AudioTalk:
Salvation tenses for Body, Soul, & Spirit.
The easiest way to describe the doctrine of New Testament salvation is that there are three verb tenses – past, present, and future – and a different one applies to each of the three parts of the Christian’s being: his soul, spirit, and body.
1. Our body is not saved yet – it will be saved one day (future tense salvation) — “…it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him…” 1 John 3:2).
2. Our soul is saved (past tense) “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” 2 Cor 1:22. [Applies to those who repented of their self-righteousness and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ according to the gospel - i.e., that he died for our sins and rose again].
3. Our human spirit is saved daily (present tense) “be renewed in the spirit of your mind;” Ephesians 4:23, “…the inward man is renewed day by day.” 2 Cor. 4:16.
Sinning Body but Sinless Soul.
Only the soul is “saved” in absolute sinlessness because of the one-time imputation of Christ’s righteousness (“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Cor. 5:21) AND because of the on-going non-imputation of sin: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Romans 4:8.
The flesh’s sins will defile the man’s flesh – but they do not pass through to the saved soul which has been cut-off from the flesh and is safely sealed from any sinful defilement, “ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:” Col. 2:11.
Those flesh sins affect the human flesh and human spirit only – not the saved soul. The immediate consequence of sins in this life is a break in the state of walking “in fellowship” with the Lord (“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie” 1 John 1:6); and continuous sins can lead to further consequences, up to and including death (“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:” Rom 8:13; “There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” 1 John 5:16) and satanic attack (“To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” 1 Cor. 5:5).
Sins in the flesh can have eternal consequences – but never the loss of the soul’s salvation — they instead cause loss of rewards and embarrassment at the judgement seat of Christ (“the works of the flesh are manifest… they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Gal. 5:19-21; “abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” 1 John 2:28).
Lawlessness? No way!
It is indeed a goal of the Christian life to be as absolutely sinless as possible, yet not to get saved or to stay saved, but to avoid the negative consequences in the flesh that our sins will produce (“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” Heb. 12:7).
We are suppose to try to stay sinless in body and spirit: “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thess 5:23. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” 1 John 2:1.
This demonstrates why the accusation that having assurance of salvation is “antinomian” (i.e., lawless) is absurd. Freedom from the law applies to the soul – not to the body. The two parts are in completely different situations.
Our soul, being born-again, and has died by Christ to the law – it is completely free from the law: Paul writes, “All things are lawful unto me” 1 Cor. 6:12, 10:23. All is lawful in the sense that there is no sin, no matter how base, that could undo the soul’s new birth. Sinning or not sinning is irrelevant for the soul – it has only been saved by the faith and work of Christ himself (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The body however is a different story. The moral laws of this life will affect the body – a Christian must keep them for his own sake in this world (Rom. 6:1-2). You break the moral laws of this life and you will suffer in this life in your human spirit and body. But if you are saved: you remain saved – the soul cannot lose salvation – it is in Christ.
Daily Judging our Sins
When we sin (because we will – “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8) we must quickly confess it and obtain forgiveness for the sake of our flesh and human spirit, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. “let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Cor. 7:1.
By confessing and forsaking sin daily we judge the sins in advance of God’s judgement and escape condemnation in the flesh: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” 1 Cor. 11:32.
Scriptural Examples.
This body/soul/spirit understanding clears up a lot of the confusion in applying certain verses. For example, Romans 8:1 in the King James Bible says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.“ That condemnation has to do with your current state on this earth – and if you don’t walk after the Spirit you will sin and be in a condemnation (of the flesh, not the soul). Perverted new Bibles cut out the second half of the verse and teach a lie – that there is no condemnation EVER for a Christian. Yes there is! In the flesh, if you sin, there is plenty of condemnation. You must confess and forsake it (see above) or face chastisement.
Another verse is, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” 1 John 3:9. Obviously that applies to the soul that is now born-again by the spirit of God – it has no application to the still unsaved flesh. This verse drives the religious hypocrite up the wall – he is forced into a corner: lie about being “sinless” or change his doctrines.
But never underestimate the depravity of the sin nature in the unfaithful Bible-teacher: he will re-write the verse to say, “doth not commit sin … all the time, or continuously, or too badly” – and he will then tell you how Christian sinners if worse than himself will go to hell. He will excuse his own sin as not being “continuous” or “very bad.”
In other words, these clowns lower God’s holy standards to where they think (in their own deluded self-righteousness) that they can meet them. They lie against scripture and against God’s holiness – as if he is as rotten as they are. Can God’s seed sin a “little bit”? How foolish. God’s seed has NO SIN.
Sound Doctrine = King James Bible.
Changing the words of scripture is a sure sign you are dealing with a heretic who has messed up his doctrine and won’t admit it. Correct doctrine and the correct Bible go hand in hand.
Dump all the Greek/Hebrew and modern perversions into the trash — all you need is the King James Bible. That is the Holy Scriptures in English and all that you will ever need.
Rightly Dividing the Word.
Hopefully this study has clarified how New Testament salvation operates for the Church-Age believer. These doctrines apply to the Church. You will find that there are scriptures that teach that “salvation” can be lost – but those passages are not doctrinally applied to Church-Age Christians. The Bride of Christ is uniquely saved in the manner herein described which come from St. Paul’s writings since he was the apostle to the Church.
Where you find verses that seem inconsistent – they apply to different groups. Theses verses are found in the Old Testament, the Gospels, Hebrews, James, and Revelation. All those books have passages that apply to Jews under the OT Law and/or Tribulation Saints – and their salvation does not entail the immediate soul circumcision that we experience (see above) – therefore their right standing before God to enter heaven is contingent upon them holding out until the end with faith and works.
But that is a subject for a later article.
Posted on January 12