Bible Verses About

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me[Jesus] will find it.” Matthew 16:25

This Bible verse on sacrifice often scares people.  No one in their natural selves wants to lose their life or give up all of the things they enjoy.  But is that what the verse is really saying?  Is it telling us that the best Christian will give up everything and go off and live in a monastery somewhere?  I don’t think so.  So let’s see if we can go through it theologically and uncover exactly what the verse means.  It says in Ephesians 2 that in our original state we are by nature objects of wrath who just want to follow the cravings of the sinful nature.  God obviously doesn’t want to leave us in that state once we accept grace.  It also says in Ephesians that once we accept grace that we crucify the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

I believe that when the above verse says that when a person loses his life for Jesus, what they’re losing is their sinful nature, those parts of them that find pleasure in corrupt things.  There’s definitely a possibility that we’ll have to give up a lot of the things that we really enjoy.  But are those things really worth anything at all in the end anyway?  Is it really worthwhile to be a person who does nothing but seeking to gratify the cravings of their own sinful nature?  The part of this verse that we really ought to be focusing on is the part where Jesus says that a person who loses his life for Him will actually find his life.  That should be inspirational.  I want to find out what real life is all about — who I really am, and what kinds of things I was meant to do.  To me, that kind of life is worth the sacrifice of not being able to chase after petty pleasures and wants anymore.