Losing Our Life to Find It

Jesus spoke in Kingdom language that was and is impossible for the unregenerate mind to understand (1 Corinthians 2:14). He explained this divine mystery to Nicodemus and the other Pharisees, who doggedly questioned and accused him of confusion and even demon possession because they could not apprehend his teaching. Jesus told them that if they were ever to understand spiritual truths and see him rightly as the Messiah King, they must be born again (John 3:1-21).

One Kingdom lesson Jesus taught the disciples and crowds that was particularly difficult for them to embrace was his call to take up their cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24-26). The cross signified horrible suffering, shame and loss and was not something anyone – even the lowest in society – wanted to be associated with. In particular, the cross represented the epitome of a defeated life for the religious, who sought to make a name for themselves and who found their identity in the praise of man.

When Jesus said we must take up our cross and follow him, he meant that we must be willing to carry the burden of sacrifice, surrender and suffering in our identification with him. Part of this, he showed, is refusing to love, cling to and seek to build our own life according to the way of the world system. Jesus warned that one who seeks to hold onto his life here as opposed to surrendering his life to build the Kingdom of God will, in fact, lose their life.

How can loss be gain?

But the one who trusts Christ and his words, who is willing to let go of and even despise his life, will find it (Matthew 10:39; Luke 14:26). How can this be? How can we experience the abundant life Jesus promised by giving up our life and our rights to live the way we want and by taking up a cross?

The word life here in Greek means vapor, which helps to explain. Since our life on earth is a mere vapor, seeking to cling to it by living for the American dream -- success, comfort, riches and the praise of man is empty and vain pursuit, which Solomon discovered at the end of his life. Declaring this life and its pursuits under the sun to be “meaningless, meaningless” or “enigma, enigma,” he implores us instead to live for God and to seek to honor him above all (Ecclesiastes 1:1, 12:13). The apostle Peter also warns us to turn away from the “empty way of life handed down…by our forefathers, since we have been bought with the precious blood of Christ and redeemed from this meaningless existence (1 Peter 1:18-19). 

Those who seek to find life by holding on to it, Jesus promises, will forfeit his grace along with his gift of eternal life (Jonah 2:8). Many refuse to connect the dots from his promise in Matthew 16:25 back to a former one about receiving the gift of eternal life through faith in him (John 3:16). While eternal life is a gift that cannot be revoked, Jesus shows that the one who is truly saved is the one who now lives and walks in newness of life like Jesus did and, as a result, takes up his cross to follow God (Matthew 7:22-24).

Jesus was not adding a work to our justification by commanding faithful, ongoing obedience to take up our cross and deny ourselves but was showing that all regenerate children will be cross bearers who have turned away from idolatry of all kinds (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Revelation 22:15).

What about you and me?

Since Jesus’ words contain a life altering message, it’s important to ask ourselves the question, “Have I yielded my life along with my family, money, possessions, reputation and plans to the Lord? Have I rejected the world’s standard of seeking to promote my kingdom and instead taken up my cross to follow Christ and make his name known? Am I willing not only to live for him but to die for him? If we have not taken this step of faith, we are not born again. As we see throughout the book of Acts and through the teaching of Jesus, John the Baptist and all the New Testament writers, the Spirit begets in us a repentant faith that changes us from the inside out and reorients our desires to live for Christ  (Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:15; Acts 17:30). This saving faith radically renews and empowers us to turn away from trusting in ourselves to listen to, trust and obey the Lord and his good commands. If we have not surrendered to his Lordship, as Thomas did when he bowed the knee declaring, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28), then we need to turn to him today in repentant faith – yielding our very lives to him to receive his gift of life-altering, mind-transforming eternal life. 

“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26-27).

The Call of God and the Pearl of Great Price

The call of God comes into our lives at different times and ways, but one common element of his call is the message of surrender by faith. This begins with his effectual call of repentant faith at our regeneration, when the Holy Spirit enables us to behold his glory and yield our very lives to him as an act of worship. Since it’s impossible to begin walking with him in the pursuit of holiness while going in the opposite direction of pursuing our own earthly goals, this initial surrender often involves great change. The same is true when God calls us to new seasons of ministry and service as his beloved children and soldiers in his army. While these calls are different in that one initiates us into the Kingdom of God and the other directs us in his service, it’s important to examine some of the common elements of them both.

We see God’s effectual call at work in the life of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, the prophets and disciples. Each was encountered by God and received his call as they were going about life, doing what they were accustomed to doing. They left homelands, houses, family and the familiar to follow God – who became their greatest treasure. 

The Bible also provides us with close-up views of what his ministry and mission call looks like in different seasons of life. One beautiful example is seen in the life of Elisha. The story in 1 Kings 19 zooms in on Elisha as he’s plowing his fields with twelve yoke of oxen. We can see that God has blessed and flourished his life, providing him with land, animals and crops. Interestingly, Elijah bursts on the scene, throws his cloak upon Elisha and then walks off. No words are necessary because the meaning and intent of his actions are clear – the call of God has come to Elisha’s life to leave behind his home and land and follow in Elijah’s footsteps. 

Much like the disciples, he immediately takes action by burning his plow, cooking the meat and giving it to the people (1 Kings 19:21). Like the disciples, he is so serious about answering God’s call that he burns all of his bridges, leaving no temptation to return to the land and showing all those around him that his intentions are to trust and obey the Lord at all costs. God, not his belongings and security, is his greatest treasure.

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy reading stories like this and biographies of great missionaries, who left everything to follow the Lord. I reason that this was God’s method of calling his people to service thousands of years ago but surely not in middle class America. He couldn’t possibly summon his people to leave houses, farms, family, jobs and all that’s familiar to follow him today. Or could he?

About 14 years ago, he stepped into our family’s life with a call to leave everything and follow him to South Korea to train church planters for the majority world. I spent the first nine months resisting the call and trying to convince myself that this could not be the Spirit of God. All but a few of our friends said we were out of our minds to take our middle school daughters overseas, and many assured us that this would fail. But God’s leading became more and more clear and was affirmed by the counsel of godly leaders in our church and the increasing clarity we received from the Word and the Spirit. 

We put all of our belongings in storage, rented out our house and left for South Korea with two large suitcases each. God used this season to remind us of his timeless truth that we are sojourners and called to be Christ followers, which means actually following him where he says to go and doing what he asks us to do. We also learned his call can come at any time — when we least expect it — and that our responsibility is simply to be ready to go, to surrender and follow him.

The Lord kept us in Korea for over six years and then Lord showed up and redirected us back to the states, where he called us to teach at a university. In our seventh year of teaching, he began to impress on our hearts the need to return to the nations to share the Good News. He providentially directed us to an organization of like-minded men and women who travel to the nations to provide much-needed Bible training for pastors and leaders. Once again, we left behind friends, our home, job and church and moved to be closer to family so that we could fulfill this new ministry calling. 

A few months ago, my husband asked me one night if I was ready to move again if God called us back overseas. My gut reaction was shock and denial, but I knew from the past that this was the norm and custom for the Christian life and what God has asked of me since I first met him over 35 years ago. He has not provided additional clarification about this calling, but we are willing and ready to go wherever he says go. It's our great joy to trust and follow him, even if it costs us everything, because he’s worth it and has freely given us everything. How can we withhold our very lives from the one who surrendered his life for us on the cross?

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (Revelation 4:11).

How Long Will You Waiver?

As Elijah stood before the people of Israel just before God’s miraculous display of power on Mt. Carmel, he asked them a question that we, too, must consider: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). 

Israel had chosen to break allegiance with their true King and instead followed the counsel and practices of Ahab, who “abandoned God’s commands and followed the Baals” (1 Kings 18:18). In judgment, the Lord sent a famine over the land for more than three years and then sent down fire on the altar to bring them to repentance (18:38). 

Like Israel we are often lured away to follow the idols of our age and abandon allegiance to the Lord and his commands. While the gods of our age often do not have literal altars that require traditional sacrifices, they are real nonetheless. We worship comfort, success, money, power, influence and pleasure and sacrifice our time, energy and resources in pursuit of these idols. Instead of offering ourselves to God as living sacrifices as he calls us to do (Romans 6:13; 12:1-2), we turn our backs on him to worship these gods, which he says are no gods at all (Jeremiah 16:20).

As a result, God turns us over to a judgment that is far worse than a drought or fire display of his power, though it can include these. More drastically, we experience a famine or drought of his Word – hearing it but never understanding so that we can effectively apply it to our lives (Amos 8:11).

Jesus explains what this looks like in a person’s life who is consumed with the cares and idols of the world and is indifferent to the things of God. He says they will be “ever hearing but never understanding; …ever seeing but never perceiving” (Matthew 13:4). Like the seed that falls among the thorns, the word of God is choked out so that we, like Israel, live in dry, parched places where there is no water for refreshing (13:22). 

Like Israel, he calls us to stop wavering between two opinions and to whole-heartedly serve and follow him. He warns us that, like Israel, we cannot serve two masters – “either we will love the one and hate the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24). We cannot serve both God and money, along with the idols of this age. His antidote for us, as it was for Israel, is to repent and turn back to him in full devotion. Not only does he promise to bring soul refreshment as we return to him, but he assures us that instead of living in parched places we will experience his living water flowing from our lives (Jeremiah 17:5-8; John 7:38). 

We all have a choice. Will we serve the Lord who is God or the idols who are no gods at all? Will we trust in worthless manmade gods or trust in the all-powerful Creator who made us and sustains our lives (Psalm 135:15-18; Proverbs 3:5-6)? This choice has life-altering implications for us just as it did for Israel.

I've included a link to one of Billy Graham's sermons on this topic, which he gave at the Yankee Stadium in 1957 before 85,000 people. His talk starts at about 18:46. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aZoqIwHsdM

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14-15).