With some variation, this
statement of the Lord occurs six times in the Gospels, and all four
Gospel writers record it (see Matt. 10: 39; 16: 25; Mark 8: 35; Luke
9: 24; 17: 33; John 12: 25).
The context of
Matt. 10: 39 is clearly how the Lord’s servants are promised a
pathway of suffering, for “they of his household [shall be] a man’s
enemies” (v36). Indeed, “he who does not take up his cross and
follow after me is not worthy of me” (v38)—the servant is to live as
if he is going to die, for death is a very real prospect. Two
companies are in view in v39: one delivered from death (“that finds
his life”) only to “lose it”, and another that is martyred (“who has
lost his life for my sake”) but who shall find life again in
resurrection (“shall find it”). None of this refers to spiritual
life because it is clearly the same life that is in view
throughout—a life that can be lost “for my sake”
(v39). The rather similar passage in Matt. 16: 25 is followed
immediately by “For what does a man profit, if he should gain the
whole world and suffer the loss of his soul? or what shall a man
give in exchange for his soul?” (v26). However, it does not follow
that v25 must therefore be about spiritual life. “Life” (v25) and
“soul” (v26) are translations of the same Greek word (yuch),
and loss of life is, for the unbeliever, the same as loss of the
soul. As Luke puts it, he shall “come under the penalty of the loss
of himself” (Luke 9: 25). Turning to Luke 17: 33, we read that
“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever
shall lose it shall preserve it”, where the word translated
preserve (zwogonew)
means to bring forth alive. Losing,
yet preserving life (in that order) necessitate resurrection.
Similarly in Luke 9: 24—he shall save (or deliver) his life, not
from death here but the greater danger of v26: “of him will the Son
of man be ashamed when he shall come in his glory”.
Matt. 10: 39 is set
within the Lord’s instructions to the twelve disciples regarding the
preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom—the good news
that “The kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh” (Matt. 10: 7).
These “glad tidings of the kingdom” (Matt. 24: 14) will be taken up
again before “the Son of man comes” again “in his glory” (Matt. 25:
31). He will then “sit down upon his throne of glory” (v31) and
those alive on the earth when He returns will be separated into two
groups. Those who responded positively to the preaching of the
kingdom, will “inherit the kingdom” (v34)—be preserved in life on
this earth in the kingdom. Indeed, these righteous are said to go
“into life eternal” (v46), for on the millennial earth death will be
an abnormal occurrence (see Is. 65: 20) and “There is no one who has
left home … for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive
manifold more at this time, and in the coming age life eternal”
Luke 18: 29, 30, my emphasis).
By contrast, those who responded negatively to the kingdom
message, “shall go away into eternal punishment” (Matt. 25: 46)—will
be put to death. Hence, after reading in Luke 17: 33 that “Whosoever
shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose
it shall preserve it”, the Lord immediately goes on to speak of two
companies (see vs. 34-37)—one selected for judgment, and the other
left on the earth (to enter the kingdom). Notice too that Mark 8: 35
is followed by “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” (v38; comp. Matt. 16: 25, 27; Luke 9: 24, 26).
Thus “whosoever shall desire to save his life shall lose it” (Mark
8: 35) is the equivalent of “He that finds his life shall lose it”
(Matt. 10: 39). The sense is that those who sacrifice obedience to
the Gospel of the kingdom in order to escape death in the
tribulation (thus ‘finding’ their natural lives) will be put to
death by the King when He returns. By contrast, “he who has lost his
life for my sake shall find it” (Matt. 10: 39)—will be raised from
the dead to kingdom glory by the King on His return.
John 12 records the
Lord as saying that “He that loves his life shall lose it, and he
that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal”
(v25). Now the life that is loved or hated here must be physical
life (it would be nonsensical to teach that the believer should hate
his spiritual life). Men of the world set great store by
their natural lives, but what they love they will one day forfeit.
By contrast, the believer attaches no great importance to “his life
in this world”—a life subject to death. Note those words “in this
world”—by implication, there is another world. Now the Lord does not
say that by hating his life in this
world that the believer will keep it in this world,
but that he will keep it “to life eternal” (my
emphasis). That is, “having been justified by his grace, we
should become heirs according to [the] hope of eternal life” (Titus
3: 7)—the life associated with “the habitable world which is to
come” (Heb. 2: 5). Whether the believer
lives or dies in this world is of no great interest to him, for he
has life in another world—that scene where death has no hold on the
believer.
