Seeds for 10/17/2023 - Matthew 16:24-25
Scripture: Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Observation: Divine reversals abound in the life of faith. Verse 25 is a good example: “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
It’s important to note that this follows Jesus’ radical call to discipleship to imitate His own self-denial and sacrificial servanthood, a paradigm which the Twelve and others will not be capable of fully envisioning until after the cross and resurrection. Verse 25 provides a rationale and assurance for taking such a leap of faith.
Jesus names it—it is losing their life. It will mean losing His own life, so it will most definitely mean losing theirs. This certainly includes authentic Christian martyrdom, like that of Stephen in Acts 7 and others throughout Christian history. Yet the meaning is not restricted to this, for Jesus gave up His life to the Father long before He was lifted up on the cross. So did Stephen or any of the other martyrs. It’s the only way they were able to offer the radical obedience and devotion that they did. They had lost their life for Jesus prior to losing it by others.
That’s what we’re called to, in fact. Wise Christians for generations have referred to this as “dying to self.” That is, not only repenting of one’s sin, but also laying down one’s whole self—intellect, emotional reactions, physical comfort, and so forth—to the end of becoming so humble and empty of our self before God that Christ may fully live through us. The more we die to self, the more we have room in our soul to live for Christ.
While we hold on, white-knuckled, to control life, we find an authentic godly life slipping through our fingers. But as we practice daily surrender, laying ourselves on the altar as it were each morning and doing our best not to crawl off when it gets tough to stay there, we find the true life of Christ more within reach than before.
This saying of Jesus raises a crucial question too. Who can possibly make such a statement? Either an egomaniac or the true Lord who is Himself “the way and the truth and the life.” Jesus is both the source of our life and the goal of our life—the beginning and the end. We have existence because of Him and the purpose of our existence is to know and make Him known.
Only the Lord of Life could make such a promise. Only He is worth of us believing it.
Application:
When have you experienced more life in Christ through greater surrender?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, you are my life, my hope, my all. Help me die to self daily, that I may live for you. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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