The Outward and Inward Man
In the last 7 posts I have been exploring the topic of ‘faith’. The last several posts have specifically looked at Peter’s faith. This journey has led me to conclude that everyone has faith; atheists have faith, scientists and artists have faith, you and I have faith. You name them, they have faith. But not all faith is the same. Many of us have faith in self – in something in the world that gives us value and acceptance. That is the type of faith atheists have. And sadly, many so-called Christians have the same type of faith. I call this false faith. False faith is the default faith for human beings – it is faith found in the kingdom of the world, and because the “whole world is under the control of satan” it is a faith that opens the door to demonic influence and oppresion. False faith is faith apart from repentance. True faith is a trusting and living faith in Jesus, His grace and mercy, and His work on the cross for our salvation, which is life with Him in the Kingdom of God. True faith is more than “I believe” in Jesus. To move from false faith to true faith requires the work of the Holy Spirit and is the definition of repentance. We are born into the kingdom of the world with faith in ourselves and things of the world. We are born again when we enter the Kingdom of God in this life by repentance and true faith. True faith is a gift. We cannot earn it by our works. But we must receive and accept true faith when it is offered, and many do not.
That is a summary of what I have written so far. But as I dug deeper into false faith and true faith I came across the idea of the outward and inward man and the roles that these two aspects of human nature play in our faith (for a good book on this subject see ‘The Release of the Spirit’ by Watchman Nee). It turns out, I think, that for us to move from our default faith – false faith in the things of the world and ourselves – to true faith, which means ‘giving up the right to ourselves’, our outward man needs to be broken or shattered. Alternatively, instead of brokenness we might also get there through real spiritual and emotional healing (or both?), the type of healing only Jesus can perform.
Either way, I think that the outward and inward man is important, so I am writing about it in this post.
Paul writes about the inward and outward man:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (2 Corinthians 4: 16 – 18 NKJV).
Paul is telling us that the afflictions of the world, whatever they are, are working within us to renew and strengthen the inward man at the expense of the outward man. And this renewal is leading to a deeper faith, a true faith, which is defined in Hebrews as “being certain of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see”.
Paul also writes:
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3: 16 NKJV).
That Christ may dwell in my heart? MY heart? By faith? Jesus wants to be at the center of my heart, which means all the junk that sits there now needs to go. All the anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, unbelief, and hatred — all have to go. In my opinion, that is another good argument for healing, because apart from the healing power of Jesus that will not happen. I know. I tried. It also makes the point that faith — true faith — is a very big deal.
In 1 Thessalonians Paul writes “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” (1 Thessalonians 5: 23 NIV).
The inward or inner man corresponds to man’s spirit. The outward or outer man corresponds to man’s soul – the seat of man’s emotions, will, and mind.
Fallen man or the unregenerated man lives his life in the power of the outward man – driven by his will, emotion, intellect, experience, needs, wants, and desires. The outward man is the hyphenated man – self-sufficient, self-made, self-sustaining, self-absorbed, self-determining, self-confident, in love with himself, and just plain selfish. The outward man sees the world and its problems through the lens of his experience and desires – “I know what I want, need, and desire and I know how to get it.” The outward man is the “I”, “Me”, “My” voice. The outward man is like A.W. Tozer’s ‘veil of spiritual flesh’ around the human heart. It is a hard shell that keeps pain in, prevents love from penetrating to the inward man, and hides the consequences of this pain, like addictions, from the world around it. The outward man can be so powerful that it even keeps ‘the love of the Father’ from touching the inner part of the human heart.
The outward man lives in the kingdom of the world and walks with false faith – his value, acceptance, and belonging come from the praises of men or the things of the world. This is pride, which is a synonym for idolatry. He has accepted the idea that if he totally surrenders to one of these things, that thing will totally fulfill him. That is false faith. Satan, who has control of the world (“The whole world is under the control of the evil one” 1 John 5: 19 NIV), is also the author or at least influencer of false faith.
The inward man is regenerated. He has been born again and his spirit is in communion and connection with the Holy Spirit. He lives his life in the power of God, although not perfectly. His desire is to live according to the will and leading of the Father, not himself. The inward man sees the world and its problems through the eyes of Jesus and aligns himself with the Father’s will – “not my will be done, but yours.” The inward man is surrendered and submitted to Jesus; he trusts Jesus and commits his life to Him. Jesus sits in the center of his heart and the inward man sits in the center of Jesus’ heart — He is in us and we are in Him!
The inward man lives in Christ in the Kingdom of God and walks in true faith. His value and acceptance come from Jesus – and from giving up his rights to Jesus, surrendering and submitting to Jesus as Lord, and loving and obeying Jesus. This is humility. Jesus is the author of true faith.
For the inward man to receive the Holy Spirit — which probably means ‘being born again’ — the outward man needs to be gotten out-of-the-way. For many of us this means the outward man needs to be broken or shattered. I suppose this can happen gently and over time, but for many of us it is painful and rather sudden. While in the middle of the breaking we might cry out to God, “God where are you”, in reality He is right there leading us from a life of death to a life of life. We don’t usually recognize that this is a crucifixion and that this ‘death’ is necessary for us to have real life.
There is an interesting symmetry in the human condition. We are either under the influence of the outward or inward man. The former finds their value in their ultimate concern in the kingdom of the world and, therefore lives by false faith. The latter finds their value in their relationship with Jesus in the Kingdom of God – Jesus is their ultimate concern – and therefore lives by true faith.
I know that our true faith grows with time as long as we abide or remain in Christ, which means to continue living in the Kingdom of God (see John 15). This is our ‘believing faith’. As I have written before, this is the “being and becoming” aspect of faith. But I also believe that we cannot live in two kingdoms at the same time (can’t have dual citizenship) and in the same way we cannot live with false faith and true faith at the same time. Our ultimate concern, which is the ‘thing’ we have our faith in, will either be Jesus or something in the world – if it were both it wouldn’t be ‘ultimate’. Jesus makes this point when He tells us that we cannot serve two masters – God and money, because in the kingdom of the world the influencer of false faith is the devil.
We are all born into, and until we are born again, live in the kingdom of the world with false faith. The Holy Spirit gives us the gift of true faith, but the path from false faith to true faith always involves repentance – true repentance. True repentance is a serious and solemn acknowledgement that we are Sinners, worshipping and finding our value in the things of the world. And we don’t just repent of what we have done, we repent of who we are. While true repentance involves the mind, it must also impact the heart. True repentance plants the seed of true faith and repentant hearts allow that seed to grow. True faith is a gift, just like repentance. The two are always intimately intertwined.
Conclusions
The outward man lives in the kingdom of the world by his own strength, emotion, and power, relying on his will and experience. This is false faith. The inward man lives in the Kingdom of God by the power and strength of the Holy Spirit, relying on Jesus to meet all of his needs. This is true faith. We are all born into the former, some of us will leave this world with the latter. God intends for us all to live with true faith, but not all will. While He offers His Kingdom to all, we must choose, receive, and accept His Kingdom and the faith/repentance that allows us to enter. True faith, like its brother true repentance, is a gift of the Holy Spirit. With true faith our passion is transformed from the things of the world to the things of Jesus. But for many of us the transformation from false faith to true faith requires our outward man to be broken, even shattered. Jesus would probably say, “crucified”. And that is always painful; but it is also a great gift from God.
I have written a lot about repentance. In a sense, the first word of the Gospels is “repent”. And this is why – without repentance we cannot walk in true faith. And without true faith we cannot have the indwelling Holy Spirit. And Paul tells us that if we do not have the Spirit of Christ, we do not belong to Jesus. And if we do not belong to Jesus we will belong to someone else. Each of us must search our hearts – have we repented, are we repentant? There is no other way. But, if we have, then the Kingdom of God and the inheritance of God our Father are ours, and no one can take them away from us. That is what it means to live from out inward man.
In the next post I want to take a closer look at that amazing scene where Peter actually rebukes Jesus and Jesus tells satan to, “get behind me”, which is probably the origin of the phrase, “go to hell”.
Grace and peace,
John