Scripture speaks of three salvations, the salvation of the spirit, the soul, and the body.  The spirit is your inner man which communicates directly with God.  Most of us cannot relate to or hear our spirits very well.  We’re usually too busy listening to our body’s pains and soul’s yearnings.  Your soul consists of your mind (thinking), your will (choosing), and your emotions (wanting).  Your spirit and your soul now dwell in your body, your physical self.  Your soul often emulates your body’s cravings, so these two aspects of yourself remain very intertwined.

The Christian life itself is the struggle to save your soul.  This is the salvation that Paul teaches us to work out in fear and trembling. But, isn’t salvation free and by grace?  Why do I have to work for it?  Yes, it is true that salvation is free, but that “free” salvation speaks of our spiritual salvation which comes by God’s gracious gift of faith to each of us at the appointed time.  Jesus died for all men and just as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive.  His sacrifice will not and cannot fail.

Although your spirit may not yet be begotten of above, it will one day be saved.  This salvation comes totally by grace and has nothing to do with what you do or don’t do.  People need to become aware of their potential for spiritual salvation and that is why God ordained preachers.

But, he also ordained preachers to teach about the other salvations of the soul and the body, and most preachers have muddled the truth with respect to this.  Some teach that you can sin, fall from grace, and lose your salvation, as if there is only one.  Others teach that you can never lose your salvation, again assuming that only one salvation exists.  This latter teaching especially leads to lawlessness and the assumption that Christians can do whatever they want without fear of judgment.  And there exist a million different religious doctrines between these extremes.

The truth is that the Bible mainly concerns itself with the second salvation, the salvation of the soul, rather than the other salvations.  Spiritual salvation can never be lost, but you can lose your soul and you can miss out on the first resurrection (body salvation).  Paul teaches that we work out our soul salvation with fear and trembling.   Our soul consists of our mind, will and emotions.  We work out our soul’s salvation by bringing our mind, will, and emotions into conformity with the image of Christ.  This is our struggle, and this is our purpose here in this world.

God created man in his own image, but he could not make us with all of his goodness for then we would have been but programmed machines.  Therefore he placed us in an incubator called earth where we learn to discern between good and evil and to choose the good.  All who refuse to learn or who deliberately choose evil shall suffer judgment and banishment  to the outer darkness, the Lake of Fire, where they will learn to love the light.  This is called the “second death” because it deals with our second salvation, the salvation of our souls.

Only those who love the light shall be allowed to enter New Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God.  All others shall have their part in the Lake of Fire, which is the Second Death.  And there they shall stay until they repent of their sins and learn to choose good.

This present study will explore man’s three salvations and equip him to qualify for an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.