Peripoiesis translated `saving' occurs but five times in the New Testament, viz.:

`The redemption of the purchased possession' (Eph. 1:14).

`To obtain salvation' (1 Thess. 5:9).

`To the obtaining of the glory' (2 Thess. 2:14).

`The saving of the soul' (Heb. 10:39).

`A peculiar people' (1 Pet. 2:9).

Peripoieomai is translated `purchased' in Acts 20:28, and `purchase' in 1 Timothy 3:13.

Not only must we have the true conception of this word `saving', but we must also be sure that we have no

traditional warp regarding the expression saving the `soul'. It is used in evangelical preaching and literature as

though it means the salvation of the sinner, but the striking thing is that Paul has no use for the expression. Peter

uses the words `the salvation (soterian, not peripoiesis) of your souls', but not in the sense usually employed, for he

speaks of it as the end of their faith and of `salvation ready to be revealed in the last time ... at the revelation of Jesus

Christ' (1 Pet. 1:5-9). So far as the present is concerned, believers are exhorted rather to lose their souls than to save

them; which, however, is not a popular expression today. The moment we see this we are on the track of the truth of

Hebrews 10, and Matthew 16 supplies the key:

`If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save

his life (soul) shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his soul for My sake shall find it. For what is a man profited,

if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For

the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man

according to his works' (Matt. 16:24-27). (Soul and life translate the one Greek word psuche).

The man who denies himself, and takes up his cross, loses his soul in this life. If he turns back to the good things

that he has relinquished, making his belly his god, and finding his glory in his shame, he saves his soul in this life,

but becomes the enemy of the cross, for he has refused to bear it. The one who is willing to lose his soul for Christ's

sake will find it when the Lord gives reward at His Coming. All this is intended by the words of Hebrews 10:39.

Here, as in Hebrews 6, hope is the anchor of the soul, is connected with the obtaining of the promises, enters within

the veil, and belongs to those once `enlightened'. Hebrews 11 which immediately follows contains a list of Old

Testament saints who lost their souls for Christ's sake, to find them in the better resurrection.

We trust that the close parallel that is observable between Matthew, Philippians and Hebrews will not be without

salutary effect upon us all. Let us go on unto perfection; let us remember the awful waste of precious opportunities

that will be ours if we `neglect so great salvation', if we neglect to `work out our own salvation'. The body of our

humiliation is soon to be fashioned like unto the body of His glory. A little while and the time will come, `the

appointed time' for which we wait. Let us then take heart. We have need of patience. Let patience have her perfect

work, that we may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

We have seen that the whole teaching and exhortation of the epistle to the Hebrews may be summed up under

two phrases:

(1) Let us go on unto perfection, or

(2) Draw back unto perdition.

The examples of those that draw back to perdition are those whose carcases fell in the wilderness (Heb. 3), those

who are `dull of hearing' and never advance from being `babes' (Heb. 5), or who like Esau despise their birthright

(Heb. 12), or prefer Sinai to Sion (Heb. 12). Here we find such alternatives as: