Luke 17:33

SANCTIFICATION AND GLORIFICATION

Luke 17:33. “Whosoever may seek to save his soul shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose it, shall find it.” The E. V. here says “life,” where I have translated “soul.” The Greek is not zoe, “life,” but psyche, the regular word always used for soul. If you will analyze the above translation contrastively with the E. V., you will find it much more harmonious with the uniform teaching of God's Word. Where James speaks of the “double minded,” the Greek says “double souled,” making the application to the unsanctified Christian the sinner having one bad soul; the wholly sanctified, one good soul and the unsanctified having the depraved soul with which he was born, but now in a subjugated state, an, also tile good soul imparted in regeneration, but involved in an irrepressible conflict with the old enemy which he found dwelling in the heart. Now, if you see: to save the soul with which you are born into the work after doing your best you will wake up in hell. But: you turn over that fallen soul, which is none other than old Adam, to Adam the Second, and let Him slay him with the sword of the Spirit, then you will find your bright, spotless, immortal soul. in coming eternity, triumphant among the angels and all right. Sanctification must qualify you for the bridehood of Christ and a place in the first resurrection. The Greek zoogoneo, translated “find,” has a wonderful signification, too ample and complex to be translated by any one word. We can only reach it by circumlocution. It is from zoon, “a living animal,” and ginomai, “ to bring forth,” and is the word used in reference to the parturition of the animal kingdom; i.e., in which a living being is brought forth into life, liberty, and activity infinitely superior to that of the former state. Here it imparts a wonderful signification to the developments which await the living saints at the coming of the Lord, when both soul and body, though formerly alive, will leap into a sphere of life, liberty, glory, and felicity infinitely superior to the former physical life of the body and spiritual life of the soul which we here enjoy in the sanctified state. The illustration enforced by this word is inconceivably vivid and potent, contrasting the life of the glorified soul and body with that of the present state, as the aerial life of an animal is contrasted with its prenatal existence. So this word really means the glorification of the souls and bodies of the saints living on the earth when the Lord comes, as well as the resurrection of the sleeping generations, into an identical transfiguration glory.