Trying to identify the differences between two closely related principles can be confusing.

If a correct definition of either isn’t identified, any contrast between the two can be blurred. This could create an illusion of similarity rather than distinction.

It’s no different when it comes to understanding the differences between certain Biblical terms. And the inductive study process revealed to me what the New Testament apostolic authors actually meant by the words they used, and why they considered their redemption [or what we often call being “saved” today] to be a different issue than their inheritance.

To try to equate the two is like comparing apples to oranges. While both terms define separate concepts, they are related, like fruit being of a common genus. However, they’re not synonymous.

The introduction of the apostle Paul’s letter to the saints who [were] at Ephesus and who [were] faithful in Christ Jesus is a good example of how he understood these two words to be different things:

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Whom we have redemption [ἀπολύτρωσις: setting free, deliverance, release] through His blood, the forgiveness [ἄφεσις: forgiveness, cancellation, release] of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.” [vss. 1:1-8] [my emphasis]

The context here clearly defines Paul’s perception of redemption. God’s quitting authority is what pardons sin and is wholly the result of His good will and nothing else. His Supreme Prerogative to cancel the debt of a man’s specific sin releases him from its liability only because of Christ’s blood having been shed.

In the verses that follow, the readers at Ephesus were able to understand that the two different terms were indeed connected by a process but weren’t the same thing:

“In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Whom also we were assigned by lot [or chosen to inherit], having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that, we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed [σφραγίζω: seal, secure with a seal; mark with a seal, set apart by a seal] in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the pledge [ἀρραβών: pledge, guarantee, down payment] of our inheritance [κληρονομία: property, possession(s), what is promised or given by God to his people, God’s blessings, share, part] for the intention of the deliverance [ἀπολύτρωσις: setting free, deliverance, release] of that possession, to the praise of His glory.” [vss. 1:8-14] [my emphasis]

As a result of their belief, the saints at Ephesus had been set apart and “sealed” in Christ. This concept was also understood as having been “purchased” by God. [see: Acts 20:28, Rev. 5:9] The pledge [or promise] was the sole means of their redemption through the Holy Spirit, the Messiah Himself having fulfilled the promise. [see: Gal. 3:13-14]

It seems God’s redemptive measures described here are unique, as nothing in the text suggests there to be a provision for the Buyer to renege, thereby forfeiting His pledge.

So what God redeems for Himself and seals with His name stays that way.

His “purchases” shall be “delivered” to the Buyer and paid back based on productivity. [see: Matt. 25:14-30] God’s redeeming authority was a current reality for the saints at Ephesus. In that sense, they were indeed “saved” from any obligation to consider themselves powerless to the influence of sin.

It was easy for them to see that both redemption and inheritance were based on faith.

Redemption was accomplished by believing in Jesus Christ’s authority to compensate for one’s transgressions against the Lord. But the hope of receiving an inheritance was also conditional to belief, that is, belief validated by a redeemed individual’s desire to demonstrate that belief through obedience to Christ’s commands.

The result of being redeemed by belief is to belong to Christ.

The reward of inheriting with Christ would result in emerging from this present age with sufficient spiritual maturity and forbearance to accomplish the necessary role of sharing in His reign of the coming kingdom on Earth.

Different fruit?

Yeah, but they’re both sweet.

It’s obvious that King David of Israel possessed a deep desire for intimacy with his Lord based on what he wrote.

And after reading his Psalms over many times, I couldn’t help but notice there were some notable consistencies in his thoughts.

There were frequent expressions of awe and fear [respect] before God, in the hope of being protected from the onslaught of his enemies. There were also regular expressions of thanksgiving for the Lord’s many temporal blessings throughout his life.

But there was another one—one I didn’t catch until the second or third round: David was inescapably aware of his fate. That is to say, to the same degree that he was willing to accept the consequences of his actions, so was he also keenly aware of the inevitable plight of his death. He and the other authors of the Psalms were never subtle about contemplating what they surmised to be the wretched state of existence connected to dying:

“And my soul is greatly dismayed, but You, O Lord—how long? Return, O Lord, rescue my soul. Save me because of Your lovingkindness. For there is no mention of You in death. In Sheol [or the grave], who will give You thanks?” [Psa. 6:5]

“For Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like You? You who have shown me many troubles and distresses will revive me again, and will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.” [Psa. 71:19-20]

“Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord while I live. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit [or breath] departs, he returns to the earth. In that very day his thoughts perish.” [Psa. 146:1-4] [my emphasis all]

So, somewhere along the line, a light bulb came on.

Based upon the Biblical texts, I simply could not believe that some realm of continuity existed after death in the mind of an ancient Jew.

These passages are but a few examples of what their theology was—and continues to be to this day.  Their hope has always been to be resurrected from the dead. It was never about existing in some immaterial form anywhere. Their beliefs were grounded in the prophecy of the Old Testament, spoken and recorded long before any pagan Greek myths peddling human immortality infiltrated Christ’s church sometime in the third century.

The Biblical patriarchs and ancient prophets hoped for the same Medium of salvation as the authors and disciples of the New Testament. Even Job lamented over his dismal future with an humble expectation of deliverance in the end. [Job 14:7-15, 19:25-27]

So, not until I fully realized what they actually hoped for could I begin to grasp why they did. It’s the same hope that any serious disciple of Jesus Christ should have today. That hope is realized in an opportunity to be included in the promise given by God to the Gentile Abraham to inherit the covenanted land on the Earth, and how that promise has been fulfilled by Him raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that the righteous dead—that is, those whose lives were spent suffering in His name, might also be resurrected [or transformed] at Christ’s return to the Earth, and share in His inheritance commensurate to the fruit they’ve produced. [see: Isa. 14:1; Eph. 2:17-22, 3:1-6; Gal. 3:13- 14, 27-29; ICor. 15:50-52; Rom. 8:16-17]

[see: It’s All About Also.]

The sting of death is real and imminent, forcing the concept of time into the consciousness of the living. But it holds no such authority over the dead.

[see: Bridging the common gap of fear.]

So how can I be like David—a servant after the Lord’s own heart?

The original Greek language of the New Testament uses several different words that are translated as “servant.” The more common usages include διάκονος [servant, helper, minister, deacon] and παίς [servant, child, boy]

But a more significant form, usually translated as “slave” or “bondservant,” often designating voluntary servitude is recorded as δοῦλος [slave, servant]. The Gospel accounts of Christ’s parables and His direct communications to His disciples often make use of this word. The New Testament apostolic authors had the same Jewish mindset of their ancestors when it came to understanding this term:

“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years, but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment. If he comes alone, he shall go out alone. If he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out as a free man, then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him permanently.” [Exo.21:2-6] [my emphasis]

Based on what he wrote and what’s written about him, it seems that the fabric of David’s character was secured by his enduring belief in the One he trusted unequivocally.

His hope of a glorious future regeneration of human life in the next age was undoubtedly the foundation on which his servitude was built. His service reflected a persistent desire to actualize his Master’s will through what He taught him.

So I’m going out on a limb here and speculate that the man after God’s own heart had it right.

Oh, how I used to dread the down time.

I hated waiting. And it’s no wonder. Waiting breeds apprehension by opening the floodgates of the imagination, and apprehension is a block bully roaming the neighborhood of mental inventions.

So, I adopted a convenient habit of suppressing my ability to think rationally when forced to deal with what I perceived to be confusing information. I followed the path of least resistance.

As a young boy, I’d sometimes lie in bed at night, poring over the scenario of my life’s conclusion.  I knew where I was headed.  I’d been to a funeral or two.  There was no way around what seemed to be an inevitable state of unchanging idleness experienced in a grave of darkness and isolation even though I’d been assured that the restraint of death was only temporary.  Still, the thought was intolerable.

You know, the down time.

As a young adult though, I’d been taught that if I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, there was no cause for concern, for under the guardianship of our Lord’s grace, my “soul” would ascend peaceably into His Presence in heaven if I died.  

The reward of heaven was indeed a popular form of theology in my world.  But something was telling me that I’d have to wait to get there, just like the people who’d already died and were lying in a box underground.  Nevertheless, I conceded to the notion that my unseen soul would never perish when I accepted Christ.

I was out of the woods.

But eventually, the awkward suspicion that I and my soul could somehow separate became utterly unreconcilable, not just to my intuition, but to God’s written word as well.  

[Do I have a soul? see: Everybody’s Got One] 

Because the authors of the Old and New Testaments shared a common perception about the basic human makeup which was clearly inspired by the Author of Life Himself.  For example, the words of the Psalmists confirmed that conscious human thought is an impossibility in death:

“Do not trust in princes,
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
His spirit [breath] departs, he returns to the earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish.
How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God…” [Psa. 146:3-5]

“Return, O Lord, rescue my soul [life];
Save me because of Your lovingkindness.
For there is no remembrance of You in death;
In Sheol [the grave] who will give You thanks? ” [Psa. 6:4-5]  [parenthesis mine]

And they often chose to use the word “sleep” as an euphemism for death to describe what they perceived as a condition having similar attributes of normal sleep patterns.  The Biblical texts provide plenty of examples to support this claim.  For instance, Job’s words in  Job 14:12, Bathsheba speaking to David in 1Kg. 1:21, and the Lord’s messenger in Dan. 12:2 are only three of many.

But perhaps what our Lord Jesus said to His disciples before heading to see Martha and Mary and their brother could confirm this:

“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.”  [Jn. 11:11]

The inference clearly defines the dead as being wholly captive to an expired state of existence.

And it made sense.

When I go to sleep, I’m unconscious—totally oblivious to my surroundings and every aspect of my life.  And unless I dream, I’m not aware of, nor can I fear anything—even time.  And a corpse cannot dream, for the brain cannot function short of being animated by the life-given breath from the Lord.  [see: Gen. 2:7] 

Not only that, in his letter to those who [had] received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, the apostle Peter corroborated the words of Moses in Psa. 90:4, suggesting to the reader that time is a created phenomenon and that, outside of the realm of conscious human cognition, it simply doesn’t exist:

“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.”  [2Pet. 3:8]

Given these Biblical perspectives of time, when consciousness fades away, time flies indeed.

As I grew in my belief and understanding about being a disciple of Jesus Christ, nothing provided me more encouragement and solace about the future more than coming to terms with the reality of death, because I’d learned that I didn’t need to fear the “down time” anymore.

I had effectively bridged that gap of time in question that had haunted me since I was a child. But I hadn’t just stumbled across a sweeter solution. I began taking the Divinely inspired authors of the Bible at their word.

And when truth is allowed to flourish, confidence abounds.

However, I had embraced a doctrine suggesting that human consciousness is experienced in perpetuity. So I had to ask myself why none of the Biblical authors ever even suggested such a thing, but rather anticipated the future in the hope of new life, in a new age, by way of a raising of the dead, based on the Jewish writings of prophets such as Daniel and Ezekiel.  [see: Dan. 12:2; Ezek. 36:24-27, 37:13-14; 1Cor. 15]  

I also had to question why this future resurrection was such a big deal to them.  [see Acts 2:14-39; 24:14-15]  

And I learned that it was all about a promise given to their ancestor Abraham. 

[Promise? What promise? see: Common Threads are Common, It’s All About Also]

But wouldn’t it have also signified a miraculous emergence of conscious, animated human beings, unshackled from a protracted period of “sleep?” That would be amazing in itself! So, wouldn’t it make sense that the real impact of this very extraordinary event of our Lord’s unscheduled plan to give life back to the dead is wholly irrelevant if some part of me never really dies?

For without the barrier of death, any form of resurrection makes no sense.

And one thing is for sure, every ingredient of the Christian hope is built around this miracle. It depends upon it. 

So, it seems to me that, whatever conviction they hold dear, any fear of actually being separated from the love of God should never consume God’s people:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  [Rom. 8:38-39 the apostle Paul’s words written to the Saints in Rome]

Freedom from the bondage of the fear of death emerges out of various forms of opinion.  

But it probably should make sense as well.

I’m hardwired with a need  to understand things.

So, I had to figure out what this word meant that I’d heard people throwing around for over sixty years. It shouldn’t have been a big deal, I guess. If you ask anybody, they’ll tell what a soul is. 

Even my mother used to tell us, “take care of your body…it houses the soul.” And, in my college Psychology textbook, I can still  remember some kind of loose definition confirming its existence in a vague religious context, yet nestled neatly somewhere within the complex structure of the human psyche. 

But it couldn’t be seen, of course…

Merriam Webster’s full definition is every bit as puzzling:  “The immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life.”

Still, I was pretty sure it was in there somewhere.

However, things just weren’t adding up when I was learning to read and understand the Bible inductively, so I knew I was going to have to deal with its meaning. It seemed that the beginning was a good place to start—the account of God’s very personal and hands on creation of the first man in Gen.2:7:

“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being [soul].”

This sentence revealed two indisputable facts about the makeup of the created man:

1. After being fashioned out of the elements of the Earth, the man was given, by his Creator, the breath of life. The flesh of the body (which would include the brain) had first been formed.  Not until it was animated by the Creator could it function and produce conscious thought.  
2. The Hebrew word נְשָׁמָה [neshamah; breath] appears to be the animating force of life.  

And, in context, Solomon’s book of Ecclesiastes confirms that the Lord takes back human breath:

“…then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the breath will return to God who gave it.”  [vs. 12:7]

[רוּחַ: (rû’-ôck  breath, wind, spirit]

I could only conclude that the first created man became a soul. Neither grammar nor context gave me any reason to assume that he received one. If I apply basic cake logic to this theological quandary, the truth becomes clear:

I can’t be a soul and have one too.

[(נֶפֶשׁ (nê’-phêsh) being, living being, person, soul]. 

On the other hand, I was in no hurry to part with my soul.  After all, I understood it to be a very relevant part of my existence.

So I kept reading.

In the texts of the Old Testament alone, the Hebrew word translated as “soul” [נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh) was used over seven-hundred times.  And a quick software search for the Greek equivalent ψυχή (psū-kāy’) used in the New Testament epistles and narratives reveals it was used two-hundred and sixty-three times. This parallel definiton was also the choice of the Hebrew scribes who translated their Scriptures into Greek [the Septuagint] over a hundred years before Christ was born.

[ψυχή (psū-kāy’) self, inner life, one’s inmost being, (physical) life, that which has life, living creature, person, human being]

So what did the recurrent usage of this term suggest to me as an inductive reader?

First and foremost, it was imperative that I be able to grasp its meaning in the context of every instance it was used.  For example, consider the words used in  Gen. 35:18, documenting the death of Rachel:

 “It came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben- oni; but his father called him Benjamin.”

If I read this sentence with a preconceived understanding that a soul is something unseen within me that leaves my body upon death, then I’m likely to apply that particular understanding to its meaning. But I’d be hard pressed to try to square this idea with some of the texts of the Messianic Psalms. These were words out of King David’s mouth, prophesying the future miracle of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from death:

“I have set the Lord continually before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also shall dwell securely, for you shall not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor shall You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.” [Psa. 16:8-10] [my emphasis]

The ancient Hebrew understanding of “Sheol” was the underworld—the place of the dead. The tomb. If David [or any other Biblical authors] understood the human soul to be something that departed from the body upon death, then why would he also have regarded it as something that the Lord would never leave discarded in the tomb—even using it interchangeably with “flesh?”

He didn’t. He saw the human soul not as a part of someone, but rather as the sum of someone.

If I have the Biblical understanding of a soul embedded in my mind, I can clearly understand what was happening to Rachel. As her life was departing from her, she gave her son a name.

So, my hope is the same as what David’s was for himself. If I die before Christ returns, my soul–that is, everything that remains of me, shall also dwell in the grave and undergo decay.

But, just like my Firstborn Brother’s flesh, it’ll dwell safely.

He will not abandon it.

While I’ve always understood this passage to be taken in the context of hope and encouragement, I was often confused as to what that hope actually was.

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” [1Thes. 4:13]

This is a remarkable preface by the apostle Paul who, through a revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ, continued to expand on some relevant details concerning an event that had been prophesied about more than once in the Old Testament Jewish writings.

Could it have been that some of the brethren in the Church at Thessalonica had never heard of [or had forgotten] what the Jews commonly understood concerning the coming resurrection of the righteous dead predicted in Daniel 12:2? Other New Testament authors were obviously alluding to this prophesy in the book of Daniel. [see: John 11:24, Acts 24:15].

Now grieving for the dead would have been an appropriate gesture considering the state of finality it brought with it, that is, unless they actually had something to look forward to—like being brought to life again.

It’s obvious that Paul was recounting to the reader an event that had already been predicted by Jewish prophesy. But it was also evident that he was attempting to lay to rest any apprehension a First Century New Covenant saint might have had about it. That is to say, there should be no cause for anxiety concerning the fate of the dead, because they’d live again in the future:

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep In Jesus.” [IThes. 4:14] [my emphasis]

It seems to me that the reason for Christ’s resurrection was being stressed here. God raised Jesus. The righteous dead who belong to Him would follow suit.

It would happen because Christ proved that it can happen!

But to say that this sentence implies that Jesus will bring these righteous dead [in some disembodied form?] with Him “from Heaven” patently contradicts the following two verses:

“For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” [IThes. 4:15-16] [my emphasis]

In this sentence, the Greek phrase, oi νεκροὶ, is translated as “the dead.” It’s recorded as a Masculine Nominative Plural noun, intended to define more than one person. On the other hand, if those which are to be raised were merely bodies, they’d be defined with a Neuter Nominative Plural noun.

Paul didn’t consider the “dead in Christ” to be just bodies, but rather, brothers and sisters “asleep in Christ.”

More importantly, the Greek adverb οὕτως, meaning “thus, so, in the same manner,” and translated in the NASB Version as “even so” in vs. 4:14, would suggest that Paul regards this future event in the same light as the miracle of Christ being raised from the dead.

Those who had fallen asleep shall be raised in the same manner as Jesus was.

Literally translated, 1Thes. 4:13 would read: “For if we believe that Jesus died and was raised, In the same manner also, God shall bring [or lead] with Him [that is, Jesus] those who fell asleep through Jesus.” Jesus shall descend from the heaven and the dead will first rise from that state—that is, before they and those “alive and remaining” are to be “taken up” into the clouds to meet and be always with the Lord.

Paul is describing, in some detail, the sequence of events connected to the only anticipated return of Jesus Christ to the Earth ever mentioned in the texts of the New Testament. Nothing here suggests that the Lord and those who shall meet him in the “air” will embark on a journey beyond the stratosphere.

However, an interesting ancient Palestinian tradition might explain why Christ’s people are portrayed as going up to meet Him before He arrives. At that time, and in that culture, when a person of prominence was approaching a destination, it was considered to be a gesture of respect to send representatives out to meet him on his journey who would accompany him the rest of the way.

Nothing is more reassuring to me than the apostle Paul’s deeply held conviction that the irrefutable hope of God’s people is secure in Christ’s love, regardless of whether they’re living or dead:

“But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For Iam convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which Is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Rom. 8:37-39]