“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life, loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
– John 12:24–25
There’s so much we can talk about in these two verses, but just meditate on this principle. If you want to live, you must die. Jesus makes that very clear.
John 12:24–25 Summarizes the Christian Life
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The key to bearing fruit, the key to experiencing, John 10:10, abundant life is dying in specific ways, in dying to ourselves and our ways and our preferences, what we want, being crucified with Christ. That’s Galatians 2:20. It’s the summary of the Christian life.
I’ve been crucified with Christ. I no longer live. It’s Christ who lives in me. I’ve died to myself. The life I live now in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We must die to self if we’re going to live. This is daily. “Anyone would follow after me,” Jesus says, “Let him take up his cross daily, die to himself. Die to sin.” We want to die to sin and sinful desires and thoughts and words and actions, to every trace of sin in us. We want to die to it, to die to self, to die to sin, and to die to the ways of this world. Verse 25 in John 12, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Obviously, that’s not saying to stop looking at your life, even in this world, as fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God and valued and treasured by God, but it is to die to the ways of this world, to the way this world defines success, to the way this world defines pleasure, to the way this world defines who you are and what you should be doing with your life.
John 12:24–25 Calls Us to Die to the World and the Flesh
Die to those things and live according to the way the word of God defines your life and the way God’s word defines success and the way God’s word defines the purpose of your life. God help us today to die in all these ways and daily to do this, today, to say, God, we die to ourselves. We don’t want to live according to our ways. God, we want to live according to your ways. We don’t want to live according to our wants.
Lord, we want to live according to your wants. Help us to die to sin today, to turn from it, every temptation. God, help us to flee sin in every way, to live in a holiness today. Lord, we pray you to help us to die to the ways of this world. God, help us to see, open our eyes to ways we are becoming like the world, are living for this world instead of living according to your word, becoming like you.
Jesus, we want, Galatians 2:20, to mark us today that we lay our head on our pillow tonight and look back and say, “I lived crucified with Christ. It wasn’t me living. It was Christ living in me. I lived by faith all day long in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” God, may it be so and may there be fruit from our lives for your glory today as we die to ourselves and sin and the ways of this world.
Praying for the Arghun People
God, help us to live for your purpose in the world, for the spread of your gospel and your glory through our lives, among the nations we pray in light of that purpose, for the Arghun people of Pakistan. No known followers of Jesus in this Muslim people group. God we pray, help us to live to see the gospel spread to all the nations of the earth as your people. Use our prayers toward that end, our lives toward that end, however, you will. Help us to die to every other purpose and to live for your ultimate purpose. Revelation 7:9–10, “Every nation, tribe and tongue, gather around your throne, singing your praises.” God, we pray that John 12:24–25 like that, and life and fruit would be true of our lives today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
