the same thing? What are they talking about? What do they mean about us? We'll get into that next week. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we have been made in your image and likeness. We thank you for all that that means as far as a relationship with you is concerned. Thank you, Father, that you are the great creator and we are your people. You have made us, not we ourselves. And so we are to be subservient to you, submitted to you. And we pray that we will always do that, always commit and submit ourselves to your purpose, your will, what you want for us as our creator in Jesus' name, Amen.