*** SHOW NOTES (not fully edited or a transcript) ***

Lead:

Where did you get your soul? And what questions should you ask?

Intro:

In their book Every Man’s Battle, authors Steve Arteburn and Fred Stoeker make an insightful point about Christianity:

It costs something to learn about Christ. It costs a lot to live like Christ. ~ Steve Arteburn, Fred Stoeker, Every Man’s Battle

I know you’ve heard me say that we need spiritual food every day like we need physical food and that’s why I do this podcast every single day. But if you’re hearing this and you’re a regular listener, just know that I know that it costs you something precious…your time…and I just want to encourage you. God knows what you sacrifice to learn about Jesus. The second part — that it costs a lot to live like Jesus, we’ll get to in our All Our Minds segment today.

In our Bible segment yesterday we read about our assurance of hope and then that Jesus triumphed of our sin because He triumphed over the power of all sin, sin that Paul tells us entered the world, and infected the world, through Adam.

Today we read about hope and triumph in reverse order from yesterday — that God’s grace triumphs over the power of the law, and what that looks like as the Holy Spirit gives us confidence in a hope that is both now and not yet.

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Bible:

Passage: Romans 7-8
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 64
Words: ~1399

All Our Minds:

Today’s segment has to be super-short, because come heck or high water I’m going to get to Psalm 107 for today’s Wisdom segment.

Yesterday when reading to you Paul’s assertion that sin entered the world through one man, Adam I paused for an on-the-fly comment. In case you missed it, and to be more precise, I said:

Adam was created in possession of all human nature, including the substance of soul.
Like we were in our parents’ DNA and received that from them, so also we inherit soul.
So when Adam’s rebellion against God corrupted human nature, we inherited that.

But today I don’t want to focus on sin, and I’m not going to go into philosophy of substance dualism and how you received soul like you received DNA. I just wanted to illustrate how you received your soul along with everything else from your literal, biological parents.

Today, by way of reflection, I want to ask two questions that I’m not even going to answer. I just want to give you something to think about — a what question and a when question.

What makes you a person? Your body? No, we know you receive new, perfect bodies in heaven, but you’re the same person. So what makes you a person?

So, question two, when do you become a person?

The bottom line

When you connect those dots, you’ll see why I chose the opening quote that I did. It costs something to learn about Christ. It costs a lot to live like Him.

Wisdom:

Passage: Psalm 107
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 43
Words: ~706

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

Thank you for supporting this ministry should you choose to use the Amazon affiliate links below.

(1) Gilbert K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy. (New York: John Lane Company, 1909), 24. (link, not to just this book, but to the whole collection which is really cheap. I recommend it, because it also has his poetry and some other awesome surprises).

(2) Mark Buchanan, “Schedule, Interrupted: Discovering God’s Time-Management Technique,” Christianity Today (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today International, 2006), 42–44. Note that Mark wrote this while promoting his book, The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath. I’ve not read it, but it gets killer reviews. link)

Not cited today, but one of my faves! —> Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008).

#921: Romans 7-8 | Souls and persons | Psalm 107