On the Saving of Souls
What do we mean when we speak of saving our souls or saving the souls of others? We may sing, “A charge to keep have I … a never dying soul to save and fit it for the skies” but to what do we pledge? Is our life a private endeavor to save ourselves? And when we speak of saving souls do we mean saving only one part of triune persons, their souls, getting some incorporeal entity away from this terrible earth into heaven? Hopefully, you will answer, “No way, it is much more.” Sadly, however, we may think this way more than we realize.
Paul lauds the conversion of the church of the Thessalonians. They had “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:9-10). Paul’s ministry focused on helping them live out what their conversion meant. At the end of the letter Paul utters a remarkable prayer, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it” (5:23-24). God saves whole persons, not just souls. That salvation is finalized when Jesus comes to earth with all the saints (3:13). In this letter Paul affirms many doctrinal truths and many ethical rules are required, but it is God acting through Jesus whom he raised from the dead to accomplish all these things.
As to saving of souls, we must define words in their context. In Acts 7, Stephen says that 76 souls went down to Egypt and God sent Moses to deliver/save them. In that exciting sea drama at the end of the book (Acts 27) there were 276 souls in the ship. Paul declares that they could not be saved unless all stayed on board. Souls often mean persons or may describe one aspect of our personhood. Moreover, the biblical idea of salvation never refers to the “immortality of our souls.” To the contrary, God who raised up Jesus’ mortal body will raise up our mortal bodies, “the mortal puts on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53-54).
—Tom Yoakum