October 20, 2002
Mark 8:34-37
The Gospel of Mark presents Jesus Christ as the true servant of Jehovah. In Mark 8:34-37 the Servant (Jesus) talks about true discipleship. Divine discipleship is simple – learning from and following Jesus Christ!
1. The Price of True Discipleship – v. 34
And
He summoned the multitude with His disciples and said to them, “If anyone
wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow
Me.
To be a true disciple of Christ we must be identified with Christ. One might say that identifying with Christ is taking up our cross for Him. Taking up our cross is conforming to His program and accepting His purpose for us. In the culture of Christ’s time on earth, for a condemned man to take up his cross was to begin his death march. To us it is putting to death our old desires and presenting our bodies as instruments of righteousness to God (Romans 6:1-14).
2. The Divine Logic of True Discipleship – vv. 35-37
For
whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for
My sake and the gospel’s shall save it.
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his
soul? For what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul?
Gain is loss and loss is gain. True discipleship defies human logic. No philosopher/logician operating within the arena of human wisdom can reconcile this kind of logic.
I
once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them
worthless because of what Christ has done.
Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain
of knowing Christ my Lord. I have
discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have
Christ and become one with Him.
Philippians 3:7, 8 NLT.
This is the philosophy of authentic Christianity. Salvation is never earned by denying self and following Christ - salvation is proved by denying self and following Christ. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me!” John 10:27.
The question for us today is - are we disciples of the Lord Jesus! Are we wasting or investing our lives? God bless.
Love to you all,