For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
In these verses, we have Christ discoursing with his disciples about the great things that pertained to the kingdom of God; and one circumstance of this discourse is taken notice of here which we had not in the other evangelists - that Christ was alone praying, and his disciples with him, when he entered into this discourse, Luk 9:18. Observe, 1.
Commenting on Luke 9:18-27
For whosoever shall be ashamed of me,.... Of my person and offices, of me, as the Messiah, Saviour, and Redeemer, of my grace, righteousness, blood, and sacrifice: and of my words; of the doctrines of the Gospel, one and another of them.
PETER'S CONFESSION OF CHRIST--OUR LORD'S FIRST EXPLICIT ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS APPROACHING DEATH, AND WARNINGS ARISING OUT OF IT. (Luk 9:18-27) will save--"Is minded to save," bent on saving. The pith of this maxim depends--as often in such weighty sayings (for example, "Let the dead bury the dead," Mat 8:22) --on the double sense attached to the word "life," a lower and a higher, the natural...