Eph 372 9/5/86; PPG #47, 8/8/84; 8/26/73 Eph

DOCTRINE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT (See also the Doctrine of Spiritual Metabolism.)

A. Definition.

1. The human spirit is the immaterial part of man designed by God to convert, to store, and to utilize spiritual phenomena. The human spirit receives spiritual information which the Holy Spirit converts into gnosis (knowledge).

2. Information may come into the left lobe of the soul of man as NOEO, meaning imagination type thinking, or PHRONEO, meaning objective thinking, or DOKEO, meaning subjective thinking. The function of the human spirit is to make the spiritual phenomena it receives understandable to the left lobe of the soul.

3. Then the Holy Spirit converts gnosis information that is believed by the believer into epignosis. Epignosis doctrine can then be processed by the various areas of the right lobe of the soul. This will not happen without positive volition toward that epignosis. The steps in this process are as follows.

a. Spiritual information is taught in some manner.

b. The believer must have both positive volition and concentration on what is taught.

c. The Holy Spirit transfers this spiritual information to the human spirit where it becomes spiritual phenomena.

d. The Holy Spirit transfers this spiritual phenomena to the left lobe of the soul where it becomes gnosis.

e. Faith or belief by the believer causes Holy Spirit to convert gnosis to epignosis and transfer it to the right lobe.

f. Application of epignosis produces wisdom.

4. In the original creation of man the human spirit was received along with the human soul when man received the “breath of lives,” Gen 2:7.

B. Trichotomy and Dichotomy.

1. Original man was created trichotomous, Gen 2:7. He had a body, soul, and spirit.

2. As a result of the Fall, both Adam and the woman became dichotomous, having body and soul. They immediately suffered spiritual death, Rom 5:12. Spiritual death includes the destruction or death of the human spirit. The human spirit was lost and they acquired an old sin nature. As a result, their progeny, the human race, are always physically born dichotomous, having no human spirit.

3. The unbeliever is born in the line of Adam with a genetically formed old sin nature passed down through the man in procreation. He receives the imputation of Adam’s sin directly at physical birth. 4. 1 Cor 2:14 describes all the human race as PSUCHIKOS, meaning soulish. The verse says, “The soulish man cannot understand the things of the spirit of God; they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are discerned by the human spirit.”

5. Jude 19, “These [unbelievers] are the ones who cause divisions, soulish, not having a human spirit.”

6. When anyone believes in Christ, the omnipotence of the Spirit restores the status quo of trichotomy (Adam before the fall), i.e., in regeneration, the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life.

7. Therefore the believer receives the human spirit at the same time he receives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Both the human spirit and the Holy Spirit are necessary for the function of GAP (the grace apparatus for perception).

8. 1 Thes 5:23, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

9. The human spirit is taught in several places.

a. Job 32:8, “But it is the spirit in man [believer] and the Spirit of the Almighty that gives perception.”

b. Phile 25, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”

c. The human spirit of Titus is mentioned specifically in 2 Cor 7:13. “For this reason, we have been comforted, and in addition to our comfort, we have rejoiced, even much more, for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.”

d. Heb 4:12, “The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder between the soul and the spirit . . .”

10. The unbeliever is dichotomous; the believer is trichotomous.

C. Perception occurs by the functions of the two spirits, 1 Cor 2:12-16. “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with a spiritual apparatus. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. For who has known the mind of Lord that he should instruct him? But we have the mind [thinking] of Christ.”

D. The reality of spiritual phenomena resides in the two spirits, Rom 8:16. “The Spirit teaches our spirit [human]...” The Holy Spirit is the teacher of Bible doctrine, Jn 14:26, 16:12-16; 1 Jn 2:27; 1 Cor 2:9-16. The human spirit is the target for Bible doctrine. It dispenses Bible doctrine to the right lobe of the soul. It determines what things go into the construct of the edification complex of the soul, Eph 4:20-24.

E. The Storage of Bible Doctrine in the Human Spirit.

1. The human spirit is the area of refreshment, 2 Cor 7:13.

2. Bible doctrine is stored in the human spirit as the basis of all grace orientation, James 1; Phile 25. The “doer of the word” is the believer who converts gnosis into epignosis.

3. Spiritual IQ is related to doctrine stored in the human spirit, Job 32:8; Rom 8:16.

6. The human spirit is designed to store and distribute categorical doctrine, Eph 3:18-19.

7. The unbeliever has no human spirit. Therefore, God the Holy Spirit must act as a human spirit for the comprehension of the Gospel. Gen 6:3; Jn 16:8-11; 1 Cor 2:14-15.

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