Facts and
Theories as to a Future State
CHAPTER VIII
THE FALL
THERE remain yet some things to point out before the
harmony of Scripture doctrine as to spirit and soul is properly before us.
Types indeed of the difference and relationship between these two essential
parts of mans being are to be found, I doubt not, in the human race at
large. Man and woman, in their characteristic differences, seem to present very
much the peculiar features of spirit and soul the one predominant in mental
activity, the other in emotional; the woman formed for the man, and each the
complement of the other, made for mutual support and relationship.
The
analogy may be traced further than this, however, and grows in significance as
we contemplate it. The man was seduced through the woman, his judgment not
astray, but led captive by his affections. "Adam was not deceived," says the
apostle (1 Tim. ii. 14), "but the woman being deceived was in the
transgression." "The serpent beguiled me," says the woman. "The woman gave me
of the tree" (not beguiled me), says Adam. Thus, as the man was led by the
woman and fell by her, so was he, it is plain, led by the affections of the
soul, and with the soul the spirit fell.
It is always so. To use the
language of the day, though not of Scripture - the head is seduced by the
heart. "How can ye believe," asks the Lord himself, "who receive honour one of
another, and seek not the honour which cometh from God only?" And again - "that
they all might be damned, which believed not the truth, but" [mark the reason]
"had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. ii. 12). And so again, when there
is real turning to God, "with the heart," not the head, "man believeth unto
righteousness" Rom. x. 10).
Thus, though the spirit be as much astray
as the soul, it is through the soul, as well as with it, it is seduced and is
fallen. And the word of God, in its own perfect and wonderful way, ever keeps
in mind the distinction. It proclaims the fact that in fallen man the spirit
has yielded its supremacy to the soul, and that the "natural" man is "sensual"
or soul-led (1 Cor. ii. 14). In the believer, and especially in the blameless
state of such, the spirit again recovers its supremacy. "Spirit and soul and
body" are again in the divine order .
Nor are these by any means
solitary expressions. The same thing is expressed in various ways in the
language of Scripture. Thus the will, in the now natural-state, is identified
or connected with the soul. This is translated three times "will" in our common
version (Psa. xxvii. 12, xli. 2, Ezek. xvi. 27). "Let her go whither she will,"
is (in Deut. xxi. 14) "let her go to her soul." "Aha, so would we have it"
(Psa. xxxv. 25), is "aha, our soul!" And the expression, "binding the soul with
a bond," i.e., with a vow, repeated ten times in Numb. xxx., shows how
intimately will and soul are connected together. Thus it is even so that "the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life"
characterize the world for God, and man, alas! is but the creature of fleshly
impulse - "sensual," if " not having the Spirit" (Jude 19).
On the
other hand, that the spirit should have supremacy, and so give the will (I say
not, in independence of the soul, but as enlightening and guiding it), is
evident from the chief place it gets. Indeed the old nature has its synonym of
"flesh," from the opposite tendency of being guided by the soul, which is so
nearly connected with the body. But into this it is not my province now to
enter.
Still I would point out how, in perfect. accordance with all
this, as thus sin is in a special sense "the sin of the soul" (Mic. vi. 7), so
atonement is said to be made, in the same way, "for the soul." The expression
is three times found (Exod. xxx. 15, Lev. xvii. 11, Numb. xxxi. 50). And I
speak of it to show the blessed harmony of Scripture on this as on every other
point. Moreover, as for the soul atonement is needed, so by it atonement was
made. "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He
shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied" (Isa. liii. 10, 11). So
complete, so uniform, is the testimony of the Word.
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