THIS is a question which is often raised with the unconverted. We wish to raise it with the converted.
But in one thing they all agree. They each say that if a certain course be taken there will be a losing of life. That course is variously described as, “finding,” “sang,” “seeking to save,” and “loving,” one’s life, and in the fourth Gospel it is apparent that it is losing one’s life “in this world,” that is in question.
The young man starts out and his object is to find life in this world. He seeks money, pleasure, vice, intellectual pursuits, etc. If he succeeds in his pursuit he comes to love it, and he is all for saving, or at least, seeking to save it. But inevitably death closes that chapter and his “life” is LOST!
On the other hand we may lose the “life” of this world for Christ, and for the sake of the Gospel. Christ may become to us of such surpassing excellence that we hate our life in this world, in comparison with Him. What is the result of that?
We “find” life—that life which is life indeed. We “save” it. We “reserve” it. We “keep it unto life eternal.”
To pursue the life of this world is to lose it. To lose the life of this world in the pursuit of the things of Christ is to gain the life which abides to life eternal.
The Lord’s words make the thing a strict alternative. It cannot be both. It must be one or the other.
Now one question is, which? We ask it of the Christian reader. Not, are you travelling to heaven or to hell? That question is of course settled if indeed you are a true Christian. But, what is the trend of your life? Are you foolishly wasting the greater part of your time pursuing the life of this world—with “lost,” at the end of your pursuit? Or, are you losing the life of this world for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s—with “saved” at the end of it?
Lost or saved? Lost or saved? LOST OR SAVED? Which?
The day of the judgment seat of Christ will plainly reveal which it has been for each of us.