Three Lives; One is for New Jerusalem (2)
Man is a being of three parts—spirit and soul and body (1 Thes. 5:23). When we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, He, the divine life, comes into our spirit. Then we have three lives in our three parts—divine, eternal life in our spirit, soul life in our soul, and physical life in our body.
The Lord’s salvation cleanses us from sin but that is not His goal. The cleansing opens the way for Him to come into us, to live in us. As He lives in us He knits us together with other believers and is expressed through us as His spiritual Body. This is His intention and New Jerusalem is His ultimate expression.
Because of the fall of man in Genesis 3 our soul life is fallen and cannot express God. Therefore it needs to be denied (Matt. 16:24-26). As we deny our self, the Spirit of life in our spirit spreads to our soul to renew us and to impart the divine life into our soul (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; Titus 3:5).
The Lord warned us in Matthew 16:25, “whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.” The finding will occur when the Lord returns visibly in glory. Let us deny our self, our soul life now and turn our being to the Lord. When we do, “the mind set on the spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6).
Let us seek His life and peace now to prepare for the reward at His coming and for increased eternal life and peace in New Jerusalem.
NT verses with psuche (pronounced soo’-kay; often translated soul): Matt. 6:25; Mark 3:4; Acts 27:22; 1 John 3:16 + about 90 more.
Posted by Don on March 7, 2022
