To the church of God, to those that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.[^1]
You will be betrayed by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And you will be hated of all men for the name of Jesus. But there shall not a hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls.[^2]
So count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.[^3] For you have need of patience, so that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.[^4] Now here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.[^5]
Church of God, let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.[^6] In your patience possess ye your souls.
The patience of the saints is no ordinary patience. The patience of the saints is salvation. It is that thing by which we will possess our souls. Webster’s defines patience this way:
“The suffering of afflictions, pain, toil, calamity, provocation or other evil, with a calm, unruffled temper; endurance without murmuring or fretfulness. Patience may spring from constitutional fortitude, from a kind of heroic pride, or from Christian submission to the divine will.”
The patience that the saints have is not the kind that springs from constitutional fortitude, or from heroic pride. The patience that the saints have springs from submission to the divine will of God.
Our constitutional fortitude is harnessed by the will, and disciplined to exercise faith in God, by which we will receive divine strength to glorify Him, without murmuring or fretfulness, even through the suffering of afflictions, pain, toil, calamity, provocation, or any, and every, other evil. Strong’s defines patience this way:
“Cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy: -enduring, patience, patient continuance (waiting).” Strong’s G5281.
We wait upon the Lord and glorify His name by this extraordinary patience that only the saints have. We cheerfully, gladly, keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus while we wait upon the Lord, even though we may experience the suffering of affliction, pain, toil, calamity, provocations, and a multitude of evils, while we wait. In our patience we possess our souls.
Now what is the soul? What is it that we will possess in the patience of the saints? We all know what the soul is not—that the soul is not an immortal element of human nature that all people naturally have, and that will go to heaven or hell when the body dies. But do we know what the soul actually is?
The word of God teaches that the soul is the eternal life we’ve been given in His Son. It a the gift from God in His Son Jesus Christ given only to those who believe.
“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” 1John 5:11.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23.
The soul is the eternal life that God has given us because we believe that Jesus is the Christ, God’s only begotten Son, that He sent from Heaven to save sinners by His death for our sins, and by His life for our sanctification. This life is hid with Christ in God:
“Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3.
This is what we will possess in our patience. When Jesus said, “In your patience possess ye your souls,” He said, “In your patience, keep the eternal life that you’ve been given through faith in God’s Son. Wait upon the Lord and endure till the end, so you may finally enter into eternal life.”
Hebrews 10:36 says, “You have need of patience, so that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.” The patience that we have as saints is doing the will of God, and this patience is necessary if we are to receive the promise of eternal life. “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.” 1John 2:25. The soul is the life we have been given, which is eternal life, and this life is hid with Christ in God.
Matthew 28:10 says, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28. Men may cause pain to the body, they may even destroy the common, temporal life, but they cannot touch the life that is hid with Christ in God. Though men may “kill the body,” they cannot kill the “soul,” that is, they cannot take from us the life that is given by God and safely hid with Christ until the day of our redemption.
LIVING SOULS
When God created Adam he was a living soul. Genesis 2:7 says, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Adam was created a living soul, and he was in possession of eternal life, having free access to the tree of life. Death is the result of sin; it had no place in God’s plan for mankind. And so when we read that “man became a living soul,” we are to understand that the term “living soul” describes man as God created Him—perfect, sinless, and in possession of eternal life.
Man is still a soul in the sense that he is a physical, living human being, but he is no longer a living soul in the sense that man, in Adam, through disobedience, forfeited the eternal life that God gave humanity in Eden. We no longer possess that eternal life that God intended for mankind at creation. If given enough time, we will all eventually die. We have been cut off from eternal life by death through sin. Man is dying now, not living eternally, being “dead in trespasses and sins”:
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved:).” Ephesians 2:4, 5.
We were dead in sins, but God has quickened us together with Christ. To be quickened together with Christ does not simply mean to receive life in Him, as if we never had life. It means to re-receive life in Him, as if we once had it, and lost it. It means to be given life again in Him. Strong’s defines it this way: “to reanimate conjointly with.” And Webster’s defines reanimate as “to revive; to resuscitate; to restore to life; as a person dead or apparently dead; as, to reanimate a drowned person.”
To be reanimated is to be brought back from the dead. Mankind once had eternal life, but, through disobedience, forfeited that life in exchange for death. But “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23. We were dead in trespasses and sins, but by believing in Jesus, we have received eternal life again. God quickens us together with His Son through belief:
“And you hath He quickened [reanimated, brought back to eternal life], who were dead in trespasses and sins;” Ephesians 2:1.
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened [given eternal life to again] together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” Colossians 2:13.
The only way to become a living soul again, that is, the only way to receive eternal life as God first intended for man, is to receive His Son, because this life is in His Son.
This is what we possess in our patience. In our patience, we possess our souls, that is, we keep the eternal life we have been given as believers, which is, for now, safely hid with Christ in God. The soul is our eternal life, and it is hid with Christ in God.
A DREAM
I dreamed about a young girl whose mother taught her about the law of God. She was standing in God’s throne room, immersed in the glory of His law. The brilliance of God’s glory cannot be captured with words or pictures, but it filled the room, and spilled over and out, as blazing light. The girl in the dream saw it with her eyes, and felt it throughout her entire being. It was indescribable, and mesmerizing.
God’s glory, the glory of the law, had all the familiar and known properties of light, but it also had the property of being physically palpable, as if concrete; but this palpable property of God’s glory could not be felt with usual human sense. The girl stood wide-eyed in delighted awe in the glory of the law and said, “My mother never taught me this about the law.”
Then a piece of fabric came into view. It was a pretty yellow silk. The glory of the law wrinkled the silk, and hardened the wrinkles into it like starch.
The girl was me, and my mother is the church, and God was teaching something about His law, something that I hadn’t understood—the glory of it—which my church wasn’t able to teach me.
The hardened, wrinkled silk is the reality of my own sinful self as seen in the light of the law. But it was comforting to know that it was just fabric, and not the girl herself, nor the principle element of the girl’s experience. It was there, and can’t be ignored, but the girl was transfixed by the glory, and was experiencing the glory as she stood immersed in it, feeling its concreteness with a sense not her own. The wrinkled silk, my sinfulness, is a truth, but the glory of the law is The Truth and worthy of much more attraction and attention, even awe-full attention.
“Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” Psalm119:142.
“These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple.” Revelation 7:14, 15.
After this dream, I can imagine myself before the throne of God, day and night, in the beauty of His glory, in the glory of the law, and in the pleasure of it, and in the honor of it, for an eternity. Nothing seems sweeter.
Psalm 119:96 says, “I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.” And the NIV says the same this way: “To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless.” God’s law is “exceeding broad,” “boundless.” It is infinite, vast, unlimited.
The human mind, being bound by limitations, is incapable of fully exploring, or fully understanding all that is contained in God’s holy law. Where the human mind reaches its limits, the law of God continues its revelation for eternity. As much as God is unfathomable to the human mind, as much as He Himself is infinite and beyond our comprehension, so are the holy principles enshrined in His law.
A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD
Have you heard of the Congolese Mountain of Gold? The Congolese Mountain of Gold was discovered in March of 2021. It is a mountain in the Congo that seems to have endless gold reserves. There is so much gold in that mountain that it is called “The Mountain of Gold.” There is so much gold in that mountain that it was threatening the belief that gold is a scarce metal.
The local villagers flocked to that mountain to mine the gold, and there was so much gold entering the underground market that it had to be stopped. Barriers have been erected to prevent the locals from mining.
We, like the villagers flocking to the Congolese Mountain of Gold, would do well to gear up with our figurative pick and ax, full of enthusiasm, joy, and hope, and set our tents at the foot of the mountain of the Lord, and everyday mine the endless knowledge of God cached in His law. There are no barriers around this mountain. We may flock to it in droves. And there will enough for all.
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” Isaiah 2:3.
Far more valuable than all the earth’s treasures of gold, the law of God will yield, throughout eternity, treasures of the knowledge of God, more valuable to us than all the gold we could ever imagine. “The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.” Psalm 119:72.
THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD
Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
And as the only begotten Son of God He is “…the brightness of [God’s] glory, and the express image of His person.” Hebrews 1:3. In Him “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Colossians 2:9. Because Christ is “the express image of God’s person,” that is, “the exact copy” of God, a look at Jesus is a look at God.
And as Christ was God’s associate in the creation (see John 1:1-3, Hebrews 1:2, Colossians 1:16-17), He was with God before creation. And as the express image of God’s person, He was God in all His fulness and divinity: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John1:1. And this Word, the divine Son of God, “was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), so that we may behold “his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.
The incarnate Christ, the Man Jesus, was the embodiment and expression of the only true God, made manifest in the flesh, so that we may know God through Him, and come to God through Him. He was the embodiment of God. And so the character of God is the character of Jesus. And as Jesus was sinless, He was also the embodiment of God’s holy law, which is a transcript of the character of God. As the sinless One, Jesus was the absolute perfection of God’s law, the perfect expression of God’s character. “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1John 3:4), and as no sin was found in Jesus, He is our example of perfect obedience to the law.
The far reaching depths of the law—the infinite breadth, dignity, and glory of it, the boundless, unlimited vastness of holiness—are brought to light and life in the incarnation of God’s divine Son, the Man Jesus Christ. Jesus is that palpable, concrete property of the glory of God’s law that can’t be felt by usual human sense. It can only be perceived in Christ, and taken hold of through the eyes of faith in God’s Son, which is another gift from God (Ephesians 2:8).
God’s law in His Ten Commandments are interpreted for us in the life and teachings of the God-Man Jesus. It is only in knowing Jesus that we are able to know the boundlessness of God’s holy law. In this way, Jesus is our Mountain of Gold that endlessly yields all the treasures of heaven and knowledge of God that are buried in the infinite depths beneath the obvious surface of the law.
“... Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:3.
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2Corinthians 4:6.
God has shined the light of the knowledge of His glory into our hearts through, and by, the incarnation of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. And we may sit, yea, we may set up camp and dwell forever, at the feet of Jesus and learn the perfect ways of God, that we may walk in His paths, and be like Him.
THE LAW FROM THE MERCY SIDE
Jesus said, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:17. Jesus also said, “I am come that they might have life.” John 10:10. When the law of God is interpreted by these words of Jesus, and by His life example of these words, we learn that there is a side to the law that does not condemn the sinner. We learn that the law means mercy and love toward the sinner, not condemnation, and self-sacrifice for the hope and potential of the ungodly who are bound by the cords of sin. This is the law of God made manifest in its fulness and beauty in Jesus.
To look upon the far reaching depths in the law of God, to look upon the immeasurable breadth, dignity, and glory in His holy law from the mercy side, is to look to Jesus as the embodiment and interpreter of the law. The law, in Christ, is made manifest in all its boundless splendor and glory. And we see that the law fulfilled is mercy towards the sinner.
Isaiah, prophesying of Christ, said, “He will magnify the law, and make it honourable.” Isaiah 42:21. To make honourable means, “to expand, that is, be great or (figuratively) magnificent: - (become) glorious, honourable.” Strong’s H142. By making the law honourable, Jesus “expanded” the law. He “made it great,” and “magnificent,” and “glorious.” Jesus made the boundless, magnificent glory of the law tangible to our limited, darkened perceptions. In Him we see what the law is supposed to be, what is should look like, lived to perfection in the lives of men, women, and children.
His sinless life as the Son of man is proof that God’s law can be fulfilled, in its fulness and beauty, by all, not just outwardly as forms, but in the glory of God, in the beauty of holiness, and in purity of heart.
In Jesus we see that the law is not limited to “thou shalt nots” written on stone. The law is the perfection of Christ, written “with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” 2Corinthians 3:3. In Jesus we see that, while the law condemns the sinner for his transgressions, it is, however, fulfilled in mercy toward the sinner. The law that condemns, is, when fulfilled, the mercy that saves. It is the law fulfilled and embodied in the life and death of Christ that both condemns the selfishness and disobedience of man, but also, through that same life and death, saves him.
There is a character to the law that does not condemn, but rather seeks to save, and to protect, and to give life, and to restore. Such is the holy and spiritual law of God. Jesus is the character of the law, and the glory of it—the law from the mercy side. And this is the patience of the saints.
If we love Jesus our hearts should be overwhelmed with adoration and praise for God’s magnificent and honourable law. It should mean more to us than rules written on stone. The law of God should be held deep in our hearts, even deeper than our love for our spouses, children, friends, parents, even our own lives, because the law of God fulfilled in Christ is our salvation. And it is also, when fulfilled in us, the way in which we will possess our souls. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12.
If we do not love the law of God—and I mean really love it, not just respect it, but love it so that we fawn over it and adore it, so it becomes our meditation all through the day—then perhaps we have not yet really known Jesus, how He is the fulfillment of the law. For He would not be the One we so dearly admire and love if the law in any particular were not fulfilled in Him. He would not be meek and lowly if the law were not fulfilled in Him, in every particular. He would not be merciful, having pity upon us, if the law were not fulfilled in Him.
If we rejoice over salvation in Christ, if we love Jesus, the language of our rejoicing hearts should be,
“O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:97.
“I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8.
“I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Romans 7:22.
“Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.” Psalm 119:115.
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight [his pleasure, his desire] is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” Psalm 1:1, 2.
To meditate upon the law of God is to meditate upon the Man Jesus… and the cross… and the love of God for us. And to meditate upon Jesus without acknowledging that He is the embodiment of the law is to meditate upon a false Christ.
Now make the connection between Jesus and the law in the following verses: Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.” And it is the love of God in giving us His Son to die for our sins, converts the soul. Isaiah 51:7 says, “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law.” God’s law is written in our hearts, and it is Christ in us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
The new covenant is that God will put His law into our minds and write them in our hearts: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.” Hebrews 8:10. But Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant, and He is the embodiment of the law. Then by receiving Christ we receive God’s law fulfilled in Him, in all its boundless glory, and the new covenant is fulfilled in us. The law of God, magnified and made honorable in Christ, is magnified and made honorable in us as we behold and receive Christ. When we behold Christ we behold the glory of the law, and by beholding the glory of the law in beholding Him, we are changed into the same image, the image of Him, and we, too, will embody the law of God in its beauty and perfection. Not only will our lives conform to the law of God in the visible Ten Commandments written on stone—all ten of those commandments, my friends—but the extraordinary love of God for humanity, the law from the mercy side, in its divinely glorious and boundless splendor, will be manifest in those who love Jesus.
This is our high calling as Christians. It is the patience of the saints—the law from the mercy side in us who see and believe in God’s only begotten Son. Such glory, such beauty, such mercy and sacrificial love cannot be made manifest by keeping the letter of the law, no matter how strict and diligent we may be. It can only be accomplished by beholding Christ, and by understanding that He is the embodiment of the law, and the interpreter of it.
As we behold Him, and believe in Him, and thirst after His glorious beauty, the beauty of holiness—His righteousness—we will be changed into His image by divine power, the Spirit of the living God in Him whom we behold.
Not by heroic pride, nor by our own constitutional fortitude, but by the submission of our faith in Christ to the divine will of God we will receive divine strength to glorify Him. The glory of the law, the character of it, which is the character of God, will be made manifest in us, as we behold Christ, and purify ourselves even as He is pure. 1John 3:3.
John 3:21, says, “He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” And John 1:9 says, “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Jesus is the true Light. And we must come to Him, we must come to the Light, so that our efforts, our successes, our law-keeping are all the work of God in us through faith in Jesus Christ.
If we are to walk in the Truth, that is, if we are to keep the holy law of God, for His law is Truth (Psalm 119:142), we must see, and believe, and behold, and come to the true Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, who is the embodiment of God and of His holy law.
My appeal to you is this: pray to God and ask Him to show you His Son, in all His glory, in the glory of the law, and contemplate the law, not just as prohibitions, but from the mercy side. Let your heart be opened to His glory, and let your view of yourself be changed by it. Let the breadth, and depth, and magnificence, and mercy of God’s law convict you of the depth, and breadth, and magnitude of your sin and selfishness. Then thirst after Christ’s righteousness above any other love, desire, and hope that you have.
Come boldly to the throne of grace, in full knowledge of your lack, and receive the grace of God that He may glorify His name even in you. Christ is your personal Saviour, and “He is faithful that promised.” Hebrews 10:23. “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” 1Thssalonians 5:24. It can be done, and He will do it. Keep your eyes upon Jesus through all that comes, for your eternal life is safely hid with Christ in God if you continue in this patience, the patience of the saints. In your patience possess ye your souls.
[^1]: 1 Corinthians 1:2 [^2]: Luke 21:16-19 [^3]: James 1:2, 3 [^4]: Hebrews 10:36 [^5]: Revelation 14:12 [^6]: James 1:4