If we would see the vision of the self, we need to pay careful attention to Matthew 16:21-26, Luke 9:23-25, and Genesis 3:1-6.
Matthew 16:21 tells us that Jesus "began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised." When Peter heard this, he "took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!" (v. 22). Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men" (v. 23). Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it. For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul-life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul-life?" (vv. 24-26). The Greek word translated "soul-life" here is psuche, the word for "soul." Whenever the New Testament speaks of the divine life, eternal life, the life of God, it uses the word zoe, but when it speaks of the soulish life, the soul-life, it uses the word psuche.
In these verses there are four things which are closely related to one another: Satan, the mind, the self, and the natural life. In verse 23a Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!" Then He went on to speak about the mind: "You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men" (v. 23b). Following this, we have the self in verse 24 and the natural life, here called the soul-life, in verses 25 and 26. The soul-life, or the natural life, is the self; the self is in the mind; and the mind is occupied by Satan.
As we consider these matters, we eventually realize what the self is. The self is the embodiment of Satan. As Christ is the embodiment of God, so the self is the embodiment of Satan. This is indicated by the fact that the Lord Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!" The Lord was speaking to Peter, yet He called Peter Satan because Satan was embodied in Peter. Where was Satan embodied? Satan was embodied in Peter's soul by occupying his mind. The mind is the leading part of the soul and the representative of the soul. To take over a person's mind is to take over the entire person.
We need to be impressed with these four matters: Satan, the mind, the self, and the natural life. The soul is the natural life. The natural life is the self. The self is in the mind, which is occupied by Satan. The self is thus the embodiment of Satan.
At this point it would be helpful to compare Luke 9:25 to Matthew 16:26. In Luke 9:25 the Lord Jesus says, "What is a man profited if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself?" As we have seen, in Matthew 16:26 the Lord Jesus speaks of losing the soul-life. Whereas Matthew 16:26 speaks of "soul-life," in Luke 9:25 "soul-life" is replaced by "himself." This indicates that our soul-life is our self. These are synonyms. The self is the soul-life and the soul-life is the self.