THE NATURE OF MAN - LESSON 1

TAKE A QUIZ

Personal Reflection: Do you reflect after God's image? Yes No

Join us in this study as we open our Bibles and learn about the nature of man.

II CORINTHIANS 4:16

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

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COMMENTARY

Paul speaks here of an inward man and an outward man. There are some who tell us that man is wholly mortal and that when he dies there is nothing left. He is “dead all over just like the little dog rover.” Paul does not agree with this concept. There is more to man than just this outward body.

1/18

GENESIS 1:26–27

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

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COMMENTARY

The Bible begins by affirming something about the nature of man. It is obvious that man has an exalted position in the creation and is viewed as superior to all other of God’s creatures. He alone is said to have been created in the image and likeness of God. However, what does this mean?

2/18

GENESIS 2:7

7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

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COMMENTARY

Man does share things in common with the animals. God formed him from the dust of the ground just as He did all the beasts of the field and the birds of the air (Genesis 2:19). God gave them all the breath of life (Genesis 6:17; 7:15, 22). Yet, we have already noted that there is a duality about man—an inward man and an outer man. Since only man is said to have been made in the image of God it seems obvious that the inward or higher part of man is that which is in God’s image, not the flesh or lower life principle which man shares in common with all the animals.

3/18

I CORINTHIANS 2:11

11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

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COMMENTARY

“The spirit of man which is in him.” Paul attributes intellect, reason and consciousness to “the spirit within” and not to the body. There is something apart from the flesh that gives man his higher powers of consciousness. Man is not like the animals because “of the spirit of man that is in him” that is made in the likeness and image of God.

4/18

JOHN 4:24

24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

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COMMENTARY

God is a Spirit. Therefore, that of which we bear the image is His Spirit nature. If all we received from God was breath, then is not God just breath–-hot air? If all we received from God is the flesh–-a body, then is not God just dirt? No the inward man which is renewed and can live is a spirit in nature like God is a Spirit.

5/18

LUKE 24:39

39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

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COMMENTARY

After the resurrection Jesus appeared to the Twelve in His resurrection body. They were frightened by His appearance and supposed they had seen a “spirit”. Jesus disabused their minds of this false assumption showing them His hands and feet saying, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.” Since God in Heaven is a Spirit, He does not have flesh and bones. Therefore, that which is in the image of God cannot be the flesh–-the body.

6/18

LUKE 23:46

46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

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COMMENTARY

While Jesus was hanging on the cross he cried out to God to receive His spirit (a quotation of Psalm 31:5). What did God receive? His body went immediately to the grave. Three days later, Jesus showed Himself alive in the body that came from the grave. Jesus, as a man, had both body and spirit.

7/18

HEBREWS 12:9

9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

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COMMENTARY

God is called “the Father of Spirits.” In the passage He is contrasted with the “fathers of our flesh.” Therefore, there is a part of man distinct from his flesh begotten by his earthly father, of which God is properly called the Father. Furthermore, those whose spirits are in subjection to God will live. Obviously, man is not wholly mortal flesh and blood.

8/18

DANIEL 7:15

15 “As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me.

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COMMENTARY

“My spirit in the midst of my body.” Daniel affirms the duality of man; he is both spirit and flesh. Notice also that he associates his emotions and reason with His spirit.

9/18

ZECHARIAH 12:1

12 The oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him:

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COMMENTARY

While the body was formed of the dust of the earth, God has formed within man that which is in His likeness and image––the spirit.

10/18

GENESIS 3:19

19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

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COMMENTARY

The consequence of sin was death. In death the body returns to the dust or earth from which it was formed. However, what becomes of the spirit of man made in the image of God?

11/18

JAMES 2:26

26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

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COMMENTARY

The Bible continues to affirm the dual nature of man–-body and spirit. Note that James does not say that the spirit without the body is dead or ceases to exist. Death is a condition that affects the body; it does not affect the spirit. The body is dead and returns to the dust, but what of the spirit?

12/18

ECCLESIASTES 12:7

7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

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COMMENTARY

The dust–-the body formed from it–-returns to the earth and the spirit returns to the Father of Spirits who gave it to man. We are far more than a body made out of the dust of the earth. We possess a spirit that comes from God, made in His image and likeness.

13/18

II CORINTHIANS 5:1–6

5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,

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COMMENTARY

Paul speaks of his spirit residing in an earthly tent and having a desire to move into a permanent heavenly house. This is a figurative depiction of His expectation of death. Paul clearly understood that man was not wholly mortal; he expected to survive his earthly body and eventually obtain an eternal, heavenly one in the resurrection. Note in 5:6 he specifically refers to his present condition as “at home in the body. “

14/18

PHILIPPIANS 1:21–24

21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

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COMMENTARY

Paul is speaking of his death (v. 21). This verse is a commentary on II Corinthians 5:1-6. Paul was expecting to die, leave his fleshly body in the grave while his spirit went to be with Christ. The Apostle knew that he was more than a body of flesh.

15/18

II PETER 1:13–14

13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

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COMMENTARY

Peter also speaks of being in a tent that he will soon put off. He knew there must be more to man than just this mortal body.

16/18

MATTHEW 10:28

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

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COMMENTARY

The body can be killed and the spirit or soul will survive. They are not the same. Man is not wholly mortal; there is within him an immortal spirit.

17/18

MATTHEW 16:24-27

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

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COMMENTARY

Jesus assigns value to the human soul. He says it is the most precious possession that we have. There is not anything that we can give to redeem it. There is not anything for which we might give it up that will equal its worth. Don’t you want to save your soul?

18/18

Completed!

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