Matthew 10:16-33

• “You Are Body and Soul” (Matthew 10:16–33)

  Main Theme:
  God made us as both body and soul. While the body dies, the soul continues and holds eternal value before God.

  Key Points:

  • Sent as Sheep Among Wolves (Matt. 10:16–33)

    • Christians are sent into a hostile world and will face persecution.

    • Jesus calls for wisdom (serpents) and innocence (doves).

    • Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul—fear God alone.

  • The Soul: Created and Eternal

    • Genesis 2:7 shows man became a living being when God breathed life into him.

    • The soul is a real, immaterial, created substance—distinct from the body but intertwined.

    • The soul continues after death (Eccl. 12:7, Luke 23:43).

  • Soul and Spirit: Interchangeable Terms

    • Hebrew and Greek terms (nephesh/psyche & ruach/pneuma) overlap.

    • Examples from Psalms, Job, and Luke show “soul” and “spirit” are used poetically to describe the same inner self.

  • The Soul Exists After Death

    • Examples: Thief on the cross (Luke 23:43), spirits of the righteous (Heb. 12:23), Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration.

    • The body sleeps in the grave; the soul is conscious and with God.

  • Dignity and Purpose

    • Materialism can't account for the human soul’s worth.

    • Christians are called to fear God, not man, because God judges both body and soul.

  • Final Judgment and Hope

    • The soul is not annihilated but can be ruined (Matt. 10:28).

    • The resurrection will reunite body and soul in glory (Rev. 20; 1 Thess. 4).

  • Practical Application: Fear God, Not Man

    • Examples from persecuted believers and Church history (e.g., Polycarp).

    • Christians are exhorted to stand firm with an eternal perspective.

“What Is the Soul?”

I. Biblical Doctrine of the Soul

• Genesis 2:7 – God formed man from dust and breathed into him the breath of life.

• Ecclesiastes 12:7 – The body returns to dust; the spirit returns to God.

• Matthew 10:28 – The soul is distinct from the body and judged by God.

II. Theological Summary

• Nature of Man: Dichotomous (body and soul), not trichotomous.

• Created Essence: The soul is created by God, immaterial, and immortal.

• Interchangeable Language: "Soul" and "spirit" refer to the same inner self.

III. Historical and Theological References

• John Calvin, Institutes – Defines the soul as the nobler immaterial part of man.

• Westminster Standards:

  • Confession of Faith IV.2: Man has a reasonable and immortal soul.

  • Shorter Catechism Q.37: "The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory..."

  • Larger Catechism Q.85–87: Expounds on death, the intermediate state, and the resurrection.

IV. Applications

• Fear of God Over Fear of Man:

  • Real spiritual courage comes from knowing who you are before God.

  • The eternal soul cannot be harmed by man—only God has authority over it.

• Hope in Death:

  • Believers' souls are perfected and present with Christ at death.

  • Awaiting the resurrection of the body is the Christian's ultimate hope.

V. Case Study: Polycarp

• Historical Example: Refused to renounce Christ under threat of death.

• Perspective: Eternal fire matters more than temporary pain.

🔹 Reflection & Discussion Questions

1. How does understanding the soul’s immortality change your perspective on suffering or death?

2. What fears dominate your life, and how does Matthew 10:28 speak to those fears?

3. How can you cultivate a greater reverence for God in light of His authority over body and soul?

4. What hope does the doctrine of the intermediate state offer believers today?

Will you please turn in your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, if you're using your pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 585. And this morning we'll read verses 16 through 33. Matthew chapter 10, beginning at verse 16. Here now, God's perfect word. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak. For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father who speaks in you. Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his children. And children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household? Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Whenever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. And what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are numbered. Do not fear, therefore, You are more valuable than many sparrows. Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven." We'll end the reading of God's word there. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for the blessing of having Your Word. Hard truths, God. And so we thank You for them. We thank You that You did not sugarcoat things, but that You have given us Your Word. And Father, we pray that we would understand it. Lord, we pray that as we Look through a series of different scriptures that your spirit would please have our minds keen to understand. But also, Lord, not to just blindly believe things in the preaching of your word because they come out of my foolish mouth. But God, we pray that we would have our hearts and our minds arrested by your word. That we would indeed be Bereans and study these things and see if they are truly so. but where your spirit convicts that they are. Father, we pray that you would teach us. We pray that your spirit would open our eyes, unstop our ears, soften our hearts that we might know, believe, and live. In Jesus's name we pray, amen. We've entered into this topical series based upon a number of different conversations and questions that you, the members of the church, and people who come to the church, and people in the community have asked me over the last few years, and they kind of circle around these ideas of who are we as people What is our soul? What happens to me when I die and I go in the ground? What's heaven like? Is there really hell? What's that like? And so we started off with just a generic idea of who are we as people, as body and soul. And then we talked about what the body is last week. And this week, I got to tell you, I was up last night at about 11 o'clock And I was texting my friend, another pastor in a different denomination, and he asked how things were going, and I said, not good. See, normally I preach from an outline, and my outline for a 40 to 50 minute sermon is about 2,000 words. And at 11 o'clock last night, I hate to tell you, my sermon outline was 6,000 words, which meant you were in for a three hour long sermon. So, I was praying about it and I've decided to just chunk it into three different sermons. So, we're going to talk about the soul and that's going to take us a little bit longer to get to heaven and hell and death and things like that. But it's coming, I promise you. You didn't want a three hour long sermon. But you're going to have a few sermons on the soul because it's very important. Your soul is extremely important. Your soul is eternal. It will last forever. You will not die. Whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian, your soul will not die. So what is our soul? The question before us today is what is the soul? What is its substance and its existence before God? What is it? Well for that first I'd like us to go to Genesis chapter 2 and remember what God had told us there last week when we had read Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2 verse 7, the Lord said this, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. Do you see, man, his name is man, it's literally Adam, Adam, right? Adam is the same word for ground. And when God got down on the ground in the Garden of Eden, and he formed man's body, he was not a whole person yet. He wasn't a living being. What had to happen He formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And he became a living being. God breathed into man's body and he became animate. He became a living being. This idea of You are not just your physical substance, but there is something immaterial in you. A part of you that you know is real, and yet you can't find it in your MRIs or your x-rays. No autopsy will ever show you the immaterial part of you. I remember I was listening to NPR one time, and it was like Science Friday or something like that, and as I was listening there was this neurosurgeon, and as he was talking, he was talking about near-death experiences and wrestling with this, and this guy is no Christian by any means, but as he was talking, he started to go into something that, as he prided himself on being very much a scientist, He very quickly moved into philosophy, metaphysics, and even theology. Because he had to wrestle with, as a neuroscientist, what is a thought? What is a thought? See, he was a scientist of the brain. He could tell you the different parts of the brain. He could tell you how different functions of the brain happened. If you got brain damage in this area of your brain, this would happen. If you got brain damage in this area of your brain, this would happen. He knew that if he could parse apart the brain, but he still couldn't get to the fact of there was something immaterial, but very real. He had thoughts. And those thoughts were real. But they weren't material. So what were they? And where did they come from? How could he, an organism, have an ability somehow in him to be able to process information? Because adding together a bunch of chemicals with electricity doesn't produce songs. How does this happen? Well, as we read in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, our soul is very real, our spirit's very real. Old man Solomon is writing and he says in Ecclesiastes 12.7, then the dust will return to the earth as it was. By the way, that's a poetic way of saying you. Have you ever been to a funeral before? Ashes to ashes and dust to dust? From dust we were made and to dust we shall return. That's what Solomon is saying. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to God who gave it. The Westminster Confession tells us that man was made with a reasonable and immortal soul. And your soul is not just breath or some life force. But scripture treats the soul as a distinct subsisting entity. You can distinguish your body from your soul. You can't completely rip them apart. They're intertwined and that's one of the things we're going to get to in future sermons. But we can distinguish. We know we have some immaterial part of us, but yet we also know we have a body. Calvin in his Institutes wrote, the man consists of a soul and a body, ought to be beyond controversy. Now I understand by the term soul an immaterial yet created essence, which is his nobler part." Calvin is essentially saying, we can't really argue. Common sense teaches all peoples all over the place that you have some type of immaterial part of you, a soul. And that soul is immaterial, meaning it's a spiritual substance, not a physical one. Immortal in that it's not going to die. And yet, you're not God. Thank the Lord I'm not God. I know my wife is thankful for that. But the point is, right, your soul isn't God, nor is it a part of God, but it's created by God. And one of the things that I love about the hard things being a pastor is they never, they taught us in seminary a little bit about how to conduct funerals and things like that. And we would hear these things, but there was something that they just told us, we can't prepare you for this, but you're going to have the opportunity and you'll see. And that's when you get called to the hospice house. or you get called to somebody's home and their loved one is dying or has just died. And one of the things that gives me a great deal of joy is when I go to the bedside of somebody who is dying or to the place where somebody has died and I meet with family members and they know for certain that the person who was there was not just a bag of water. But that they truly were someone. And that the Christians have hope. That that someone is still existent even though their body is dead. Grief. This was a profound moment for me in my young Christian life as I was in the lecture hall at Geneva, and one of my professors just said a line off the office cuff that I'll never forget. He said, one of the ways in which we know that the world isn't right is because we grieve when people die. We know this was not the original way it was supposed to go, and that something with this is wrong, because bodies aren't supposed to die. And yet, there's this paradoxical thing. Across all sorts of cultures, all over the world, people somehow innately know that somehow, some way, that person is still alive. Thank God we have direction in his word for what that actually is, rather than having to make it up ourselves. You, Christian, you are body and soul. God has given you your soul and you are far more valuable than just what you look like or your productivity in this life. There are materialists in this life who will try to convince you that what you really need in this life, all you really need for to be happy is to just have the good experiences and have the good stuff and look the right way and have all the best friends. And then the physical part of you will exude the internal chemicals of happiness. It's shallow. And you're far more valuable and complicated than that. God has given you a soul that grieves, but that also rejoices and has hope because he's made you in his image. Secular philosophy, this is called anthropology, it cannot account for human dignity. If you take people being made out of the image of God and reduce you to nothing more than a biological genetic mutation anomaly, then why not just take a bunch of Lysol and kill people? You're nothing more than a grown-up germ. But you're far more valuable than that. You do have dignity because God has breathed into you the breath of life. So what is the soul? The soul is real and it is a created substance. But it is not two different things. There's a few different words and this is where point number two is you are a soul and spirit and these are not separate substances. There's different words in Hebrew that have overlapping meaning. They're almost, we would in English call them synonyms. A synonym are two words that essentially say the same thing. And if you want to sound really smart, you use the big synonym rather than the short one. But in language, the word is semantic domain. So every word kind of has a range of meanings. And a lot of times they overlap with each other. And there's a few words in both Greek and Hebrew in the Bible that have a lot of overlap. So much so that it seems as if they must be similar words for the same concept. So those two words, you would know them well, soul and spirit. A soul in Hebrew would be nefesh, in Greek, psyche, or psyche. And then your spirit in Hebrew, ruach, or in Greek, your nevmah, right? And so you have soul and spirit. Well, the issue is that those two overlap a ton. And they're used poetically as interchangeable. Just for an example, I think I put these in your bulletin handout. Psalm 103, verse one. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Now this is an interesting one because the psalmist starts off, bless the Lord, O my nephesh, O my soul. But then he goes on and he says, and all that is within me. Well, that all that is within me is like his bowels, his guts, his intestines. So is it his soul or is it his intestines? Well the point is Hebrew uses parallelisms. It will say one thing and then it will illustrate it with the same idea with using different words. It does it all the time. If you look at Job chapter 7 verse 11. Therefore I will not restrain my mouth I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Do you see how those two are getting at the same idea? The anguish of his spirit and the bitterness of his soul? It's not saying that his soul is bitter, but his, or sorry, his, yeah, his, His soul is bitter, but his spirit is in anguish, and those are two different things. He's saying, who I am in my inward being is full of bitterness and anguish. He's saying, if you were to describe my inner being, that's what it is, anguish and bitterness. And he can't restrain his mouth. If we go to the New Testament, we find this Hebraic way of speaking in Mary's mouth. In her Magnificat in Luke 1, verses 46-47, Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. Her point here is not in her song, singing out that her soul magnifies God, but her spirit rejoices. It's not saying that those two are two separate things, but she's saying in her inward person, she rejoices and she blesses God. This is how soul and spirit is used regularly. And so when we speak in theological terms about who you are as a person, We say that you are a dichotomy. You are two parts, body and soul. The soul and the spirit are not distinct substances, but they're interchangeable, synonymous terms for the inner person. And we're gonna get more into what the soul does and things like that in the next sermon or the one after that. But there are those who will object to this and they'll say, well, hold on, doesn't even the New Testament talk about body, soul, and spirit? Yeah, absolutely it does. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23. When the benediction is happening there, now may the God of all peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole soul, or spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the difficult thing. That is not, again, saying that you have a body, soul, and spirit. This is a way of speaking that was very common in Greek literature. One of my professors, Denny Pruto, would call this a hyndiatris, or a two-chi structure. And we find this all over the place, right? Something and something and something, right? So noun and noun and noun. This pattern, right? When Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name, one name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. So are you baptized into three names? No, you're baptized into one name. It's the same reason why we only sing psalms, because when we look at Colossians chapter 3 and Ephesians chapter 5, when it says singing psalms and hymns and songs, spiritual, we see there's this one body of literature, the Psalter. And there are many other examples of this type of true and structure. So when 1 Thessalonians says soul, spirit, and body, that's a poetic way of saying all your person. Similar to when Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father but through me. He's not saying that he's three distinct things. He's trying to give illustrative language to say, you ain't getting to God unless you believe in Me. There ain't no other way. Period. That's Jesus' point. He's not trying to divide Himself up. But He's trying to make a point. And so God is calling you, Christian, to love Him with your whole being. Not three distinct layers. not three distinct parts of your being, but with your whole person. And so I just encourage you don't over psychoanalyze or psychologize spirit versus soul in sanctification. We have friends who are Pentecostals and things like this. By the way, that's theologically called trichotomy. In the Reformed tradition, we often hold to what we call dichotomy. I've created kind of a little chart for you at the bottom of your outline. If you've gotten the full one, by the way, that's my fault. I started printing a bunch and they were on, not double-sided, and then I printed a bunch more that are double-sided. And Nathan said I printed like 200 of the double-sided ones. So if you need one, they're in the back. So if you didn't get the chart. But you can wrestle with that yourself and look at the scriptures yourself for that. So you are a body and a soul. A value. And the soul, though, exists apart from the body after death. And we see this in a few different parts of scripture. When Jesus is being crucified on the cross. In Luke chapter 23, 43. We remember that thief who comes to an acknowledgement that he really was a sinner and he deserved to be there on the cross. But that Jesus was righteous. And what does he ask Jesus? Remember me when you enter into your kingdom. And how does Jesus answer him? They say, okay, yeah, after you go to the grave and you sleep a little while, then I'll wake you up and you'll be a part of my kingdom. No, what's he say to the thief on the cross? Today, you will be with me in paradise. The Roman soldiers would come by soon and break his kneecaps so he would die by the end of the day. And his body would indeed be thrown into the regular garbage heap of those who were sinners. His soul didn't go into that garbage heap of bodies. There are spirits in heaven. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 23 tells us this. To the general assembly of the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. To God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect. One of the beautiful things that we get to do sometimes is, whether we're cleaning our roles as the elders of this church, or when Presbytery is cleaning up their roles, or Synod is talking about people, they'll say, they have been transferred off Sharon RP Church's roles and onto the roles of Heaven. You're no longer a member here at Sharon, but your membership is in the visible, spiritual body in Heaven then. This is what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, right? From the dust we will return to the earth as it was. And the spirit will return to God who gave it. One of the most clear examples that when somebody dies, they don't just go down into the grave and their soul just exists there forever until somehow there's a resurrection from the dead. One of my favorite examples of this is the Mount of Transfiguration. When Jesus is on the Mount of Olives, and he's there at night, and the disciples are with him, and Peter and John and James are there, they see Jesus, and he's transformed before their eyes, blinding white. But he's not alone, is he? Who's with Jesus when these disciples get this glimmer into his glory? Moses and Elijah now may be easier for us to understand Elijah, right? He didn't die. He was taken up into heaven in a fiery chariot. So he must still have a body but Moses Deuteronomy is very clear Moses died and God buried his body So, how is Moses at the Mount of Transfiguration If somehow his inner person can't be separated from his body. No, Moses indeed was dead, really dead and really buried. God himself did that. You can go read Deuteronomy 34, 5 and 6. And yet, he is personally and consciously recognizable. They know who he is and disciples are able to call him by name. And this shows us that the soul continues in person and in conscious identity even after the body dies. Jesus knew this when he cried out on the cross in his dying breaths. And when Jesus has cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And he breathed his last. I don't think Jesus was just speaking poetically there. Jesus knew that his body was going to go down into the grave. He would be buried into the tomb. But his spirit was not going to remain there. Stephen shows us this in Acts chapter 7. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. There are some who will say, I don't really like this, because this seems like we're able to just kind of pull apart that body-soul, right? And that just seems unnatural. It almost seems like Greek, almost dualistic, right? Like the body is evil, but the soul is good. Aren't we kind of getting into a dangerous area? No, this is a temporary separation. And we're gonna have a whole sermon on the intermediate state. And I gotta tell you, people are not existing in heaven a soul disembodied forever. No, the spirits in heaven are longing, asking Jesus, how long, oh Lord? When are you gonna bring about the resurrection? People in heaven know that this is not how they're supposed to be forever. But they long to be rejoined with their bodies. The Scripture affirms that the body is good. Beaky and Smalley in their systematic theology, by the way, if you ever want to pick up a systematic theology that's just pound for pound gold, it's amazing, it's their reformed systematic theology, they write, We conclude that the holy scriptures warrant a belief in the functional unity and substantial duality of the human constitution. The soul or spirit of man survives the death of the body. At death there is a temporary and unnatural separation of the body and the soul. And while we sit there and we go, man, that's hard to wrap our minds around, it's hard to get. The only reason why we believe it is because it seems that the scriptures indicate it again and again and again. But the fruits of that, I think, are the blessing of God. Because He tells us that your body is resting in that grave. And I love the Westminster Shorter Catechism on that. Believers, at their death, are immediately made perfect. But their bodies, still being united to Christ, rest in their grave, awaiting the resurrection. I remember doing a funeral or burial service for a lady and her husband had died, and that was the question from the catechism I read at the graveside. And she just kept repeating again and again and again, our death immediately made perfect. Immediately. Immediately. Immediately. And it's the joy that she had to know that though her husband's body was in the grave, He was with Jesus in His kingdom immediately that day. There's a joy that the Spirit gives us knowing that those who die in the Lord are truly present with the Lord, though they are absent from the body. And so we as Christians fear God, who alone judges the body and the soul. We've come a long way from reading Matthew chapter 10, but I want to bring us back there. Matthew chapter 10 verse 28. Jesus' words to His disciples here. And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Jesus in that whole section in Matthew chapter 10 is preparing his disciples for what it's going to be like to be his witnesses as he's sending them out to go make disciples of all the nations. He's telling them that people are going to turn on each other. Family members are gonna hate each other. Just this past week, I was talking to a pastor in India. And I was talking to him. He asked me to continue to pray for this poor lady who has converted to Christianity. And her husband, her husband refuses to give her any food. He will not give her any money to buy any food. And he routinely beats her because she will not forsake the name of Jesus. And all she can do is love and pray for her husband. Thankfully, she has parents who have come and told her husband that what he's doing is wrong. And she's had to leave to protect her own life. But this is not a surprise. And I remember even talking to this pastor and he was saying, he could tell, like, I was so surprised by this. Because we don't see this type of thing often in our country. They said, Brian, this is exactly what Jesus said was going to happen. But why would this woman, we'll call her name Angie, why would Angie go through this? Why would she endure the beatings? Why would she endure the pain in her stomach? Why would she testify to her husband that I cannot do anything but worship Jesus? Why would she not just turn back to her Hindu gods? Because she feared, she reverenced God more than man. Do not fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. God alone is the one who has authority to judge and punish the soul and the body. And this isn't just speculation type theology here, this is boots on the ground, real implications for your life. Who do you fear? Is your reverence before a holy God, who cannot even stand to look upon sin? Or is your fear of man, that the worst they can do is kill your body? but you know that it will be raised again from the dead. That is what gave Stephen his will of steel. That he could testify to them as they were throwing rocks, pummeling his body into a bleeding black heap of flesh, and he would cry out to God to receive his spirit, but even pray for the people who were persecuting him, because he knew the worst that they could do is kill his body, but they could not judge his soul. They couldn't ruin his soul. That's God's prerogative alone. Jesus, Jesus' warning here presupposes a few doctrinal truths, that the soul exists distinguished from the body, and that the body and the soul can be judged, and that God's authority extends to the entire person. God judges you body and soul. We're going to come to this a little bit later, but there are those who will say, well see, look here, the soul can be destroyed. You said that the soul is immortal, but here in verse 28 it says, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body and hell. And this is one of those difficult things since we wrestle for words in English because the word here is opalesce. It's not that you destroy. It's the same word Jesus has used when you put new wineskin into an old wineskin. If you take new wine and you put it into an old wineskin, the new wine is still fermenting, it's still letting off gases, and you put it into an old cracked up wineskin, what's going to happen? It's going to leak, it's going to expand, it's going to break, and then it's pretty much useless. It's not that the wineskin no longer exists, it's not annihilated, it's just no longer of any use. This is what God is doing. When He destroys body and soul, or ruins, there's a better word there. He brings the body to a final loss for those who do not trust in Him. If you wanna wrestle with this more, and again, we're gonna talk about this in later sermons, but Revelation 20, verses 12 through 15, and 2 Thessalonians, chapter one, verse nine. It's very clear here, Jesus is not saying that Satan has the power to do this, but it's God himself. It's not men who have the power to destroy or to ruin body and soul, but it's God himself. So my question to you is, do you walk before God in that type of reverence? Do you walk before a holy God, that even the angels cover their eyes and cry out, holy, holy, holy? Do you treat God like Isaiah chapter 6? Where when you behold His glory, when you get the glimmers of who He is in His essence, do you cry out, woe is me for I am a person of unclean lips? And do you long for God to cleanse you of your unrighteousness? Or do you fear man? You've heard me talk about Polycarp from the first century a ton of times. I just love this old dude. He's 86 years old. It's in the first century, and this is when persecution is just starting to ramp up in the church. Sorry, second century. And Polycarp has, at once, listen to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10. His people in his church said, you're too valuable to die in this persecution, and so you need to flee to another city. And so he did that. But then as he's old, He realizes, no, I ain't going to run anymore. And so the guards come in, the soldiers invade his house, and he says, I will go with you freely, but first let me pray. And the guards let him. Really weird. Right? They raid his house, but yet they let him pray for over an hour. And he starts praying. Praying to God, and praying for the church, and even praying for unbelieving Gentiles around. And so they arrest Polycarp, the old 86-year-old man, and lead him to the pro-council. And I want to read to you just a little bit about what happened there. The pro-council said, he's judging Polycarp, he says, I have wild beasts. I will throw you to them unless you turn away. Polycarp responded and he said, call them. Call the beasts. Repentance from better to worse is impossible for us. But it is good to turn away from those things that are evil and toward those things that are righteous. He says, I'm not going to repent of godliness to stoop down to idolatry. That's worse. And the procounsel responds to that and he says, I will have you consumed by fire since you don't care about wild beasts unless you repent, unless you turn away from Jesus. What does Polycarp say? Polycarp doesn't fear the pro-council who the worst he could do is kill his body but not ruin his soul. What's he say? You threaten me with fire that burns for an hour, then soon is extinguished. For you do not know about the coming judgment and the eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly. So why do you delay? Bring on what you want. Did you hear what he said? You're gonna light a fire and use me as a candle, but guess what? It's only gonna last for an hour, but the eternal fire that goes on for those who will not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ can never be extinguished. It is like the fire outside Jerusalem in Gehenna where the trash burns. And so if you think you're gonna scare me with fire for an hour, my soul lives forever, go ahead and light the wood, buddy. That's what old man Polycarp is saying because he realized that fearing man was no big deal. He feared God. He had a reverence towards his maker and he knew that he would live even past that fire. So my question to you is, will you stand before the living God, body and soul, confident in this life? Or will you cower to man? Will you succumb to pressure? Will you face loss, fear, pressure to conform? When those things happen in your life, when the world is trying to tell you to just soften up on this Jesus stuff a little bit, just turn away from the Scriptures just a little bit. Why do you have to be so dogmatic? Why do you have to be so set in stone? Why do you have to take those words so seriously? Will you say that Jesus has been faithful to you all your life, and how will you turn away from him? Will your soul magnify the Lord? Your courage comes from a clear, eternal perspective that you are more than just a bag of bones, but you were made with an immortal soul of a distinct substance that even though they may kill your body, they cannot destroy your soul, and that you will live with God forever. We live in a culture and in an age that fear, that it just, people are afraid of shame. People are afraid of unpopularity. People are afraid of being canceled. They're afraid of man. I pray that your soul would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to have an inner resolve to know who you are And the great love that God has poured out in you, creating you, body and soul. And that you would not cower to the pressures of this age. But you might know that one day you will die. Your body's gonna go into the ground unless the Lord returns before then. And you'll become worm food. But your soul will continue on. Until that great day when the trumpet sounds, when the clouds part, when the King of Kings returns again, and the dead are raised from their grave, and your soul is rejoined with your body on the new earth. You matter, Christian. And your soul matters eternally to God. Let's pray. Father, we pray that we be prepared to meet you, our maker of our body and our soul. Lord, we thank you for giving us our souls. And Father, we pray that we would indeed cherish who we are in our inward person. Lord, we pray that you would let us walk in your ways and not fear man. Lord, we thank you for the promises you've given us of the peace we have with you. Father, please help us. We need your spirit to strengthen us, to teach us and lead us in Jesus's name. Amen.

• Why is human righteousness insufficient before God? Human righteousness is insufficient before a holy God because, as Romans 3:10-12 and Genesis 6:5 highlight, we are all inherently sinful. Our thoughts, intentions, and actions consistently fall short of God's perfect standard. We are prone to evil, and even our best efforts are tainted by selfishness and pride, meaning we cannot achieve a state of righteousness that would satisfy God's justice. This demonstrates the dire need for an external source of righteousness.

• What is meant by 'substitutionary atonement' in the context of Jesus' suffering? Substitutionary atonement refers to the concept that Jesus, who was completely righteous, willingly took the punishment for our sins upon himself. As Isaiah 53:4-6 and 2 Corinthians 5:21 show, he suffered and died on the cross as a substitute, bearing the consequences of our wrongdoing. This act of love and sacrifice satisfied God's justice, allowing us to be reconciled to him. Christ's suffering was not merely a demonstration of love but a means of payment for the penalty that we deserved, hence the "just for the unjust".

• How does Christ's resurrection impact our hope and justification? Christ's resurrection is vital because it proves the completeness and success of his sacrifice. Romans 5:1-5 and Philippians 3:9-11 describe how it demonstrates that God has accepted Jesus' atonement. It signifies not only the forgiveness of our sins but also our restoration to a right relationship with God. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, the believer has been given an "alien righteousness", one that was not earnt by them, but imputed to them by God through faith. It is through Christ's resurrection that we have the hope of eternal life, having been both acquitted of our sin and declared righteous in God's sight.

• What does it mean for a Christian to be "blessed" in suffering for righteousness? According to 1 Peter 3:13-17, suffering for righteousness is a blessing because it means our lives are aligning with Christ's teachings, and we are participating in His suffering. When we are persecuted for our beliefs, it is not a sign of God's disfavor, but rather a testament to our faith and a confirmation that we are following Christ's example. It gives us a unique opportunity to testify to the hope we have in Christ. Instead of fearing such suffering, we are to view it as an honour and an opportunity to glorify God.

• How should Christians respond when they face evil or persecution? Christians are called to respond to evil or persecution not by retaliating, but by exhibiting compassion, humility and love. 1 Peter 3:8-12 says, instead of returning evil for evil, we should bless those who persecute us. We are to seek unity and pursue peace, trusting that God is ultimately just and will avenge us. The focus should be on reflecting the character of Christ, showing grace even when facing injustice. This includes being gentle and respectful when defending our faith.

• Why is the concept of Christ's finished work so crucial for Christians? The "finished work" of Christ means that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection were all sufficient for our salvation. This means our righteousness is not based on any personal achievement, but a gift given freely by God. As the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms point out, Christ's obedience and sacrifice fully satisfied God's justice. Because of this, we can have full assurance of our salvation. There's nothing more we can or need to add to what he has already accomplished. This frees us from the burden of trying to earn our salvation and establishes Christ as the sole foundation for our relationship with God.

• How should the assurance of Christ's finished work influence our daily lives? The assurance of Christ's finished work should lead us to live with a deep sense of gratitude and confidence in our relationship with God. Knowing we are righteous because of Christ, not ourselves, should cultivate humility and motivate us to pursue a life that is pleasing to him. We should seek to display unity, peace, and love in our interactions with others. In our lives, we must seek to give a defence to others for the hope that we have in Christ, in meekness and fear. This should inform the way we approach every aspect of our lives.

• What is the practical application of the phrase "the just for the unjust" in our lives? The phrase "the just for the unjust" highlights the central tenet of Christian faith: Jesus, being perfectly righteous, took the punishment that we, being unrighteous, deserved. This realisation should foster a spirit of gratitude and humility. We must acknowledge we have no merit of our own, and our salvation comes entirely through grace. The just one took our place so that we might be brought into the presence of God. The application is that we can never rely upon ourselves for our own righteousness, and so must place our full trust in Jesus. This should lead to living lives that honor God's grace.

• Justification: God's act of declaring a sinner righteous in his sight through faith in Christ, not through their own good works or merits.

• Imputation: The act of crediting or transferring something, in this context, God credits Christ's righteousness to believers.

• Atonement: The reconciliation between God and humanity through Christ's sacrificial death, which covers the debt of sin.

• Substitutionary Atonement: The doctrine that Christ died as a substitute for sinful humanity, bearing the punishment and penalty for their sin.

• Righteousness: Moral perfection and conformity to God's law. In Christian theology, it's seen both as a standard and a gift of God through Christ.

• Sanctification: The process of being made holy, where God works in believers to transform them into Christlikeness over time.

• Passive Obedience: Christ's willing submission to suffering and death as part of his obedience to God's will, not limited to simply his active obedience to the law.

• Alien Righteousness: A righteousness that is not inherent to the individual but comes from an outside source. In Christian theology, it refers to the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers.

• Reconciliation: The restoration of a relationship to harmony, specifically, the bridging of the gap between God and humans through Christ.

• The Spirit: In the context of this study, refers to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who is believed to give life and bring about spiritual regeneration.