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| Matthew 16:25-26 |
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Lesson # Matt. 16:25-26 Study Material - Matt. 16:25-26 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Matt. 16:25-26 25 For [gar] whosoever [hos] [an] will [thelo] save [sozo] his [autos] life [psuche] shall lose [apollumi] it [autos] : and [de] whosoever [hos] [an] will lose [apollumi] his [autos] life [psuche] for [heneka] my [emou] sake [heneka] shall find [heurisko] it [autos] . 26 For [gar] what [tis] is a man [anthropos] profited [opheleo] , if [ean] he shall gain [kerdaino] the whole [holos] world [kosmos] , and [de] lose [zemioo] his own [autos] soul [psuche] ? or [e] what [tis] shall a man [anthropos] give [didomi] in exchange [antallagma] for his [autos] soul [psuche] ? KJV-Interlinear Matt. 16:25-26 25 'For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. 26 'For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? NAS We always make the comment that there are but two opinions in this universe - Gods and Satan's. That there are two types of people - believers and unbelievers. Or, that there are two types of living people at any given moment - those who are living (those believers who are positive and advancing in their spiritual life), and those who are dead (those who are spiritually negative - unbelievers certainly but also believers who take little or no interest in their spiritual life). Each one of us has an earthly life. It begins when we are born into this world - that moment when God imputes ('neshemah' or the spark or inhale of life - God does the exhale and man does the inhale) human life into the soul. And this earthly life ends when we die - the final exhale, or it is continued in the case of unbelievers, into eternity in the lake of fire. This is, or should be, a temporary life and indeed is a false life. A false life that is not intended for anyone. Then each person has a second life, or a potential second life. That life again begins with an inhale by man at the point of his expression of faith in Christ. God again exhales a regenerated human spirit and imputes eternal life into that vessel. At this point man has acquired two of his three lives on the road to his completion. The third and final life comes when the individual receives his/her resurrection body. The resurrection body of course replaces the biological body we live in during our stay here on earth. So, and this is just a quick review. Man has three lives -biological, human, and eternal. They each reside in three different vessels - human body, human soul, and human spirit. A complete person is not only these three lives in their final stage - the biological body is replaced with a resurrection body, but if the person is positive toward Bible doctrine and grows up spiritually, then his essence is in effect furnished with Gods wisdom and the person is then truly complete. The resurrection body allows us to live in eternity. The human spirit gives us a relationship with God and allows us to continue in heaven for all of eternity. The soul is the real you. You are what you think, and a person who has obeyed the commands of God - to grow up spiritually, to reform the thinking of ones mind, and so forth, then this is the real you - totally and completely oriented to reality, to God, to everything throughout eternity. So here is the danger of ignoring God. If we attempt to retain our earthly life, which is what each person in effect does when they ignore God, then they are embracing a lie, or a temporary state. They are deceived. This earthly life is not our real life. To pursue it, means we will lose our real life which was just described above. If, on the other hand, we pursue our real life (our spiritual life), then we will lose our earthly life (and we are not really losing anything anyhow). Our real life is not being born, going to work daily, retiring, having a cold one each Friday evening, watching TV with our handy little remote, and repeating everything daily throughout our entire life. That is not your real life. There is far, far more out there than just that. What is it all for if you strike it rich, if you save up your weekly paycheck and retire well or not so well to do? Then lose it all when you die. There are three truths in life. Remember that truth is where facts meet reality. The first is that you were born. Go ahead and look in the mirror or pinch yourself to confirm this. The second is that one day you will die. How many people do you know that are 130, 140, 150 or more years old? There were over 60 generations from Adam to the time of Jesus. If you divide that last 2000 years by an average life span of 30 years, then there have been another 66 generations of peoples who have lived on this earth. Where are they? They are all dead, except the present generations of course. But in another 50 or 60 years, all of us will be gone too. Some of us sooner than others. The third truth is that there is a life after death. On that we express our faith. Faith based on the credibility of the Bible. God tells us so, and we believe it. Further God describes our options. There is more to life than just being an unbeliever or a believer, and that more, is a potential once again, once a person has believed in Christ. That potential is spiritual growth. We either study and advance or we don't study and we don't advance. Remember that the true completion of ones life is intended to be a believer in the status of spiritual maturity. At the Judgment Seat of Christ we (believers only) will all be evaluated for the purpose of receiving our just rewards. These are rewards over and above that which all believers will receive in heaven. Mature believers will receive much, much more. There are several parables covering this concept and Rev. 1-3 covers it as well. So your believing in Christ is not the end of your spiritual trail. You just don't sit back on your porch and wait for eternity to come calling on you. You are just getting started. From here you have three responsibilities - to God (to hear His Word and to repay Him by your support of the spread of His word in some manner), to yourself (to learn, to understand, to apply doctrine to your daily life, to advance in your spiritual life to maturity), and to others (to apply the principles of charity and grace to others as God has applied them to you). You can choose either to ignore God and thus forfeit your soul - that is you won't ever claim the completion status God intended for you. The forfeiture of unbelievers is the most severe forfeiture. The forfeiture of believers can be in varying degrees depending on how far they get in their spiritual life, if they advance at all. Being indifferent, being picky as to what you will or will not comply with, having various forms of indifference (I don't believe that, but ...), all these and more hinder ones advance in their true life. And are in effect a rejection of Gods plan for your life (your total plan), and an embracing of your temporary life here on earth, or a clinging to it What value is there in investing in this life on earth? None. What value is there in investing in your spiritual life? Profits infinitely beyond imagination. Into which should you invest? 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
