Genesis 2:7 English Standard Version (ESV) then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Genesis 2:7 King James Version (KJV) 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.
I reduced the title of this devotional to living because there is a division in interpretation of the Hebrew word nephesh which according to Strong’s H5215 is soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion. The use of creature is all inclusive without distinct of attributes for which the word soul is included within the terms. Nowhere within that definition is the term “breath of life”. Nowhere within that definition is the word spirit.
Because of this we can limit the definition of soul to be contained within the realm of this life of man/woman. The soul is a component part of life and does not exist without life. The death of the body includes the death of the soul, no matter how you choose to define the soul. So what is this saving of the soul that is limited to only a life we live?
Luke 20:36-38 English Standard Version (ESV)
36 “for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sonsof the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”
If there is no resurrection there will be no soul to be with God and no eternal salvation. This being the case then the first theology to affect our eternal salvation is that of the resurrection. No resurrection no salvation.