Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Luke 9:24

"For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." — Luke 9:24 (ASV)

These two statements (vv.24–25) show the futility of clinging to one’s “life,” because that, paradoxically, results in losing the very self one wants to preserve. In contrast, the person who invests his or her life for God finds that such a life is not lost after all. Jesus then goes on to emphasize his point. The world the disciple are willing to forfeit is to be succeeded by the new order when the Son of Man comes in glory (v.26). The one who seeks gain by letting the world’s view of Christ make him or her ashamed of the Lord rightly draws a corresponding response from the glorified Son of Man.