What would you benefit if you gain the whole world, but lose your own soul?

Mark 8:37, 36  (NLT)

Let’s assume Jesus knew the spiritual significance of a soul.  God has placed incredible value on the human soul – “is anything worth more than your soul?”  The soul is what makes us living beings unique from anyone else, yet the same in that we are all equally valued by God.  Souls are what makes people “eternal” beings, able to comprehend the spiritual and walk in relationship with God, who is unseen.

Just before Jesus asked these questions to a group of people following him, he said, “if you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it”.  The message of the paradox is this: you really can’t save your own soul by your own means, no matter how hard you try, or how much good you do. You must give your soul (your complete self) over to God.  It’s only in yielding your life to God, that He can save your life (i.e. soul) for eternity with Him.

If there is any goodness in your soul, it has come from God – He created male and female in his likeness. (Genesis 1:27).   But the human soul has been tainted, corrupted, through its own choice to be independent of God and His created order of all things.  In God’s purity, He cannot allow corrupted souls in His presence, nor let His creation get worse by people’s actions independent of Him.  In fact, his original intention (which is still true) is appointing humans as managers of earth (see Genesis 2).  As managers of our own lives on earth, we are ultimately accountable to God who will judge according to how we did.

But because His love for people and their invaluable souls, he provides away for people to have their sousl restored from corruption and independence of Him.  That’s where Jesus comes in… He is that way to be reconciled to the Father (God), and have their hearts restored to an eternal relationship with the Creator God (John 14:6)

Without getting into great detail as to why Jesus is the way to God’s restorative justice with people, I encourage you to think about these questions.  If anything, these two questions Jesus asks call us to probe our own souls, and seek answers to our significance, purpose, and – if you can believe it – our destinies.

- How would you respond to Jesus’ two questions about the “soul”?

- If the soul is as important as Jesus implies, and you are responsible for your own soul, what should we do about it?

- Since people (who have souls) are incredibly valuable to God, how then are we to treat people?