The prior post is about the three Greek words usually translated “life” in an English New Testament. These lives are that which is eternal, the soul-life or self, and the physical life or physical existence. These three lives correspond with the three parts of every human being—spirit, soul, and body.
Before believing, man’s spirit is dead but in God’s salvation it is made alive. “God, being rich in mercy…even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:1-5).
Our soul-life is our self, our seeking for pleasure or success. We must deny our self daily (Luke 9:23, 14:26, 27) so that Christ may live in us and through us. Otherwise, “he who finds his soul-life shall lose it, and he who loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.” (Matt. 10:39)
In denying, losing, the soul-life we allow the Spirit in our spirit to wash away our self and to renew our soul with the eternal life (Titus 3:5).
Our physical life is tied to the lusts of our flesh. Ephesians 2:3 says that we “conducted ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts.” This verse touches the physical life and the self-life, both of which are in opposition to the spread of the eternal life in us.
When the Lord appears in glory, He “will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:21). This will purge away our fallen physical life. When our entire being is full of eternal life, we are ready for New Jerusalem.
Republished with permission from Blogs.crossmap.com, featuring inspiring Bible verses about Three Different Lives in a Christian; Only One is for New Jerusalem.
