What did Jesus mean when He said, "We must not desire to save our own lives, but we must be willing to lose them?"

Let's take a look at that text:

And when He had called the people to Him, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to 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 KJV)

Once we become a Christian, we have a choice to either save our lives or to lose them. Verse 34 tells us how to lose our life. The one who desires to come after Jesus is the one who accepts Him as Savior and is born-again.

That person must then make a decision to deny himself. That means that he must be willing to do what God wants done with his life instead of what he wants to do with it. He must then take up his cross.

The cross speaks of persecution. A Christian must be willing to endure people making fun of him, and perhaps even ostracizing him, because of his love for Jesus and his desire to obey the Scriptures.

Then he must follow Jesus. He must do whatever the Word of God tells him. This is how a Christian loses his life. To save his life would mean he decides not to do what the Bible says. He would decide not to follow Jesus, but rather continue to do things the way he desires.

If one is going to grow as a Christian, then he must make a decision to lose his life.

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