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| Chapter VI.—God will bestow salvation upon the whole nature of man, consisting of body and soul in close union, since the Word took it upon Him, and adorned with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, of whom our bodies are, and are termed, the temples.
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Chapter VI.—God will bestow salvation
upon the whole nature of man, consisting of body and soul in close union, since
the Word took it upon Him, and adorned with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, of
whom our bodies are, and are termed, the temples.
1. Now God
shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it so as to be conformable
to, and modelled after, His own Son. For by the hands of the Father, that
is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not [merely] a part of man,
was made in the likeness of God. Now the soul and the spirit are
certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for
the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul
receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly
nature which was moulded after the image of God. For this reason does the
apostle declare, “We speak wisdom among them that are
perfect,”4476
terming those persons
“perfect” who have received the Spirit of God, and who
through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages, as he used Himself
also to speak. In like manner we do also hear4477
| 4477 The old Latin has “audivimus,”
have heard. | many brethren in the Church, who possess
prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages,
and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and
declare the mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms
“spiritual,” they being spiritual because they partake of the
Spirit, and not because their flesh has been stripped off and taken away,
and because they have become purely spiritual. For if any one take away
the substance
of flesh, that is, of the handiwork [of God],
and understand that which is purely spiritual, such then would not be a
spiritual man but would be the spirit of a man, or the Spirit of God. But
when the spirit here blended with the soul is united to [God’s]
handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of the
outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and
likeness of God. But if the Spirit be wanting to the soul, he who is such
is indeed of an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an
imperfect being, possessing indeed the image [of God] in his formation
(in plasmate), but not receiving the similitude through the
Spirit; and thus is this being imperfect. Thus also, if any one take away
the image and set aside the handiwork, he cannot then understand this as
being a man, but as either some part of a man, as I have already said, or
as something else than a man. For that flesh which has been moulded is
not a perfect man in itself, but the body of a man, and part of a man.
Neither is the soul itself, considered apart by itself, the man; but it
is the soul of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit a man, for
it is called the spirit, and not a man; but the commingling and union of
all these constitutes the perfect man. And for this cause does the
apostle, explaining himself, make it clear that the saved man is a
complete man as well as a spiritual man; saying thus in the first Epistle
to the Thessalonians, “Now the God of peace sanctify you perfect
(perfectos); and may your spirit, and soul, and body be preserved
whole without complaint to the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ.”4478
| 4478
1 Thess. v. 23. [I have before referred the student
to the “Biblical Psychology” of Prof. Delitzsch
(translation), T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1868.] | Now what was
his object in praying that these three—that is, soul, body, and
spirit—might be preserved to the coming of the Lord, unless he
was aware of the [future] reintegration and union of the three, and [that
they should be heirs of] one and the same salvation? For this cause also
he declares that those are “the perfect” who present unto the
Lord the three [component parts] without offence. Those, then, are the
perfect who have had the Spirit of God remaining in them, and have
preserved their souls and bodies blameless, holding fast the faith of
God, that is, that faith which is [directed] towards God, and maintaining
righteous dealings with respect to their neighbours.
2. Whence also he says, that this
handiwork is “the temple of God,” thus declaring: “Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you? If any man, therefore, will defile the temple of God, him will
God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye
are.”4479
Here he manifestly declares the body
to be the temple in which the Spirit dwells. As also the Lord speaks in
reference to Himself, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up. He spake this, however,” it is said, “of
the temple of His body.”4480
And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge our bodies to be a temple,
but even the temple of Christ, saying thus to the Corinthians,
“Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then
take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an
harlot?”4481
He speaks these things,
not in reference to some other spiritual man; for a being of such a
nature could have nothing to do with an harlot: but he declares
“our body,” that is, the flesh which continues in sanctity
and purity, to be “the members of Christ;” but that when it
becomes one with an harlot, it becomes the members of an harlot. And for
this reason he said, “If any man defile the temple of God, him will
God destroy.” How then is it not the utmost blasphemy to allege,
that the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the Father dwells, and the
members of Christ, do not partake of salvation, but are reduced to
perdition? Also, that our bodies are raised not from their own substance,
but by the power of God, he says to the Corinthians, “Now the body
is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. But
God hath both raised up the Lord, and shall raise us up by His own
power.”4482
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