A Life for a Life

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.


But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked peter.  "Get behind me, Satan!" he said.  "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."


Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?  Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?  If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."


Mark 8:31-38


A few weeks ago my Bible study was studying this passage.  One of the questions in the study asked, "What is the cost of following Jesus?  The reward?"  As I reread the passage, I realized that the answer to both of these questions was the same: life.  Following Jesus requires your life.  More so, in following Jesus you gain life, life incomparable to anything in this world.

At first glance, this thought excited me.  I envisioned adventures consisting of caring for my babies in Africa. I translated "life" to mean obedience, to following God's direction, to going where He leads.  As I read through updates on missionaries around the world, I was humbled.  As I read about father and daughter being shot and miraculously surviving (http://issuu.com/worldvisionmagazine/docs/autumn-11-wvus), I realized that my scope of life was much too small.  It isn't just surrendering my dreams to God.  It isn't just giving up the comforts of the American dream.  It isn't just leaving behind family, friends, and the familiar to share the gospel.  It requires your life.  It requires wanting nothing more than the life that Jesus Christ offers, not even your physical life.  It requires abandoning all for Christ, realizing that this world has nothing for me.  It requires my life.  And in exchange for my life, I gain life greater than I can even comprehend.  A life for a life.


LORD, lead me.  Where You lead, even if it leads me to lose my life, I will follow.