Matthew 16: 25 For whoever wants to save his life a will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
The verse sounds almost like a riddle, and it is something we could pass easily without getting the significance of what is being said. When Jesus said if we try to save our lives, we will lose our lives, what he was saying was, if we insist on keeping control of our lives, we will absolutely destroy our lives.
In Greek, the word for “Lose” is APOLUMI, which means to absolutely destroy. In modern English to lose something could mean to just misplace something, and not necessarily destroy it. The word is similar to the Greek word for Apocalypse, and to the word Apollyon, (Revelation 9:11) .
Also, In Greek there are two words commonly used for “Life.” One is ZOEA, which means physical life.. The other word for life is PSUCHE, which takes into account the entire human life, the physical body, the soul and the spirit.. In other places in the New Testament, the word PSUCHE is translated soul.
In this verse, Jesus uses the word PSUCHE, so he is not referring to physical life, but to the soul life.
The verse is recorded in the first three gospels, in the context of Jesus heading for the cross. In essence, Jesus was giving up his life that we might have life, and that He might return to the Father to really reclaim his life as the Son of God. He was giving up his life and telling his disciples they must follow him in dying as well.
We all want to preserve our lives, it is a natural human tendency. Usually though, we also take it further than that, and want to run our lives the way we want to. We want to be our own gods, the controller of our own destinies.
Remember in the Garden of Eden, the serpent told Eve “you will be like God”, Since then mankind has tried to be his own god. Jesus is saying, if we continue to live like that, in rebellion, instead of preserving what we are holding onto (our life) we will destroy it.
Jesus calls us though, to something much more radical.
Just as he was headed for the
cross to be crucified, he also calls us to be crucified. Not with wood and
nails, but in our spirits by faith as we identify with his crucifixion and
resurrection.
He says to us, if we try to hold
on to our lives, any of the things we hold on to that give us a sense of
existence or security, we will end up losing not only what we thought was good,
but our lives as well.
To truly find ourselves then, he
is implying in this verse, we must die. It does seem like an oxymoron, but ….
Really it is as simple as the gospel message itself.
As Christians though, we did die
to ourselves when we were saved and baptized. I am not getting into the
question of eternal security here, but as believers I think this verse also
relates to us, in that we can try to live our lives as Christians in our own
strength. We can “hold onto” our lives by insisting on living our own way, even
in doing good.
Many Christians even insist on
trying to live the Christian life on their own terms, in their own strength.
To really have the full life
Jesus wants us to have though, we must be willing to give up our lives, and
trust both our physical life and our spiritual life to Him. We must even die to
our efforts to live the Christian life… As Galatians 2:20 says
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
NOTE:
This short bible study was written by James Jordan. I am a writer. I have been a serious Christian (after playing religion a long time) for about 11 years. I have a seminary degree in Christian Education, and have had three years of Greek. I hope to start sending these out regularly in the real near future. Maybe once or twice a week for a few weeks, and hopefully after the first of the year, even go to 3-4 times a week or even more. I would appreciate your prayers as I see how the Lord leads with this.
If you would like to keep getting these studies, send me an Email.
I would welcome your comments, and even welcome a discussion of anything said here.
Also, if you have any questions or any verses you would like dealt with, feel free to send them to me and I will see what I can find. It is not that I have a great amount of knowledge, but the Lord has blessed me with research skills.
Let me know what you think.
In Jesus.
James