What does “lose your life” for God mean?

Christians are known to say, “someone gave their life to the Lord today.” Many don’t understand what that means. Let’s find out the truth behind what “lose your life” for God means.

I was just studying recently and no other saying is given so much emphasis. Jesus mentions “whoever loses his life for My sake, will find it” six times in the Bible. Does He mean literally die for God?

For clarity, let’s take a look at Mark 8:34-35: “When He had called the people to Himself, 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.”

Gain the whole world or lose your soul?

Have you ever heard of the saying, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” This comes from the Bible and is actually the next verse in Mark 8:36. 

You may have heard of this about people who climb the ladder of success by any means necessary. They don’t care if they ruin others lives if it means they can make more money for themselves. Hence, big corporations pollution to the environment, taking advantage of others for profit, harsh working conditions, harmful ingredients to preserve food and sell more of it.

Similarly, Jesus is making it clear that when we lose our selfish perspective on life, we will find life. That’s what denying yourself is. If you never denied yourself food and ate everything you wanted, you would eventually die from health problems. If you bought everything you ever desired using any means necessary, you would be bankrupt multiple times in your lifetime. 

Do you understand what I’m saying? We already have to deny ourselves or be disciplined in areas of our life. Jesus calls us to an even higher level of discipline. If we could only realize that these aren’t just rules to make our lives boring. They truly benefit us in the long run. 

“Dying” to Sin

“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21

These things above are the things we are called to deny. See Galatians 5:22 for what being a Christian looks like. It goes against our natural desires to not be disciplined in these areas. The temptation is real but the reward for accepting Jesus and following His example is Heaven instead of Hell for eternity. So many think this is just a fairy tale and that when we die that’s it. 

My grandpa, who I call Papa, has always urged others to ask a couple of questions if they’re doubting God is real. The two questions he would ask are: “what if you’re wrong and these things are real? Wouldn’t you rather take a risk and make it to Heaven rather than be wrong and spend eternity in Hell?”  

If you didn’t know, people hated Jesus so much that they killed Him. They didn’t like the attention that He was healing people. They didn’t like that he called people out on their crap and called religious people fake. Jesus was sent here by God as an atonement for our sins.

What if I’m a good person already?

I don’t know about you but I can say I have broken most of the 10 commandments. That makes me a sinner. I needed Jesus’ sacrifice and forgiveness to be made whole again and that’s exactly what happened. Now I have a peace greater than I’ve ever known even during a tragedy. I have a love for others I had never felt before. Life is so much more enjoyable after accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Being a Christian isn’t popular in most places. Christians get accused of all sorts of things that are untrue because people haven’t read the Bible. Just as I can take one thing out of context that you shared five years ago with a friend, so one part of the Bible can be taken out of context if you don’t know the whole thing.

Christians have indeed been persecuted for being a Christian. Mark 8:35 above explains that we really could lose our lives for being a Christian. We have to be willing to confess that we believe in Jesus before others. If not, on judgment day, Jesus won’t confess that He ever knew us.

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:38

I’m not going to lie to you, there have been multiple times that I’ve been ashamed to claim that I’m a Christian. People make Christians out to be such awful human beings and I didn’t want to be associated that way. (See 5 Myths About Christians). They’re wrong of course but in front of a group of people talking bad about Christians, it can be very embarrassing to admit you are one.

The Bottom Line

The truth is that it doesn’t matter what other people think. I’ve come to the place that I care more about pleasing Jesus and making it to Heaven than being ridiculed for being a believer. Life is so much sweeter when you come to know the Lord. If you haven’t come to that place, I pray you do so you can experience it too.

We need to be bold and stand up for what’s right. I’ll leave you with this verse: “Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 

Check out this podcast on Handling Opposition to Your Faith – Part 1 by Rick Warren.

Stay hopeful!