“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:26,27).

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground [material aspect], and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [spiritual aspect]; and man became a living being [psychological aspect]” (Gen. 2:7). Yet man is considered one in personhood.

One of the implicit evidences of man as spirit, soul and body is that he/she is made in the image of God, who is triune. Dr. Lehman Strauss included this reasoning in his series about “Dead and Afterward.” He affirmed:

Man is a triune being because he is created in the image of God. “God said, Let us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26). We know that God is a Trinity. The Holy Trinity is clearly set forth in the Apostle Paul’s benediction that closed his Second Corinthian Epistle: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen” (2 Corinthians 13:14). Our Lord Himself said, in what we call “The Great Commission”: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). Created in the image of God, man is likewise a trinity. He has a spiritual nature that is separate and distinct from the body in which it dwells.

The two following passages from the Bible clearly establish the fact that man is a triune being composed of spirit, soul, and body:

I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow (body), and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).

In spite of the erroneous teaching of “Jehovah’s Witnesses” and of other false sects that “no man has a soul,” the Bible states emphatically that man was created a trinity of spirit, soul, and body even as the eternal God is Himself a trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The trinity of man is an essential part of the image relationship between him and God. Life is not ultimately physical and the body is not the whole man. And we might add that neither the body in itself, nor the soul in itself, nor the spirit in itself makes up the whole man, but he is “spirit and soul and body.” This must be seriously considered and definitely agreed to before we can comprehend with any accuracy the subject of life after death…[1]

Although God’s three-in-one nature is not conclusive proof of man’s triunity, it should be considered supporting evidence in favor of holistic trichotomy.

[1] Lehman Strauss, an excerpt from “Man A Trinity (Spirit, Soul, Body)”
https://bible.org/seriespage/2-man-trinity-spirit-soul-body

Lehman Strauss (1911-1997) taught Old Testament history for eight years at Philadelphia Bible Institute, and for 18 years served as pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church in Bristol, Pennsylvania.