For over a hundred years, Bible teachers have been using different versions of the “three circle” diagram above to illustrate the three-part nature of man—spirit and soul and body—and to show how God’s divine life reaches every part of our being in the full salvation He has provided for us. (The classic work on this topic is Mary McDonough’s book from the early 1920s, God’s Plan of Redemption.)

Very few Christians today have a clear understanding of this matter, yet it is crucial for us to see it if we are to have a proper understanding of God’s full salvation as revealed in the New Testament.

That salvation begins when we believe in the Lord and are born anew with His divine life. The Lord made this very clear when He spoke to Nicodemus. First He told him,

Truly, truly, I say unto you, Unless a man is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
— John 3:3

And then He went on to explain,

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
— John 3:6

As the Lord makes clear in these verses, regeneration is related to our human spirit; as He says, “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” So, the new birth happens when the divine Spirit enters into in our human spirit to regenerate it. This takes place in an instant.

In contrast, our soul does not receive the divine life directly; instead it is “transformed” by the divine life as that life spreads out from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will, which are the basic parts of our soul. Thus, the apostle Paul tells us,

Be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
— Romans 12:2; cf. Titus 3:5

And unlike the new birth, this transformation does not take place in an instant, but rather, it is a life-long process.

Moreover, while we receive the divine life as a free gift through faith, we can only be transformed in our soul as we pay the price to follow Christ day by day throughout our life:

Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me; for whoever would save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
— Matthew 16:24-26

And that is why, if we desire to understand the ongoing aspect of our salvation—what we mean when we say we are now “being saved”—as part of God’s full salvation, we must be clear about the distinction between our spirit and our soul. In brief, the once-for-all aspect of our salvation is related to our spirit, while the ongoing aspect of salvation is related to our soul.

And the Lord, when He returns, shall indeed judge us in relation to how much we have allowed Him to do His transforming work within us. His statement above was made, not to unbelievers, but “to His disciples.” Nonetheless, He concludes it by giving, both to them and to all of us, His disciples today, this very sober warning:

For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall repay each one according to what he has practiced.
— Matthew 16:27

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— 28 March 2026 —