By Hershall (Wes) Spradley
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:14-17).
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:23-26).
We could use the word salvation to describe the subject matter of these two passages. However, we must be aware that each is talking about a different type of salvation. To rightly divide the Word of truth, we must make a distinction between eternal life and discipleship. Some passages in Scripture, especially in John’s Gospel, teach that whoever believes in Jesus Christ has everlasting life and will never perish. Other passages in Scripture, especially in the Synoptic Gospels and epistles, present the conditions of discipleship and testimonials about real-life disciples.
To rightly divide the Word of truth, we must understand that New Testament writers apply the word salvation to both of those theological concepts. It is important that we pay attention to exactly what each writer says if we are to correctly understand how he is using the word salvation. One evidence that the two passages cited above are using salvation differently is the condition in each case. In 9:24, Luke quotes Jesus as saying that if you want to be saved, then you must lose your life. You must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ. By contrast, John writes in his Gospel that Jesus Himself said that whoever believes in Him “has everlasting life” (John 3:16) and is “saved through Him” (John 3:17). Self-denial, taking up one’s cross, and following Christ is far different from believing in Him.
A cluster of ideas comes out of John 3:1-18. The concept of birth implies the ideas of child and life, hence the theological term regeneration. If one is born, then he is a child and has life. If one is born of God, one is a child of God and has the life of God, which, by definition, is everlasting. The doctrine of regeneration therefore carries within it the doctrine of assurance.
The basic point to emphasize for now is that those who believe in Jesus have—present tense—eternal life. Note that the first four chapters of John record the earliest episodes in the ministry of our Lord.i Jesus laid down a firm foundation regarding truths about eternal life before going on to the more difficult truths about discipleship.
Now, let’s turn to the passage in Luke. The context of Luke 9:22-26 is Jesus’ description of His career path as Messiah. Peter has confessed that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is nearing the end of His earthly ministry. He is on His way to Jerusalem and is preparing His disciples for what is about to happen to Him. It is necessary for Him to suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed … and to rise on the third day (v 22). This is His career path.
Having given them notice regarding His career path, he issues an invitation to all who are willing to follow Him on that path. The invitation is to follow Him all the way to death: “If anyone wants to come after Me”—that is, if anyone wants to go to Jerusalem with Me to die, to lose one’s life for My sake—“let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (v 23).
This passage is dealing with discipleship truth. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the distinction between the offer of life through faith in His name and the invitation given here to follow Him. It is foolish in the extreme to confuse what our Lord says here with what he said to Nicodemus in John 3. It vitiates the power of both invitations if we garble the messages as though they were somehow the same. And it vitiates the power of the doctrine of assurance if we say that Luke 9:23 is a necessary consequence of John 3:16.
In Luke 9:24, the Lord says that there are two responses to His invitation to follow Him as His disciple: Save your life by not suffering for Christ, thereby losing your life (losing fullness of it), or lose your life by suffering for Christ, thereby saving it (gaining fullness of life).
What do you suppose our Lord is talking about when He says, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it”? To “save one’s life” here means not denying oneself, not taking up one’s cross, and not following Christ. We must then conclude that “whoever loses his life for My sake” also refers back to verse 23 and therefore means denying self, taking up one’s cross, and following Him to death. What is the life that verse 24 is talking about? This earthly life. Verse 24 is teaching discipleship truth, not the truth concerning everlasting life, which we receive from Christ when we believe in Him. In this passage, the one who loses the life he wanted to save is not an unbeliever.
Verse 25 elaborates on the idea of losing the life we save. What profit is there if one gains the whole world but loses (or forfeits) himself? Christ’s temptation comes to mind. Christ is suggesting that as His followers, we might experience similar temptations to those He faced, and that in those temptations, believers face the very real danger of forfeiting their testimony for Christ.
Verse 26 is Jesus’ concluding statement about those who seek to save their earthly lives: “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” This cannot be referring to unbelievers because when Jesus comes in His glory and judges us at the Judgment Seat of Christ, the only humans who will be there will be believers.
What is not said in these verses? If “desiring to save one’s life” ultimately brings shame when one stands before the Father, the Son, and the angels, then saving one’s life by losing it for the sake of Christ will bring the opposite of shame—glory and honor at the Bema (cf. 1 Pet 1:7).
Note that we take an active part in the salvation the Lord speaks of here; we can act to either save or lose our own lives.
Saving one’s life is a concept that applies even to the Lord Jesus. He saved His life by dying on the cross, as His Father willed (Phil 2:5-11).
We have seen that John teaches that we receive the gift of eternal life when we believe in Jesus, while Luke teaches the extremely difficult path of discipleship that calls for even more than obedience. A question we should consider is whether Luke and John teach the same doctrine of eternal salvation. Consider Acts 10:43, 15:7-11, and 16:30-31, as well as Luke 8:12-13.
Both Luke and John teach that we are saved simply by faith in the Lord Jesus. So did Paul. Look at 1 Tim 1:16: “However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.” See also Gal 2:16 and Eph 2:8-9.
Paul, Luke, and John all teach the same doctrine about how one receives eternal life: It is by faith in Christ, apart from works. But the Lord and His apostles also clearly taught that only if we follow Christ faithfully will we experience fullness of life now and forever.
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Wes had a BS from UT Arlington, Th.M. from DTS, and MLitt from UTSA. His love of language carried him through a lifelong journey of study and ministry. Wes went to be with the Lord in August of 2025.
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i See John 3:24, where John tells us that John the Baptist had not yet been arrested.
