The Saving
of the Soul
... receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able
to save your souls.
—James 1:21
The spirit of man is the part of man that is born again. It
is the part of man that receives eternal life, which is the nature and life of
God. It is the spirit of man that becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. The
soul is not the innermost being at all. It is not the soul that is born again.
The saving of the soul is a process.
James 1:21 used to bother me when I was a denominational
preacher before I was filled with the Holy Spirit. I didn't know what I know
now. I used spirit and soul interchangeably—referring to the spirit as the
soul, and the soul as the spirit. I didn't divide them as the Bible does. But I
did have enough sense to leave this verse alone until I grew so that I could
understand what it is saying.
The Epistle of James was not written to sinners. James did
not write a letter to the world; he wrote this letter to the Church. We know
that because of James 5 where he says, "Is any sick among you? let him
call for the elders of the church ..." (v. 14). In other words, if there
is any sick among the Church, let him call for the elders of the Church. Also
referring back now to the first chapter of James, let's pick up with verse 18:
JAMES 1:18-21
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that
we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to
hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity naughtiness, and receive with meekness the
engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
James is talking to born-again believers. Of the Father's own
will, he writes, we were begotten, or born again by the Word of Truth. He calls
them "my beloved brethren," so they were in Christ. Yet he encourages
these born-again, Spirit-filled people to receive the engrafted Word with
meekness, "... which is able to save your souls." Evidently, their
souls were not saved.
You see, a man's spirit, the innermost man, the real man,
receives eternal life and is born again. But his intellect and emotions—which
comprise his soul—still have to be dealt with. They are not born again. They
are to be renewed.
Paul speaks about the renewing of the mind, writing to the
saints at Rome.
ROMANS 12:2
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The Psalmist David spoke of the restoring of the soul:
PSALM 23:3
3 He restoreth my soul ...
The Hebrew word translated restore in the Old Testament, and
the Greek word translated renew in the New Testament mean about the same thing.
The soul—the mind—is to be renewed or restored.
My mother left me a chair which she inherited from her
mother. I don't know exactly how old that chair is, but it is quite old. I can
remember when my grandmother had it restored. They put new upholstery on it.
They revarnished it. It was still the same chair; it was just restored. It was
renewed.
In the Word it is never written that God restores our
spirits. Our spirits become brand-new creatures in Christ Jesus. Our souls,
however, must be renewed or restored.
How? We have these scriptures relative to the soul: receive
with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls... be not
conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God
... He restoreth my soul (James 1:21; Rom. 12:2; Ps. 23:3).
Man's soul is saved, or restored, when his mind becomes
renewed with the Word of God. It is the Word of God that saves our souls, that
renews our minds, that restores our souls.
When our minds become renewed with the Word of God, then we
think in line with what God's Word says. We are able to know and prove the
permissive and the perfect will of God—because the Word of God is the will of
God. We don't have so many questions about the will of God once we get our
souls saved.
The greatest need in the Church today is to have minds
renewed with the Word of God.
Source: How-to-be
led-by-the-holy-spirit by Kenneth E. Hagin
