Sin and the Body — The Spiritual Man

Sin and the Body

When a believer has understood the truth of co-death with Christ on the cross and has experienced deliverance from sin, this is actually a very dangerous period. If at this time he receives proper guidance and goes forward, leaning on the Holy Spirit to carry out a deeper work of the cross within him, then he will be able to enter into a truly spiritual life. But if he becomes self-satisfied, thinking that victory over sin is the highest kind of life, and no longer allows the cross to deal with his soulish life, he will remain in the realm of the soul, mistaking soulish experiences for spiritual ones. Though his old man has already been dealt with, his life itself has not yet been subjected to the cross. Thus his will, mind, and emotions will operate without restraint, leaving his experience still belonging to the flesh.

We must understand the extent to which deliverance from sin affects our whole being; only then will we know what has already been dealt with and what has not yet been dealt with.

One thing we must especially recognize is that sin has a particular relationship with our body. We do not think, as many philosophers do, that the flesh is evil in its very nature; but we do acknowledge that the body is the realm where sin exercises its dominion. This is why, in Romans 6:6, the Holy Spirit calls our body “the body of sin.” Before the cross has dealt with us, before we have presented our members to God as instruments of righteousness, our body is nothing but “the body of sin.” Before we reckon ourselves dead to sin and present our body to God, sin possesses our body and acts as its master. Our body is the fortress of sin, the instrument of sin, the stronghold of sin. No other term is more fitting than this: the body of sin.

If we read carefully the passages in Scripture concerning deliverance from sin—Romans 6 through 8—we will see clearly the relationship between the body and sin. We will also realize that God’s complete salvation is to free our body entirely from the works and service of sin and to present our members to God.

In Romans 6 we read:

• “So that the body of sin might be destroyed” (Rom 6:6, NRSVue).

• “Therefore do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions” (Rom 6:12, NRSVue).

• “No longer present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness” (Rom 6:13, NRSVue).

• “But present your members to God as instruments of righteousness” (Rom 6:13, NRSVue).

In Romans 7 we also read concerning the body:

• “While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members” (Rom 7:5, NRSVue).

• “But I see in my members another law” (Rom 7:23, NRSVue).

• “Making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Rom 7:23, NRSVue).

• “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24, NRSVue).

And in Romans 8, the voice of the Spirit is even clearer:

• “The body is dead because of sin” (Rom 8:10, NRSVue).

• “He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies” (Rom 8:11, NRSVue).

• “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:13, NRSVue).

• “The redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8:23, NRSVue).

After reading these passages, we see how much attention God pays to our body. This is because the body is particularly the sphere in which sin operates. The reason man is a slave of sin is that his body is the puppet of sin. Whenever the body becomes unemployed to sin, man ceases to be a slave of sin.

Thus, when a person is delivered from sin, it means that his body has been freed from the power and dominion of sin.

This is why we read that “our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed” (Rom 6:6, NRSVue). The crucifixion of the old man enables the body to be freed from sin’s control. The old man—the co-worker of sin—has been crucified. The new man now occupies the place once held by the old. God’s Spirit indwells within. Sin still exists, but its power over the body has been broken. Since the old man has been crucified, sin no longer has a means of using the body. Without the old man as its co-worker, sin cannot directly use the body.

We must therefore remember that our deliverance from sin is essentially the deliverance of our body. (Of course, complete redemption—the removal of sin’s very presence—still awaits the future.) The natural life by which we live—our soulish life—has not yet been dealt with. If we think that victory over sin is the supreme life, we are, in effect, thinking that the body’s paralysis to sin is the highest life, while forgetting that beyond the body of sin there is also the natural soul, the soulish life; and this too needs to be dealt with just as much as the body does. If a believer only knows the body’s “unemployment” (which indeed is marvelous), but does not know how to deny the soulish life, his spiritual experience will remain shallow and not reach deeper levels.

We have previously touched briefly on how the “self” (the soul) can still be active in God’s work. Indeed, while the body has become “paralyzed,” the entire soulish life may still be very active. This life is self-centered, yet it manifests itself outwardly in various ways. The life of the soul includes at least three major faculties: will, mind, and emotion. Thus, when a believer lives according to the soulish life, some may emphasize the will, others the mind, and others the emotions—or sometimes shifting from one to another. Although the outward expressions differ greatly—whether of the mind, the will, or the emotions—they are all soulish in nature.

Those who emphasize the will will make their own preferences the center of their living and refuse to submit to God’s will. Those who emphasize the mind will rely on their own reasoning to direct their way, unwilling to quietly accept the Spirit’s intuitive leading. Those who emphasize the emotions will seek after feelings of joy, considering them the highest life. But regardless of which faculty predominates, if the believer walks according to the soulish life, one thing is always common: he is living by his own natural power. This natural power is what he possessed before he believed in the Lord—whether it be talent, ability, eloquence, intelligence, charisma, zeal, and so forth.

Therefore, we must know two things about the believer who follows the life of the soul:

1. In principle, the life of the soul is simply the natural power of the self.

2. In expression, the life of the soul manifests in three outwardly different kinds of living: stubborn self-will, reliance on one’s own wisdom, or pursuit of emotional pleasure.

If a believer lives by the soulish life, everything is carried out in his own strength, and he inevitably displays these three outward expressions. Unless, at this point, he goes further to consign the soulish life also to death, he will only cultivate his “self-life,” which displeases God and causes him to lose the fruit of the Spirit.