Do you want the distinctly different life that God has given to you? This question reaches into every area of our existence, touching on the personal cost of this God-given life. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die, surrendering attachments to this world and giving over our lives to death in union with His death. This dying is not a one-time event but an ongoing process, as we must daily put to death the deeds of the flesh and deny ourselves to follow Him. Christ Himself said that if anyone desires to come after Him, they must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Him. Whoever desires to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for His sake will save it. What profit is there in gaining the whole world if a man is himself destroyed or lost? This self-denial is not merely about avoiding sin but choosing between Him and anything that interferes with following Him, even pursuits that are not inherently wrong but are not what He would have us do. This life of separation from the world and self-sacrifice requires regular evaluation to ensure our heart is not turning away from God. It involves a daily reckoning of ourselves as dead through self-denial, crucifying our carnal nature each morning until we go to sleep, only to rise and shoulder this burden again. Our lives are not our own to direct; every breath and drop of blood belong to our Redeemer, and our continual thought must be what He wants for us and how we can follow Him closely. The question remains: is this life of dying to the world and living for God the life we truly want? We must observe our honest responses to see if our commitment or dedication to God is slipping, or if the world's enticements are becoming more appealing than life with Him. God's focus is not on giving us the life we want, but the life He desires for us, which may be hard to accept. Yet, we must walk by faith, trusting that what He is doing with us will turn out better than what we would do for ourselves. As we are crucified with Christ, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. The life we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God. We cannot serve two masters; we must either pursue life on our terms and lose eternity, or give up our claim on our lives and trust God with what He does with them. This foundational question persists: what kind of life do we truly want, and what are we willing to give up so that God is pleased to give it to us? He has bidden us to come and die so that we can live with Him and for Him.

Jesus emphasizes the profound choice between clinging to our former lives or letting go and entrusting our new lives to His care. He points out that all the riches of the world mean nothing without a spiritual life, a life that will not be held captive by the grave. We might enjoy some years of glorious living in a physical sense, but inevitably, the same event happens to us all. He underscores the tremendous waste of squandering the opportunity for eternal life in exchange for temporary fun or comfort. Then He reminds His followers that He will return to reward people for their choices—whether they valued Him and sought Him, or were ashamed of Him and sought the dead things of this world. The command to deny oneself is not about asceticism but about allowing God to set the terms of one's life. It involves renouncing one's own life in favor of the far better, though more costly, life that Christ offers. To follow after Him, we must willingly reject and even disown any aspect of life not in subjection to Him. This means putting to death the works of the flesh and purging the love of the world, including the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We must hold at bay all those things embedded deep in our human nature that prevent our being worthy of Him. The cross of Christ represents His example of self-denial and losing His life for a greater purpose, symbolizing great personal cost. What is foolishness to many is His example of complete surrender, which we are to imitate. For those who are being saved, that message and example of total surrender—of carrying whatever is placed upon us until we die—is the power of God. The carnal mind sees surrender as folly, creating vulnerability or the possibility of loss, but it is blind to the reality that God is on His throne, overseeing the outcome and using His power on our behalf if we trust Him with our lives. If we are to be worthy of the Creator who humbled Himself to die a shameful death, our response must be one of self-denial, complete surrender, and reckoning ourselves as already dead to this present, evil age so that we might live for Him.

God created beings from dust in His image, giving them temporal life that could be destroyed if they rejected His offer of eternal life. He placed them in His own Garden, offering a deal to live happily in His presence if they refrained from eating the forbidden fruit. Yet, tempted by the serpent, they disobeyed and ate, leading to their expulsion from the Garden and eventual death as God had warned. After human sin escalated, God brought the Flood, wiping out His creatures except for those saved in Noah's ark, marking another profound loss. Later, God chose Abraham, offering him a land and descendants for his allegiance, and though Abraham and his immediate heirs obeyed, the broader descendants, Israel, accepted God's deal through Moses but failed to uphold it, dying in the desert and later going into captivity for their sins. These repeated failures of His created beings to maintain their covenant with Him stand as significant losses, revealing a pattern of disappointment in the face of divine offers.