For what shall it profit a man?

Mark 8 v 34-36, “And when he had called the people [unto him] with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Every person that has ever lived is faced with this age old question that our dear Lord asks in the passage found in the gospel of Mark. The Lord, when tempted of the devil, clearly left an impeccable example for us to follow in terms of where our lifelong priorities should lie. You may all recall in the account documented in Matthew 4 v 8-10, “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” The devil showed Jesus Christ, in a moment as Luke would describe it, all the Kingdoms of the world in their glory and attempted to seduce the Lord into worshipping him in return for them. Now let us put everything into perspective and see how impossible it would have been for the Lord to even have an inkling of desire to even begin considering the idea of ever worshipping Satan. Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh that means He is God. Satan is a fallen angel i.e. a creation of God that became perverse due to pride. Psalm 24 v 1, “The earth [is] the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” So we have a fallen creature of God attempting to seduce his Creator into worshipping him in return for things that belong to the Creator himself. Consider the absurdity of such a scenario. The Lord could have rolled on the ground in laughter holding the devil in derision for such a feeble attempt at deceiving him yet Jesus Christ humbled himself and left us a most precious example to follow “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” First, the Lord resisted the devil by telling him to depart from His presence: "Get thee hence, Satan." Then He informed him of His motivation for refusing to succumb to his temptations: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Is this not the pattern we need to follow each time we are tempted, not only by the devil but by our own lust, by resisting those temptations through practicing the word of God? Yet that is not the thrust of my nugget.

My nugget’s purpose is to make us realize the futility of chasing worldly success at the expense of our eternal salvation. The whole world is in a hustle to achieve, succeed and prosper. We are all in a hurry to get rich, famous, honour, glory and power yet all that is a waste of our time if for eternity we weep and gnash our teeth in the deepest darkest parts of the Lake of fire. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” That question stood 2,000 years ago and still stands today. Think of all the things you want to achieve in life and compare them to the value of receiving the gift of salvation. Which would you rather have? The Lord was offered the world yet He chose to worship God because He considered obedience to His Father more important than earthly glory. Should we not carry the same attitude? Why should you be more concerned about being a leader in an organization at the expense of being reconciled to God? Why should you chase after wealth at the expense of being reconciled to God? Why should social status and acceptance be of more concern to you than the eternal future of your soul? Why should the world’s fleeting pleasures captivate your soul more than the gospel of Jesus Christ? Of what benefit is there to you if you become rich, successful, live in a big house, have at your disposal all the social pleasures, have fame and are glorified of men yet when you die and pass from time into eternity your soul is lost and lives in eternal torment within the pits of hell? What is the use of all these worldly things if after you have had them you have nothing but a reprobate soul that is forever confined to the torments of hell? Do we ever think of these questions? Are we ever concerned about the eternal future of our souls? We are in a hurry to make sure we are clothed, fed, sheltered, educated and have means of producing wealth yet are we ever in a hurry to ensure our eternal welfare is taken care of?

Is it not right to say that the most important thing in life is to deal with the eternal future of your soul? Is it not better to be that successful person in life who has already received the gift of salvation? Does it not make sense for you to repent of your sins and be reconciled to God then become a successful person? Of course in the real world things do not work in that order but the point I am trying to make is that the success you will spend your life on earth trying to achieve for the 70+ years you will be on earth for is less than nothing in comparison to eternity in hell. That is why Jesus asks “For what shall it profit a man…?” Where is the benefit? What have you gained if you are worth $100 billion yet in eternity you are condemned to hell? Where is the profit? What’s the point? Do you not see the futility of chasing worldly Kingdoms at the expense of obeying the voice of God? We are enemies of God through our rebellion to Him. In His mercy the Father sent His only begotten Son to take upon Himself the due punishment for our disobedience. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ by first acknowledging and confessing our sin and sinfulness, repent from it, ask for forgiveness and surrender our lives to the Lord by trusting in His substitutionary death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead on the third day. Only then are we reconciled to God and the eternal future of our souls becomes secure in Christ. Yet in life we find ourselves more afraid of being materially poor than being spiritually poor. We are more concerned about being rich in material possessions than being rich in faith. We would rather live in big houses than have the Holy Spirit live in our hearts. We would rather live in harmony with the world at the expense of being at peace with God. We do not want to lack food for our bodies yet our souls are in dire need of the bread of life that is the Word of God. We clothe ourselves with the finest clothes yet we constantly defile the temple of the Holy Spirit by habitual sinful acts. Last but not least we would rather the whole world loved us and glorified us instead of living lives that glorify God. What have we done? We have sought to gain the whole world and have lost our souls.

James 4 v 4, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” The question still stands. What is the point of gaining the whole world only to find yourself an enemy of God? The wrath of God is kindled against you and is ready to devour you at any moment your foot should slip and you enter into eternity. For in due time your foot shall slide and you will find yourself standing before the Judgement seat of Christ to give an account of yourself. Who shall defend you in God’s courtroom when Jesus Christ, the one who could have handled your appeal, says to you, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” In that moment you will realize the futility of chasing worldly pleasures and treasures. You will begin to understand that the day of salvation is past and that the time of judgement is come. All those things in life you chased after become but an abomination to you as you realize their little value to you. You plead, you beg to no avail and as you realize that with God’s case there is no appeal, you do only what your unregenerate soul knows what to do. You blaspheme the name of God and the enemy of God that you truly are is revealed and your condemnation is deserved. Brothers and sisters, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Is it not the glory of God that the most important possession than a man should have is free i.e. the gift of salvation. Yet the attainment of worldly glory comes at a price i.e. the loss of our souls. Before the Lord asked His question, He clearly stated that we had to:

Deny ourselves
Take up our cross (daily in Luke 9 v 23)
Follow Him

To deny ourselves is a call to repentance. There is no such thing as conversion without conviction and regeneration of the soul without repentance and for you to be able to deny yourself, you need to be convicted of your sin and repent. True repentance is given by God through the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We cannot even work it ourselves and true repentance is characterized by a turning away from the former things and, holding on to the new. To deny ourselves means we acknowledge our sinfulness and abstain from it through the power of the Holy Spirit which begins with conviction leading to repentance.

To take up our cross covers two things. The first is to believe in the finished work of Christ on the cross. Note I said "the finished work." What that means is we should understand that by grace are we saved through faith; and that not of ourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. What the Lord did on the cross is sufficient for our salvation today and there is nothing that needs to be added to it. The second is that we need to understand that the Lord died on that cross and as explained in Romans 6 v 6, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him,] that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Therefore we need to die daily to our sinful nature in order to serve Christ. We need to daily maintain that repentant heart understanding that though we have been justified freely by His grace we still need to put to death the fruitless deeds of sin by taking up our cross daily. The cross also represents the commitment God had to providing us with salvation. Despite its scorn He bore it for us and likewise despite the persecution and opposition we face from the world we should remain faithful by standing firm in the faith. That is what it means to take up our cross. To take up our cross is a call to surrender. There is no salvation without surrender.

John 10 v 27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” To follow Jesus is to live life in obedience to His word. It is impossible to follow God without obeying Him otherwise who are you following? To follow Christ is a call to holiness. Roman 8 v 14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” The Spirit of God leads and you follow. He guides and you follow. He instructs and you follow. Many people call Jesus Lord but do not obey Him, then how is He Lord if you do not obey? It only follows that if you have been convicted of sin, you repent and put to death the deeds of your sinful nature by the Holy Spirit, the only natural thing left for you to do is obey the Lord but half the time we have trouble obeying. We give God lip service instead of worship. Our lips say yes but our deeds say no. Our minds agree with Him but our hearts are in disagreement with Him. We want God to forgive us yet we are not prepared to repent. We want Him to grant us the gift of salvation yet we are not prepared to surrender. We want Him to be Lord of our lives yet we are not prepared to follow. We hang onto to the world for the love of it and yet claim to be friends with God. Who are we fooling? Certainly not God, therefore of what use is it if we still live like the world does for the sake of our personal sinful desires at the expense of our souls? Where is the benefit, where is the profit?
Mark 1 v 15, “…repent ye, and believe the gospel.” God bless you.