The Price of a Soul
By Dr. Joe Henry Hankins (1889–1967)

 “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?”—Matt. 16:26.

I think the Lord Jesus never spoke more solemn and meaningful words. In that brief statement He places a value upon the human soul that is beyond all the wealth of this world, in terms of things men count of value.

Yes, the value Jesus places upon a human soul in that statement far exceeds the wealth of the world. The word He uses is, in the Greek, kosmos, which means all of God’s material creation.

Think of it! The myriads of stars and solar systems and planets and worlds—the entire world system—Jesus said that one soul is of more value than them all.

Why did Jesus put such value on a human soul? We could stay here all night and recount the reasons why Jesus said one soul is worth more than the whole universe. But there are some outstanding reasons that I wish us to consider prayerfully.

I. The Soul Is So Valuable Because of What Man Is and God’s Purpose for Man

When God had spoken the worlds into being, then when He had prepared this earth with all of its living creatures and swarming life in the seas and the birds that fly in the air and animals and creeping things that live upon the earth, He looked upon it all and saw it was good.

But God was not satisfied. God is love, and love wants an object like unto itself upon which it can bestow its affection. His great Father-heart was hungering for a family of children, so He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” And the Scripture says, “In the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

The crowning work of all God’s matchless creation is a being from His own hand into whom He has breathed the breath of His own life and who has become a living soul in His image with a capacity to love like God and return the love of God, to respond to and receive that matchless love; with a capacity to think His thoughts, to live His life, to hold fellowship with Him, to walk in communion with Him, to live with Him.

We see God coming down in the cool of the day to walk with the man whom He has made. There is a blessed and holy and wonderful fellowship between the two.

The purpose God had in the creation of man was not only to have a being like unto Himself who could appreciate and respond to His love and upon whom He could lavish His affections and with whom He could have fellowship, but His further purpose was that this man should be the lord of creation and that one day he should reign with Him and share His glory throughout an endless eternity.

What a glorious purpose God had in the creation of man! In the face of that, many men will deliberately turn their backs upon such a destiny, deliberately defeat the purpose of God in their lives and choose to follow the Devil instead! They will be deceived by him and be dragged from that glorious purpose of God into endless night, separated from God. They will be defeated in their lives and rob God of the glory that rightly belongs to Him in every life.

That is why Jesus said, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” He misses that infinite, loving, glorious purpose of God in his life and forfeits the opportunity to share with Him His glory through eternity.

II. The Soul Is So Valuable Because It Is to Live Forever

It is valuable because of the fact of eternity and the immortality of the soul. Did you ever stop to try to contemplate eternity? Have you ever silently and quietly, in your own mind and soul, tried to grasp the thought of eternity? I confess to you that I have never been able to do it. My mind, being finite, literally staggers like a drunken man and breaks down as I try to comprehend the meaning of eternity.

Oh, the thought that I shall be living somewhere forever! Forever! Forever!

There was a time when I was not.

When Job watched the stars from the plains of Shinar, I was not.

When Abraham heard the call of God and started out seeking “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” I was not.

When Columbus turned the nose of that ship out into the vast expanses of the Atlantic to discover a new world, I was not.

When Washington crossed the Delaware with his barefooted men to purchase the liberty we enjoy, and when they spent that winter in Valley Forge where they left their bloodstained tracks in the snow, I was not.

When Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, I was not.

But listen, friend: there will never be a time anymore but that I will be living on somewhere.

When the sun has burned itself out in the sky and the material that composes its substance and gives its heat and light has all been consumed and gone back to nothing from which God called it into being, then I will still be living on.

When the stars have worn themselves out with the passing of the ages and have crumbled and decayed and gone back into nothing, I will still be living on.

When the whole created universe has grown weary in the cycles of the ages and worn out and passed back into nothing, I will still be living on. When there is not an atom of it left, I will still be living on somewhere.

Somebody has said that if a tiny sparrow were to take in its little beak a grain of sand from off this planet and carry it yonder to the moon and leave it, then come back and get another grain and go again to the moon, making one round trip each thousand years, when the little sparrow should have succeeded in moving the whole planet on which we live—one tiny grain of sand each thousand years—it would just be daylight in eternity; eternity would have just begun!

Oh, when I think of that, I stagger at the thought and am overwhelmed with the reality of it as revealed in God’s Word!

Then when you link that up with eternal night; when you link that up with death and it becomes eternal death; when you think of a soul banished from the presence of God forever, forever; when you think of a soul lost in the blackness of darkness forever, as Jude said, like “wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever”—forever! forever!—it is an awful, awesome thought!

Listen to that cry from Hell: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

For two thousand years that poor, tormented soul has been crying for one drop of water—not a drink of water, not a full rounded drop of water, just that which would cling to the tip of a man’s finger! What does it mean? Just for the tiniest bit of relief from the tortures of Hell! And for two thousand years he has been crying for that drop of water to cool his tongue which has been parched in that flame, but he has not gotten it yet.

But oh, that is only the beginning! Throughout all eternity, forever, forever, forever, he will be crying for that drop of water and will never get it.

The tortures of Hell are terrible enough to contemplate if they were for but one day. If they lasted a thousand years, then the human mind could never comprehend the terrible torture and awfulness of the fact of Hell. But when you add eternity to the doom of the soul that Jesus says is accompanied by weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, then you can understand why Jesus would say, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

To get a conception of what it means to be lost, of the awfulness of Hell, you must look to Calvary. There is no other place in time or eternity where you can get a proper conception of what it means for a soul to be lost.

Oh, my friend, hear me tonight! It must be an unspeakable tragedy to be lost for the Son of God to be willing to die in order that men might be redeemed, for the Son of God to be willing to empty Himself of His glory and take upon Him the form of a slave and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, that men might be saved! Yes, the Son of God was willing to make His soul an offering for sin.

See Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. In His agony of soul His sweat is great drops of blood falling down to the ground. His whole body, every pore open, is bathed in His heart’s blood. Hear Him say, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” For three hours of that awful night in Gethsemane, three hours, the Son of God prays that one prayer. He isn’t shrinking from the cross. His soul is being made an offering for our sin. He is saying, “If there is any other way, Father; if there is any other way; if there is any other way to save a soul, O Father, let Me take that way!”

Friend, God took the hardest way that could have been taken. That means there is not only an awful Hell out yonder awaiting the soul without God, not only that the doom of a sinner is an unspeakably awful thing, but it means there is absolutely no other way that it could be done. Had there been another way, God would have answered that prayer in the garden that night. But Jesus, looking into the face of the Father, said, “Not my will, but thine, be done.”

Oh, the price He paid for a soul!

My friends, listen: that is God’s estimate of the value of one soul, yet that same soul for which He died men and women will throw away for nothing! They place no value whatever, seemingly, upon it. Yet they will tell you that they believe they are immortal, that they believe the Bible, that they believe there is an eternity; for a little mess of this earth’s pottage, they throw away their souls!

“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?”

III. What Would You Give After Your Soul Is Lost

Forever in Hell?

And then the other half of the text is this:

“What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

When I first started preaching I made a sermon on that and called it “Sold Out to the Devil.” I pictured that part of the text as a soul in the marketplace and God saying, “What will you take?” and God making His offer, then the Devil saying, “What will you take?” and the Devil making his offer, and the man selling out to the Devil.

I pictured certain things for which men sold out. That is scripturally true, but it isn’t the proper interpretation of that text. Jesus did not say, “What will you take?” but, “What shall a man give?”

When I go into a marketplace to buy a suit, the clerk puts a price on it, and I give him that price in exchange for the suit.

What does Jesus mean here? That after a man has lost his soul, after he has forfeited his right of salvation, after he has waited too late, after he is in Hell and realizes its awfulness, what would he give if he could just get back those chances he had to get right, and for just one more opportunity to make the right decision?

What would the rich young ruler give if he could kneel one more time at the feet of Jesus and hear the Son of God say, “One thing thou lackest”? Oh, if he could hear the Lord say, “Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor”—wouldn’t he be glad to do it tonight? After nineteen hundred years of the tortures of Hell, to remember that one day he stood so near to the borderline of Glory, just one step over! Oh, what would he give to stand there again?

And the myriads of souls in Hell tonight, what would they give to sit here and hear one more gospel sermon, one more gospel song, one more invitation from the Lord; to feel once more the tug of the Spirit at their hearts! What would they give if they could have just one more opportunity?

O soul, listen: if you forfeit your chance and go to Hell, you would give ten thousand worlds to hear one more gospel sermon, one more song, one more call; to hear that still small voice at the door of your heart just one more time. “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

The thing, my friends, is not to think about what you would do after it is too late, but what are you going to do about it now?

IV. What Does Satan Offer for Your Soul?

What does the Devil have to offer you, my unsaved friend? You are a thinking, reasoning, intelligent human being. God gave you ability to think logically and intelligently. Now is the time to settle this question. Face it honestly and seriously.

Think with me tonight! What does the Devil have to offer human life? Oh, he offers the satisfaction of our lower nature. But suppose we revel in it; we are then living on the plane of the beast of the field. We are not living the life of man as we turn ourselves over to satisfying the lower desires of life.

The Devil offers a festive time. But remember, all the Devil offers in the end “biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” In the end, you will curse the day you put your feet in the primrose path, curse that day you listened to the Devil’s lies.

The Devil offers what he cannot deliver. He is the father of lies. He tells you it will be easy if you follow him. You will not find a soul anywhere who has found happiness following the Devil. God has made man with such a capacity and with such a nature that he will never be satisfied nor happy until he rests in Him.

The abundance of things that a man possesses will not satisfy human life. What does the Devil have to offer you? Look down the path a way and see what Satan has brought those who follow him. He has wrecked hearts and ruined souls. Look at the tears. Listen to the sighs of the suffering, to the groans of the dying, to the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing of teeth!

Paul said, “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain.” Put your ear to the ground; and you will hear the sighs of the suffering, the groans of the dying, the mourning of the sorrowing, the splashing of tears of the heartbroken that have followed the Devil.

Why can’t people see? Why can’t we learn from observation without having to learn by experience?

V. What Does God Offer for

Your Soul?

What, then, does God have to offer you? He offers you His love. He offers you the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you from all sin, to break the fetters that sin has forged upon your soul and about your life, to set you free like a bird turned out of a cage. That bird has been beating itself against the side of the cage of confinement, but one day the cage is lifted, and the bird goes back where it belongs.

That is what Jesus meant when He said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” and, “If the Son…shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

That is what Isaiah meant when he said the Son of God at His coming should “proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isa. 61:1).

He offers you “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” He offers to make your sin-stained soul as white as snow. Hear it! “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:18). “And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7).

When I was a high school lad, one afternoon after school I walked downtown. There was a man on the street corner selling some kind of cleaning fluid. He claimed he could take out any kind of stain. Back in those days they didn’t make ink which will wash out. I knew how hard it was to get ink out of my handkerchief or my clothes. In fact, it was there to stay.

I stood and watched as he stood in the back of a truck. A comedian was singing, a crowd gathered around. He took out his handkerchief. In one small bowl he poured a bottle of black ink, and in the other bowl he poured some sort of fluid. I saw him take the handkerchief and dip it down in the bowl filled with the black ink and turn it over and over until every thread was saturated a midnight black. Then he lifted it out and held it up. It was as black as ink could make it. “Now,” he said, “watch.” Then he put it over in the bowl of cleaning fluid, dipped it down, turned it over a few times, took it by the corner and lifted it out. To our utter amazement it was as white as the driven snow.

That is exactly what Jesus did with my poor, sin-stained soul. Though it was black with sin, He dipped it in the fountain filled with His precious blood, and when it came up, it was as white as the driven snow.

Oh, what does God offer when He says He will put my sins behind His back and remember them against me no more forever? He offers to make me a child of His, a son of His, an heir of His and joint heir with Jesus Christ. God offers me the privilege of one day being like Jesus, when I will see Him as He is. He offers you and me, my sinner friend, the privilege of being an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. He offers you the privilege of reigning with Him.

Listen! “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Rev. 3:21). We shall reign with Him forever! Forever! Forever! Think with me tonight: “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

VI. Your Soul Is Worth Too Much to Go to Hell!

But you say, “I do not intend to go to Hell. I intend to be a Christian sometime. You are not talking to me, preacher.”

If that is what you are saying tonight, my unsaved friend, how can you say that? How can you have the audacity to say, “I am going to trifle with God awhile longer, trample underfoot His blood awhile, slam the door in His face awhile longer”?

You say, “I believe Christ died for me, but I am going to close the door in His face. I will have my way awhile, and when I get ready I will trust Him.”

Unsaved friend, how can you have the audacity so to trifle with God? How can you hope, with the shortness of life, the uncertainty of life that hangs by such a brittle thread—how can you dare to presume upon the mercy and the long-suffering of God? How can you hope for another chance?

Don’t trifle with God! “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Saul, the first king of Israel, trifled with God. God said to Samuel, “I have rejected him.” All night long Samuel, that great prophet of God, lay on his face and prayed and cried to God for Saul, but to no avail. God said, “I am through with him. He has trifled with Me long enough.” So Saul was set aside as king.

“He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”—Prov. 29:1.

You say, “I am going to someday.” What are you going to do now? Think with me tonight. Whatever sin may give you, whatever the world has to offer you, it perishes with the using. Is it worth the price? “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Do you know why people go to Hell? Because they will not think, because they will not follow their own better judgment; not because they do not believe in the Bible, not because they do not intend to be saved sometime, but because they will not do what their own reason and their own better judgment tell them to do.

Think of a soul in eternity without God, without hope and without the Lord of glory.

Hear me! Suppose there is no certain place called Hell where there is fire and brimstone. I believe there is, but just for the sake of argument, suppose there is not. Think of a soul flung by the power of God beyond creation’s boundaries, blighted by the curse of Almighty God throughout all eternity, withering and dying under the curse of God, doomed to wander in infinite, boundless, bottomless darkness where the soul sinks and never finds a place to rest its weary head, for there is no rest day or night forever; where the sound of a friendly voice is never heard, nor the touch of a friendly hand is ever felt; where the only sound that ever reaches your poor, doomed ears is the hiss and jeering of the demons and the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth of the damned!

Think of such an eternity by a moment’s decision, when in the twinkling of an eye, yea, by one moment’s resolution, you can be saved.

Think! God gave you reason and power to think, and you know what you ought to do. Think of spending eternity in Hell when God gave you the will to act and you could have, in a single moment’s decision, settled your salvation for time and eternity; when, with one eternal yes to God, you could have been singing around the throne with the blood-washed throng of the redeemed of God; when, by holding out an empty hand of faith, in one second, yea, one instant of time, you could have received as a gift of God eternal life!

“What is a man profited?” What a foolish thing for a reasoning, thinking human being to do!

Will you make the right decision, friend? Will you open that door and receive Jesus? He did not say, “Whosoever can.” He said, “Whosoever will.” Will you? “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

Don’t Let These Words Slip!

You have just read “The Price of a Soul” by Dr. Joe Henry Hankins. Words are inadequate to describe the immeasurable value of a soul. The Bible says in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Jesus died to pay for our sins and promises everlasting life to everyone who will trust Him as Saviour. Knowing the price of your soul, I urge you to trust Christ as your personal Saviour.