Part 5 – Additional Insights

Introduction

“Welcome to Torah Today Ministries, and our return to the series Body-Soul-Spirit. I thought I completed this series, a four-part series, over six months ago. But there have been other thoughts accumulating about this topic of Body-Soul-Spirit, and I’ve been urged by family and friends to produce a fifth episode, just of additional thoughts.

So if you have not watched the original series, there’s a four-part series, which to me is the most important series I’ve recorded. Pause this and go back and watch that series, and then I’ll meet you back here with these additional thoughts. Because a lot of this may not make sense if you haven’t watched all four parts of the original series.

So let’s just jump right in. I want to start by talking about the salvation of the body and the soul and the spirit. We have to understand something.

Salvation of the scriptures is a process. It begins and then it continues throughout our lives, and it will finally reach completion in a day in the future. And we’ll be looking at some passages of scripture that support this.”

Salvation – Past, Present, Future

“But people will ask me, Grant, when did you get saved? And I’ll always answer. And I really mean this sincerely.

I got saved about 2,000 years ago. I’m saved by what Messiah did. But that salvation is something, as Paul writes to Timothy, that I need to grow up in.

That salvation is something that is infiltrating every area of my life. At least I want it to, because we’re very complex creatures. And the salvation of God is something that grows and matures and works into every area of our hearts, of our souls, of our minds.

And it’s a lifelong process. Now, we need to understand something. Growing up in the Evangelical Church, whenever salvation was mentioned, we thought of salvation from hell, which means when I get saved, I don’t go to hell for eternity. I go to heaven for eternity.

That is just a sliver of what the scriptures are addressing, especially the apostolic scriptures when they discuss salvation. In the apostolic scriptures, in Yeshua’s teachings, in Paul’s writings, salvation is salvation from sin, not from hell.

Sin is my clear and present danger right now. Sin is my enemy at this moment. Sin is the thing that’s out to attack me and to destroy my life.”

Salvation From Sin

“And I need rescued from sin. I’ve been forgiven for what I’ve done by what Messiah did, but I need to be delivered from what I am and from my tendencies to rebel, my tendencies to do things my own way. And that’s a lifelong process.

And this is why in 2 Timothy 3.15, Paul writes, And how from childhood you, Timothy, have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Messiah Yeshua.

And one of the things I find lacking, and this is not to be a criticism, but I want you to take this to heart. One of the things I find lacking among so many of my Christian brothers and sisters is they’re not wise in their salvation.

They have over-simplified it. They have a childlike understanding of it, when we need to have an adult understanding of it. So let’s just jump right into it.”

Past, Present, and Future Tenses of Salvation

“One of the things you’ll find, especially if you read Greek, if you have a very accurate translation, is that when it comes to the passages that discuss our being saved, you’ll find many of them that are in the past tense, how we have been saved. You’ll find a bunch that are in the future tense, how we will be saved, as believers, how we will be saved. But you’ll also find this large group of passages about how we are being saved.

As believers, as disciples of Yeshua, we are being saved. It’s an ongoing active process. And when you look closely, there are some other things you’ll find in these passages.

The ones that talk about how we have been saved, you’ll find in the context is talking about from the inside out. Spirit and then how we are being saved has to do with the soul. And then the future salvation has to do with getting new bodies.

And God works from the inside out. He begins in the spirit. That part’s accomplished.

The soul is a life-long process, but then a day comes when I get a new body. And then salvation reaches its utter completion.”

Examples of Past, Present, Future Tenses

“So let me give you just a couple of examples. Now, all of these passages I have listed here, again, these are a sampling. All of these are in the notes. And if you’re listening to this as a podcast in your car or whatever, please go to our website, torhtodayministries.org, and go to this teaching, and you can print out all the notes.

Everything you see on the screen will be printed out there. And by the way, if you hear some galloping around during this teaching, that’s our new little Boston Terrier banjo. I forgot he was loose down here.

So he’s kind of excited. So if you hear some galloping, that’s him. Okay, let me give you a couple of the past tense passages.

Ones that I know we’re all very familiar with. How about Ephesians 2, 5 through 8? Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Messiah.

By grace, you have been saved. And He raised us up, and He seated us, and it goes on. Everything is in the past tense.

Titus 3, 5, He saved us. Not because of works done, okay, it goes on.

Present Tense Examples

“But let’s look at some of these in the present tense. James 1, 21, listen to what it says. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.

Now, there are two things I want you to notice about so many of these passages. For one, when they’re in the present tense, you’ll often find the word soul mentioned, because it’s the salvation of the soul, this ongoing process.

But there’s a second thing you’ll notice. Many of these passages also reference the word, how the word of God, the scriptures, are instrumental in the salvation of our souls, this lifelong process.

Because think about it. If God is saving us from sin, then by pursuing the scriptures, being a disciple of Yeshua, obeying the word of God, those parts of my soul that are not alive and active for his kingdom can be brought into compliance with his will. Those parts of my soul will not be stagnant and wasted and unused.

But in our lifetime, we want to bring every facet of our souls, of our minds, our wills and emotions, bring them into compliance with God’s will and God’s ways.”

Salvation of the Soul – Present Tense

“You know about the moment you think, oh, I’m doing really well. I think I’ve really got this down. Then God lifts the curtain a bit further and says, how about we deal with this? And you go, oh no, I forgot about that. And then there’s that area of our lives to deal with.

So it keeps going on and on and on. God is tenacious and determined that his light, his truth and his salvation permeates every area of our being. So, in James 1, 21, you notice how it’s present tense. It says how it is able to save your souls, speaking to believers.

How about 1 Peter 1, 8, 9, and 1 Peter 2, 2? Listen to what it says. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that’s inexhaustible and filled with glory. Obtaining present tense of the Greek, you are obtaining, currently obtaining the outcome of your faith. What is that? The salvation of your souls.

Like newborn infants long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow up into salvation.

Hebrews and Corinthians

“Salvation of what? Salvation of the soul. How about Hebrews 10:39? But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith for the procuring of the soul.

Oh, I might as well do 1 Corinthians 15, 1 and 2. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I proclaimed to you, which you received and which you stand, and by which you are being saved. Present tense. If you hold fast to the word I proclaim to you. Okay?”

Future Tense – Romans and 1 Peter

“So this ongoing process is the salvation of my soul, of your soul, and it is connected intimately with building the word into our lives and submitting our souls to the authority of God’s word.

Future tense, let me just give you one for that, maybe two. Romans 8, verses 17 and 23. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs of the Messiah, provided we suffer with them in order that we may also be glorified with them, let’s look into the future. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly. For our adoption as sons, namely the redemption of our bodies.

This is what we’re looking forward to. Eagerly awaiting, groaning, can’t wait to put on the new body.

One more, 1 Peter 1, verses three to five. Blessed be the God and Father of our Master, Yeshua the Messiah, according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Yeshua, the Messiah, from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable.

So he started this something back here that’s looking forward to something over here. Undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Working Out Salvation

“Okay, so that should give you a sampling. Now, if you want to dive into this more, I did an entire teaching just on this topic, and it’s in my series called Pardon My Jargon, where I take Christian jargon and break it down into what it really says in the scripture, so we can define these words in everyday vernacular. And I did a two-parter in there about salvation.

So I think it’s in the second part of the salvation teaching, in the series Pardon My Jargon, and I go through this in more detail a little more slowly. But we have other things to get into. But before we do, in light of what we’ve just said, this passage in Philippians 2 verses 12 and 13 may make more sense.

Paul writes, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both the will and the work for his good pleasure.

You know, it used to be, when I would read this, it sounded like I’m getting saved by my own works. Well, what he’s saying here is to exercise your salvation, continue to yield your soul to the power of God’s word, continue to grow up in your salvation, continue to work it out, exercise it, and let it become more and more of who you are. Put away sin, put on righteousness, put on off the old man, put on the new man. And this is the lifelong process of the salvation of the soul.

And when we look at this passage in that context, it makes a lot more sense.”

Nephesh and Neshama

“Now, in our Body-Soul-Spirit series, I talked about the two Hebrew words for soul. The most common word is the word nephesh, and the other is nashama. The nephesh and nashama.

And when you listen to the series, I’ll go into detail about how the nephesh is the part of our soul that is interested mostly in physical things. It’s the part of my soul that wants to practice good hygiene, to eat well, to exercise. That’s an area I still need to work on. To brush my teeth and to dress appropriately. It’s that part of my soul that is attentive to the physical.

It’s also the part of my soul that just wants to overeat and oversleep and indulge. So the nephesh is the part that looks to the flesh. The nashama is like the right side of the soul. It’s the part of my soul that’s interested in spiritual things. It’s the deeper part, the more inner part of the soul. The nashama is also what God breathed into Adam’s nostrils.

He breathed in Adam’s nostrils the nashama of life. It’s that part of the soul that’s interested in walking with God. It’s a part of the soul that is sensitive to sin. It’s a part of the soul through which God speaks to us and pricks our conscience when we need to do something, we’re failing to do, or should stop doing something that we should not be doing.

It’s, you could say it’s that part of our soul which isn’t in this world. It’s the part of my soul that is in the spiritual realm. It’s in his presence. So we have the nephesh and the nashama, like the left and right side of the soul.”

Hebrew Letter Insight

“So here is the word nashama in Hebrew. And what I want to draw your attention to are those middle two letters. Now remember, the nashama is the inner and more spiritually oriented side of the soul.

But those two middle letters are the words shim, shin, mem. Spell the word shim which means name. Your name is your essence. 

 

Nephesh and the Mouth (Peh)

“…Now if you’ve got a name, the soul, the soul interested in physical things. It’s more physically oriented.

Now look what’s in the middle of the word nephesh. It’s the letter pe. Pe is the word, Hebrew word, that means mouth.

This is the part of the soul is always yacking. The neshama is quiet, but the nephesh, the physical part of the soul, wants to talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And what is it that Yeshua says there in Matthew 12, 34?

It says, How can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So, you know, a fool reveals his entire mind because he’s always talking.

So the neshama, rooted there is your name. That’s your essence of who you are. But the nephesh tends to do a lot of this. We need to quiet the nephesh and awaken the neshama. Become who you’re supposed to be. And don’t just talk about what you want people to think you are.”

Talmud Passage on the Soul

“I came across this interesting passage from the Talmud. Now, I don’t endorse everything in the Talmud, not by a long shot, but the Talmud is a collection of sayings and conversation among some very, very wise men. And I think some that maybe weren’t so wise, but it’s just a collection of all the things they said.

So in there, it’s a very mixed bag. This is one of the things I think is very wise and insightful. And it’s talking about the soul.

And when it uses the word soul in the Talmud, I looked it up, the word that’s used there is the word nashama. So it’s talking about the spiritual side of the soul. And this is from the Babylonian Talmud, Barakhot 10a.

And it says this, the nashama, the soul, fills the body as God fills the world. The soul bears the body as God bears the world. In other words, the soul that animates the body. When the soul leaves the body, the body dies, it doesn’t move anymore. The soul outlasts the body as God outlasts the world. The soul is one in the body as God is one in the world. The soul sees, but is not seen. As God sees, but is not seen. The soul is pure in the body, even as God is pure in the world.

God’s Breath in Us

“You see what’s being said here. My body is physical. It’s made out of the stuff the world’s made of. It’s made out of dust.

But breathe into me as something of God, that spark of him, that breath of him. And just as my neshama inhabits his body, it’s a picture of how God inhabits the world. It really is a brilliant insight, I think.”

The Fog of Fleshly or Soulish Thinking

“Moving on. The fog of fleshly thinking. I could have put fog of soulish thinking as well, because I think we have an example of each of those in these two passages we’ll look at.

And I call this the fog of fleshly or soulish thinking because depending on where our body and soul are, how they’re oriented, is going to greatly affect how we perceive things and process information. And here are two passages that jumped out to me recently as I was thinking about this.

Both of these should be familiar to you. In Matthew 16, 5 to 8, and then I skip on to 11 and 12 just to make a little briefer. The disciples and Yeshua have gotten into a boat and they’re heading across the Sea of Galilee.

When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. They realized, oh, we forgot to bring lunch. We don’t have any food.

So they’re hungry. Yeshua said to them, watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, we brought no bread.”

Misunderstanding Yeshua’s Words

“Now you see what’s happening here. They don’t have any physical food. They’re hungry. They’re thinking about the hunger pains and how they want some food to satisfy their hunger.

Well, they’re thinking about that. Yeshua says something very spiritual. He says, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They hear these words, but because they have physical hunger, they interpret everything he says in a physical, fleshly way. Oh, he said that because we forgot to bring lunch.

But Yeshua, aware of this, said, oh, you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Now, that’s a great question. When God asks a question or when Yeshua asks a question, it’s because they want us to ask the question.

And he says, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? It is a fact, you don’t have any bread. But why are you discussing that?

What I said has nothing to do with that. How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Says, then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Beware of their teaching.”

Example of Soulish Fog

“So Yeshua, he’s thinking about something very spiritual. He shares it with his disciples because they are physically hungry. They interpret what he says as having to do with something it doesn’t have anything to do with.

How many times do we do the same? And we interpret God’s instructions, God’s advice, and God’s wisdom to us. We interpret it in the context of our own wants, our own desires, our own fleshly drives, and we can’t see what he’s saying. So it’s something to think about.

Now, here is more of a, what you might call a soulish fog, where because it wasn’t because of a physical appetite, but you could say a soulish appetite. In Mark 9, verses 9 and 10, as they were coming down the mountain, he, that’s Yeshua, charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Now, that should be pretty clear.

In fact, earlier on, back in Mark 8, 31 to 32, he had told them that he, the Son of Man, would have to go and die and he would come back to life. He had told them this. They didn’t want to hear that.”

Soulish Rejection of Yeshua’s Death

“They didn’t want to hear that. Had nothing to do with physical hunger or physical appetites. Just in their soul, that was not something they wanted. They rejected the entire thought that Messiah had to die.

And since they didn’t want that to happen, they didn’t want that to be a reality, they couldn’t hear it. So it says next, So they kept the matter to themselves, just questioning what this rising from the dead might mean. It means he rises from the dead. What do you mean? They’re trying to figure out what it means. He’s going to die. He’s going to rise from the dead.

But they couldn’t grasp that thought, because in their souls, they just rejected the very notion of Yeshua dying.”

Pain as the Path to Shaping

“In the Body-Soul-Spirit series in the fourth episode, the final episode, well, it’s not the final one now, I talked about how the only way for a person to become a spiritual man, a spiritual woman, is through crushing, through pain. And the Hebrew language reflects this reality.

Here’s a word, ayin tzadi beit. It could be pronounced atzav, and that’s a verb, would you pronounce it atzav, or etzev, and it’s a noun when it’s pronounced that way. When it’s pronounced etzev, it means pain. And this is the first place we find pain.

This is the word that’s used. In Genesis chapter 3 verse 16, to the woman, he said, God said, I will surely multiply your etzev, your pain and childbearing. In etzev, in pain, you shall bring forth children.

So etzev means pain. But when you pronounce it atzav, it becomes a verb, and the verb atzev means to form, to fashion, and to shape. We find this over in Job 10 verse 8. Your hands, referring to God, your hands, Lord, atzav, fashioned and made me, and now you’ve destroyed me altogether.

Hebrew Language of Transcendence

“This is powerful. What other language would take the word for to fashion, to form, to shape, and make it the same word as the word for pain?

But Hebrew is the language of transcendence. It’s the holy tongue. It’s the tongue of angels. And it’s through pain that God shapes us.

And when pain comes into your life, acknowledge it as pain, but allow it to have its work. And sometimes we fight pain too much, instead of embracing the pain and saying, Father, I know even this is a gift from you, and you’re operative in my soul, wanting to make me the person you want me to be.

So let your pain in my life have its desired outcome. Let your etzev atzav me.”

Gachon – The Belly

“Here’s another interesting Hebrew word, the word gachon, gachon. It’s the word that means belly. It’s found two times, only two times in the Hebrew Bible. Let’s look at the second occurrence first.

Leviticus 11 contains the kosher laws, all right? Leviticus 11 and verse 42 says, whatever goes on its gachon, its belly, you shall not eat, for they are detestable. So snakes and lizards and slithery things, you don’t eat them. Anything goes on its belly. You don’t eat.

Now, why is that? Well, the other place gachon is found is back in Genesis 3, 14. Adonai said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your gachon, on your belly, you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

Rashi’s Insight

“And so Rashi has this insight. Rashi was a 17th century, early 18th century commentator on the Torah. He states that this verse refers specifically to the serpent, the nachash.

Thus, anyone who moves through life according to its belly is controlled by the serpent. The belly, it’s a picture of our appetites. And if you are controlled and motivated only by your appetites, you’re going on your belly.

You’re living like the serpent. You are something that is unclean. We are not to eat things that go on their belly. And because they are a picture of the enemy himself, who goes on his belly.”

New Testament Parallel – Philippians 3:19

“But there’s an interesting verse in Philippians 3:19, where the word belly is found in the apostolic scriptures. There, it’s the Greek word koelia.

And Philippians 3:19 says, it’s talking about people who follow their appetites, whose end is destruction, whose God is their koelia, their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things, physical things.

Let’s not be people who go on their belly. But let’s not feed on things that go on their belly either.”

A Personal Reflection

“One of the things that disturbs me is my own propensity to want to be a righteous man, to be a man of truth, a man of the word, a disciple of Yeshua. But then for entertainment, I’ll sometimes read a book or watch a movie that is produced by people who go on their bellies, and that’s reflected in what they portray in their books, in their music, in their movies.

And it’s like, wait a minute, if I want to be this kind of a person, why am I feeding on things from this kind of a person? So I’m really starting to yield to God’s dealing with me in that area. You think at my age, I would have dealt with this a long time ago, but better late than never.”

Watch and Pray

“And finally, I just want to close with this verse, Matthew 26, 41, where the master says, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

We watch and pray, so we keep our eyes on the spiritual, and we pray so that we don’t enter into temptations, the things that lead us to yield to the physical appetites. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Can you identify with that?

That the spirit is willing. We want to do what God wants us to do. Oh my goodness, but the flesh is weak when those temptations come.

Those temptations to just indulge more leisure, more rest, more food, more entertainment, more whatever it is. But let’s become strong in spirit. Let’s become mighty in spirit.”

Final Words

“And so I hope the scattering of this handful of insights on Body, Soul, and Spirit serve as maybe condiments to the original series.

And again, if you have not watched that original series, then what are you doing listening to this one? Go back and listen to that series. It, again, I think is the most important thing I’ve ever taught and recorded here at Torah Today Ministries.

And it’s information that I just see lacking in so much of the teaching that is prevalent today. So I hope you’ll enjoy it and put it into effect in your lives.

And let’s grow into the full image of our Father and our King and of Yeshua, our Messiah. So until next time, I wish you shalom and may God bless.”


Lesson Notes

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