The Bible also speaks of the salvation of our soul. People usually divide man into two parts, the soul and the body, but in the Bible, God tells us that man has three parts, spirit and soul and body (1 Thes. 5:23). Because we have these three parts, we have three kinds of salvation. Our spirit was enlivened when we believed. We obtained eternal salvation through our regeneration by the Holy Spirit. At that time, God forgave our sins and enlivened our deadened spirit. The salvation of our body will occur when the Lord returns. At that time, the Lord will transfigure our body, using His great power to transfigure the body of our humiliation into a glorious body. The salvation of our soul will be obtained when we enter into the millennial kingdom to reign with the Lord. It will be the Lord’s reward to us when our soul enjoys the joy of the kingdom with Him.
1. “Whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:25, see also vv. 24-27; 10:37-39).
According to the principle of the Bible, the salvation spoken of here does not refer to eternal salvation because eternal salvation is obtained freely through faith without any requirement that we pay a price. Salvation in these verses comes from losing our soul-life; it is obtained by our willingness to pay the price of sacrificing our soul. Moreover, eternal salvation is related to the enlivening of our spirit, whereas the salvation spoken of here is related to finding the soul-life. From the context of this passage, save refers to receiving a reward when the Lord returns in glory because we were willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross, follow the Lord, and lose our soul-life for the Lord’s sake. According to the New Testament, this reward is our entrance into the millennial kingdom and our enjoyment of the joy of our Lord (25:21). The enjoyment of joy is particularly related to the soul. If we are not willing to lose our enjoyment in this age, we will save our soul-life today but lose our soul-life in the future, that is, we will lose our soul’s enjoyment in the millennial kingdom. If we are willing to sacrifice our soul’s enjoyment for the Lord’s sake in this age, even to the extent of losing our soul-life, we will find our soul-life in the future; that is, we will obtain a reward when the Lord returns, and our soul will enjoy the joy of the millennial kingdom with the Lord. This is the salvation of the soul. The Lord also speaks of this matter in Matthew 10:39.
Our soul is not only where we experience joy and happiness but also where we experience suffering. Whether we experience joy or suffering, these are particularly felt in the soul. The suffering sensed by the soul actually gives one a feeling of suffering. All the ridicule, persecution, and harm that we receive from others because we believe, serve, and follow the Lord cause our soul to suffer. For example, some want to love the Lord, but their spouse does not agree and gives them trouble. Others want to serve God and take the Lord’s way, but their parents or children oppose them, their friends reject them, and even their closest relatives and neighbors persecute them. These are sufferings to the soul. If we do not love and follow the Lord because we want to avoid these sufferings, we will save our soul-life and avoid them. However, this will cause us to lose the enjoyment of the kingdom in our soul. If we are willing to bear these sufferings for the Lord’s sake, we will allow our soul to be troubled, to be dealt with, to be put to death, to be lost, and to be sacrificed for the Lord. This will be the salvation of our soul, and it will enable our soul to enjoy the joy of the Lord in the future.
Our soul is just our self. If we are willing to deny our self, to put the self to death without saving it, we will lose, rather than save, our soul-life. If we are willing to do this today, we will experience the Lord’s life in our spirit and enjoy the joy of the Lord in our soul in the future. In the future, when we enjoy the joy of the Lord in our soul, we will find our soul-life and obtain the salvation of our soul. This future salvation requires us to lose our soul-life today by allowing our soul to suffer, to be troubled, and even to be put to death.
2. “Whoever will lose his soul-life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it” (Mark 8:35).
While this passage says the same thing as Matthew 16:25, which speaks of losing our soul-life for the Lord’s sake, it also speaks of losing our soul-life for the gospel’s sake. Being for the Lord’s sake and the gospel’s sake are inseparable matters. If we sacrifice the enjoyment of our soul and our soul-life itself in this age, we will obtain a special enjoyment of our soul in the future kingdom as we reign with the Lord in glory and enjoy the joy of the Lord.
3. “Whoever seeks to preserve his soul-life will lose it, and whoever loses it will preserve it alive” (Luke 17:33).
Any believer who seeks to preserve his soul-life and its enjoyment for himself in this age will lose the enjoyment of his soul in the age of the kingdom; whoever loses his soul’s enjoyment for the Lord will save his soul in the kingdom age and will obtain enjoyment.
4. “He who has endured to the end, this one shall be saved” (Matt. 10:22; 24:13).
The salvation spoken of here by the Lord requires enduring to the end. This is different from eternal salvation which requires only faith. According to the context, the Lord is speaking of the salvation of the soul. Some believers are persecuted and killed for the Lord. If they endure to the end, the Lord will reward them in the future by causing their soul to avoid suffering and by giving them the enjoyment of His joy.
5. “In your endurance you will possess your souls” (Luke 21:19).
This verse clearly speaks of enduring suffering for the Lord, which causes our souls to be saved. This word is further proof of the Lord’s word in Matthew 10:22 concerning the salvation of our soul. Both verses speak of the same thing.
6. “Them who have faith to the gaining of the soul” (Heb. 10:39).
Although this verse speaks of faith causing our souls to be gained, it is not referring to the faith we had when we first believed in the Lord. Rather, it refers to our faith after believing in the Lord. This is not the faith needed for our entrance into salvation but the faith needed for our walk on the Lord’s way. It is not faith for obtaining life but faith for living. If we walk by faith on the Lord’s way after we are saved and live an overcoming life, this faith will cause our souls to be saved in the future, when we participate in the glory and joy of the kingdom.
7. “Therefore putting away all filthiness and the abundance of malice, receive in meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).
This verse speaks of our souls being saved by putting away all filthiness and the abundance of malice and receiving in meekness the implanted word. This is different from eternal salvation, which requires only faith. Eternal salvation is obtained as soon as we believe and receive the Lord’s word. The salvation of our soul will be received in the future if we put away filthiness and malice and continually receive and keep the Lord’s word.
8. “Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1:9, see also v. 5).
Faith here refers to our faith for living after we are saved (cf. v. 7). This faith enables us to receive God’s preserving and to overcome tribulations and trials so that our souls can be saved. With such faith, we will receive the salvation that God has prepared, which will be manifested at the Lord’s return and which consists of our escaping all sufferings and enjoying the joy of glory.
9. “The Lord...will save me into His heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:18; see also 2 Pet. 1:11).
After Paul was saved, he sacrificed all the enjoyment of his soul in this age for the Lord’s sake, and he was prepared to lose his soul-life, to be willingly martyred for the Lord. Therefore, he believed that the Lord would save him into His heavenly kingdom and cause his soul to enjoy the Lord’s joy there. In the future, the Lord will certainly give him much glory and a rich entrance into His kingdom so that he will enjoy glory and joy with the Lord.
Eternal salvation is freely given at the time of our believing through the enlivening of our spirit, and the salvation of our body will be received when the Lord returns, but the salvation of the soul will be obtained only in the millennial kingdom by those who are willing to suffer for the Lord and to lose the enjoyment of their soul today. The salvation that is related to the spirit and the body does not require us to do anything; only the salvation of the soul requires that we pay a price, the price of losing the enjoyment of our soul in this age. The salvation of our soul is the portion of God’s salvation that is a reward. (We will cover the details of this portion in chapters 47 and 48.)