<p>16:25&nbsp;<i>For whoever would save his life</i>- The Lord is speaking also to Himself here- see on :23&nbsp;<i>Get</i>.&nbsp;I find it hard to avoid the conclusion that it is the process of our engagement with God's word, our love of it, our integrity in considering it etc., which is therefore more important to God than our grasping the final 'truth' of each clause in a final, Euclidean sense. By saying this I take nothing away from the fact that &quot;the truth&quot; is &quot;in Jesus&quot;, that there is a wonderful personal reality of salvation for each of us in Christ, a living personal relationship with Him. My point is simply that God's intention in giving us His word is surely not to relay to us a heap of individual specific truths- for the written word isn't the best way to convey such things to simple, illiterate folk, nor indeed to computer-assisted students of our own times. Rather does He seek us to enter into&nbsp;<i>relationship</i>&nbsp;with Him and His Son, and He uses His word and its ambiguities as a way of achieving this. The Lord Jesus used language like this- consider how He uses the word&nbsp;<i>psuche</i>, life, in Mk. 8:34-37. We are to lose our life in order to find life... and &quot;what does a man gain by winning the whole world at the cost of his true self? What can he give to buy that self back?&quot; (NEB). The ambiguous usage of&nbsp;<i>psuche</i>&nbsp;is surely in order to get us thinking about our relationship with Him. And thus the Lord's parables often end with questions which have open-ended, ambiguous answers, through which we reveal and develop our relationship with Jesus- e.g. &quot;What will the owner of the vineyard do?&quot; (Mk. 12:9- kill them? be gracious to them? give them yet another chance? keep them as His people anyway?). I am not saying that correct interpretation of Scripture doesn't matter; rather am I saying that in&nbsp;<i>some</i> ways, in some places, in some aspects, interpreting the Lord's words is designed by Him to be open-ended rather than intended to lead us all to identical conclusions.</p>
<p><i>Shall lose it</i>- Luke&rsquo;s record speaks of forfeiting life or self. Jesus speaks of how a person can lose their place in the Kingdom as a person losing or forfeiting their own self; He was thereby teaching that a place in the Kingdom was possessing one&rsquo;s own real self (Lk. 9:25 RV). To lose life is paralleled with the Lord to unashamedly witnessing to Him in an unbelieving world; and He calls us each one to lose our lives in this way (Mk. 8:35). Being ashamed of Christ's words doesn't just apply to not speaking up for the Truth when someone invites us to a topless bar after work. It's equally true, and the punishment for it just the same, in the context of not speaking out Christ's word in the ecclesia, to our very own brethren (Mk. 8:38 = 2 Tim. 1:8). The Lord Jesus will be ashamed of the rejected when He comes in the glory of the Father (Mk. 8:38). There is a telling juxtaposition of ideas here- shame and glory. Amidst the utter glory of the Father's throne, surrounded by Angels, the Lord will be sitting there with eyes downwards in shame as the rejected stand before Him and walk away. The Proverbs speak of how shame is to be the ultimate end of the wicked, and glory the end of the righteous. Yet it is&nbsp;<i>the rejected who</i>&nbsp;go away &quot;into shame&quot;.&nbsp;<i>They</i>&nbsp;will be &quot;ashamed before him at his coming&quot;. Yet the Lord will so feel for even the rejected, that He feels for them and reflects their feelings. This is no stern-faced judge chasing away those He is angry with. This is a window into the Lord's ineffable love and feelings even for those for whom it truly is too late, for whom the way to the tree of life is now barred. The way the Lord Jesus says that He will be &quot;ashamed&quot; of those He has to reject (Mk. 8:38) opens an interesting window into what it means to have Divine nature. It doesn't mean that we will not then know the range of emotions which we have as humans today- for we are made in God's image. To think of the Lord of Heaven and earth, on the throne of His glory, sitting or standing there &quot;ashamed&quot;... because of His people. And shame is really a concept relevant to the presence of others- and the others who will be present will be the Angels and ourselves. Before us, we who are ourselves&nbsp;<i>so</i>&nbsp;weak and saved by His grace alone, He will feel shame because of those He has to reject. But there's another way of looking at the Lord's 'shame'. It is the rejected who will have shame in that day (Dan. 12:2). Such is the nature of the Lord's love and empathy that He will somehow feel their shame, feel embarrassed for them as it were. Which thought in itself should banish for ever any idea that we are coming before an angry Master. The Lord of grace is the One who will be, and is, our judge. And even in His condemnation of men, His essential love shines through. His condemnation of Israel involved them wandering for years in the wilderness; but during that wandering, &quot;in all their affliction, he was afflicted&quot; (Is. 63:9). God shared in their feelings and suffering of rejection; just as the Lord Jesus will share in the shame of those who walk away from Him at the last day in shame. God's being with Israel during their wilderness wanderings is cited in Am. 2:10 as an example of His especial love for His people.</p>
<p>The Lord had earlier taught in Mt. 10:28 that in the condemnation of the last day, it is God who will destroy [s.w. &ldquo;lose&rdquo;] life [&ldquo;soul&rdquo;, s.w.]. But here the Lord says that a man will lose / destroy his own life if he is ashamed of His words and seeks to gain the world for himself in this life. The point is that ultimately the condemned will have condemned themselves; the process of losing / destroying life is initiated and performed by people in this life, and the final condemnation is simply giving them what they themselves wished for. And the Lord goes further to say that whoever &lsquo;finds his life&rsquo; will lose or destroy it (Mt. 10:39). To find life for ourselves, to think that by obtaining [&lsquo;finding&rsquo;] the world, the ideal life for ourselves, is to actually lose or destroy life. But in Mt. 10:28,39 the Lord teaches that men cannot take that &ldquo;life&rdquo; from us- only God can, at the day of judgment. He clearly doesn&rsquo;t simply have mortal life in view, because this can be taken from us by men. Perhaps the idea is that for those written in the book of life, they &lsquo;have&rsquo; eternal life, as John&rsquo;s Gospel makes clear. No man can take that from us. But if we spend our lives trying to find the ideal life for ourselves in this life (the coolest place to live, high income, fulfilling career etc.), we are in fact losing or destroying that eternal life, and therefore there is such a thing as names that were once written in the book of life being erased from it. In Luke&rsquo;s record, the Lord goes on to say that He had not come to destroy [s.w. &lsquo;lose&rsquo;] men&rsquo;s lives, but to save (Lk. 9:56). It is men who destroy / lose their own lives, they condemn themselves, rather than the Lord seeking to condemn them. The Father likewise has no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. Rather does He simply confirm their own self-destruction. John&rsquo;s version of this saying about losing life is found in the context of the Lord speaking to Himself about the need to die on the cross: &ldquo;He that loves his life shall lose it&rdquo; (Jn. 12:25). To avoid the cross is to love life- this fleeting life. Attitudes like &lsquo;Spoil yourself!&rsquo;, &lsquo;You deserve it!&rsquo; and &lsquo;Have a fun time- you only live life once&rsquo; are all examples of loving life rather than losing it in self-condemnation for the hope of the eternal life. Lk. 17:33 repeats the words, in the context of commenting upon Lot&rsquo;s wife- her wistful look back to Sodom was because that was her life, the life she had loved.</p>
<p>The Greek text in Mt. 16:25,26 and Lk. 9:25 can bear a re-translation and re-punctuation which quite alters the sense as found in the English translations. It shows the Lord emphasizing the evident and compelling logic of losing our lives for His sake: &quot;Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For how much a man is profited if he shall gain the whole world (in the Kingdom) and lose his own soul (now, as I asked you to do, to lose your soul for me)!... for the Son of man shall come... and then he shall reward every man according to his works&quot;, i.e. the losing of our soul is through our everyday works. Lk. 9:25 makes the same point: 'How is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world (the Kingdom) and lose himself (now)!:&nbsp;<i>or</i>&nbsp;- be cast away, be condemned at the judgment, because he tried to keep his soul, he didn't see the logic of all this!'. The point is, a man at the day of judgment will be willing to give up&nbsp;<i>everything</i>, even the whole world if he possesses it in order that he may find acceptance. But then it will be too late.&nbsp;<i>Now</i>&nbsp;is the time to resign all for the sake of that blessed acceptance.</p>
<p>I mentioned above that the Greek for &lsquo;losing life&rsquo; has been used by the Lord in 10:28,29,39 to speak of losing or destroying life in the condemnation of the last day. Perhaps the idea is that we resign not only any attempt to materially turn this life into the eternal life, our small world into God&rsquo;s Kingdom- but we also condemn ourselves now, so that we shall not be condemned in the last day. Flesh must be condemned, and it is our wisdom to do it now.</p>
<p><i>And whoever shall lose his life for my sake</i>- Mk. 8:35 adds: &quot;And the Gospel's&quot;. The Lord envisaged that the preaching of the Gospel could likely involve the loss of life. For many of us today, that is not the case; and in fact it has usually not been the case for the majority of Christ's followers over time. But the idea is that we are to sacrifice life for the Gospel; be it momentary embarrassment, social death, defriending on social networks or sacrifice of career and wealth. This is the large part which &quot;the Gospel&quot; was envisaged as playing in the life of a believer. Mk. 8:35-38 records the Lord&rsquo;s teaching here slightly differently: &ldquo;For whoever would save his life shall lose it, and whoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, he shall save it! For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? For what should a man give in exchange for his life? For whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also shall be ashamed&rdquo;. The Lord Jesus paralleled &quot;my sake and the gospel's&quot; with &quot;me and my words&quot; (Mk. 8:35,38). He Himself thus understood the Gospel to be His words.&nbsp;Preaching, in whatever form, is not glamorous. It is a sacrifice of self, a not saying and doing as we feel, a surrendering of our own rights- for the sake of others&rsquo; salvation, both in the preaching of the Gospel and in helping our brethren to salvation.&nbsp;</p>
<p><i>Shall find it</i>- 10:39 has made it clear that if we find our lives we shall lose them. This finding of life likely refers, therefore, to finding it in the day of judgment. However, according to John&rsquo;s Gospel, the essence of the eternal life, the kind of life we can eternally live, can be lived right now in Christian experience today. So this is an element to which we who have forfeited having the Kingdom now, in all the apparent possibilities for self-fulfilment which there are today, can find the eternal life now in that we can live the Kingdom life today. Likewise if we take the Lord&rsquo;s yoke upon us, we shall &ldquo;find rest unto [our] lives / souls&rdquo; (Mt. 11:29 s.w.). And the implication is that that experience begins now, having shed the heavy burdens of guilt and legalism.</p>