The spirit of man is the immaterial nature of man considered especially in its higher functions and its relation to God—the breath of life from God by which man lives, the seat of his consciousness, will, and capacity for communion with his Maker. In the dichotomist understanding (the majority Reformed view), “spirit” and “soul” name the one immaterial nature of man from different angles: “soul” (nephesh, psuchē) views it as the principle of life and the seat of the affections, while “spirit” (ruach, pneuma) views the same nature in its God-ward relation and its rational, willing, worshipping functions. The spirit is the breath of life God breathed into man at his creation, and which He withdraws at death, when the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns unto God who gave it. It is the part of man by which he knows himself—“what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?”—and the seat of his moral and religious life. In the unregenerate, the spirit, though existing, is darkened and alienated from the life of God, unable of itself to commune with Him; in the regenerate, the human spirit is quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, who bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, so that the believer worships God in spirit and in truth. The doctrine of the spirit of man thus underscores both his dignity—a creature made for fellowship with God, with a capacity no beast possesses—and his need, for that spirit, ruined by the fall, must be born again from above if it is to live unto God. The right care of the spirit is to have it renewed by the Spirit of God, kept in communion with Him, and committed at death into His hands, as the Lord Himself commended His spirit to the Father.