To “give it up” for someone today means a round of applause. But Jesus can do without our empty tokens of appreciation.
When the Bible speaks about giving it up for Jesus, it’s talking about sacrifice. As He said, “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:35-36)
There you have it. The Number 1 reason why people like a little cultural Christianity now and again, but flatly refuse to be an actual disciple of Christ: It sounds far too expensive.
But people who think that way have only noticed half the equation. Look again. “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
See that? I know it’s a shocker, but you’ll have to lose your life somehow. You can grasp after it for yourself and, in the end, it will run through your fingers like sand. Or you can choose to give it up for Jesus and the gospel’s sake, and in the end you will have lost nothing at all worth having.
Here’s a sobering fact: we only get to keep what we give away for the Great Cause; everything else is a goner.
A Jew with full Roman citizenship, schooled with the equivalent of an Ivy League education, holding an influential job and a seat at the table of power, Saul of Tarsus seemed to have it all. Then, to his heart-stopping surprise, he met the living Jesus, the last person he ever thought he’d run into!
On his knees in the dust, he asked two life-shaping questions: “Who are You, Lord?” and “Lord, what do You want me to do?” These questions sent his life on a whole new trajectory.
After seeming to lose everything for Jesus, he gives us his profit and loss statement:
“I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” (Philippians 3:8-9)
See how that works? Trust Jesus—lose everything. Have Jesus—gain everything. The difference is this: everything I lose for Him I was going to lose anyway. Everything I gain is forever. As 20th century martyr Jim Elliot put it, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
This world’s stuff is difficult to come by, tough to care for, and hard to lose. As Samuel Johnson observed after being shown a wealthy man’s vast estate, “Ah, sir, these are the things that make it hard to die!”
Of course, salvation doesn’t come by giving. It comes by us taking “the gift of God [which] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) But once we have Jesus, He gives us everything worth having—and worth sharing and sacrificing, too.
So let’s give it up for Jesus.
Jabe Nicholson lives with his wife, Louise, in Starkville. He’s found it more blessed to give than receive! Contact [email protected] or www.uplook.org
Article by Jabe Nicholson first published in the Commercial Dispatch, Saturday, July 15, 2023