Salvation of the Spirit

Have you ever been haunted by a verse in Scripture?  What I mean by that is when you come across a verse that doesn’t seem to make any sense, and you repeatedly ask others to explain it, but their answers baffle you even more.  You pray, search, and hope that one day God will finally reveal the meaning to you.

For me, one of those verses was Philippians 2:12:

¹²Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

How could I work out my salvation?  Wasn't it a free gift?  As I studied Scripture, I came across another passage that challenged everything that I had been told about salvation.   

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,⁴To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: ⁷That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: ⁸Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: ⁹Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3-9) 

What was this salvation ready to be revealed in the last time?  And if I was already saved, how could salvation of my soul be the end result of my faith?

The reason that no one could explain these verses to my satisfaction was because they were associating them with salvation of the spirit, the free gift that we receive by God’s grace alone when we believe in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit, which marks the beginning of our faith.

⁸For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  ⁹Not of works, lest any man should boast.  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Let me clear: when we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and our Savior, we are assured of eternal life, something that we can never lose or have taken away from us.  

¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  (John 3:16)

Spirit salvation, however, is just the beginning of an ongoing process and it holds the promise of so much more!  To fully grasp this, we need to first understand the nature of man in relation to the nature of God.  

Genesis 1:26 states: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. 

The Hebrew word for God that is used here is 'elohiym, and it is a plural noun.  Right from the beginning of Scripture we see that God is a trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  

Scripture also says that man was made in God’s image and after His likeness.  1 Thessalonians 5:23 tells us that man’s nature is also three-fold: spirit, soul, and body:

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Next time: Salvation of the soul.