“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35)
Someone once wrote an article reflecting on his grandfather’s decision not to invest in Xerox back when that company first started; instead, he put his money into a company that did not last. “What could have been?” the article mused. Some investments go nowhere; others produce more than we could imagine.
Jesus and the gospel are going somewhere: there’s the promise behind our Lord’s words in Mark 8:35. It’s not as though Jesus were setting up a moral test—“If you try to save your life, I’M GONNA TAKE IT!” Rather, He sets forth the absolute truth: everything lost for His life is saved, because His life is the true Life that abides forever.
I promise that life of Jesus to you. How can I not? He’s not holding onto it! He let His life go on the cross, planting it in the sinner’s grave. Even in His resurrection, He hands over His body and blood to sinners—and if He hands over His very body and blood to sinners, what would He ever withhold from them? Clearly, the life that inherits the kingdom, the only life that bears fruit—it’s for you!
LET US PRAY: Dear Jesus Christ, true Life: teach me to suffer all losses for Your sake with patience and thanksgiving, so that I may gain all that You promise, to the singular end that Your word be proven in me as in Your flesh, and Your glory thus abound. Amen
Pastor Steven K. Gjerde
Zion, Wausau
