QC and SG accountability (22/11/19)

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We spent time talking about the TRAC Sunday sermon, where the speaker (Ps Jonathan) promoted a tripartite (body, soul spirit) view of man. This is the view that the ‘spirit’ is the part of man that relates to God, ad the ‘soul’, the living part that the animals have. My view is that Scripture is not clear that there is a clear distinction between soul and spirit (i.e. that man is bipartite).


 Scripture always sees every act of man as the act of the whole man (“a living soul” Gen 2:7.  Job 33:4, 32:8). There is no separation between body and soul.
The words soul (Heb nephesh, Gk psuche) and spirit (Heb ruach, Gk pneuma) are often used interchangeably. (e.g. Lk 1:46-47 “46 And Mary said:“My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”)
Scripture speaks of “body and soul” (Mt 6:25, 10:28). “body and spirit” (Ecc 12:7l 1 Cor 5:3-5). c.f. Mt 22:37 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind

In support of the tripartite view are verses like
1 Thes 5:23 “ May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” and Heb 4:12 “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” But this may be a poetic expression rather than a description of the nature of man.  

I'm not losing sleep over this distinction, but do not think that Scripture is so clear that I would base a sermon on this point. I would say that ti would be incorrect to say that the soul is the 'fleshly' part of us whereas the spirit is the part that is redeemed and 'good'. The distinction in scripture is between the spirit and the flesh (e.g. Gal 5:16-26, 6:8), not the soul and the spirit.

We also asked if 1 Jn 5:1 contradicted in some way Mark 6:7, i.e. is the demon then 'born of God'. The issue is made clear by James 2:19 telling us that the 'belief' of demons, though accurate, does not save them. We are saved "by grace through faith" (Eph 2:8), and so we must be careful to define what saving faith is. The Reformers identified 3 necessary components of the latter: 1) a correct set of facts ('notitia'), 2) agreement with the facts ('assensus') and 3) a placing of joyful trust in the truth ('fiducia'). It is this last component that demons lack.

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