Losing To Live: The Paradox At The Heart Of Following Jesus Series

Losing to Live: The Paradox at the Heart of Following Jesus – Mark 8:35 (NLT)

Introduction: The Great Reversal

We live in a world obsessed with self-preservation.

Protect your brand.

Build your platform.

Secure your future.

Save your life at all costs.

From social media profiles to pension plans, from personal ambition to cultural narratives, the message is loud and clear: hold on to your life.

And then Jesus speaks—quietly, calmly, but with eternal authority—and He says something that turns the world upside down.

Mark 8:35 (NLT): “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”

This is not a motivational slogan.

This is not religious poetry.

This is a call to discipleship that will cost you everything—and give you more than you could ever imagine.

Mark 8 is a turning point in Mark’s Gospel.

Jesus has fed thousands, healed the sick, cast out demons, and confounded religious leaders. The crowds are growing—but so is the misunderstanding.

Just verses earlier, Peter boldly declares, “You are the Messiah.” Yet when Jesus begins to explain that Messiahship means suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection, Peter recoils. He wants a crown without a cross.

Jesus responds by calling the crowd and the disciples together. This teaching is not for the spiritual elite—it is for anyone who would follow Him.

Mark 8:34 (NLT): “Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.’”

Discipleship, Jesus says, is not addition—it is surrender.

Mark 8:35 (NLT): “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”

The word translated “life” is ???? (psyche)—meaning soul, self, inner life, the essence of who you are.

Jesus is not merely talking about physical existence. He is talking about identity, purpose, control, and ultimate allegiance.

“Hang on” implies grasping, clinging, self-protection.

“Give up” implies release, surrender, trust.

Jesus presents a paradox:

Cling to self ? lose your soul

Surrender to Christ ? find true life

This is not loss for loss’ sake.

This is loss for His sake and for the sake of the Good News.

1: The Illusion of Saving Yourself

“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.”

The world promises life through self-focus. Jesus exposes it as an illusion.

Proverbs 14:12 (NLT): “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.”

Wisdom literature warning against autonomous living—life lived without reference to God.

In the 21st century, we are told to “be true to yourself.”

Jesus says, “Die to yourself.”

The tragedy is not that people lose their lives for Christ.

The tragedy is that many lose their lives trying to keep them.

It’s like a person caught in a riptide. The instinct is to fight the water—to thrash and struggle. But survival comes by surrendering to the current long enough to be rescued.

Self-salvation always exhausts the soul.

Tim Keller: “If your identity is in anything other than Jesus Christ, you will be crushed by it.”

Keller reminds us that false saviours demand everything and give nothing back. Only Jesus bears the weight of our identity without destroying us.

2: The Costly Call of the Cross

“But if you give up your life for my sake…”

Jesus does not bait-and-switch. He is honest. Discipleship costs.

Galatians 5:24 (NLT): “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.”

Paul writes Galatians to believers tempted to mix grace with self-effort. He reminds them that belonging to Christ means a decisive break with the old life. The cross is not decoration; it is execution.

The word “crucified” comes from sta???? (stauroo) — to put to death on a cross. It is decisive, violent, final. There is no halfway crucifixion.

To follow Jesus is not to manage sin, but to mortify it. Not to negotiate with the flesh, but to nail it to the cross.

In a culture that prizes comfort, Jesus calls us to the cross.

In a society addicted to convenience, Jesus calls us to costly obedience.

In an age of self-expression, Jesus calls us to self-denial.

This does not mean rejecting joy—it means discovering where true joy is found.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing under the shadow of Nazi Germany, famously said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” Bonhoeffer would later live—and die—by those words.

Discipleship is not theoretical. It is lived out in daily choices: