Gains and Losses

Matthew 16: 26, What profit is there if you gain the whole world-and lose eternal life? What can be compared with the value of eternal life? TLB

Everything in this world has a value. Today, the Lord wants to speak to us about the things in which we place great value; they might not be as valuable as we might think. From time to time, we all have been guilty of placing more emphasis on the temporal, simply because it is our existence…for now. However, the Word of God teaches us that we should keep our focus on the eternal, so that we don’t lose sight of what’s really important in this life.

In John 3, we’re told that God loved the world SO much that He gave His only-begotten Son to die in our place. The greatest and most valuable gift that has ever been, or will ever be given costs us absolutely nothing. We don’t have to pay for eternal life, nor do we have to earn it or even measure up to someone’s standards before it becomes ours.  All that is required of us is that we believe Jesus is the Son of God and that God sent Him as ransom for our sin debt.

Even though our soul’s salvation and the gift of eternal life cost God His Son, and it cost Jesus His life on earth, it’s free to those who accept it! Now that we’ve established these truths, let me ask you a question. How much value do you place on God’s gift of eternal life for you? How much of your heart, time, resources, and effort do you invest in serving God? What we do for God now that we’ve been redeemed will determine how much value we place on God’s free gift.

I find the choice of terms that Jesus uses in today’s scripture very interesting. He speaks the language that is generally associated with investment bankers or perhaps stock brokers. Jesus uses terms such as “gain,” “profit,” and “loss.” Jesus makes a very powerful comparison between the value of the entire world and the free gift of eternal life. Before I continue, let me interject that God has already determined the value of our soul’s salvation, and He has already paid for its redemption in FULL! Now it’s up to us to decide what value we’re going to place on our soul’s salvation.

Jesus tells us that if we were to gain the entire world, but lose our soul, it will not profit us at all. Since everything in the world has a value, let’s suppose that you add the worth of everything and came up with a total. Let’s suppose that the value of the entire world is one trillion times one trillion dollars. Jesus goes on to say that even if we were to be successful in gaining all of it, we still would have made an unwise business decision.

In other words, He’s saying that this world is very temporal; nevertheless, our souls are eternal. Money can’t buy us everlasting life. Are you making sound investments with the new life that Christ has given you? Are you serving the Lord with your whole heart by placing Him first every day? This devotion may come across as being very serious; and it should be. Our salvation was serious enough to send Jesus to the cross, the grave, and to hell on our behalf.

Since our soul is eternal, and we will live in either heaven or hell forever, shouldn’t our decisions be based on an eternal perspective rather than a temporal one? We only have today to serve Christ. We have no promise of tomorrow.

Blessing God for His Great Love,
Pastor Asa Dockery