What did Jesus mean when He said that he who loves his life will lose it (John 12:25)?

"He that loves his life shall lose it." The word translated life here, is one that usually is translated "soul." It refers to that "soul life" which characterizes man in his natural fallen condition. The soul as distinguished from the spirit (which is the higher part of man, capable of putting him into intelligent touch with God) is the seat of our natural desires and aspirations; and "soul life" is that life of enjoyment of all those things that naturally appeal to us.

This "soul-life" is further defined as being "in this world." The word used here for world (kosmos) is one that we have taken over bodily into our English tongue. It is the opposite of chaos. God's "kosmos" was thrown into chaos by sin; and ever since that the devil has been busy using fallen man to evolve a "kosmos" of his own, with what results we see. The "life in this world" is of course the life of this world — the "soul life" of this "kosmos." Now what about it? Do we love it, or do we hate it? Do we look upon it as something to be gone in for, something to be sought and valued and cultivated, or something to be turned from as worthless, and esteemed as positive loss because calculated to divert from what is infinitely better? WHICH?

But there is another thing to which the Lord calls our attention in this scripture. If it is true that He passed through death to secure all for God and for His people, we also must pass through death in order to enjoy what He has obtained. Hence the moment He had spoken of the necessity of the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying if it would bring forth fruit, He proceeded to say, "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." Everyone will understand that if the characteristic blessings of Christianity are heavenly, or, to put it into even more simple language, that if heaven, the Father's house, is to be our eternal home, we must die to enter upon our full enjoyment, that it can only be after death, or after the Lord's coming, that we shall enter upon the possession of all the blessedness connected with our being for ever with the Lord. Another thing, however, is here taught, viz., that it is possible for the believer to pass through death now in spirit or morally, and thus to anticipate the life of heaven, by living there, in the power of the Spirit and through faith, while in this world. If the Lord's language be carefully examined, it will be seen that it bears this construction. He thus says, "He that loveth his life shall lose it," There are two senses in which the word "life" may be used - either to indicate existence, or that in which we live, that in which we find our life. This latter - the moral sense - is that conveyed in the Lord's words. They will mean, therefore, that if a man clings to his life here - to what makes up his life, to his enjoyments and gratifications - he will lose it, just as the prodigal found in the far country. On the other hand, he that hateth his life in this world - the one who, having found his attractions and treasure in Christ outside of this world, accepts death upon, surrenders, the pleasures and the enjoyments of the natural man - he will keep it unto life eternal, because he has already begun to live this life eternal, even while upon the earth.

John 12:25. Thus the way of blessing for man lies through death. But the blessing into which the death of Christ brings the believer is of an entirely new order beyond the power of death. Thus the Lord contrasts the two spheres of life, the "life in this world", and the life of joy and blessing which is spoken of as "eternal life". The life in this world is, at best, a passing life; the life that the Lord gives is "eternal". To love the life here is to cling to a life that we must lose, and lose even in its pursuit. To hate the life in this world, in view of eternal life, is to enter into the enjoyment of eternal life even now. Well for us to ponder the deep meaning of the Lord's words. To turn aside to the world, seeking to find our pleasure in all that in which the world finds its life, will only prove bitterness and sorrow to the believer as he discovers that he is pursuing that which not only fails to bring any lasting satisfaction, but, even at its best, is increasingly slipping from his grasp, for it is a life that ends in death.

John 12:26. Moreover, there is not only the new life with its lasting joys, in contrast with the old life that is passing, but there is the privilege of living a life of service to the Lord. To take this path of service, we must follow the Lord. So, a little later, the Lord's injunction to Peter to feed His sheep is followed by the exhortation, "Follow Me" (John 21:17, 19). This gives us a further motive for accepting death to the present life; for in principle "following" Christ is through death to sin and the world. Such a path will have its bright reward. Following Christ will lead where Christ is gone, to be with Christ in life's eternal home. It may meet with opposition and persecution from man; it will certainly meet with honour from the Father.

Verse 24, with another “most assuredly” is of vital importance here. The Lord Jesus must, as the grain of wheat, fall into the ground and die before He could bring forth “much fruit.” This embraces far more than the borders of Israel, but the field of the world. In resurrection He is Himself the firstfruits, the promise of an abundant harvest. So the Greeks must wait, but not for long, as the book of Acts shows, to have a real sight of the Lord Jesus.

Deeply involved in this is the question of whether one thinks more of his life in this world than he does of eternal life. Christ was perfectly willing to give up His life in this world in view of infinitely greater blessing. Jewish leaders were not: they loved their own lives, but would only lose them. Here is a test of the reality of faith. The expression “hates his life” is intended to be strong, in contrast to loving one's life. It is a question of which life is of vital importance. Are we not gladly willing to leave this present life at any time, when we have that which is eternal and pure?

If one therefore would serve the Lord, he is told, “let him follow Me” (v. 26). True service is in taking the same path of rejection as the Lord Jesus did, and giving up life in this world. But it is in view of being where He is, on the other side of death, in resurrection life. Would we shrink from such discipleship? Let us think of the wonderful recompense of being where He is; and besides that, having the Father honor us for our devotion to His Son!

Fruit for God, then, is the first result of His death which He mentioned. The second was the new order of life on earth, which thereby would be entailed upon His disciples. He was about to lay down His life in this world, all perfect as it was. Life in this world is for us wholly marred by sin, and under judgment. If we love it we shall only lose it. Seeing it in its true light we learn to hate it, and thereby we keep life — the only life worth having — to life eternal. This is for us an hard saying, but of extreme importance, as we may glean from the fact that Jesus uttered words of similar import on three other occasions, and these four sayings are recorded six times in the four Gospels. No other saying of our Lord is repeated for us like this. It is not too much to say that our spiritual stature and prosperity are determined by the measure in which this saying leaves its impress on our hearts and lives.

237 The Lord speaks in an abstract way, as of a rule or principle, the ground of which He Himself was going to lay for all; only He was giving Himself that others might have eternal life; and He could have delivered Himself, or have obtained twelve legions of angels; but then, how would the scriptures have been fulfilled? The thing could not be; He had not come to deliver Himself. He would have remained in heaven, and have left us exposed to God's righteous judgment; but that could not be either: His love did not allow Him to do this. He had also too much at heart the accomplishment of the counsels of God, and the glory of God His Father, which should thus be made evident in a remarkable and perfect manner. The Saviour's rejection on the part of the world has been the rejection of the world on the part of God. The last effort to find or arouse good in man's heart had been made, and they had "seen and hated both me and my Father." God could save out of this world, in grace; but the world was lost, it was in a state of enmity against God. He therefore who attaches himself to this world, who seeks his life in it, or who keeps it as a life to which he clings, in contrast with the rejected Christ, loses it. We are not always called upon to sacrifice our lives outwardly, although this might take place, and has often happened; but morally this applies always: he who loves his life, who cleaves to it as if it belonged to this world, loses it. It is a life of vanity, alienated from God as the world itself to which it attaches itself, a life which ends only in death; for here Jesus does not speak of judgment.

200 The Lord applies the principle, "He who loves his life shall lose it; and he who hates his life in this world," a world of sin, is kept aloof from the associations of it, "shall keep it unto life eternal." It is morally right in its objects, but it must die to the world. This we do in Jesus; but then, being alive by and to Him in resurrection, we keep it (hating the evil, the sign of the new life), unto life eternal. It was obedience, and Christ had eternal life by it. He that would follow Him must follow Him in the same path. The life to God is resurrection life; and, first, because we are dead; secondly, because we must die, as alive without the law, not subject to it; in a word, have to die to sin as dead in it, because of the resurrection of Christ, in which we have the life in which we can do it. But loving the life is the life, the old will, autarkeia, independent of God; hating it is in the perception of the evil, because we can live now (being right in mind) only to God. He holds it then as a free gift from God, and keeps it, for we know that which we have committed unto Him, that He is able to keep it until that day. "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am" (the consequence, though appointed, is plain), "where I am, there shall also my servant be." I must go; so it is ordered; and am rejected. "Where I am," they wish to be. The consequence is plain.

The first reference to eternal life in John 12 shows that it is a life in contrast to the life we live in our present circumstances "He that loves his life shall lose it and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal." Do we really value life in this world or are we seeking our life in another world? The life lived down here in the enjoyment of the things of nature and of the things of the world will come to a close, it will be lost; only what has been sought of Christ will abide, being kept to life eternal. No doubt the future is in view, for eternal life is not only a present possession, it is ours after we leave this world behind. Hating the life in present things we shall indeed seek the life that is to be ours in the coming day, but that is the eternal life even now ours in association with the Son of God on the other side of death. Hence the life we keep to eternal life is what we have lived and enjoyed in communion with Christ, yea with the Father and the Son, in those things made known by the Son in His testimony here, and made available for us by His death upon the cross. So that eternal life is not connected with our life in this world; it is not the life touched in natural things; it lies in things outside of this world altogether.

One who found his life, that is, chose a life of ease and comfort on earth, would only lose it, for man cannot retain what be seeks so ardently to hold, a fact that Ecclesiastes 12 so graphically portrays. But if one would lose his life for Christ's sake, that is, make Christ his object, though this might mean sacrificing life's natural pleasures and objects, he would actually find his life in its satisfying character of lasting value and blessing, a life with eternal good In view.

If one would save his life (that is, if he would give his life in this world a prime place), he would only lose it: such a pursuit is futile. But one who will lose his life for Christ's sake will find it. If he puts Christ first, it may seem that he is forfeiting his life so far as natural advantage is concerned, but his life will issue in lasting fruitfulness. Selfishness will defeat its own ends, while unselfishness for Christ's sake will gain far more than is given up.