Soul: the essence, existence and expression - Chambers, Oswald
Chapter VII Soul: the essence, existence and expression
Fleshly Presentation of the Soul
1. In embryo
(a) before consciousness (psalm 139:15; Hosea 12:3; genesis 25:22; Luke 1:41)
(b) breath consciousness (genesis 2:7; Isaiah 2:22)
(c) blood circulation (genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:10 14)
2. In evolution
(d) hub of life (proverbs 4:23)
(e) hubbub of life
(1) sense of sight (psalm 119:37)
(2) sense of hearing ( job 12:11)
(3) sense of taste (psalm 119:103) (4) sense of smell (genesis 8:21; 2 Corinthians 2:1416) (5) sense of touch (acts 17:27; 1 john 1:1)
3. In expression
(f ) hilarity of life (Ecclesiastes 11:9; Luke 6:45)
(g) himself ( judges 8:18; Luke 2:40, 52; Ephesians 4:13)
By the word fleshly we do not mean what the apostle Paul meant when he uses the word in his epistles; we are using the word to denote this natural body. Pauls use of the word, unless prefaced with mortal, means a disposition of mind.
The subject is divided under three headings: in embryo, in evolution, and in expression. In embryo means in the beginning; evolution means growth, the growth of the human soul. Evolution is a fact both scientific and scriptural, that is, if we mean by evolution that there is growth in every species; but not growth from one species into another. There is growth in a plant, in an animal and in a man; and that is the only way in which we use the word. The last division simply means the expression of the soul in and through the body.
1. In embryo
(a) before consciousness
And it came to pass, that, when elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and elisabeth was filled with the holy ghost. (luke 1:41; see also genesis 25:22; Hosea 12:3) in the very beginning of human life, body, soul and spirit are together. My substance was not hid from thee, when i was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth (psalm 139:15). Modern tendencies of thought which are working great havoc indicate that a child has not a soul until it is born into this world. The bible says that body, soul and spirit develop together. This may not appear to the majority of us as being of any importance, but it will do so when we come in contact with the views that are abroad to-day, even amongst some who call themselves christian teachers, but who are really wolves among the sheep and whose teaching comes from the bottomless pit.
(b) breath consciousness
And the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (genesis 2:7; see also Isaiah 2:22)
In a multitude of verses in the bible, the soul life and the breath of the body are identified. The bible teaches that it is not the body that breathes, but the soul. The body did not breathe in the beginning before god breathed into mans nostrils the breath of life; so as far as conscious soul life is concerned, it depends on our breathing. All through gods book the soul life is connected with the breathing; in fact, it is incorporated into our idea of life that when breath is suspended, life is gone. The soul is departed is the popular phrase.
(c) blood circulation
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. (genesis 9:4; see also Leviticus 17:1014)
in the bible the soul is connected and identified with breath and blood two fleshly, physical things. In genesis 9:4 blood and soul are alternate terms, they are identified completely, and the verses in gods book that prove this are innumerable. When the blood is split, the soul is gone; when the breath is taken, the soul is gone. The whole life of a man consists physically in his breath and in his blood. The soul in work- ing itself into the blood never fails to impart to it the peculiar character of its own life. This psychologically is brought out very clearly by our lords statement in john 6:53, except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. An unobvious revelation is that when i eat and drink and discern the lords body, or, in other words, receive my food and drink from him, the physical nourishment thus derived enables my lord to manifest himself in my flesh and blood. If i do not discern the lords body, and do not receive my food from him, my physical nourishment will humiliate him in me. The ruling disposition of the soul shows itself in the blood, the physical blood. In every language, good blood and bad blood is referred to; merciful blood and tender blood, hot or cold blood, and this is based on scriptural teaching. Jesus Christ insists on the fact that if we are his disciples it will be revealed in the blood, i. E. , the physical life. The old soul tyranny and disposition, the old selfish determination to seek our own ends, manifests itself in our body, through our blood; and when that disposition of soul is altered, the alteration shows itself at once in the blood also. Instead of the old tempers and the old passions being manifested in our physical blood, the good temper reveals itself. It never does to remove Jesus Christs spiritual teaching into the domain of the inane and vague, it must come right down where the devil works; and just as the devil works not in vague ways but through flesh and blood, so does the lord, and the characteristics of the soul for better or worse are shown in the blood.
The first fundamental reference in the verse, and without shedding of blood is no remission of sins, is unquestionably to our lords atonement; and yet there is a direct reference to ourselves. Do we begin to know what the bible means by the blood of Jesus Christ? Blood and life are inseparable. In the bible the experiences of salvation and sanctification are never separated as we separate them; they are separable in experience, but when gods book speaks of being in Christ it is always in terms of entire sanctification. We are apt to look upon the blood of Christ as a kind of magic-working thing, instead of an impartation of his very life. The whole purpose of being born again and being identified with the death of the lord Jesus is that his blood may flow through our mortal body; then the tempers and the affections and the dispositions which were manifested in the life of the lord will be manifested in us in some degree. Our present-day wise talk is to push all the teaching of jesus christ into a remote domain, but the new testament drives its teaching straight down to the essential necessity of the physical expression of spiritual life; that just as the bad soul life shows itself in the body, so the good soul life will show itself there too. There are two sides to the atonement it is not only the life of Christ for me but his life in me for my life; no Christ for me if i do not have Christ in me. All through there is to be this strenuous, glorious practising in our bodily life of the changes which god has wrought in our soul through his spirit, and the only proof that we are in earnest is that we work out what god works in. As we apply this truth to ourselves, we shall find in practical experience that god does alter passions and nerves and tempers. God alters every physical thing in a human being so that these bodies can be used now as slaves to the new disposition. We can make our eyes, and ears, and every one of our bodily organs express as slaves the altered disposition of our soul. Remember, then, that blood is the manifestation of the soul life, and that all through the bible god applies moral characteristics to the blood. The expressions innocent blood, and guilty blood, have reference to the soul, and the soul life must show itself in the physical connection.
2. In evolution
(d) hub of life keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. (proverbs 4:23)
Hub literally means the center of a wheel, and the word is used here to indicate the center of the soul life, of the personal life and the spirit life. This will be dealt with more fully when we come to the chapters on heart. The bible places in the heart everything that the modern psychologist places in the head.
(e) hubbub of life
By hubbub we mean exactly what the word implies, a tremendous confusion. The confusion in the soul life is brought about by the exercise of our senses. In the bible, psychological terms are not merely meta- phors, but reflect the organic condition of the soul. The body makes itself inward by means of the soul, and the spirit makes itself outward by means of the soul. The soul is the binder of these two together. There is not one part of the human body left out in gods book; every part is dealt with and made to have a direct connection either with sin or with holi- ness. It is not accidental but part of the divine rev- elation. The five senses do not seem to the majority of us to have any spiritual meaning, but in the bible they have. In the bible the senses are dealt with in anything but a slight manner; they are dealt with as being expressions of the soul life. The bible reveals that every part of mans physical life is closely connected with sin or with salvation, and that anything that sin has put wrong, Jesus Christ can put right. We are dealing with soul as it expresses itself through the body. The organs of the body are used as indicators of the state of the spiritual life. We mentioned previously in connection with breathing, that the internal part of a mans being is affected by his spiritual relationships. If his spiritual connections are not right with god, his bodily condition will, sooner or later, manifest the disorganisation. This is proved over and over again in the case of mental diseases. In most insane persons a bodily organ is seriously affected, and the old method of dealing with insanity was to try and get that organ healed. The modern method is simply to leave the organ alone and concentrate on the brain. When the mind is right, the disease in the organ disappears.
(1) sense of sight
Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way. (psalm 119:37)
How am i going to have my eyes kept from beholding vanity? By having the disposition of my soul altered. God controls the whole thing, and you will find that you can control it too when once he has given you a start. That is the marvellous impetus of the salvation of Jesus Christ. Our eyes record to the brain what they look at, but our disposition makes our eyes look at what it wants them to look at, and they will soon pay no attention to anything else. When the disposition is right, the eyes, literally the body, may be placed wherever you like and the disposition will guard what it records. This is not a figure of speech; it is a literal experience. God does alter the desire to look at the things we used to look at; and we find our eyes are guarded because he has altered the disposition of our soul life.
(2) sense of hearing
Doth not the ear try words? ( job 12:11)
Jesus Christ continually referred to hearing: he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. We say that he means the ears of our heart, but that is very misleading. He means our physical ears which are trained to hear by the disposition of our soul life. God spoke to Jesus once and the people said it thundered, Jesus did not think it thundered; his ears were trained by the disposition of his soul to know his fathers voice (see john 12:2830). We can elaborate this thought endlessly all through gods book. I will always hear what i listen for, and the ruling disposition of the soul determines what i listen for, just as the ruling disposition either keeps the eyes from beholding vanity or makes them behold nothing else. When Jesus Christ alters our disposition, he gives us the power to hear as he hears. A telegraph operator does not hear the ticking of the machine, his ears are trained to detect the message; we detect only the jingle and tapping of the machine and can make nothing of it. You hear people say, thank god, i heard his voice! How did they hear it? The disposition of the soul enabled the ears to hear something which the soul interpreted at once. It is always true that we only hear what we want to hear, and we shout the other sounds down by controversy and dispute. Who hath believed our report? Literally, that which we have heard and to whom hath the arm of the lord been revealed? (Isaiah 53:1 RV ). We have either a disposition of soul that can discern the arm of the lord, or we are just like the beasts of the field who take things as they come and see nothing in them. I was as a beast before thee, said the psalmist without any spiritual intelligence. The disposition of my soul determines what i see, and the disposition of my soul determines what i hear.
(3) sense of taste
How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (psalm 119:103)
We are getting more and more remote and more difficult to understand from the ordinary, unspiritual standpoint. We have entirely divorced tasting and smelling, seeing and hearing and touching, from spiritual conditions, because the majority of christian workers have never been trained in what the bible has to say about ourselves. It can be proved over and over again, not only in personal experience, but all through gods book, that he does alter the taste, not merely mental tastes, but physical tastes, the taste for food and drink; but there is something far more practical even than that, the blessing of god on our soul life gives us an added sensitiveness of soul akin to taste or to sight or healing.
(4) sense of smell
And the lord smelled a sweet savour; and the lord said in his heart, i will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake. . . . (genesis 8:21; see also 2 Corinthians 2:1416)
The bible has a great deal to say about the sense of smell, and yet it is the one sense we make nothing of. This sense to the majority of us has only one meaning, viz. , an olfactory nerve that makes us conscious of pleasant things or of exactly the opposite; but the bible deals with the sense of smell in another way. Read the following quotation from a book writ- ten by helen keller, entitled the world i live in, the chapter is entitled, smell, the fallen angel. Remember, helen keller writes as one who can nei- ther see nor hear nor speak.
For some inexplicable reason the sense of smell does not hold the high position it deserves among its sisters. There is something of the fallen angel about it. When it woos us with woodland scents and beguiles us with the fragrance of lovely gar- dens, it is admitted frankly to our discourse. But when it gives us warning of something noxious in
Our vicinity, it is treated as if the demon had the upper hand of the angel, and is relegated to outer darkness, punished for its faithful service. It is most difficult to keep the true significance of words when one discusses the prejudices of mankind and i find it hard to give an account of odour perceptions which shall at once be dignified and truthful. In my experience. Smell is most important, and i find that there is high authority for the nobil- ity of the sense which we have neglected and dis- paraged. It is recorded that the lord commanded that incense be burnt before him continually with a sweet savour. I doubt if there is any sensation arising from sight more delightful than the odours which filter through sun-warmed, wind-tossed branches, or the tide of scents which swells, sub- sides, and rises again wave on wave, filling the wide world with invisible sweetness. A whiff of the universe makes us dream of worlds we have never seen, recalls in a flash entire epochs of our dearest experiences. I never smell daisies without living over again the ecstatic mornings that my teacher and i spent wandering in the fields, while i learned new words and the names of things. Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across a thousand miles and all the years we have lived. The odour of fruits wafts me to my southern home, to my childish frolics in the peach orchard. Other odours, instantaneous and fleeting, cause my heart to dilate joyously or contract with remembered grief. Even as i think of smells, my nose is full of scents that start awake sweet memories of summers gone and ripening grain-fields far away.
In helen keller the sense of smell takes the place of sight. This is a case which brings the bible idea more home to us. Let this subject be revised in our bible study, and let us see whether we are not treating whole tracts of our sense-life indifferently, not under- standing that we can develop and cultivate our eyes, and nose, and mouth, and ears, and every organ of the body to manifest the disposition which Jesus Christ has put into us. Every sense that has been disorganised can be reorganised; not only the senses that we are dealing with, but other senses, every one of them, is mentioned in gods book and is regulated either by the spirit of god or by the spirit of Satan. When Paul refers to lust he never places it in the body, but in the disposition of the soul. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Jesus Christ had a fleshly body as we have, but he was never tempted by lust, because lust resides in the ruling disposition, not in the body. When god changes the ruling disposition, the same body that was used as the instrument of sin to work all manner of uncleanness and unrighteousness, can now be used as the slave of the new disposition. It is not a different body; it is the same body, with a new disposition.
(5) sense of touch
That they should seek the lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. (acts 17:27)
That which . . . Our hands have handled, of the word of life. (1 john 1:1) these passages refer not to mental feeling, but to real, downright, bodily feeling. The disciples had felt god incarnate in Jesus Christ. This is where the issue is so strong between new testament teaching and the unitarian teaching. God does not ignore feeling and the sense of touch; he elevates them. The first effort of the soul towards bringing the body into harmony with the new disposition is an effort of faith. The soul has not yet got the body under way, therefore in the meanwhile feeling has to be dis- counted. When the new disposition enters the soul, the first steps have to be taken in the dark, without feeling; but immediately the soul has gained control, all bodily organs are brought into physical harmony with the ruling disposition.
3. In expression
(f ) hilarity of life rejoice, o young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things god wilt bring thee into judgement. (Ecclesiastes 11:9) for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. (Luke 6:45)
These passages refer to the physical hilarity of life. Remember, a bad man whose life is wrong has a hilariously happy time, and a good man whose life is right has a hilarious time. All in between are more or less diseased and sick, there is something wrong some- where: the healthy pagan and the healthy saint are the only ones who are hilarious. The new testament writers, especially the apostle Paul, are intense on the hilarity of life. Enthusiasm is the idea, intoxicated with the life of god. Watch nature if men do not get thrilled in the right way, they will get thrilled in the wrong way. If they are not thrilled by the spirit of god, they will try to get thrilled with strong drink. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, says paul, but be filled with the spirit. We have no business to be half-dead spiritually, to hang like clogs on gods plan; we have no business to be sickly, unless it is a preparatory stage for something better, or god is nursing us through some spiritual illness: but if it is the main characteristic of the life, there is something
Wrong somewhere. Psalm 73 describes the bad man as having all that heart can desire; this is the expression of soul satisfaction without god. When Solomon says that to fear the lord shall be marrow to thy bones (proverbs 3:8), he is talking about the physical bones which are affected amazingly by the condition of the soul life. In Luke 11 our lord gives a description of the bad man: when a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace, i. E. , when Satan, the prince of this world, guards this world, his goods the souls of men are in peace; they are quite happy, hilarious and full of life. One of the most misleading statements is that worldlings have not a happy time; they have a thoroughly happy time. The point is that their happiness is on the wrong level, and when they come across Jesus Christ, who is the enemy of all that happiness, they experience annoyance. People must be persuaded that Jesus Christ has a higher type of life for them, otherwise they feel they had better not have come across him. When a worldly person who is happy, moral and upright comes in contact with Jesus Christ, who came to destroy all that happiness and peace and put it on a different level, he has to be persuaded that Jesus Christ is a being worthy to do this, and instead of the gospel being attractive at first, it is the opposite. When the gospel is presented to an unsaved, healthy, happy, hilarious person, there is violent opposition straight away. The gospel of Jesus Christ does not present what men want, it presents exactly what they need. As long as you talk about being happy and peaceful, men like to listen to you; but talk about having the disposition of the soul altered, and that the garden of the soul has first of all to be turned into a wilderness and afterwards into a garden of the lord, and you will find opposition right away.
(g) himself
We mean by himself, not god, but man. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the son of god, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13; see also judges 8:18; Luke 2:40, 52)
In these passages we have a description splendidly given of a full-orbed man. A fullorbed bad man or woman (bad in gods sight) is a wonderful being to look at and a fullorbed man or woman who is right with god is also a wonderful being to look at. The rest of us are simply beings in the making. There is a tremendous fascination about a completely bad man; there is nothing more desirable from the stand- point of this world than a thoroughly well-trained bad man or woman, but they are the opponents of Jesus Christ, they hate him with every power of the soul; i mean the Jesus Christ of the new testament.
God grant that the ruling disposition of our souls may be so altered that we work out the alteration practically. If we have come into experimental touch with the grace of god and have received his spirit, are we working it out? Is every organ of our body enslaved to the new disposition? Or are we using our eyes for what we want to see, and our bodies for our right to ourselves? If so, we have received the grace of god in vain. God grant that we may determine to work out through our bodies the life which Jesus Christ has put into us by his spirit.