What is the inner man?

Now, first, of the outward man and the inner man. These are the two parts of every man, whether converted or unconverted; the outward man referring to the body which can die (2 Cor. 4:16); the inner man (Rom. 7:22; 2 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 3:16) referring to the heart, mind, etc.; all that is within the body, but is distinct from it, and which can never die. Eph. 3:16 may help to make this clear, as we read, "That ye may be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." And again (Rom. 7:22), "I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind," etc. Here the heart and the mind are the inward man. These terms then, outward and inward, contrast the material and the spiritual parts of man as a child of Adam.

And not only is there resurrection in the future but also a work of renewal in the present. "Our outward man" is the material body with which we are clothed. "The inward man" is not material but spiritual — that spiritual entity that we each possess, and which (since we are believers) has become the subject of God's new creation work. The current usage of this phrase in the world is a total misapplication of it. A man speaks of paying attention to "the demands of the inner man" when he means having a good meal to satisfy his stomach; and thus even the inner man is turned into a part of the anatomy of the outward man. This of course is symptomatic of the fact that the spiritual does not come within the range of the natural man.

The outward man is subject to all kinds of buffetings and wear and tear, yet it may in the mercy of God receive a certain amount of renewal, which may stave off for a time that ultimate perishing which we call death. The inward man IS renewed day by day. This renewal is doubtless produced by the gracious ministry of the Spirit of God, who indwells us.

If we are to enter into the riches of the Father's glory, we must be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; and it is for this that Paul prays for the beloved saints at Ephesus. All that which is of God within us is called the "inner man," and it is this which enters into the truth of God. We have been formed in the divine nature by the Spirit of God, so that we can delight in God and respond to all that God makes known to us.

The outward man is the physical man, the man that walks, eats, sleeps, performs the ordinary functions of life. The inward man belongs only to the Christian. It bespeaks a gracious work of God in the soul, the start of which is seen in the new birth, the fruit of God’s sovereign act. So we find the wretched man in Romans 7, struggling to find out the enigma of real life, telling us, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Rom. 7:22). He had a new nature with a delight in God, which the flesh never has. Paul prays that the Ephesian saints might “be strengthened with might by God’s Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16). Colossians 3:10 speaks of having “put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.”

It is what is called in the next chapter "the new man". It is the new creation work of which we read in Ephesians 2, "created in Christ Jesus" (v. 10). God has formed within us a new moral being termed in Ephesians 4, "the new man", and called here "the inner man". My natural intellect is connected with the "outward man" (2 Cor. 4:16), for intellect is connected with the bodily condition. We have a new moral being formed in our souls, called here the "inner man", and that is where this work is going on.

If you speak of a man in that way he is a moral being in a physical body. In that sense you may speak of an inner and an outer man, but that is not what is spoken of here. A Christian has an inner man in the sense of a new moral being. It is in it that he has to say to God and the whole faith system, but besides that, he has to do with the things of sight and sense. These latter, are the things of the outer man. The outer man is a great deal more than a merely material thought.

“I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Amidst all this struggling an inward delight is discovered in what is of God. The only person that has got this “inward man” is the believer, and he accordingly delights in the wonderful law of God. Another once said, “O how I love Thy law.” Men often talk of feeding the inner man when they really mean the outer man which perishes.

(V. 16). The first request is that the Father would grant us according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. The Apostle does not say “according to the riches of His grace”, as in Ephesians 1:7, but “according to the riches of His glory”, because the prayer is not connected with meeting our need, but rather with the fulfilment of the counsels of the Father's heart.

In the prayer of chapter 1 the request is that we may know the power of God toward us; here it is that we may have the power in us to strengthen us in the inner man. The outer man is the visible, natural man by which we are in touch with the things of the world. The inner man is the unseen and spiritual man, formed by the work of the Spirit in us, and by which we are in touch with unseen and eternal things. Just as the outer man needs to be strengthened by material things of this life, so the inner man needs to be strengthened by the Spirit to enter into the spiritual blessings of the new world of God's counsels.

In the first prayer of Ephesians the power is outside of us, it is the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, but in the second prayer, the power is within us, "Strengthened by the Spirit in the inner man." The "inner man" is the outcome of the work of the Spirit in the affections of the saints. "I delight in the law of God after the inner man."

Yes! but it is more than that. It is what is true of the saints. Scripture does not speak of the worldling as having an inner man, and therefore, it would be foolish to speak of his having an outer man.