Who is the Natural Man?
Now any person who has spent any time in some sort of Book of Mormon class, whether that is Sunday School, Seminary, or Institute, has probably heard the verse found in the 3rd chapter of Mosiah, given to us by King Benjamin in the first recorded General Conference on the American Continent which says:
19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
Taken from this verse the natural man is an "enemy to God" or you could say the opposite of God. God is good, therefore the natural man is bad. God is honest and pure, therefore the natural man is deceitful and corrupted. You get the idea. It is often taught that because of this we tend to assume that within each of us there are two warring factions, the spirit and the flesh. The spirit being our good side and our flesh being the evil side.
In order to become a saint, all one has to do is "put off" the natural man (whatever that's supposed to mean) or the evil, carnal, physical parts of me. Sounds simple enough, what are some of the things that the natural man desires? All I need to do is get rid of those in my life and I'm good. Let's list some of those desires: food, water, warmth, shelter, sex, survival, friendship, love, peace, hope, belonging. Wait, those ones at the beginning make sense, but how do you explain that last half? Those all sound like things that the spirit wants, not things that are commonly attributed to a natural man.
Because of certain beliefs from the dark ages that still are a part of us today, we are stuck on the idea that somehow the body and the spirit are two separate entities. They are in fact one being, a whole person or soul. Before we received a body we were not a complete being and after we die and lose our body we are again incomplete. It is only when we are united body and spirit in all aspects of life that we are truly complete.
That I feel is the great fallacy of our time, that these two entities are always opposed to each other and at constant war over who is in control of the person as a whole. To me that doesn't make any sense, we have been sent down here by God to receive a body and to have our faith and resolve tested. The body that we have received is one of the most precious gifts that God has given us, remember we had to earn it and not all of His children managed to do that. If the body is really so great, glorious, and a precious gift of God, then why it is also the source of trouble and sin in our life?
A man much wiser than I am once explained it this way:
"You are always dragging me down,' said I to my Body. 'Dragging you down!' replied my Body. 'Well I like that! Who taught me to like tobacco and alcohol? You, of course, with your idiotic adolescent idea of being "grown up." My palate loathed both at first: but you would have your way. Who put an end to all those angry and revengeful thoughts last night? Me, of course, by insisting on going to sleep. Who does his best to keep you from talking too much and eating too much by giving you dry throats and headaches and indigestion? Eh?' 'And what about sex?' said I. 'Yes what about it?' retorted the Body. 'If you and your wretched imagination would leave me alone I'd give you no trouble. That's Soul all over; you give me orders and then blame me for carrying them out."
--C.S. Lewis
Those things we tend to call "weaknesses of the flesh" are many times actually the weaknesses of our spirits. They just tend to be something that requires the use of a body in order to actually perform the act. While he did write it in the form of body and soul talking with each other, the true man, the complete man, it one with a body and a soul. Therefore, we cannot just separate them and call it good. They must be together for any of this to happen.
So back to my official title of this post, "Who is the Natural Man?" He is the part of our being, both of our body and our spirit, that is not like God. He is the reason I need to be tested, the reason I need to grow and improve, the reason I need to be perfected through the Atonement of Christ. That is the true natural man, he is in each of us, but he doesn't have to stay there.
Again if you have insights for me, please feel free to leave comments (I am not a being with a perfect understanding of all things). I'd love to hear from any/all of you and what you think.
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