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Relational Aspects.

(1) Although animals no doubt have some sense of community with each other, the depth of
interpersonal harmony experienced in human marriage, in a human family when it functions according
to God’s principles, and in a church when a community of believers is walking in fellowship with the
Lord and with each other, is much greater than the interpersonal harmony experienced by any animals.

(2) In marriage itself we reflect the nature of God in the fact that as men and women we have equality
in importance but difference in roles from the time that God created us.

(3) Man is like God also in his relationship to the rest of creation. Specifically, man has been given the
right to rule over the creation and when Christ returns will even be given authority to sit in judgment
over angels (1 Cor. 6:3; Gen. 1:26, 28; Ps. 8:6–8).

Dichotomy and Trichotomy

Man, according to the Scriptures, is a created spirit in vital union with a material organized body. The
relation between these two constituents of our nature is acknowledged to be mysterious. That is, it is
incomprehensible. It was customary, to conceive of man as consisting of two, and only two, distinct
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parts, namely, body and soul. This view is theoretically called dichotomy.

Another view is called trichotomy. This view states that human nature consists of three parts, body, soul,
and spirit. It is designated by the tri-partite conception of man originated in Greek philosophy, which
conceived of the relation of the body and the spirit of man to each other after the analogy of the mutual
relation between the material universe and God. Historically, theologians have believed that the nature
of man in Scripture is clearly dichotomic. On the one hand the Bible teaches us to view the nature of man
as a unity, and not as a duality, consisting of two different elements, each of which move along parallel
lines but do not really unite to form a single organism. 177

Difficult Passages

What do we do with passages that seems to suggest that is a separation between the soul and spirit? “The
Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,” (Rom. 8:16, NASB95). “Now may the
God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete,
without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23, NASB95). “For the word of God is
living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and
spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12,
NASB95).

Those who believe that human nature is a trichotomy typically believe the following: the physical body is
what connects us with the physical world around us, the soul is the essence of our being, and the spirit is
what connects us with God. This is why the unsaved can be said to be spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13),
while they are very much physically and “soulishly” alive.

Those who believe that human nature is a dichotomy would have the same understanding of the body
but would view the spirit as the part of the soul that connects with God. So, the question of dichotomy
vs. trichotomy is essentially whether the soul and spirit are different aspects of the immaterial human

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