Devotional - 99-07-06 - S3: Soul

The Holy Alphabet Series

Matthew 16:24-26 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

"The Soul is the inward and spiritual part of man, which is mortal and never can dye, Eccles. 12:7, Matthew 10:28, 2 Cor. 5:8, Rev. 6:9." --Robert Port

The soul is mortal and never can die...mortal and never can die. It makes no sense. And yet, what a profound, largely lost truth, has Port fallen upon. It would take the whole of theology to explain what "is mortal and never can die" means. And yet, the Christian knows the answer to this puzzle. The Christian knows, trusts, and believes that his or her soul is both mortal and yet can never die. It is this truth that causes the Christian to flee to Christ and place all hope on the salvation found in Him.

It is a common occurrence to hear about the disease of the body. There is almost always someone we know who is ill. But it is quite uncommon for anyone to speak of the soul as being diseased. And yet soul sickness is much more common and much more dangerous. The act of turning to God in faith is described in Scripture as being healed in Isaiah 6:10.

A disease in the soul is more dangerous than a disease in the body. A diseased body can only lead to the death of the body, which is going to die anyway, Eccles. 12:7. But disease in the soul both makes us useless to God in this life and leads to the eternal destruction of both body and soul in the life to come, Matthew 10:28.

The first instance of a diseased soul in Scripture is in Genesis 3:8-10. It came as the result of sin and we know it well, Adam hears God walking in the garden, is afraid and runs and hides. We all, with Adam, know the pain of sin. We know the helplessness that the condition of sin places us in. "For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly", Romans 5:6. We also know that the result of sin is death. Romans 6:23, Romans 5:12, "by sin came death."

We would do well to look after our soul better than we look after our outer flesh. We live in a world that doesn't see things this way. Our society and culture is obsessed with the body and the outer appearance. As Christians we should learn from the example of the world and become obsessed with our souls. It requires work and effort to maintain our bodies and it takes effort to maintain our souls. May God give us grace to learn how apply the blood of Christ to our souls that healing balm of Gilead might be to us effectively applied.

"The real value of an object is that which one who knows its worth will give for it. He who made the soul, knew its worth, and gave His life for it." - Arthur Jackson

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

comments@papercutpress.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org

If you would like a copy of the Holy Alphabet by Port printed with another of his works on Walking with God daily, send an email to comments@papercutpress.com and get on the list of those who will be notified first when this work is republished.