Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew

Gain the Whole World and Lose Your Own Soul?

Mark 8:36 (KJV) For what shall it profit a man,

if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

This phrase is part of the discourse of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to His disciples and to the people gathered around Him. Jesus had just rebuked His disciple Peter for being used by Satan to tempt Him into not obeying God the Father’s will to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. Immediately after this rebuke, Christ gathered the people and His disciples and gave them this soul searching and heart wrenching challenge. Which is more valuable to the sinner: the whole world or his own soul?

This is a most pertinent question for us too, in light of the Lunar New Year season where monetary gifts exchange hands like the traffic lights change colours. This may be the time when our devotion to Christ and the reality of our faith are easily forgotten. Money and materialism take centre stage in many lives. The faithless professing Christian would grab and worry, and probably spend sleepless nights tossing and turning in his bed not knowing if he would be able to provide for self and family as inflation sets in. But the faithful Christian will continue to trust God no matter what the circumstances of life are. These two opposite and contrasting reactions are crucial markers in every believer’s heart.

If we deceive ourselves into thinking that we live by faith when we possess no faith, it is the costliest deception of our lives. Our honest answer determines whether we will spend eternity in Hell or in Heaven or if we are truly born again in Christ! Our perspective of materialism and eternity will reveal who we really are in Christ or not in Christ!

The Profit?– Profit and loss is a concept all adults understand. The dictum to "maximize profit and minimize loss" has been the policy of all businessmen. The Lord Jesus Christ wants all to listen to Him and ask themselves what their profit in life is. In the realm of the material, their answer would easily be material things. Get as much material wealth as possible in one's lifetime and do so at all costs! This has characterized the "do-what-is right-in your-own-eyes" mentality throughout the ages. Billionaires and millionaires are immortalized by their wealth through egocentric foundations so that even after they die their wealth names are remembered for ages to come, or so they hope! This is the way of the world that Christ wants to challenge head on by this verse!

What does it mean to gain the whole world? This is a hyperbole spoken by Christ to drive home the point that an individual’s soul is worth more than the whole world! How can a person own the whole world? He can work extremely hard for a 100 life-times and will still not be able to possess the whole world! Actually, there were only two families in the whole earth who truly owned the whole world. Adam's family owned the whole world before the global Flood destroyed everything. Noah's family owned the new world for a brief moment when his family came out of the Ark after the Flood. The world then was worthless; for there was no one to fight with Noah for the world and the whole world was at Noah's disposal, free for any of sons to choose where to live. Now this present world is filled with billions of people and all want a piece of this worldly pie; suddenly the demand shot up a billion-fold and now this world seems to have increased in value. Billions of lives have lived and died for a piece of this worldly real estate! No matter how man may try he can only get a tiny piece.

The Loss!– The words of Christ in Mark 8:36 are meant to challenge the souls regarding this material profit! Every person is now asked to look deep into his own soul and ask himself what exactly is real profit. The person who rejects Christ and runs his life as if he is the master of his own destiny is seen as one who desires to own the whole world but would lose his soul in the process. Jesus says in Mark 8:35-37, "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? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" The person who rejects Christ is inevitably trying to gain the whole world or as much of the world as possible! He works eight to twelve hours a day for most of his adult life to gain more and more of this world.

If we view the whole world like a large pie, every piece of this pie is owned by a particular country. Every part of every country is owned by a person or a corporation or a government. The pieces of the pie owned by people vary from time to time and those who own a bigger piece today might lose it tomorrow. The world will try to increase the size of the pie time and again by building higher. In order that more people can own the same piece of pie, they stack them one on top of the other. Some poor folks may rent a piece of pie from another till they die. But they also work very hard to try and turn their "fortunes" around hoping to become owners of a piece of the pie one day. When one pie owner goes bankrupt, the pieces are divided or taken over by others. The piece of pie just simply changes hands. That is why today billionaires can be tomorrow’s paupers! Therefore, those who reject Christ and try to gain the whole world are asked by Christ to seriously consider whether their souls are really worth the price of the whole world!

Profit or Loss?– Things eternal versus things temporal are what everyone must base their decision on. The things temporal are all the things found on the earth because the earth itself is completely temporal. One day everything on and of the earth will be destroyed by God. Revelation 20:11 (KJV), "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them." The temporal nature of all earthly things is easily seen by the constant decay of all things new. The moment they begin to exist, decay starts. The temporal nature of earthly things is seen by the destructive forces on them such as moths eating the clothes and rust eating all things made of iron. These are stark reminders in the present of what will surely take place in the foreseeable future when God will destroy this earth permanently. God is merciful to show sinful man the temporal nature of his present world so that he will not waste his precious life and time in pursuing them. They are not real wealth with any real intrinsic value. The millionaires and billionaires are not rich people but are only poor people with a lot of worthless dust and decay!

On the other hand, eternal things are not tangible and can be held with hands and seen with eyes. They are stored in heaven where rust and moths cannot touch or destroy. The amazing thing is that man on earth can store up eternal treasures in heaven while they remain on earth. This is all made possible because of Jesus Christ who came down from heaven to the earth. When a sinner accepts Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour with all his heart, soul mind and strength, he is born again and becomes a new person. He is no longer spiritually dead. He is spiritually made alive in Christ. As a spiritual person living on earth witnessing for Christ, everything he does from henceforth will have spiritual value and significance. Therefore, all things material that are handled by him will have spiritual value. Matthew 10:42 (KJV), "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." For example, when a believer teaches in Sunday School with care and due diligence and with much prayer, the Lord says he will not lose his reward. He is serving the Lord and has become the mouthpiece of Christ, as if Christ was the One who taught.

As children of God, we must choose eternal and not temporal things. The world cannot see the spiritual realm but all God's children can and must see. The Holy Spirit in them enables them to see.

The Decision! --Because our soul is worth more than the price of the whole world, we should ensure that we do not lose it. To ensure that it is kept for eternity, it has to be in the hands of someone who is eternal. The eternal person who keeps eternity safe is God Himself. Know that the soul of man is eternal. It can neither die nor be destroyed. If we die in our sins, the possession of the whole world cannot save us. In fact, the whole world is useless to us after we die, for naked we came into this world, and naked will we leave this world. It makes no sense then to work hard to gain this world and then to lose it all when we die. The loss of the soul must not be construed as annihilation of the soul; the soul of one who dies in his sin will be found in eternal torment in hell and then ultimately in the Lake of Fire. Revelation 21:8 (KJV), "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."

Jesus has revealed to us the only way for every sinner to keep his soul for eternity. Jesus says in Mark 8:34b, ". . . ., Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Christ’s invitation is to "whosoever", which implies anybody and everybody, to hand his entire soul over to Christ. The conditions for handing over are: deny self, take up his cross and follow Christ.

Burkitt explained these three steps well:

"Let him deny himself. By which we are not to understand, either the denying of our senses in matters of faith, or the renouncing of our reason in the matters of religion; but a willingness to part with all our earthly comforts, and temporal enjoyments, for the sake of Christ, when called thereunto.

"He must take up his cross. An allusion to the Roman custom, that the malefactor who was to be crucified, took his cross upon his shoulder, and carried it to the place of execution. Where note, That not the making of the cross, but the patient bearing of it, when God has made it, and laid it upon our shoulders, is the duty enjoined. Let him take up his cross.

"Let him follow me, says Christ: that is, obey my commands, and imitate my example. He must set my life and doctrine continually before him, and be daily correcting and reforming his life by that rule and pattern."

The sinner who comes to Christ must obey the first two steps unconditionally. It is to be done at the time of salvation. It is done only once (Aorist tense). It is not an option but a command (imperative) that must be obeyed first before the third and final step is possible. Following Christ (present tense) is a continuous and daily endeavour. The sinner surrenders his life which was characterized by sin and now turns to Christ to live a new life in Him. He does it by taking up the cross which Christ gives to him. Whatever that life might be, it must henceforth be lived to the praise of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. The life of the believer is to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ his Lord and Saviour. His soul is now in God’s Hand which no one can take away from Him, for it has been sealed by the blood of Christ and His everlasting love. God will take care of His children from now into eternity. Matthew 6:30-32 give us this promise, "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things."

To reject Christ means you want to keep your own soul, hoping that the gain of this whole world will somehow "guard" your soul. But this is futile as the millions of tombstones in cemeteries all over the world testify. But in Christ Jesus is security guaranteed! Gain the whole world or lose your own soul? The choice must be made right now! Make the right choice, your soul depends on it . . . for eternity!