Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 7 Study # 3
November 8, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
(355)
Thesis: Understanding Jesus' requirement of "self-denial" is expanded by His explanation of the inter-relationships between the "physical soul" of man and the "relational soul" of man.
Introduction: In our last study, we considered Jesus' words regarding what is involved for the man who would "come after Him", but we narrowed our focus down to the issues of Jesus using the physical issue of "coming after" (walking on the same path, handling the path in the same way) as an analogy for the relational issue of "coming after Him" (accepting His Love -- values -- and believing His teachings -- truth). Love and Truth are God's great deposits in man's reality so that he can "Live".
In that study I also put forth the probability that the three "requirements" are in a parallel pattern of the three "realities" that make the requirements what they are. But, we did not get very far into the parallel, in the pattern, between "self-denial" and "the realities regarding the lives of the souls".
Thus, we are going there this evening. It is somewhat of a complicated issue by reason of an almost total lack of focus by the teaching of the visible Church upon the issues of "soul" (translated "life" in the text before us in the NASB).
- I. The Issues Of "Soul".
- A. In Genesis 2:7 Moses declared that man "became a living soul" when the body of dust was united with the breath of life from God.
- B. In 1 Corinthians 15:45 Paul drew a sharp distinction between "the first man, Adam, became a living soul" and "the Last Adam became a Life-imparting spirit".
- C. Thus, there is a difference between man's makeup as "a living soul" and the Last Man's makeup as "a Life-imparting spirit".
- D. But, Jesus, the Last Adam, possessed a "soul" of some sort that He described as capable of being brought to such a strong experience of "grief" that it was almost at the point of death (Mark 13:34).
- E. And, into these statements come Jesus' words about "saving and losing one's soul" and "losing and saving one's soul" as His expansion of His meaning regarding "self-denial".
- II. To Understand The Issues Of "Soul" We Must Understand The Analogy Language That Makes It Possible To Recognize What A "Soul" Is.
- A. The first requirement: "...let him deny himself..." is parallel to "...whosoever would save his soul shall lose it...".
- 1. The issue of self-denial [See (354)]. The meaning in its most clear use is Peter's emphatic "I do not know this man" (14:71). Denying oneself, then, would be to refuse to entertain the input of the "self", especially in respect to taking actions that do not match those of Jesus on the path He established for those who "would come after" Him.
- 2. The parallel (i.e., greater detail of meaning).
- a. Jesus puts this "self-denial" into the domain of the "soul" (psuche), which is a complex of two different realities.
- 1) The psuche is, in the physical realm, the upper torso from the head to the upper chest wherein all of "the sustaining of life's necessities" exist. This is the physical reality that has become the illustration of the relational realm. Thus, one can "lose his soul" as an actual "loss of physical life" if the physical realm is the involved realm.
- 2) And, in "the relational realm", it is the core of the "emotional life" of the person as the person himself/herself when viewed in terms of the emotional experiences that arise out of the relationships one possesses with "others"/"The Other". These are the passive aspects of the "soul" where the person is a "responder" not an initiator.
- b. Jesus puts this "self-denial" into the realm of its ("the soul's) "salvation" (sozo).
- 1) This is not the continuation of "existence" (one can "lose one's soul" and remain in conscious, aware, existence).
- 2) This is, however, the issue of one's "quality of existence" as a "Life" issue.
- 3) From the parallelism, wherein the "loss" of the "soul" as a physical entity is the primary concern, we get the illustration of what is involved here.
- a) One can "lose his soul" at the physical level if someone/thing cuts off the functions of the soul so that the spirit departs from the body. Thus, if the person is so fearful of physical death that he does something evil in order to "stay physically alive" (i.e., "to save his soul"), he will lose his "soul" as the metaphysical core of the emotions that make "life" into "Life" where "grief" and "joy" are the issues. Trying to stay physically alive at all cost, costs the relational Life that one has who operates by "coming after Jesus" at all cost.
- b) So one can "lose his soul" at the relational level if something interposes some matter of severe emotional trauma that this loss entails, which was Peter's experience in "denying Jesus" in order to "save his physical soul": he went out and wept (Mark 14:72) bitterly (Matthew 26:75) out of the loss to his relational soul.
- c) In the garden, Jesus made the "loss of the soul" at the relational level a matter of degree in His description of His experiences (Mark 14:34: deep grief unto the point of death).
- 4) Thus, "to come after Jesus" means "denying oneself" in terms of the "relational soul"; i.e., being willing to undergo serious emotional loss in order to be faithful.
- c. Thus, Jesus' words were these: if a man has made keeping his physical soul from physical death, he will lose the "Life" in favor of the "life". But, if a man is willing to put the physical soul at risk of death for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel, he will actually "save" the relational soul in which "Life" is the issue.
- B. The specifics of this first requirement.
- 1. The "self-denial" must be viewed in terms of "loyalty to Christ".
- 2. The "self-denial" must also be viewed in terms of Christ's loyalty to the progress of the Gospel into the world.
