A Disciple's Journeyنموونە

Following Jesus Means Gaining Everything

If we stopped by discussing only what we must give up in order to follow Christ, we wouldn’t have the full picture. Along with the cost of discipleship, Jesus also begins to unfold the promised future for those who would follow Him. Following Jesus means gaining everything! For all that we are called to give up, it pales in comparison to all that we can hope to gain.

After telling His disciples to take up their cross, Jesus begins to explain why. It was through this kind of death that they would save their lives. It was through giving up the world that they would gain their souls. Jesus told them, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (Mark 8:35–37).

There is death—death to the old self, death to the world, death to our old ways. But Jesus teaches us that life comes through death. That is the great promise of the disciple’s journey! In the resurrecting power of Jesus, death is not the end. It’s the path that leads to life.

Peter told Jesus, “See, we have left everything and followed you” (Mark 10:28). But Jesus reminded Peter of this great promise, “Truly, I say to you there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29–30).