Dying to Live

Luke 9:24-26 (ESV)

[24] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. [25] For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? [26] For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. [27] But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

In verse 23 Jesus told his disciples that in order to follow him, they must deny self, take up their cross, and follow. Verses 24-26 give us three reasons why this is necessary. First, he says that saving equals losing and losing equals saving. Just one example, often when we are chasing after joy we fail to find it, but when we lose ourselves in the service of others joy sneaks in and surprises us. Losing equals saving and saving equals losing.

The second reason for Jesus’ instruction about taking up the cross it that this world is of less value than life. I wonder if Jesus had Judas in mind as he was talking. Judas traded his life for thirty pieces of silver. He thought he was trading Jesus life for thirty pieces of silver, but it turned out to be his own life that he lost. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus reminds us that gaining the whole world but losing self is valueless. Life is of more value than the entire world, and life is found in death.

Third, Jesus warns that if we are ashamed of him now, he will be ashamed of us when he returns. I wonder if Jesus had Peter in mind here. Peter would shortly deny that he even knew Jesus. How do you suppose Peter felt when He denied Jesus, and Jesus turned and looked at him (Lk 22:61)? How much worse on the day of Jesus return in glory to have him look into our eyes and say, “I am so disappointed that you were ashamed to know me. How could you?”

Death is the way to life. Ted Dekker’s trilogy Black, Red, and White is an interesting allegory paralleling the Old Testament, the Gospel, and the New Testament. In Black, people must wash daily in the lake in order to be clean of their disease, similarly in the Old Testament people were required to offer daily sacrifices to cover their sin. In Red washing changes to drowning in the lake. The result is that once they drown they are alive, and they are perpetually clean. They no longer require daily washing. That is a picture of the Bible story moving from law to grace.

This is the gospel. Once we take our own agendas, our own attempts at gaining God’s approval, our own will and desires, and lay them all at the feet of the cross . . . Once we come to the point of realizing that our only hope is Jesus and we intentionally place our trust in him, then we have real life. From that point on it makes no sense to go back to our old ways. Death to self is the way to life. The good news is that the Bible says that when we were baptized into Christ we were baptized into his death. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).

Why must we die in order to follow Jesus? Because saving equals losing and losing equals saving. Because life is of more value than the entire world, and life is found in death. And finally, because if we are ashamed of him now, he will be ashamed of us when he returns. Let us choose the way of death that leads to life.