2 Cor. 5:14-21; Matt. 10:27-28; Mark 8:36-37
First I would like all of us to consider exactly what we think of when we think of a “soul.”
How do some of the famous philosophers and theologians describe the “soul.”
Plato, drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, considered the soul as the essence of a person, being, that which decides how we behave
Aristotle, following Plato, defined the soul as the core essence of a being, but argued against its having a separate existence. For instance, if a knife had a soul, the act of cutting would be that soul, because ‘cutting’ is the essence of what it is to be a knife.
Thomas Aquinas understands the soul as the first principle, or act, of the body. However,..the soul can experience apart from the body and therefore could subsist without the body
There is another thought that the soul is the life force, which ends in death and is restored in the resurrection. Theologian Frederick Buechner sums up this position in his 1973 book Whistling in the Dark: “…we go to our graves as dead as a doornail and are given our lives back again by God (i.e., resurrected) just as we were given them by God in the first place.”
Augustine, one of western Christianity’s most influential early Christian thinkers, described the soul as “a special substance, endowed with reason, adapted to rule the body”.
Maybe you can agree with any one of these philosophers or maybe you have a completely different understanding of the “soul” or maybe you’ve never even considered the idea of a soul or its meaning.
Today though it is the last word in our Lenten acrostic “Christ Redeems Our Sinful Souls” so we are challenged to consider seriously what “soul” means generally and also within this statement.
The word soul or souls appears many times throughout the Bible, yet there is no clear cut definition of the word soul. The best definition I could find in my Biblical research, was that the Greek word is transliterated as psychē, which means life, soul; heart, mind; a person; the immaterial and eternal part of the inner person, often meaning the living self.
There are two verses that first came to mind from the Gospel of Matthew that seemed to strike me as helpful.
First is the one we heard already this morning, Matthew 10:28:
28Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
These words of Jesus clearly define that the body and soul are different and that there may be those who can kill the body but there is only one who holds dominion over both the body and soul. Our bodies are mortal and can be killed through disease, accidents or murderous acts but even if our bodies are destroyed, our souls can remain in Him. Thus our souls are eternal. Jesus says though that although the world cannot kill the soul in the same way it can kill the body, there is one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Jesus is warning that we must be careful not to let evil into our lives because it wants to claim not just our bodies but also our souls, in this condemning us to eternity in Hell.
Another verse that referenced the soul is, Matthew 11:28-30:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
“Rest for your souls.” Jesus is not talking about physical rest here. He is talking about finding inner peace from the heavy burdens we carry in this life. He is saying, come, walk with me and let me set your soul free from all that weighs you down.
There is no doubt that Jesus cared about the physical bodies of those He met. He was the Healer of lepers, the demon-possessed, the blind, deaf, lame, and the sick. He even brought life back to the dead.
He cared for the body as He walked this earth but His greatest concern was the soul. The healing of the body is only temporary, but the healing of the soul is what gives us Eternal Life.
This harkens back to the sermon on the word “our” and idea that God created all of us and knows us all intimately and wants us to know Him as well. We cannot know God face to face but we can know Him soul to soul. God is within us – it is our soul that connects with our Creator and helps us to truly know Him personally.
Our physical bodies are temporal; our souls are eternal. Our souls are the essence of who we are in this world and in the next.
It is the soul that yearns to find something more than this world has to offer. It is as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:1-2, 4-6
Our bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth. But when these tents are destroyed, we know that God will give each of us a place to live. These homes will not be buildings that someone has made, but they are in heaven and will last forever. 2 While we are here on earth, we sigh because we want to live in that heavenly home. 4 These tents we now live in are like a heavy burden, and we groan. But we don’t do this just because we want to leave these bodies that will die. It is because we want to change them for bodies that will never die. 5 God is the one who makes all of this possible. He has given us his Spirit to make us certain that he will do it. 6 So always be cheerful!
Our bodies sometimes get in the way of what we want to do and even to say.
Think about it…there are people who are on fire for the Lord but who are held back by ailments and diseases. This does not stop them though. When they are strong in spirit, they find ways to carry the message of the Gospel in spite of their bodies.
Even if the body is struggling, the soul is filled with joy when we hear and share the Good News of Jesus Christ. As I Peter 1:8-9 states,
“8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Our Souls are the essence of who we are today, but also, of whose we are in Christ. When Christ redeemed our sinful souls He saved us not just for this earthly life but for all eternity.
The Lenten Season is coming to an end. We have spent six weeks reflecting on our lives, our relationship with Christ, and the meaning of the cross. At the very foundation of this sermon series was the concentration on the CROSS and what it means to us. I pray that whenever you see a cross – at home, at church, or anywhere in your daily life, you will not see just another decoration. I pray that it be a vivid reminder that
Christ Redeemed Our Sinful Souls
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