Luke 9:25:
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the
whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?”
This is
another installment in my on again off again series on questions in
the Bible. Today we look at a question Jesus posed in Luke 9:25:
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the
whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” The parallel verse
in Matthew 16:26 reads this way: “For what profit is it to a man if
he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man
give in exchange for his soul?”
Jesus' question in Luke
comes after explaining what is required of those who want to follow
him. In verse 23 he says first of all a person should “deny
himself.” It doesn't say to deny oneself something as in denying
oneself chocolate. It says we are to deny ourselves. This is
extremely difficult because by nature we are focused on ourselves and
have a desire to make sure we have everything we need and want. Our
focus is on ourselves most of the time. But what Jesus wants us to
understand is that we need to give up on that approach to life and
focus on him and his mission in the world.
The second thing Jesus
says we need to do if we want to follow him is to take up our cross.
Often people will say things like, “My husband is difficult to live
with. He's my cross to bear.” Or someone may say that their illness
is their cross to bear. I don't think that is what Jesus is saying
here. The cross was not merely a burden when Jesus carried his, but
it was the instrument of execution. Jesus is basically asking us to
die to ourselves. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:31 says, “I die daily.”
What he means by that is that he is giving up on his own rights and
desires in order to serve Christ.
I can't go into all of
the details here, but God sees Christians as being in Christ and
having died with him. Because of that, we should consider ourselves
dead to sin, the world, and our own agenda. In 2 Corinthians 5:15
Paul says it this way, “If one died for all then all died and He
died for all, that those who live should live no longer for
themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” In
other words Jesus Christ “took the bullet” for us when he died on
the cross. We now owe him everything. So our lives should not be
focused on us but on him.
Finally he says that
this approach should be a daily occurence. The Bible is very
practical in that it describes many actions that we are to carry out
daily. God understands that we cannot live our entire lives at once.
It is a day-to-day thing. So each day we must consider ourselves dead
to sin, dead to the attractions of the world, and dead to our own
desire to be the center. We are to rather focus on what would bring
God glory and advance his agenda in the world.
He emphasizes his point
in verse 24 when he tells us that whoever would save his life will
lose it. And, whoever loses his life for Christ's sake and for the
gospel's sake will keep it. That's a pretty strong distinction. It's
one that Jesus says in another place we should think seriously about
and count the cost.
So back to the
question: “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole
world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” The answer of course is
that there is no profit in gaining everything else but losing oneself
or ones soul. The way to avoid losing ones soul is to stop seeking
our own way, turn to Christ, trust him and commit ourselves to being
his follower. In response to that faith God promises to save our
souls and grant us the gift of eternal life. It can't be earned or
worked for, but must be received by faith.
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