And having called the crowd with his disciples, he said to them, Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.
Peter had just confessed Jesus as the Christ. Then he pulled back when Jesus foretold His own suffering and death. So Jesus calls the crowd over, along with the disciples, and sets out three terms for anyone who wants to follow Him.
Mark notes that Jesus called the crowd over, not only His disciples. Commentators see that detail as deliberate: He gives the terms before anyone signs up.
Anyone thinking of becoming a disciple, and every disciple too, ought to know that the cross is the disciple's lot now. Mark adds here that He was "calling the crowd to Him with His disciples." This shows that He wants those who think of becoming disciples to know they are coming to present suffering. Unless a man really sees what Christ has to give, and what He delivers him from, he had better stop a moment before he says, "I will be your disciple." Stop and count the cost.
The crowd needed to hear this because Christ Himself was heading for rejection and death.
If Christ, the Christ of God, would meet rejection and death, then the path of true disciples could not be smooth. They must prepare for suffering — and it might be, and how often has it been, for death!
People often soften this phrase into giving something up. Writers here insist the target is the person, not his possessions.
"Self-denial" barely captures the force of "deny himself." Self-denial means denying yourself something. That is not what the Lord speaks of. He speaks of denying self — of saying "no" to yourself.
Giving things up for a season can even work in the opposite direction.
People speak of self-denial, and hold self-denial weeks. By this they mean giving up certain things for a set time to help some good cause. But this is the very opposite of denying self. In fact it feeds self-satisfaction and lifts self up. Denying self is not just giving up certain things. It is denying the man who craves them. Denying self means ignoring self altogether, so as to serve others in love.
In that world, a man carrying a cross was not having a hard week. He was walking to his death.
"Take up his cross" does not just mean bearing trials and troubles. In those days, a man who took up his cross was on his way to execution. He had to accept death at the hands of the world. Saying "no" to yourself means accepting death inside, in your own spirit. Taking up your cross means accepting death outside, at the hands of the world.
That rules out the loose way people call every setback a cross.
People often use the word "cross" loosely, for every kind of trial and suffering. Unbelievers use it too, and others use it of them. Yet in the language of Scripture it is clear that no unbeliever bears a cross… Every believer bears a cross, but he has only one… It is the reproach of Christ. Nothing counts as a cross except the suffering or reproach that flows from the unrighteous judgment of man on what is like Christ in us.
His cross and ours are not the same. One writer draws the line, then says what we can always do:
Of course this is not about His atoning sufferings, what He suffered from God's hand for sin. It is about His sufferings from man: the hostility of sinners, the opposition of men, abuse and even death. We know very little of what it means to suffer for the name of Jesus. But remember, Christians, what the Lord says first: "Let him deny himself." You can always do this by grace.
The last term sets the direction of the other two. It points to Christ Himself, not to any group around Him.
If I am to walk in the true path of Jesus, I must deny myself, take up the cross and follow — not the disciples, not this church or that church, but Jesus Himself. I must turn from what my heart likes by nature… and remember, it is a dangerous thing to believe in Jesus without following Him.
Something in us fights this call:
Nature shrinks from sharing His rejection and shame, and even resents it. Its motto, suggested by Satan, is "Spare yourself." God's motto is "Deny yourself." One writer put it well: Peter "at the last denied the Lord because he had not denied himself."
- Called — He gathers the crowd, not just His disciples. Anyone thinking of following Him hears the cost before entering, not after.
- Deny — say "no" to self, not just to some things self wants. Giving things up for a season can feed the very self it claims to deny.
- Carry — a cross meant execution, not inconvenience. The one cross a believer bears is the reproach that comes when people see something of Christ in him.
- Distinguish — we cannot share what He suffered from God's hand for sin. We share only what He suffered from men, and by grace you can always deny yourself.
- Follow — follow Christ Himself, not a company or a system. Peter denied the Lord at the last because he had not denied himself.
For whosoever shall desire to save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's shall save it.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
for what should a man give in exchange for his soul?
In Mark 8, Jesus warns that whoever tries to save his life will lose it, and He calls His followers to suffer for His sake. Then comes this question about worth: what could a person hand over to buy back a soul once it is gone?
Jesus had just called His followers to accept suffering, even death, for His sake.
The Lord then turned to the disciples and to the crowd, and told them that willingness to suffer because of Him must mark those who would follow Him. They must count on being put to death for Christ's sake, and, as Mark adds, "for the gospel's." That way they would save their life and not lose it. The soul is more precious than all the riches and honours of this life. If it is lost, nothing can recover it.
Jesus asks and gives no answer. One writer says none is needed.
The Lord closes here with that appeal to consider the soul's value, which has rung through so many hearts since then… The question needs no answer: the impossibility to answer it is the answer.
Verse 35 says "life." Verses 36 and 37 say "soul." One Greek word, psuche, lies behind both.
First, the word psuche is clearly used for "life," as in Matthew 2:20; Mark 3:4; Luke 9:24; John 12:25, and many other passages… But "life" and "soul" often stand in contrast. Sometimes "life" stands for "the soul" in its higher aspect. The same word is used of what is profited and lost in the same act. So: "Whoever would save his life will lose it" (Matthew 10:39; chapter 16:25-26; Mark 8:35-37). We have then "the soul" used generally for the responsible part, in which we live with God… Matthew 26:38; Mark 8:37.
Notice the kind of words Jesus reaches for here.
Our Lord uses the language of the merchant. He speaks of profit, and loss, and exchange. He is picturing a bargain. For the comfort of the believer, He decides this: a man would make a bad bargain if he took the whole world (supposing he could get it) in exchange for a share in the glory that is to be revealed. Most people take this passage to be settling the question of personal safety. It is not so much about that as about profit and loss.
Verses 36 and 37 describe the man whose whole aim is profit:
But suppose his profits in this world increase so enormously that they give him control of the whole world. What real profit is that, when he loses his own soul chasing it? Could he then give his great wealth in exchange for his soul? No: death leaves him utterly destitute.
Even the wealthiest cannot buy back a soul — not their own, and not anyone else's:
That is a striking word in Psalm 49. It speaks of those who trust in their wealth: "Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice." None could touch that matter. How it shows the value of the soul!
No money can buy a soul back. But one place shows what a soul is worth.
What is the worth of your soul? The blessed Son of God gave Himself for my soul. If I want to know the value of the soul, I look at the cross. I look at this holy, sinless, spotless One going down to death to redeem it. That is the value of the human soul.
- Exchange. Jesus uses trading words: profit, loss, exchange. Trading the whole world for your soul is a bad bargain.
- Silence. He asks and gives no answer, because none exists. That impossibility is itself the answer.
- Word. "Soul" here is the same Greek word that verse 35 calls "life" — one word for what a man gains and what he loses in the same act.
- Bankruptcy. Death strips the richest man of everything. Psalm 49 says no one can buy back another's life. No human purse holds the price.
- Cross. The one price ever paid was Christ Himself, and it is at the cross that the true value of a soul becomes visible.
For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man also be ashamed when he shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
Jesus had just spoken of His own suffering, and said that anyone who follows Him must take up the cross. Verse 38 brings that choice into the open: will you own Him in a world that despises Him, with the day of His return in glory in view?
The warning is not aimed only at outsiders. The disciple closest to Jesus had just recoiled from the thought of a rejected Master, and one writer traces the rebuke of Peter back to an instinct we all share.
Here is proof of what man is. The Jews were the most favoured of men, yet the elders, priests and scribes became the most active in scorning and refusing the Son of Man. And His own disciples do not relish His shame… He rebuked Peter for his fleshly dislike of the cross of Christ, and could say, "Get behind Me, Satan," because it was the flesh's unbelief, selfishness and presumption — no less so for being hidden under a pious form… What was it that so roused our Lord? The very snare we are all so exposed to: the desire to save self, the preference for an easy path over the cross.
Shame here is not a feeling but a choice, and it is measured by whose opinion frightens you more.
The center of the whole matter is what one thinks of Christ. How many are ashamed of Him before an adulterous and sinful generation! They are more afraid of the sneers of ungodly sinners than they are of the judgment of God! They will not confess Jesus as Lord. Yet He has shown His truth, His faithfulness, His grace and mercy for all the world to see. What folly to be ashamed of One who is the only real Friend and protector available to mankind.
Other beliefs do not produce this embarrassment:
Man is never ashamed of a false religion. A Muslim will say his prayers in the market, and if you are making a bargain with him, you may wait until he has finished. A Hindu is not ashamed of the worship of his gods, but a Christian is ashamed of Christ.
The Lord names two things people flinch from: Himself, and what He said. That second half is where the price is usually paid, and one writer draws a blunt test from it.
To lose one's life for Christ's sake and the gospel's is eternal gain. In spirit this applies to everyone, today as much as at any earlier time. It is a solemn word. Confessing Christ still costs, and a confession that costs nothing hardly deserves the name.
The verse gains its weight from who is speaking. The same title used for the suffering One in verse 31 is used for the returning One here.
The Son of Man who would suffer would also reign in heavenly and divine glory. He is God as well as Man, the only begotten Son of the Father.
The title He uses points to what He comes to do.
Mark 8:38 describes the Lord coming with His holy angels as Son of Man. That title is well known to belong to Him as the One who carries out judgment.
The verse gives back exactly what a person gave.
The day was coming when He would come again. He would no longer be in lowly humiliation. He would come as the Son of Man in His own glory over all mankind, in His Father's glory and the glory of the holy angels — all giving Him the place of great dignity. Then He would be ashamed of those who were ashamed of Him and His words when He came in grace. Solemn reversal of the whole matter!
The very next verse promises that some standing there would see the kingdom of God come with power — and the Transfiguration follows within days. Writers read that as God steadying His people's nerve for the cost He has just described.
He displayed His glory in the kingdom before the time of its establishment in order to strengthen His own in taking up the cross and following the Master. The disciples were like the unbelieving brothers, and like Christendom too. They looked for progress and triumph, and overlooked faith and love tested in suffering with Christ.
Some of those listening would live to see it:
The coming of the Son of Man in glory would have some witnesses who stood there at the time — those who were not ashamed of Him, and who would not die until they had seen the kingdom of God come with power. It was a preview of the kingdom that Peter, James and John saw.
- Shame — the pull is not toward gross sin but toward an easy path. Even Peter disliked the cross, and the Lord answered him, "Get behind Me, Satan."
- Setting — the generation is adulterous and sinful. People carry other beliefs openly, yet go quiet about Christ.
- Cost — the warning covers His words as well as His Person. A confession that costs nothing hardly deserves the name.
- Glory — the Son of Man who suffered returns in His Father's glory with holy angels. That title marks Him out as the One who carries out judgment.
- Reversal — He came in grace and men were ashamed of Him; He comes in glory and is ashamed of them. He gave a preview of the kingdom glory so His own could take up the cross with the end in view.