Truth and the Holy Spirit

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mat. 16:24-26) There it is, the cold, hard truth of the matter told very straightly by the one who gave up his life for every one of us, so that we should not lose our soul. We could say that Jesus certainly practiced everything he preached, and we should do likewise. That begins and ends with the fact that if we name the name of Christ upon our lives, we are indebted to be his possession, to do his bidding in this life. The scripture plainly tells us, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14). What this means is that those who will not be led by the Spirit of God, are NOT the sons or daughters of God, even if they have been born again. I want to look at one glaring reality about what the holy Ghost will lead us to do, and what it will not lead us to do, in regard to our text passage above. Jesus asked the question, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" What he was actually saying is, What will a man exchange his soul for? He had just asked another similar question before that, saying, "What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his soul?" So what this comes down to is this: The only thing we CAN exchange, or trade our soul for, is something that is of this world. The first thing we need to consider is that there is always a value on things that are exchanged, and nobody with any sense would give something of far greater value in exchange for something of far lesser value. Nobody does that. No one is going to buy a new Ferrari and then go trade it even for a beaten up Volkswagen Beetle that is twenty years old. That would be really stupid. So that brings us to the value of our soul. Can we actually put an exact value on what our soul is worth? Yes, in fact we can put a more exact and accurate value on the worth of our soul, than we could put on anything else at all.

Before Jesus came, eternal life was not available to mankind. Adam lost that opportunity in the garden of Eden, and had absolutely no way to get it back. Man lost out with God over sin, and he just had no way to get out of the condition of sin. God gave Israel his law to live by, but the law came up short in one aspect, and it was a very telling aspect: "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Heb. 10:4). That's right, the sacrifices of the law did not in reality take sin out of the lives of those who offered them. Sin was what was separating mankind from God, and from the eternal life that is in God. That is what the following saying means, in regard to the law: "For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. 3:21). So in short Jesus came to this world for one reason, and that reason was to make the way for sin to literally and truly be taken away from the hearts and souls of men, so that eternal life would be available to one and all. Maybe you're saying right about now, "Oh, I see, the value of our soul is eternal life." Well, I won't say that is wrong, but it's not quite altogether accurate either. The value that is placed on our soul in the eyes and the mind of God, is WHAT IT TOOK to bring us eternal life. That would be the suffering and death of God's only begotten Son, who paid that terrible price to gain your soul and mine back to the Father. So there is the exact value of our soul, that being the magnitude of suffering that Jesus endured, both before he was on the cross, and for six long hours after he had been nailed to that cross. He was beaten, spat on, had his beard pulled out, had a crown of thorns pressed into his skull, and whipped mercilessly and repeatedly on his bare back. After carrying his cross he was nailed to it, and lifted up; and that cross fell into the hole prepared to hold it up, with Jesus baring the impact with nailed hands and feet. Then he was left to hang and die, with great pain and thirst all the while. Not only so, but he was suffocating slowly to death, his breathing being impaired more with every excruciating breath. He actually had to lift himself up with his nailed hands, in order to breathe.

Crucifixion was designed for a whole lot of pain and suffering. And that little seat that you've seen in pictures of the cross? It was slanted at an exact angle for the sufferer to almost be able to sit on, only to slide off with the impact bearing on the nailed hands. It was truly the most horrible form of torture known to man, and that was not just some other man, or even and angel of God dying on that cross. It was the creator of heaven and earth, the Father's own Son, and the apple of his eye since before anything else every existed (Prov. 8:30; Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16-18). Prophecy of the suffering of Christ tells us a little bit about the damage that was inflicted on him: "As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men" (Isa. 52:14). That was the price that had to be paid for our redemption from sin, our reconciliation to God, and our hope of eternal life. And there was no one else who could pay that price other than the Son, for he alone, apart from the Father, was and is God (Jn. 1:1). He died in the place of his Father, who was the 'testator' of his own will, but could not possibly die; and he died in our place as well, taking our sins upon him (Heb. 9:16,17; II Cor. 5:21). So again I say that every iota of pain that Jesus incurred, and every millimeter of damage that his body took, including his death; is the EXACT value of our soul. That brings us to a very sensible and evident conclusion, and that is that God's Spirit would NEVER lead us to place a value on anything or anyone, including our own lives; that could equal or outweigh the price that Jesus paid for our soul. It is not even fractionally possible for anything or anyone on earth to equal the suffering and death of God's only begotten Son. It's impossible, and it would be ludicrous for us to even consider the possibility for a moment. Seeing that the suffering and death of Jesus, along with his resurrection from the dead, has given us the access to obtain eternal life and immortality in a world too glorious to comprehend, we can add that onto the value of our soul as a bonus that is included in the actual value.

So the whole concept of preferring anything or anyone in this life to following Christ with our whole heart, is far beyond trading a new Ferrari for a twenty year old Volkswagen Beetle bucket of bolts. When we see this whole thing the way God sees it, it becomes very easy to see that damnation and eternal torment in fire is a very just judgment for any and all who refuse to honor and serve the Lord Jesus Christ with thanksgiving, joy, and godly fear (Col. 3:17; Philip. 4:4; Psm. 2:11,12). If we do not believe the Gospel, which everyone has the ability to do, and we do not with continuance let Jesus have what he paid for, which is our lives; then we have pronounced ourselves guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (I Cor. 11:27). Damnation in the lake of fire and brimstone is all that is left for anyone and everyone who has chosen to obey Satan, and be under his dominion; rather than follow Jesus and be blessed (Jn. 8:34,44; Rom. 6:16). God cannot extinguish people from existence, because he cannot un-create what he has created. The lake of fire was created for the devil and his angels because of that reality, and because of their revolt; and everyone who follows Satan's lead will go where he and his fallen heavenly followers are going for eternity, even as those who are led by the Spirit of God will end up where God is at (Mat. 25:41,45,46; Mat. 5:8). To choose to follow Satan is to choose something of his world over Christ, as Jesus pointedly stated: "But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Mat. 16:23). These things should make perfect sense to anyone and everyone with an honest heart and a sound mind. So in conclusion, those who are led by the Spirit of God are going to honor,serve, and follow the one who paid the greatest price for them that has ever been paid for anything in the history of existence. They are those who truly understand the value and worth of their soul, and would never consider trading that value for anything or anyone that is of unfathomably less value.To do that simply does not make any sense to God's elect, whom the scripture says that "they loved not their lives unto the death" (Rev. 12:11). As I sometimes say, I think that about says it for now. God bless.