“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” John 12:24-26 (ESV)
Speaking about his death, Jesus explains that the primary purpose of him coming to earth was to die, but not to merely to die a symbolic death displaying his love for us, which would have been pointless and powerless, but that he came to die a death that would make atonement for our sins and produce a harvest of souls.
The suffering and death of Jesus wasn’t pointless. He was the seed that died to produce many other seeds and he tells us clearly that if we are to have part in him, we must be like him and willingly lay down our lives in faith. He says anyone one unwilling to do this will not have eternal life with him.
This life is a seed and if we cling to it and never let it die, we will never reap a harvest or inherit eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me and if you follow him you will be where he is.
In John 12 Jesus says some very staggering things. He uses the analogy of a kernel of wheat. In seed form it can produce nothing without falling to the ground and dying. He explains that unless the seed dies it will not produce a harvest. This is what Christ came to do, he died to give us life.
If Christ would not have died and made atonement for our sins, we would have no chance for eternal life. We would be truly hopeless, but because of what Christ has done we can have eternal life. But Jesus makes something very clear: if you love and hold on to the benefits of this life you forfeit eternal life.
Jesus says we must literally hate our life in this world to have eternal life with him. But why? It's simple, those who truly belong to him have the Spirit of God living in them and will despise the sin and fallen nature of this world. Also, those who truly see Christ and eternal life with him as their only treasure, will realize that everything else is like vapor and live their life accordingly. The words of Jesus are so very plain, if you love your life in this world it is because you are not spiritually fit for eternity.
Jesus says if you love this life you will not have eternal life and if you really are one of his you will follow him, live like he did and live for what he did. Serving and following Jesus is giving up the comfort, acclaim and respect of this world to gain approval from God.
This doesn’t mean we do this to earn eternal life, it means this is evidence of those who truly belong to him. You can’t build a kingdom for yourself in this life and expect to be part of his kingdom in the next. Look at the example of Jesus and all the apostles.
Jesus lived a simple life, he wasn’t a rich man, he was persecuted and despised by those who were powerful in this life and eventually they killed him. The apostles followed this example, they gave up everything to follow Jesus and preach the gospel. They were not rich or notable, they suffered and were persecuted and most of them were killed as well. We must live like Jesus did.
“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 1 John 2:3-6 (ESV)
We must do what Jesus commands us to do in his Word and live like he did. If we want the best-case study of what this looks like in real life, we should look at the lives of the apostles.
It is in dying to ourselves completely that God can use us to be part of the harvest. Those who have died call others to come and die so that they might live. In the west we have distorted God’s Word on so many levels to create a theology that lets us love our lives here and somehow still inherit eternal life, but to accomplish this you must call Jesus a liar.
In Christ,
Pastor Joshua
Joshua West is a pastor, evangelist, and author. He is also director of the World Challenge Pastors Network.
