“And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?” (Mark 8:36). NLT.

Value of your soul.

See you can have the most expensive clothes, houses, and cars. You may have the most profitable business. You may have servants waiting for your orders. But if you lose your own soul what do you benefit? Gaining the whole world does not merely mean the entire land of the world. It includes all in it-the computer and IT systems, the whole business, the intellectual capacity of the world, precious metals underneath, the living creatures, and the engineering, medical and scientific world. It means an incalculable and unfathomable amount is the value of your soul.

What Jesus said is this – the value of your soul inside of you is worth more than the whole world and everything in it. The reason is when God created our first parent, Adam; He made him out of the dust. At that time, he was just a statue or image with no life in him. Then God invested something valuable inside him to become a living soul. Bible says in Genesis 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” KJV.

Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4:6 that God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts (one of  the three parts of the soul- will discuss more little  bit later) to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Then he says we have this treasure in earthen vessels- in this body.

You soul inside of you is more valuable than the whole world put together because God put it there and it lasts forever. Your soul never dies, and it is going to live forever and ever because God who always lives, the eternal put it there inside you. Everything on this world will be destroyed one day, but the soul that God put inside of you will never end living. It came out of eternal God, and it remains forever. This is why Jesus said your soul is worth more than the whole world. God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, and he gave himself fully to rescue your soul from eternal damnation. He rescues your soul from the kingdom of the devil and darkness to his loving kingdom. The devil knows the value of your soul. He is also after it to bring it to destruction. However, when you believe in Jesus Christ as your savior, the address of your soul is transferred from eternal hell and damnation to eternal life in heaven with God.

Who are you really?  The man has three parts:

The Bible teaches man is made of three parts. They are body, soul, and spirit. Every one of you has three parts. No exemptions. Think about fruit like avocado. It has a thick skin, fruit inside and the inside the core is the seed. You and I made the same way. We have a body, inside of us is a soul, and the very core of your soul is the spirit.
Bible says in Hebrews 4:12, For the word of God, is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (NASB). This verse describes all three parts of you when you read or listen to the word of God (the Bible). The word of God is alive, active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces as far as the division of soul and spirit. There you understand the innermost parts – soul and spirit. Then it says joints and marrow which are the parts of the body. The word of God is so powerful that it pierce as far as down to the division of soul and spirit inside you. It also judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Therefore you have three parts: body, soul, and spirit.

The spirit- dead to alive.

Now let us discuss the spirit which is the core of your soul. Bible says before you are saved by believing in Jesus Christ, your spirit was dead. So your spirit can be dead or alive now. The body of all living people are alive, but the spirit was dead before you came to Christ. You had a dead spirit unable to enjoy God’s things and God’s fellowship.

Ephesians 2 says you were dead in trespasses and sins. It says there, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” (Ephesians 2:4-5). When you were dead in trespasses, God who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved you, made your spirit alive together with Christ. In other words, the inner core of your soul- the spirit – was dead but God made your spirit alive. God made it alive when you came in repentance of your sins and accepted Jesus Christ as your savior and Lord. You were born dead in spirit. Not able to have a relationship or fellowship with God. Dead toward God’s things. But now when you come to Christ, the savior of the whole world, God makes your spirit alive.

Now Bible also says why you were dead in spirit. Because of trespasses and sins. Bible says in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death.” Sin earns wages, and that is death. Adam sinned, and he became dead. It means his spirit became dead and not having fellowship and relationship that he once enjoyed in the garden of Eden. Now, as a result, all became sinners and born dead in spirit. Now all people are born with our core spirit dead toward God –unplugged with God.

However, the greatest miracle of the universe is not walking in the moon or other space discoveries. The greatest miracle is when you repent about sins and accept Jesus Christ, the Son of God; He makes you alive in your inner core –in your spirit. God sends his spirit into your dead spirit which is dead toward Him, and His spirit makes your spirit alive. This is called re-birth or born again. You must be born again. There is no excuse or exemption. You must be born again to enjoy God and his spiritual gifts. You must be born again to see the kingdom of God, Jesus said to Nicodemus, and it is recorded in John 3:3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” NASB. First, you are born of the water inside your mother’s womb. Secondly, you have to born again by the Holy Spirit. You must have both births. First, you must be born as a person from your womb. Secondly, you must be born from above, by the spirit of God. Your dead spirit due to sins and trespasses becomes alive and born again by the entrance of God’s spirit into your spirit and making it alive. Jesus also said in the John 3, “the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who born of the spirit.”

Understand, your inner core of the soul is the spirit. It is dead toward God until you repent about sins and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation and forgiveness of your sins. Then you become a spirit living man. Until then you are a spirit dead man. It is not an option. There is no other way you can see the kingdom of God. There is no other way you can go to heaven and live there after your death. You must be born again. It is the greatest miracle in your life. Born again means your dead spirit becomes alive and enjoys the joy of salvation and God’s spiritual blessings. You enjoy God, his salvation, his word, joy, peace and all blessings in your spirit inside you. Your inner core of the soul is now connected to God.  You enjoy the things of God in your spirit. Now because your spirit is no more dead but alive to God as a result of your repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, you receive the things of God in your spirit. Jesus said and it is recorded in John 4:24, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” You see you worship God in the spirit. Your spirit is lifted up to worship him, to sing songs and hymns to him by the Holy Spirit who is indwelling in you. God is with your spirit (2 Timothy 4:22).

When your spirit instantly changed from dead spirit to alive spirit by repentance and acceptance of His Son, Jesus Christ, you become a brand new creation. Bible says you are created new in Jesus Christ. “If any man in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2nd Corinthians 5:17). You are alive toward God forever. This is why I said it is the greatest miracle. When you die, your spirit and soul go to the presence of the Lord. Bible says, the moment a believer in Christ dies, he instantly open his eyes in heaven in the presence of Jesus Christ. Bible says regarding believers in Jesus Christ in 2nd Corinthians 5:5, “absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” According to the Bible, the Word of God, there is no in-between place. There is soul sleep or purgatory. Bible is not familiar with a place in between. Again Bible affirms this in Philippians 1:23, “ I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”  Departing from this body is to be with Jesus Christ in heaven. No middle places on the way. Your spirit is alive forever and ever.

However, your soul would need to go through and experience transformation to become like the image of Jesus Christ. According to Romans 12:1-2, your soul should be transformed by dedicating your body and whole of you as a sacrifice to the Lord which is only a reasonable service to the Lord. When you think about what God has done,  it makes only reasonable sense to dedicate you to Him. Why? Because God loved you, saved you, bought you with the price of the blood of His son Jesus Christ, transferred you from the kingdom of darkness and devil to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Christ), forgave all your sins and shortcomings, gave you eternal life and bestowed upon you all the spiritual blessings by making your spirit alive with God which was dead toward  him before. Secondly the transformation of your soul happens as you do not conform to this present evil age and its way of thinking and ideas. Thirdly, the transformation happens by the renewal of your mind.

Soul- being transformed until you depart from this earth.

As I said before the inner core of your soul is the spirit. Now your soul has three parts. They are mind, will, and emotion. With the mind, we think and plan. With the will we make choices. With emotions, we feel. All these three are the parts of your soul. All these three parts of your soul go through transformation by the renewal of your mind. The renewal of the mind happens as you read and listen to the Bible, as you listen to Godly people’s teachings, preaching and Bible studies and you submit to the Holy Spirit than submitting you to flesh and its desires and ideas.  God expects that this transformation of your soul would happen in you progressively. You should look more like Jesus a year from today. Now, there are Christians who are not transformed because they do not allow the Holy Spirit and the word of God to renew their mind. There are Christians who still live as carnal and fleshly Christians even after many years of their salvation. Their spirit is alive toward God. However, they are not being transformed into the image of Christ by the renewal of their mind, which is part of the soul.

You see although your spirit is alive because you came to Jesus Christ and believed in his sacrificial death for your sins and shortcomings, it is possible you are still living contrary to the plan of God by not allowing you to be transformed by the renewal of your mind. It is sad to see such believers, but it is a solemn truth.
Therefore, your spirit is made alive because God’s spirit came inside you and quickened your dead spirit. However, your soul should undergo transformation all through your life here on the earth, to become more like Jesus Christ in grace and truth.

Body-God has a beautiful plan for your body.

Now thirdly we have a body. All people have bodies. Bible says our earthly body is like a tent which is temporary. Our bodies carry our soul and spirit on this earth. It is a portable tent. However, the Bible says God has a wonderful, beautiful and glorified plan for your body if you are a believer in Christ. Your earthly body will go into the grave when you die. However, the same moment of your death, your spirit, and soul go to the presence of the Lord in heaven. God plans to give you a much more great and glorified body. You will get a heavenly/celestial body. It is going to be a glorified body. It is going to be a body like the resurrected body of Jesus Christ. Jesus could come inside the room when the doors were closed. (John 20:19). He could eat and drink with the disciples. (Acts 10:40-41; Luke 24:43) He could appear and disappear, and he could defeat the law of gravity by ascending into heaven. (Acts 1:9). Bible says in 1 John 3:2, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Regarding God’s plan for our body Bible says this in 1st Corinthians 15: 51-51,” Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—  in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable is clothed with imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in the victory.”

Those who believed in Christ and living at the time of the rapture, their bodies will be changed instantly and go up to heaven with new resurrected and glorified bodies. Those believers who are already dead and buried in the graves will be raised imperishable. This immortal body will clothe itself with immortality and this perishable with imperishable. All this happens (the dead believers rising from the grave and receiving glorified bodies and the living believers in Christ instantly transforming to glorified bodies) in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, and the time of the last trumpet. This is God’s plan for our bodies.

Ist Thessalonians 4:13-18 describes the same event that is going to happen. Some of the Thessalonian believers who were with them were dead, and they were buried in the grave. They did not know for sure God’s plan for dead believer’s bodies. Their question was answered in this section. It describes God’s plan for our bodies – for those who are dead in Christ and those who would be living at the time of the rapture. It is a beautiful and glorified plan. Listen to what it says:
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

A loud command along with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God will be heard. Instantly the dead believers in Christ will rise first. Then immediately the believers in Christ who lives on the earth at that time will be caught up together with those who rose from the grave. Both the dead believer’s glorified bodies and the living believers glorified bodies will meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever. When you live on this earth, the Bible says do not be discouraged but encouraged with these words.

Beloved, say God has a beautiful plan for my body. Yes, he does. Bible reveals it truthfully. When a believer dies here, his spirit and soul goes home to the very presence of the Lord instantly his or her death. At the time of the rapture, when Christ descends from heaven, the spirit and soul already in the presence of the Lord will be reunited with the new glorified, resurrected and heavenly bodies.

Summary.

In summary,  we have seen the man has three parts. Body is the temporary tent that carries your soul and spirit around here. Your soul is the inner core of your soul. The spirit of  man is dead by sins and trespasses, unconnected and unplugged to God until you come to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is the only savior of the whole world. When you pray to God and admit your sins and shortcomings and ask him to save you because Jesus died in your place for all of your sins, God’s spirit comes into your dead spirit and makes it alive. Now you can have fellowship and relationship with God. You are no more dead to God and His blessings. Your spirit is alive forever at the time of your acceptance of Christ as your savior and Lord. When you die, your spirit goes directly to the presence of the Lord in heaven. There is no in-between place like sleeping of soul or purgatory according to the Bible. “Absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” is what the Bible teaches.

Although your spirit becomes alive at the time of your professed faith in Christ and it is going to live forever in heaven, your soul is being transformed all through your life. It happens by the renewal of your mind. The two tools are the word of God (the Bible) and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Christians can live as transformed believers or not transformed believers. God expects that you will look for like Jesus Christ as the days, months and years progress.

Finally, God has an excellent plan for your body. Your earthly body now is a temporary tent. However, it will be replaced by another body not made with hands. We will get the eternal and permanent body. (2 Corinthians 5). This future heavenly body is a glorified body, and it will be like the resurrected body of Jesus Christ. It will be more powerful and glorious. We will not feel the aches, pains, and diseases anymore. No more sorrows and difficulties. No more imperfections and issues. No more medicine needed. No more worries, discouragements, and depressions.