Ryle on Mark 8:34-38

Imported boundary: J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on Mark from the Internet Archive DjVu OCR for the 1858 Robert Carter St. Mark volume. Title pages, preface, contents, running heads, page numbers, OCR boilerplate, and indexes are not mirrored. The source includes Ryle's printed Scripture text and exposition; this scan-derived text remains needs-verification.

Primary passage: Mark 8:34-38.

Source Text

34 And when he had called the people vnto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny him- self, and take up his cross, aud follow me. 35 For whosoever -will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake aud the Gospel's, the same shall save it. 36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? 37 Or what shall a man give in ex- change for his soul ? 88 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful genera- tion ; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. 169 The words of our Lord Jesus Christ in this passage are peculiarly weighty and solemn. They were spoken to correct the mistaken views of His disciples, as to the nature of His kingdom. But they contain truths of the deepest importance to Christians in every age of the Church. The whole passage is one which should often form the subject of private meditation.

We learn, for one thing, from these verses, the absolute necessity of self-denial, if we would he Christ's disciples, and be saved. What saith our Lord ? " Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Salvation is undoubtedly all of grace. It is offered freely in the Gospel to the chief of sinners, without money and without j>rice. " By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God : not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephes. ii. 8, 9.) But all who accept this great salvation, must prove the reality of their faith by carrying the cross after Christ. They must not think to enter heaven without trouble, pain, suffering, and conflict on earth. They must be content to take up the cross of doctrine, and the cross of practice - the cross of holding a faith which the world despises, and the cross of living a life which the world ridicules as too strict and righteous overmuch. They must be willing to crucify the flesh, to mortify the deeds of the body, to fight daily with the devil, to come out from the world, and to lose their lives, if needful, for Christ's sake and the Gospel's. These are hard sayings, but they admit of no evasion. The words of our Lord are plain and unmistakeable. If we will not carry the cross, we shall never wear the crown. Let us not be deterred from Christ's service by fear of the cross. Heavy as that cross may seem, Jesus will give us grace to bear it. " I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me." (Phil. iv. 13.) Thou- sands and tens of thousands have borne it before us, and have found Christ's yoke" easy, and Christ's burden light. No good thing on earth was ever attained without trouble. We cannot surely expect that without trouble we can enter the kingdom of God. Let us go forward boldly, and allow no difficulty to keep us back. The cross by the way is but for a few years. The glory at the end is for evermore. Let us often ask ourselves whether our Christianity costs us anything ? Does it entail any sacrifice ? Has it the true stamp of heaven ? Does it carry with it any cross ? - If not, we may well tremble and be afraid. We have everything to learn. A religion which costs noth- ing, is worth nothing. It will do us no good in the life that now is. It will lead to no salvation in the life to come.

We learn, for another thing, from these verses, the unspeakable value of the soul. What saith oar Lord ? " What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul " These words were meant to stir us up to exertion and self-denial. They ought to ring in our ears like a trumpet, every morning when we rise from our beds, and every night when we lie down. May they be deeply graven in our memories, and never effaced by the devil and the world ! We have all souls that will live for evermore. Whether we know it or not, we all carry about with us something which will live on when our bodies are moul- 171 dering in the grave. We have all souls, for which we shall have to give account to God. It is an awful thought, when we consider how little attention most men give to anything except this world. But it is true. Any man may lose his own soul. He cannot save it : Christ alone can do that. But he can lose it, and that in many different ways. He may murder it, by loving sin and cleaving to the world. He may poison it by choosing a religion of lies, and believing man-made superstitions. He may starve it, by neglecting all means of grace, and refusing to receive into his heart the Gospel. Many are the ways that lead to the pit. Whatever way a man takes, he, and he alone, is accountable for it. Weak, corrupt, fallen, impotent as human nature is, man has a mighty power of destroying, ruining, and losing his own soul. The whole world cannot make up to a man the loss of his soul. The possession of all the treasures that the world contains, would not compensate for eternal ruin. They would not satisfy us, and make us happy while we had them. They could only be enjoyed for a few years, at best, and must then be left for evermore. Of all un- profitable and foolish bargains that man can make, the worst is that of giving up his soul's salvation for the sake of this present world. It is a bargain of which thousands, like Esau, who sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage, have repented - but many, unhappily, like Esau, have repented too late. Let these sayings of our Lord sink deep into our hearts. Words are inadequate to express their importance. May we remember them in the hour of temptation, when the soul seems a small and unimportant thing, and the world seems very bright and great. May we remember them in the hour of persecution, when we are tried by the fear of man, and half inclined to forsake Christ. In hours like these, let us call to mind this mighty question of our Lord, and repeat it to ourselves, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul "

We learn, in. the last place, from these verses, the great danger of heing ashamed of Christ. What saith our Lord ? " Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He cometh iu the glory of His Father with the holy angels." When can it be said of any one, that he is ashamed of Christ ? We are guilty of it, when we are ashamed of letting people see that we believe and love the doctrines of Christ, that we desire to live according to the com- mandment of Christ, and that we wish to be reckoned among the people of Christ. Christ's doctrine, laws, and people were never popular, and never will be. The man who boldly confesses that he loves them, is sure to bring on himself ridicule and persecution. Whosoever shrinks from this confession from fear of this ridicule and per- secution, is ashamed of Christ, and comes under the sentence of the passage before us. Perhaps there are few of our Lord's sayings which are more condemning than this. " The fear of man''' does indeed " bring a snare." (Prov. xxix. 25.) There are thousands of men who would face a lion, or storm a breach, if duty called them, and fear nothing - and yet would be ashamed of being thought " religious" - and would not dare to avow that they desired to please Christ rather than man. Wonderful indeed is the power of ridicule ! Marvellous is the bondage in which men live to the opinion of the world ! Let us all pray daily for faith and courage to confess Christ before men, Of sin, or worldliness, or unbelief, we may well be ashamed.

We ought never to be ashamed of Him who died for us on the cross. In spite of laughter, mockery, and hard words, let us boldly avow that we serve Christ. Let us often look forward to the day of His second coming, and remember what He says in this place. Better a thousand times confess Christ now, and be despised by man, than be disowned by Christ before His Father in the day of judgment.