Anyway
“If you hold to the soul life you will lose it anyway. If you embrace the new life that Jesus gives (spirit) you will see the soul saved anyway.” (6-21-2025) (Quote from David Stewart using my definitions.)
For whosoever will save his life (psuchē or psyche) shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. (Mark 8:35)
Jesus said that if we hold onto the old/soul/personal life we will lose it anyway. However, if we truly embrace the life that Jesus offers, we will see much of that same self-life preserved.
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls (psuchē or psyche). (1Peter 1:9)
Peter says that this is the goal of the Christian life, to see as much of the soul transformed as possible.
In my opinion, the life that Jesus says can be lost or gained is:
Self, personality, natural mind, natural life, that which is natural and personal to our consciousness.
The natural, instinctive drive of the human being is to preserve the natural life at all cost. This would include holding on to our opinions, our desires, and our personal worldview and perception of reality. All of these things that are unlike God will be destroyed. These contaminants cannot enter into the eternal things of God. They cannot enter into the Holy City. Heaven would eventually become hell as these things would affect the entirety (Gal 5:9). This really is serious. Yet, Peter talks about the salvation of this soul.
It is my understanding that the Bible teaches that every genuine Christian has 2 aspects to his inner man, a reborn spirit that cannot sin and an unregenerate soul that may be preserved or destroyed, partially or totally. We are not talking about behavior modification. This must be real, genuine transformation.
Imagine a narrow mountain pass. This is a place that separates two regions. This is the only way to get from one area to the other. The pass is so narrow that a small group of soldiers, or maybe a single soldier, can defend it. This soldier in this special spot is easily able to allow someone to come through or he can refuse entry to anyone he wants.
You and I have such a sentry guarding the entrance between the different “sections” of our inner man. This is called the Will of man. Things want to pass from the reborn human spirit into the realm of the psyche or soul. This fruit or consequence of the Holy Spirit in our reborn human spirit wants to pass into our soul and effect change. Our will stands between spirit and soul and allows passage of the things of God into our soul or it refuses passage into our soul. Therein lies the secret of the Christian life. We either allow God to change us or we refuse to allow transformation to take place. Quite simple in its “mechanics”, quite eternally far-reaching in its results.
There is an evaluation that every one of us must face (2 Cor 5:10).
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (1Cor 3:15)
What is it all about? This: How much of God's Spirit and His things did we allow or refuse to pass through to our soul or natural life? How much of our natural life is like God's nature? Our reborn spirit is entirely like God. This will pass through the fire of God's truth. It will be 100% untouched because it is completely like God. Of course, we do not pass through the fire of God's nature in pieces. This has nothing to do with God's judicial view of our past sins, directly. Those were dealt with on the cross by a merciful Savior. But having received a new nature from God, did it have any importance or value to us during our lifetime? The untransformed natural life will go up in flames (more or less) while you (in essence) will be saved. This is not God's intention. He wants us to arrive in heaven complete and entire (1 Thess 5:23). That includes every aspect of our conscious life, having been exchanged for the effect of the reborn spirit upon the soul (1 Peter 1:9). Simply put, if we exchange our naturally occurring thoughts for God's thoughts, found in His Word, His words will slowly produce an effortless change in us – that is, in our inner self, our soul.
As a real believer, even if you (soul) are entirely lost you (spirit) are completely saved. This is the key to understanding Paul's epistles, which speak about the unalterable work of God in our inner man and the seemingly contradictory truth about the necessity of obeying Christ's commands.
It will be great to enjoy God's presence because faith in the Gospel granted us to have God's life born into us. But if that coincides with standing in a pile of ash when our time in the body (2Cor 5:10) is reviewed, that would be awkward. Especially since it is not supposed to be that way. God wants us to arrive in heaven entire. So, it's part God's work and part our effort? No. Where we spend eternity is entirely the work of God. How we enjoy the next life depends greatly on our valuing or despising the salvation that God grants us now.
Aug 5, 2025