Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

John 12:25

For Meditation

It is the ABC of life. It calls you to trade your life for eternal life in Christ (Matt. 11:28-30).

This life is temporary. It is a ruined life with the judgment of hell stamped on it by God, because of the sin of Adam (Rm. 3:23; 6:23). If you hold on to it like a child with a dolly, it will fall from your hands when you sleep in death. Just as the child wakes up without the dolly because mommy has packed it away, so will you wake up one day without this life (Lk. 16:19-23).

Christ offers you a better deal. He gives you the opportunity to trade your hopeless life for His life-giving redemption package, filled with the hope of glory (Jn. 3:16; Rm. 6:23b; Col. 1:27).

However, you cannot accept His offer until you see your sinfulness and hate it to the core (Acts 2:37; 1 Tim 1:15; Phil. 3:7-10). You cannot let your doubt go until you see the beauty of the new life in the resurrected Christ (Jn. 20:28). You cannot trade your life for what Christ offers until you acknowledge that it is more valuable than anything you have (Matt. 13:44-46).

So, as Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Do it now, my friend, and be free forever (Jn. 1:12-13; Rm. 10:9-10, 13).