“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it.'”
– Mark 8:34–35
This is obviously not an isolated teaching from Jesus. We see this all over the different gospels, Jesus saying this numerous times.
Mark 8:34–35 Teaches that We must Deny Ourselves
It’s one of his most famous, in a sense, sayings. And there are some places in the gospels where Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself daily and take up his cross and follow me.” We need this reminder on a daily basis that as followers of Jesus, you and I have died to ourselves.
Galatians 2:20: “We are crucified with Christ and we no longer live.” We don’t live any more. Instead, Christ lives in us. It’s His life. His life is our life. We have died to ourselves. We’ve taken up a cross. We have crucified ourselves. We are followers of Jesus, and the life which we now live, we live by faith. Galatians 2:20 says, “And Jesus, the one who loved us and gave himself for us.” So this is your life, my life today, as a follower of Jesus.
And listen to the last part here in Mark 8:35. “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it.” So what does it look like for you today to lose your life for the sake of Jesus, “For my sake, and for the sake of the Gospel”? Just ask that question and live accordingly today. What does it look like to lose your life, to lay down your life for Jesus’ sake and for the Gospel’s sake today?
This is how we are intended to live today and tomorrow and every single day. So can we just say together in a fresh way right now:
Mark 8:34–35 Teaches that we are to live According to God’s Ways
God, we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, and we are so thankful that we no longer live; that Christ lives in us. Jesus, you are our life today. We die to ourselves. We pray that you help us to die to sin, to every tendency in us, to live according to our ways, according to this world. Help us to live according to your ways.
In your Word, we pray, and we pray that you would help us to lose our lives today, for your sake, Jesus. We want you to be glorified in everything we say. Lord, we want you to be glorified in everything we do. We want your spirit to lead us today. God, we want to live by faith in you. Help us to live today by faith in you, and we want to lose our life today for the sake of the Gospel. We want to lose our lives today sharing the Gospel.
We pray that sharing the Gospel and pointing people to you, Jesus, would be more important to us than our reputation; more important to us than our comfort; more important to us than anything this world offers us, that we would lose our lives in this world, and in the process, save them; experience true life, life to the full. Jesus, we praise you for the privilege of following you, for the privilege of having you as our life.
And God, even as we pray this, most of us in places where it will not cost our life today physically to follow you, we pray for our brothers and sisters for whom that is a reality.
Praying for the Kashmiri Muslims
We pray today for Kashmiri Muslims in Pakistan to come to know you, over a million Kashmiri Muslims, knowing that the Kashmir region is and has been volatile in many ways, and that sharing the Gospel there is not easy. God, we pray for your blessing on… I think of believers I know who have shared and are sharing the Gospel on this region of Pakistan. God, we pray for your empowerment of them, your emboldening of them, your help for them today to die to themselves and to live, lose their lives, even potentially physically, for your sake and for the sake of the Gospel.
And God, help us to join them from wherever we live, to live with abandon for your sake, Lord Jesus, and for the sake of the Gospel. May this, Matthew 8:34–35, and what we see in different Gospels, as you say this over and over again, Jesus, may this describe our lives today: that we denied ourselves, took a cross and followed you, that we lost our lives today for your sake and for the Gospel, that we lived for your glory alone, for the spread of your Gospel. Not to ourselves, but for you and your purposes. Not to ourselves and the purposes of this world, but for you and your purposes.
May it be so today, and every day in us, we pray. In Jesus’ name, 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.
