Whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35).
This is a scripture verse that has made many saints. It contains a whole orientation of life. It has been a key verse in my own life, one that has guided me in decisions I made at certain key points of my life. I chose, by meditating on this verse, the more difficult way of losing my life in this world for the love of Christ instead of the other possibility that lay before me.
Jesus Christ invites us to follow him completely, leaving the world and other possibilities behind, for he invites us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34 NKJV). Then our key verse follows, for denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Jesus in this radical way is to lose our life in the world for the sake of Jesus and the gospel. But Jesus promises those who choose this more difficult way, this way of life (Matt. 7:13-14), that they will save their life with him. But those who do not want to lose their life like this in this world for the sake of Jesus and the gospel will lose their life with God, which is true life, the only life worth living.
Those who choose true life are few. Most will prefer the comfortable way that leads to perdition. The way of life is for the few because it is the more difficult way (Matt. 7:13-14). It is precisely this more difficult way that Jesus invites us to choose. “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:13-14).
Many choose the wide gate, for it is the gate of saving our life in this world. Yet it is the way that leads to perdition. It is the gate of those who will lose their life in the only sense that has meaning. Few are they who choose the narrow gate. For it is the gate of losing their life in this world. But those who do choose it will save their life in the only way that has meaning, for it is the gate that leads to life.
Which gate are you choosing? Which gate have you chosen up until now in your life? What does this gate that leads to life look like, this gate that few choose, the gate
of losing your life in this world for the love of Christ and the gospel? It is the gate of loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30). It is the gate of those who observe the first and most important commandment of Jesus. Those who love God with all their heart, who keep the greatest commandment, watch over their heart lest it divide among other things and the pleasures of the world. They do as does the man who discovered a treasure buried in a field. “In his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matt. 13:44). He loses his life in this world by selling all that he has to buy the field, but he saves his life with God by obtaining the hidden treasure, which is the kingdom of God, the love of God in his heart.
He did not want to hear what Jesus said to the rich, “But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Luke 6:24), nor did he want to hear what the rich glutton, “who feasted sumptuously every day” (Luke 16:19), heard in Hades, “Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things” (Lk 16:25). The rich man has already had his consolation in his luxurious life in this world. He did not lose his life in this world to save it with God. Instead he saved it in this world to lose it with God. He chose the wide gate of the many, the gate of saving his life, enjoying the delights of this world, so he lost his life in the only sense that has any meaning. He chose the gate of the many, which is the gate which leads to perdition. He refused the narrow gate of the few who love God with all their heart, the gate that leads to life, and he rather divided his heart among the delights of this world and so lost his life with God.
The gate of life is the more difficult, narrow gate. It is not the gate of the seed sown amid thorns, for the thorns are the “riches and pleasures of life” (Luke 8:14). To avoid the thorns, one has to renounce the pleasures of life which choke us so that we do not bear fruit for God, “for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature” (Luke 8:14). Most people do not want to renounce the pleasures of life, and so they do not bear much fruit, but rather are choked by these same pleasures, and their heart is divided among them, and so they do not love God with all their heart. They have not lost their life in this world to save it with God, but rather have saved their life in this world, and so have lost it with God. They prefer to be the first in this world rather than the first in the kingdom of God. But to be the first in the kingdom we have to renounce this world and be the last in this world, for “the last will be first, and the first last” (Matt. 20:16).
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