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Mark 8:34–38
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (vv. 36–37).
We have seen that human beings are composite beings, possessing both a physical body and a nonphysical soul or spirit (Gen. 2:7). As originally made, both body and soul were “very good,” for that is the pronouncement that God made over creation once He had finished His work (1:31). Our bodies and souls have both been affected by the fall, and Christ’s work of redemption will ultimately perfect both our bodies and our souls (1 Cor. 15).
In looking at the Bible’s teaching on the human soul, many theologians have spoken of the soul as immortal. This is because Scripture clearly indicates that our souls continue in conscious existence after our deaths even though our bodies stop breathing and decay (2 Cor. 5:8; Rev. 6:9). Such language of the immortality of the soul is fine as long as we are clear that human souls come into existence at a particular point in time and have not existed from all eternity. Also, we have to remember that the immortality of the soul does not belong to it inherently but that the soul continues to live only by divine sustenance, for God through His Son upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3). Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in Truths We Confess: “Although the souls of all people will continue to live forever after being created, they will continue to exist only because God sustains life in the soul, not because the soul itself is incapable of dying. If God were to stop sustaining them, our souls would perish in an instant.”
Over the course of Christian history, theologians have disagreed on how human beings receive their souls at conception. Probably the majority of thinkers have affirmed the position known as creationism, which says that God intervenes directly to create a new soul when a new human being is conceived. Others have affirmed traducianism, which says that children somehow receive their souls from their parents. God is still involved, of course, for He providentially governs all things, but the production of the souls is mediated through the parental union when a child is conceived. Both positions have their strengths and weaknesses, and what Scripture does say makes it difficult to be dogmatic on this point.
Jesus stresses the soul’s importance in today’s passage, noting its preciousness and the foolishness of gaining the world at our soul’s expense (Mark 8:34–38). Unless our souls are right with God before we die, anything we gain on this side of heaven will be lost.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
In the modern world, little thought is given to the state of one’s soul. People turn to continual entertainment, addictive substances, sexual immorality, and more, distracting themselves from the deep questions of life and thoughts about the state of their souls. As Christians, we dare not follow their example. We can enjoy many things in this world, but let it not be at the expense of the state of our souls.
For further study
- Deuteronomy 10:12
- Jeremiah 31:25
- Luke 12:13–21
- Acts 2:27
The bible in a year
- Nehemiah 4–6
- Acts 2:14–47