5. ALL MUST BE GIVEN UP FOR CHRIST Mark 8:34-38; Mark 9:1 (Matthew 16:24-28; Luke 9:23-27) 34 And he called unto him the multitude with his disciples, and said unto them, If any man would come after me,--This was spoken to the multitude as well as to the disciples, and the principles spoken applied to both--rich or poor, high or low. let him deny himself,--Renounce himself, abstaining from everything that stands in the way of duty. Let him surrender to God his will, affections, body and soul. Let him not seek his own happiness as the supreme object, but be willing to renounce all, and lay down his life also, if required. Our Savior commends his religion to every one's election and choice, not attempting by force and violence to compel any person to the embracing of it. If any man will come after me. That is, if any man chooses and resolves to be a Christian. Observe our Savior's terms propounded; namely, self-denial and gospel service. Let him deny himself. That is, a willingness to part with all earthly comforts and temporal enjoyments for the sake of Christ, when called thereunto. He must bring his own wishes into subjection to those of God. and take up his cross,--He includes the inner and outer struggles pertaining to the Christian life. He had just told his disciples that he must suffer now he teaches them and the people that discipleship also involves sufferings and self-denials. It consists simply in doing our duty, let the world think or speak of it as they may. It does not consist in making trouble for ourselves (unless obedience to God makes the trouble) , or doing things merely to be opposed; it is doing just what is required of us in the scriptures, let it produce whatever shame, disgrace, or pain it may. This every follower of Jesus is required to do. and follow me.--Follow me thus, in the path of self-denial and suffering. Like master, like man. He is to obey the commands of Christ, and imitate his examples. He must set the life and doctrine of Christ continually before him, and be daily correcting and reforming his life by that rule and pattern. The cross must be taken willingly. He must follow Christ, not the world. Self-denial lies at the very threshold of Christ's kingdom. He who does not deny himself cannot become a Christian. The "cross" is a synonym of suffering and shame, and means that one must suffer everything necessary for Christ's sake. He must obey God at all cost. Luke (Luke 9:23) says he must "take up his cross daily"--not occasionally. 35 For whosoever would save his life shall lose it;--Whosoever would save his life by abandoning this pathway shall lose that spiritual life which carries existence into the joys beyond the grave. The truth here expressed shows the necessity and saving results of self-denial and self-sacrifice for Christ, and thus gives a reason for what Jesus had just said in the preceding verse. Whoever purposes to save his natural or temporal life, makes this his great object, and hence rejects Christ, shall lose his higher spiritual life. As Jesus was to lose his life for man, so man must be willing to lose his life for Christ. and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's shall save it.--Whosoever dies in the path of duty because he will not desert Christ. There is not power enough in the world to kill a true follower of Jesus. They may temporarily sever body and spirit, but he lives on. Why can we not more clearly grasp this great truth today? "Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die." The love of this temporal life is a great temptation to men to deny Christ, and to renounce his holy religion. To save one's life means to deny Jesus in order to enjoy present ease and comfort and to escape persecution, prison, and death. Whosoever will suffer the loss of all things earthly, and even life itself, for Christ's and the gospel's sake will save his soul. This is the only way to be saved. (2 Timothy 2:11-13.) This is self-denial. The life that is preserved or supported by disobeying Christ is a lost life. 36 For what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?--Some may feel as though they had lost something by the change here in the American Revised Version from "soul" to "life." But the original demands it, and, if we but realize that Christ is here speaking of life that endures, eternal life, we shall see we have lost nothing. To gain the whole world means to possess it as our own--all its riches, honors, and pleasures. To lose his own life means to be cast away, to be shut out from heaven, to be sent to hell. Two things are implied by our Lord in these situations: (1) that they who are striving to gain the world, and are unwilling to give it up for the sake of Christ, will lose their souls; (2) that if the soul is lost, nothing can be given in exchange for it, or it can never afterwards be saved. There is no redemption in hell. 37 For what should a man give in exchange for his life?--A man would give any and everything earthly in exchange even for natural life. Should he not then be willing to give everything, even natural life itself, for eternal life? The antithesis is between earthly life plus earthly comfort and pleasure and eternal life plus eternal joys. If a man forfeits his life, what shall be given as an exchange, ransom price or equivalent for it? How can he possibly redeem it is the thought. He cannot possibly find an equivalent; the ruin will be irretrievable, and therefore perpetual. He can never redeem it. He is lost forever. 38 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation,--A faithless and wicked people. A perverse and apostate race. This age given to wickedness, particularly to adultery. the Son of man also shall be ashamed of him,--At a time when the friendship of no one else will avail anything. He will be rightly and justly disowned and rejected by Jesus in the judgment. when he cometh in the glory of his Father--In the day of judgment. This can only be referred to the final manifestation of Christ when he comes in glory to judge the world. (Matthew 26:64; Luke 21:27; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 1:7.) Then the confessor shall be confessed, the denier shall be denied. (Matthew 10:32-33; Luke 12:8-9.) Thus the conversation that began in the exaltation of spiritual confession has gone through the pathway of suffering down to the gates of death, and then up to the siftings and the glories of the final manifestation, and through all it is the same Holy One, Son of God, born of Mary, anointed by the Holy Spirit, suffering, crucified, dead, buried, rising again, ascending to heaven, and at length coming from heaven to judge the world before his Father and the holy angels. with the holy angels.---"Holy" as distinguished from fallen angels, evil spirits. Jesus, in his second coming, will be accompanied by angels. Whosoever shall refuse, through pride or wickedness, to acknowledge and serve Christ here shall be excluded from his kingdom hereafter. But he will come again in awful grandeur--not as the babe of Bethlehem; not as the man of Nazareth; hut as the Son of God, in majesty and glory. They that would not acknowledge him here must be rejected by him there; they that would not serve him always, will never enjoy him; they that would cast him out and despise him, must be cast out by him, and consigned to eternal, hopeless sorrows. The Father there, the angels there, the redeemed there, my dear ones there, my record there, the Bible there, and Jesus ashamed of me? Oh, how my shame then must sink me down to the depths! Mark 9:1 And he said unto them,--When the New Testament was first written, it was not divided into chapters and verses as we now have it. Each book was one continuous article without any breaks. Later they were divided into chapters and verses, by uninspired man for his convenience in reading and studying the Bible. Sometimes in dividing a chapter, the division was made at the wrong place and cut the sentence in two. That is true with this chapter. This verse belongs to the eighth chapter.