Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any one desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For whosoever shall desire to save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Peter had just tried to steer Jesus away from the cross. In reply Jesus told all His followers what His road would cost them, and His words sound like a riddle: which "life" does a person lose, and why is losing it worth it?
Peter had just urged the Lord to spare Himself, and the answer exposed the instinct behind that advice as the enemy's own counsel. One commentator draws the line between the two voices:
Peter's error gave the Lord the chance to point out the kind of path all His own must walk... If the cross must be His portion, His followers must accept the cross also. For Him the cross meant atonement for sin, as well as rejection and shame. We share only the rejection and shame. But nature shrinks from this, and even resents it. Satan suggests its motto: "Spare yourself." God's motto is "Deny yourself." Someone said it well: Peter "at the last denied the Lord because he had not denied himself."
Everything turns on the word Jesus used for "life":
The word translated life here is the one usually translated "soul." It refers to that "soul life" which characterises man in his natural fallen condition. The soul is not the same as the spirit. The spirit is the higher part of man, able to put him in intelligent touch with God. The soul is the seat of our natural desires and longings. So "soul life" is the life of enjoying all the things that appeal to us by nature.
The Lord's words "deny himself" and "take up his cross" show how the losing works:
"Self-denial" is too weak a word for the force of "deny himself." Self-denial means going without something. The Lord is not speaking of that. He means denying yourself — saying "no" to yourself. "Take up his cross" does not just mean putting up with trials and troubles. In those days, a man who took up his cross was on his way to execution. He was a man who 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.
This saying is not only for those who die for their faith:
The world to come turns around the finding and losing of the soul in this present world. There the finding becomes losing, and the losing becomes finding. He who makes himself the object of his life loses himself and is cast away. He who sacrifices self and its interests for Christ's sake is really preserving everything for the world to come... You do not have to die as a martyr for this to apply. Do only those who die a martyr's death live for ever?
One commentator weighs up the two choices:
To save your life means giving your life in this world first place. Do that and you only lose it. Such a pursuit is pointless. But one who will lose his life for Christ's sake will find it. If he puts Christ first, he may seem to be giving up his life as far as natural advantage goes. But his life will bear lasting fruit. Selfishness will defeat its own ends, but unselfishness for Christ's sake gains far more than it gives up.
What comes instead is a higher kind of life, and Paul's own story shows what the exchange looks like:
Some turn their back on the soul-life of this world because they are joined to the rejected Christ and His death. They are going to keep life to life eternal. Here the word for "life" is changed, for "life eternal" is a far higher thing. Philippians 3 shows what this means. There Paul lists all his natural advantages, and then counts them loss for Christ. Christ became so infinitely attractive to him that he hated all else in comparison with Him.
The Lord does not leave the demand hanging on its own. Two verses later He points forward to His coming in glory, and commentators read that as deliberate encouragement:
In Matthew 16:27 He casts the eye of the one who would follow Him on to the future, in order to give a stimulus for devotion in the pathway now... According to what we have been for Christ now will be the reward in that day. If we have not been true to Christ now, He must withhold reward then, which will not be a joy to His heart. How necessary, therefore, to seek to be for Him now!
- Two mottos. Nature, prompted by the enemy, says "Spare yourself." God says "Deny yourself." Peter denied the Lord at the last because he had never denied himself.
- Two lives. The "life" at stake is the soul-life of natural desire in this world. What you keep instead is life eternal — a far higher thing.
- Two deaths. Saying "no" to yourself is death inside. Taking up the cross is death at the hands of the world.
- Two outcomes. Make yourself the object of your life and you lose yourself. Give up self for Christ and you keep everything for the world to come.
- Two timings. The loss looks total now. In the world to come, the losing turns out to be the finding.