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His Kingdom. In no way could it be avoided and Peter had not learned this fundamental
lesson yet. Christ must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things (verse 21). Dr. Plummer
points out how necessary was the charge that the apostles should be silent about the
Lord's Messiahship. If the first of the apostles could commit so disastrous an error as
was involved in his rebuke to Christ, what might not the ignorant multitude do?
The lesson that followed had already been mentioned by the Lord in 10: 38, 39, but He
expands it here:
"Then Jesus said to His disciples, `If anyone would come after Me, he must deny
himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he
gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his
soul?'." (verses 24-26, N.I.V.).
Care must be taken here with the words thelo and psuche. The A.V. is not helpful
here, nor is the N.I.V. "If anyone wishes or wants (thelo) to come after Me" (verse 24),
and in the next verse "whoever wants (thelo) to save his life will lost it". Hence the
N.I.V. correctly translates thelo. Why is thelo (24) rendered differently? This is
misleading. Again in verses 25 and 26 psuche is rendered "life" in verse 25, and "soul"
(twice) in verse 26. Why is there not a consistent translation? The New American
Standard Version (NASV) renders thelo "wishes" correctly. Psuche means life, or soul,
and whichever word is chosen, should be kept in these verses. J. B. Rotherham does this
consistently, and so does The Berkeley Version, both translations keeping to the word
"life".
But what does "saving the life" and "losing the life" mean to those who are already
saved? Let us not forget that these words were not spoken to the unsaved multitudes but
to the saved disciples who were true believers in the Lord, and therefore received the
promise of everlasting life (John 3: 15, 16) which means they would never perish (10: 28).
Unless we are very careful here we shall get into severe difficulties and make Christ
contradict Himself. A careful consideration of this context will show that the word "life"
is used in two senses. It refers (1) to the present life, and (2) to the resurrection life to
come, which in Matthew's Gospel refers to a place in the kingdom of heaven when this is
finally set up by the Lord.
We have seen in this Gospel that this is in the nature of reward, for reward is one of
the key-words, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. We must not lose sight of the
teaching regarding reward in the context we are considering, specially as it is stressed in
the closing words of the Lord in this section:
"For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then
He will reward each person according to what he has done" (Matt. 16: 27, N.I.V.).
"Each person" must refer to saved people. Christ does not reward unbelievers who
reject Him. However, Scripture teaching is quite clear that not every believer will be
rewarded, for this depends on faithfulness to the Lord, even to the point of suffering and