Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 7 Study # 4
November 15, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(Download Audio)

⁽³⁵⁷⁾

Thesis:  Understanding Jesus' requirement of "taking up a cross" is expanded by His explanation of the inter-relationships between the "acquisition of the whole world" and the "significant losses of the soul" that will inevitably come (1 Timothy 6:9).

Introduction:   In our previous study, we considered the actual identification of the "soul" as a case of analogy language that takes the physical "soul" (as a part of the physical body) and uses it to identify the "soul" of the relational universe. This distinction focuses upon the "soul" as the central core of man's emotional life as a smaller aspect of the larger concept of "Eternal Life". There is a "soul" that is all wrapped up in the issues of "life", and there is a corresponding "soul" that is all wrapped up in the issues of "Life". The major ideas involved are the "joys/pains of gains/losses to the physical soul" and the "joys/pains of gains/losses to the relational soul". We also considered the issue of "denying oneself" as the issue of putting the survival of the physical soul (i.e., "life") ahead of the experiences of "Life" in the metaphysical soul in a harmonious relationship with God.

This evening we are going to look into the second of the three issues of "coming after Jesus".

• I. The Original Statement.
  • A. Consists of the necessity of "taking up one's cross" in order to "come after Him".
    • 1. The widespread awareness, in the culture, of the Roman method of crucifixion for certain heinous capital crimes is at the root of Jesus' insistence upon this aspect of "coming after Him".
    • 2. That cultural awareness had at least three issues of significance.
      • a. Those only who were convicted of a high level of heinous crimes that reached to a "capital crime" were subject to death on a cross.
        • 1) This signals a certain associated "necessity" in the mind/heart of those who would "come after" Jesus: an awareness of one's actual guilt before God of crimes requiring The Lake of Fire.
          • a) Self-righteous denial of such guilt automatically precludes any kind of "coming after" Jesus.
          • b) Being swallowed up in the depression of the recognition of such guilt also automatically precludes any kind of "coming after" Jesus.
        • 2) No one will "come after" Jesus who rejects His message of "repentance rooted forgiveness."
      • b. The death of a person on a cross was extremely painful.
        • 1) Thus, one of the issues of "necessity" is to accept that the taking up of one's cross will not be "fun".
        • 2) Another associated issue of this "acceptance" is the need for the one "coming after" to have embraced the Gospel teaching that such the pain of death has been defeated as a fearsome foe by the resurrection of the dead in Christ.
      • c. The taking up of a cross meant realizing that it could not be laid down: crucifixion in the near future was inevitable.
  • B. Makes the taking up of one's cross a non-negotiable issue.
• II. The Parallel Expansion Of This Second Necessity.
  • A. Question Number One: What Profits A Man To Gain The Whole World And Do Serious Damage To His Soul?
    • 1. The root of this question involves the misguided idea of men that acquisition of what the world has to offer will underwrite the well-being of his "soul".
    • 2. But the question actually declares that the opposite is the true concept: the time and effort involved in the acquisition of the whole world will take away the time and effort needed for the enhancement of the sou's well being.
  • B. Question Number Two: What Will It Take For A Man To Regain His Soul's Losses?
    • 1. The foundation of this question is this: after all is said and done, man will realize that his losses weren't worth the gains.
    • 2. Then, the idea here is that one might be able to recover his losses only if he has something, or enough of something to regain the well-being of his soul.
    • 3. But, the problem is that the acquisition of the whole world is totally wasted effort if, afterwards, you have to give it back.
    • 4. And that leaves unanswered the question of whether the world actually contains enough acquirable stuff to make the desired exchange of acquired things for the well-being of the soul after all of the damage has been done (the fact is that there are some things that, if lost, will never be regained).

(return to the top of the article)


This is article #358.
If you wish, you may contact Darrel as darrelcline at this site.