1 Pet. 1.9 “receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls”
When one thinks of salvation, the thought most frequently goes to “eternal life” or “going to heaven when you die. But this thought is most elementary and falls far short of its Biblical understanding. Salvation has its roots in the idea of being delivered from sin and its consequences, consequences which include spiritual death and eternal separation from God. This salvation is a free gift (by grace) from God, only made possible through faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross, by His resurrection from the dead, and glorious ascension into heaven. It is important to note that full salvation not only involves being redeemed from the penalty of sin but also being transformed into a new life in actual relationship with God.
In order for such fullness of salvation to come to man, it must come to the whole man, to his spirit, soul and body. As it is written in 1 Thes. 5.23, “23Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Thus, salvation comes to the whole man, first to his spirit in the new birth (Note: Jn. 3.3,5.7; 1 Pet. 1.23; Tit. 3.5), and then the present ongoing transformation of his soul (Note 2 Cor.3.18, Rm. 12.2), and finally to the resurrection of his body in the Day of the Lord at His second coming (Note: Ph. 3.20-21; Rm. 8.18-23). A review of these reference scriptures is strongly recommended and is a Bible study in itself. This idea of God’s offer of salvation coming fully to “tripartite man,” being spirit, soul, and body, must be received in order to more fully understand the salvation of the soul, as noted in our opening scripture,
1 Pet. 1.9 “receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls”
The phrase, “end of our faith,” means that the “salvation of our souls” is the overarching object to which our faith is now directed; it is the thing we believe for, the object of our faith. The “salvation of our souls” is the crowning consummation, our hope, our anticipation, for what is to ultimately come. It is the hope for our souls, mind you, not for our spirits that have already been saved in the new birth, nor in the future salvation of our bodies which will be saved in the resurrection to come, but is a present ongoing transformation of our souls.
For now, let’s put our minds to rest regarding eternal salvation, for the believer has already inherited eternal life in the new birth of his spirit, as it is written, Eph. 2.8 “8For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God;” and 1 Pet. 1.23 “23having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” And the promise of the resurrection is to all who are in Christ, Jn. 11.25-26 “25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”
The focus here now is upon man’s soul. Our souls need our spirits to connect to the spiritual world, and we need our bodies to connect to the physical world, but our soul is our person, all that we are consciously, intellectually, emotionally; it contains our wills and desires, our inner-most thoughts. The soul is simply the seat or core of our being, it is who we are individually. Our soul is what makes us distinct and unique from the eight billion other souls now living upon the earth. Every soul upon this earth stands in God’s love, and is offered this salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ; as it is written,
Jn. 3.16 16For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
I dearly love this promise of salvation, and I also dearly love that word translated here as, “whoever.” It literally means “all” in the sense of “each” or “every” part. The emphasis here is upon the total picture of eight billion people on this earth then taken as “one soul at a time.” Every soul stands equal before God and the offer of salvation made to him or her: whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, rich or poor. (Gal. 3.28) Whosever, the thought goes beyond the limits set by man of race, culture, class, or heritage. Its only limit is all humanity, with one qualifying exception, it is to whoever believes in Him, meaning God’s Son Jesus Christ, and Him alone.
There is no other way, no other source, no other provision, no other hope for the salvation of our souls, as it is written by the apostle John,
1 Jn. 5.11-12 “11And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
The message of salvation cannot become any clearer than this. God has provided a source for eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Over 4000 religions in the world boast of some kind of after-life, but all are futile, blind guides. Of these Jesus said to His disciple, Mt. 15.14 “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” Jesus being the sole way of salvation is called Solus Christus meaning “Christ alone” and is a key Christian belief rooted in scripture, such as Acts 4.12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” We will explore this further, and how it relates to the salvation of the soul.
Origin of the Soul
The origin of man and his soul is like this: Gn. 2.7 “7And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground (thus creating his body), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (thus giving man his spirit); and man became a living being (or soul). Therefore man became an ensouled being, having a spirit to communicate with the spiritual domain and a body to communicate with the physical or natural word. Thus, the soul, that is who we are, our self, including our intellect, memory, emotions, and free will to decide and choose, is the command center of our being; it interacts with both the invisible and intangible spiritual domain of God and the angels, and the tangible physical domain of the world and its people.
Image and Likeness
However, we must ask the question, “What was God’s intent for the nature of man; and by nature is meant how was man to think or to feel about things, about different situations, and how was he to respond or act in some manner? This is a very important question. Because out of man’s nature comes forth his character. Now a man’s character is how he expresses his inner nature; particularly that relating to the moral and ethical aspects of his nature; these expressions are seen in his degree of honesty, integrity, empathy, selfishness, patience, and so on. Thus, character is the manifestation witnessed by others, including God, of the true nature of man. So, what was God’s original intent for man? It is written at creation,
Gn. 1.26 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;”
Wow, isn’t that amazing, God’s original intent for man was to be created in His own image and likeness, to reflect in some way God’s own nature. At this point I will make no attempt to distinguish between the words image and likeness because Bible scholars even struggle to make a distinction; they seem to come to the conclusion that their similarities far outweigh their differences. I believe the key to understanding image and likeness lies in the root meaning of the Hebrew word for image (tselem), and that meaning is basically a “shadow.” Thus man, being created in the image of God, was to be a representative shadow of God, closely manifesting God’s nature in character yet lacking some essential divine qualities such as the “omnis of God,” that is the three attributes of God as being omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipresent (present everywhere).
Being a physical shadow, or a pattern, or a copy of a spiritual reality is strongly rooted in scripture: Adam was a type or shadow of Christ, Eve was a type of the Church, and Israel was a type or shadow of the New Testament body of believers, the family of God. Specifically, Moses’ tabernacle was said to be a shadow or a pattern of the real heavenly tabernacle (Heb. 25.8-9), the one that it is written of in Hebrews,
Heb. 8.1-2 “1Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.”
Even the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolized God’s continual presence and the place of true worship, was not the real ark, but a shadow of its heavenly reality. (See Rev. 11.19) This is the tabernacle Jesus Christ entered upon His ascension into heaven to offer His own blood on the heavenly mercy seat that set atop the true Ark of the Covenant, as it is written,
Heb. 9.11-12 “11But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made by hands and is not a part of this creation. 12He did not enter by the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.”
And so man, created in the image of God, was to be His earthly shadow, His pattern, having a resemblance to God but lacking God’s divine reality, not having the fullness of God’s nature and character. At the very core of God’s nature is His holiness and righteousness that determine everything issuing forth in His character, including His relationships with His Son, the angels, and man. We will return to speaking of these essential qualities of God, His holiness and righteousness, but first we must see how Satan plotted to deceive Adam and Eve into believing that they could become greater than a shadow of God, but become as God Himself.
The Original Sin
It is written,
Gn. 3.1, 4 1Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made…. 4Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Did you get that lie of Satan, “you will be like God,” no longer a mere shadow or like an ambassador for God, but to become like God in His omniscient (all-knowing). I will make no excuses for Eve, or for Adam, like we must remember this is the first falsehood they ever heard; or that their minds were still infantile and without experience; or Adam and Eve were separated and Eve did not have her protector, and Adam did not have his complement. At this point they may have been innocent, but they were not stupid. They were deliberately disobedient. They were fully aware of the promises and consequences of their actions,
Gn. 2.16-17, 16“the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
The first commandment, and actually a covenant with God, was broken¾they had sinned. They had a free will to eat of the Tree of Life in which the nature of God would fill their beings with His life, or, to choose to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and to develop their own nature and character apart from God, Even a dog knows when they have been disobedient and did wrong, it is instinctive in their nature; they lay their ears back, they cower, or hide themselves–which is just what Adam and Eve did, they hid themselves.
We learn from Rm. 5.12 the ominous destruction set upon all creation, that this original sin of Adam, who was the progenitor for all mankind, introduced sin and death to the entire world. And this sin and death is passed down through every generation to this day. Thus, all humanity inherited this sinful nature from Adam, which is why all people have an inclination to sin and eventually all die.
Salvation of the Soul
And so Adam was created to be the shadow of God with the propensity for His holy and righteous nature, as Ecc. 7.29 writes, “Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes.” This creative “uprightness” is known as man’s original righteousness (as opposed to original sin) ¾ that man was originally created “upright” but then, in outright disobedience, has fallen into various devises of sin. And so, it is important at this point to refocus our idea of salvation, “from” that of merely attaining heaven and gaining eternal life, and now address issues specific to the salvation of the ‘soul’; looking past those things that relate to that of the ‘spirit’ or the ‘body;’ because, noting once again, the spirit is saved (past tense) in the new birth, and the body will be saved (future tense) in the resurrection to come. But in regards to the soul, we must consider its transformation in nature and character in our present-day life.
For this consideration we must consider uncovering two important mysteries, the first is that of a “new creation”, and the second is that of “restoration.” To begin with the idea of a “new creation” we will consider two key scriptures. The first being…
Gal. 6.15 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”
This verse literally means, even in its most elementary understanding, that salvation is not a matter of whether one is physically circumcised or not, or whether they are a member of a church, or attempt to keep the commandments of God to their utmost, or even if one has been water baptized, for all of that is irrelevant if the key act of faith is missing. It is only a matter if you have been truly spiritually born again, without which one cannot see the Kingdom of God let alone to actually enter into it (Jn. 3.3,5); this is most critical to salvation. The Biblical understanding of regeneration is this: that it is a supernatural act by the Holy Spirit where a believer’s spirit comes alive to God, is given new life in Christ. This new birth works inwardly in the believer transforming them from a state of spiritual death to one of new life, enabling them to fellowship with God in faith. It is this internal spiritual change that enables an inner transformation, not something a person can achieve through their own efforts. I cannot repeat often enough that both components of faith are needed for the full operation of the Spirit in our lives, and that is faith is both believing and receiving (into your heart). This is reinforced by,
2 Cor. 5.17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
We all, after coming to Christ with regenerated hearts, look with distain upon our sordid pasts, often with much distaste, contempt, and embarrassment for our old sinful and selfish ways. But now we find inward cleansing, both spiritually and mentally, in the mercy and grace of God in Christ: God’s mercy means not getting what I deserve; the guilt has been taken away, and God’s grace means receiving spiritual blessings what I do not deserve, God’s unmerited favor and inner empowerment for a new life in Christ.
Old Man New Man: A Contrast in Natures
Eph. 4.20-24 “20But you have not so learned Christ, 21if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (See also Col. 3.8-11)
The phrase “the old man” (found also in Rm. 6.6, Col.3.9) refers to the old unregenerate nature that is readily subject to “deceitful lusts” ¾ those intense sinful desires that can lead to spiritually destructive behavior. They are called here “deceitful lusts” because they are sinful desires that are false because they promise one thing but ultimately lead to corruption and destruction of body, soul, and spirit. They are deceitful because they lie to a person, making them believe that satisfying the desire will bring true satisfaction and happiness, when in reality its pursuit only leads to moral and often physical decay, unrest and ruin. These are the passion, the desires of the old man that must now be put off, visualized as one undressing of an old filthy set of garments.
1 Jn. 2.16 clearly states three types of lusts: 1) the lust of the flesh which appeals to the basic carnal desires, which are many and varied, 2) the lust of the eyes which is the coveting what one sees, and 3) the pride of life which includes arrogance and self-promotion.
The quandary, or difficulty of the situation is that putting off the old man does not remove him, or destroy him, nor can his nature ever be changed; he remains alive and is the same old man he ever was in the unregenerate man. Faith is exercised in this manner: It is reckoning him dead on a continual basis, it is dethroning him from his seat of authority, showing no regard for his rule and dominion, to his whims and lusts. “Change” in the salvation of the soul is necessary, but it lies not in the old man who can never be altered but in the resurrection of a new man from within.
This idea of “putting off of the old man” is at once abso); itnd overshadowed by the stronger mystery of “putting on the new man,” which is, in all true spiritual reality, according to Rm. 13.14, and that is “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.“ To “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.“ is an altogether new walk of faith, it is a renewing of the mind (Rm. 12.2); it is seeing things in an altogether new perspective; it is beginning to see things in the invisible and intangible spiritual dimension of life and abandoning the old mundane religious practices. In conclusion, consider the following three scriptures:
Gal. 3.27 “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Literally you may have been baptized into water, but have you spiritually been baptized into Christ? This is a waterless spiritual immersion. It is becoming clothed with the nature and character of Christ. This is a spiritual baptism by faith. Consider also ….
Rm. 6.3-4 “3Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” To be baptized into Christ is of a higher plane than baptism into water. The water relates to cleansing and salvation of the spirit, but now baptism into Christ involves the progressive salvation of the soul. The ideas of death and life are now considered on a spiritual level, believing for the death (or crucifixion) of the old man and the resurrection of the new man created in righteousness and holiness. And lastly…
Gal. 2.20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” You must now, today, and tomorrow, and the day after, contemplate this most powerful revelation of scripture. I personally know individuals, myself included, that this scripture has helped transform their lives from a religious attempt at salvation to a life of rest and peace, and confidence in the indwelling Christ. Do not just read it, you must absorb it. You must own it for yourself. It must become personal. Christ is the central subject of the verse, but you are its object, the “I,” the “me.” Within this verse there is resurrected life from within; there is freedom from religious mandates and practices, and there is peace from striving, and joy in His presence, and there is a rest for our soul.
If there is any verse of scripture that fits perfectly into Heb. 4.12 and 1 Thes. 2.13, it is this one:
Heb. 4.12 “ 12For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”
1 Thes. 2.13 “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”
