"He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."—Matt. 10:39.
Some of our Lord's teachings were addressed to the mixed companies of worldly people around him, but the most of his attention and teachings were specially given to his disciples. And to them he said many things which they were not able to comprehend at the time, but which he promised should be brought to their remembrance and made clear to the church afterward.
Among these was the statement of the above text. To the disciples at that time it was simply incomprehensible, but in the light of the fuller teaching under the spirit dispensation it is quite clear and plain. The statement is applicable to those who have consecrated their life, who have presented themselves to God as living sacrifices. Their consecration implies their intended faithfulness in spending their life in the divine service even unto death.
Having made this solemn covenant with God, and therefore been accepted of him through Christ, it is not in either our right or power to take back that which we thus relinquished all right to, viz., our life as human beings with the hopes and blessings etc., which belong to it. We are now (reckonedly) new creatures, begotten of God to a new nature, the divine, which we cannot fully possess, until the human nature is entirely dissolved—dead. To take up our cross and follow after the Master, thus dying daily, until the last spark is spent in His service, is no light thing, and some may limp and falter and hesitate, and yet press on through all their weaknesses looking to the Lord and accepting his proffered assistance.
But to turn entirely back from our purpose, and to lay hold on what remains of our earthly life and begin again to live after the flesh, is to lose all claim upon the spiritual life, the only life to which such now hold a title. To such then, how forcibly the statement, He who keeps hold of the life already consecrated to sacrifice, thereby loses all life, while he who is obedient to his covenant, shall find life much more abundantly, than now possessed—in God's due time.