What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul?

What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Mark 8:34-38 (vs. 37 text)

Jesus Christ has asked a question that every man, woman, boy and girl of age must give an answer to.

Those of us that are Christians have the answer, whether we realize it or not. Many claim that this question cannot be answered but I believe that it can be.

Those who are here today without Christ, you need to pay heed to the question and to the only answer that you can have for this question.

Every person must answer the question the same way. Let’s read our scripture.

I want to use verse 37 as our text and for the sermon title. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

What have you got that is worth trading for your soul?

Just what is the value of your soul? Let’s look at verse 36 to see God’s value of a man’s soul. Jesus says here that your soul, my soul, one person’s soul, is worth more than the whole world.

Can you imagine this? Your soul is worth more to God than the entire world. Let me tell you something.

A report from the United Nations published in 2000, showed that the total combined wealth of the entire planet was $125.3 trillion dollars.

This is all tangible assets in the world.

In the U.S. alone, 1.2 trillion dollars is traded daily on the New York stock exchange.

In comparison, Bill Gates the chair of Microsoft corp. Had a net worth of over 60 billion dollars before the terrorist attacks.

His 60 billion is not enough to exchange for his soul.

Do you have this kind of wealth? None of us does. Besides, even if you had the wealth of this entire world, according to Jesus, it still would not be enough.

Let me give you a few reasons as to why this world’s wealth cannot buy your soul into heaven.

First, the wealth of this world is temporary. We are told that all things here on this earth are temporary and will pass away.

How many of you would accept as payment for a debt, money that had value for only a short amount of time. None of you.

Why should God, with all of his wealth, accept something that is temporary in value?

Secondly, God owns it all anyway. How can you exchange something for your soul that does not truly belong to you anyway?

You just have temporary use of what you have. Everything on this earth was created by him and for him, for his glory. In other words, it is already his.

The third and the most important reason is that the exchange has already been made.

Jesus Christ exchanged himself on the cross for your soul. He died a vicarious death so that you would not have to endure the wrath of God.

You see, God knew you could never exchange anything for your soul. So he did it for you. He gave his own son. Can you put a price on the son of God?

God did. I believe that God had such love for man that if Adam were to have been the only man ever created, that God would have given his son to save his soul.

You see, that price was in reality just one soul. Can you say this morning with conviction that Jesus died for me. Say that with me this morning, Jesus died for me.

Each of us as Christians has a personal relationship with the savior. One who paid the price. I caused Jesus to give his life, you caused Jesus to give his life.

The exchange for our souls was given some 2000 years ago. Jesus knew what he was asking, he knew that man could give nothing of any value, that man alone possessed nothing for exchange.

There is one thing however, that we all have, that we can give in exchange for our soul. That thing in its own right has no value whatsoever. No value until the exchange is made, and then it is of infinite value.

That thing that we can give in exchange for our soul is our acceptance and belief on the lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus asked the question, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Knowing that he himself would be the answer.

Knowing that it was he who would lay down his life in exchange for our souls. Knowing that God the father would accept nothing else.

Jesus gave his all. That is what it takes. We cannot save ourselves. Our own righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of almighty God.

A blood bought life is the only thing that God will accept in exchange for your soul.