But, I say, there is not in every man this knowledge of things and so by consequence not such consideration as can make the cross and self-denial acceptable to them for the sake of Christ, and of the things that are where He now sitteth at the right hand of God (Col 3:2-4). Therefore, our Lord Jesus doth even at the beginning give to His followers this instruction. And lest any of them should take distaste at His saying, He presented them with the consideration of three things together—namely, the cross, the loss of life, and the soul; and then reasoned with them from the same, saying, Here is the cross, the life, and the soul.
1. The cross, and that you must take up if you will follow Me.
2. The life, and that you may save for a time if you cast Me off.
3. And the soul, which will everlastingly perish if you come not to Me, and abide not with Me.
Now consider what is best to be done. Will you take up the cross, come after Me, and so preserve your souls from perishing? Or will you shun the cross to save your lives, and so run the danger of eternal damnation? Or, as you have it in John, will you love your life till you lose it? or will you hate your life, and save it? 'He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hated his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal' (John 12:25). As who should say, He that loveth a temporal life, he that so loveth it, as to shun the profession of Christ to save it, shall lose it upon a worse account, than if he had lost it for Christ and the gospel; but he that will set light by it, for the love that he hath to Christ, shall keep it unto life eternal.
Christ having thus discoursed with His followers about their denying of themselves, their taking up their cross and following of Him, doth, in the next place, put the question to them, and so left it upon them forever, saying, 'For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' (Mark 8:36). As who should say, I have bid you take heed that you do not lightly, and without due consideration, enter into a profession of Me and of My gospel; for he that without due consideration shall begin to profess Christ, will also without it forsake Him, turn from Him, and cast Him behind his back; and since I have even at the beginning, laid the consideration of the cross before you, it is because you should not be surprised and overtaken by it unawares and because you should know that to draw back from Me after you have laid your hand to My plow, will make you unfit for the kingdom of heaven (Luke 9:62).
Now, since this is so, there are no fewer lies at stake than salvation, and salvation is worth all the world, yea, worth ten thousand worlds, if there should be so many. And since this is so also, it will be your wisdom to begin to profess the gospel with the expectation of the cross and tribulation, for to that is my gospellers1 in this world appointed (James 1:12; 1 Thes 3:3). And if you begin thus, and hold it, the kingdom and crown shall be yours; for as God counted it a righteous thing to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, so to you who are troubled and endure it, for 'we count them happy,' says James, 'that endure,' (James 5:11), rest with saints when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel, etc. (2 Thes 1:7, 8). And if no fewer lies at stake than salvation, then is a man's soul and his all at the stake; and if it is so, what will it profit a man if, by forsaking of Me, he should get the whole world? 'For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?'
Having thus laid the soul in one balance, and the world in the other, and affirmed that the soul out-bids the whole world, and is incomparably for value and worth beyond it; in the next place, he descends to a second question, which is that I have chosen at this time for my text, saying, 'Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'
