According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the people of the United States spent $3.5 trillion, or 18 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product on healthcare.

Satan made a similar observation when talking to God about his servant Job when he said, “Skin for skin! Indeed, a man will give up all that he has to save his life” (Job 2:4 NET). Many people have done just that.

Jesus, however, said a person who truly loves his life would “destroy it” (John 12:25 NET). Guy N. Woods wrote, “… the Lord’s statement is paradoxical and means simply that he who appears to be little concerned about the preservation of his earthly life is really guaranteeing the permanence of his life in heaven.”/1

Many of Christ’s disciples lost their lives because they sincerely believed the truth of the gospel they obeyed. Many were tortured and suffered cruel deaths with a hymn of praise on their lips and prayer in their hearts because they knew the truth of the Son of God’s words in John chapter 12.

Did Jesus want to die? Of course not. No sane person wants to die. But Jesus knew he must die if others were to have the opportunity to obey the gospel and find salvation. Indeed, all who have obeyed the gospel since Jesus’ death on the cross have him to thank for his grace, mercy, and love in giving himself.

Jesus used the figure of the grain of wheat that can’t do any good at all until it enters the ground, dies and then becomes the seed that creates a plant that can bear hundreds of identical kernels.

Jesus knew the pain involved in his coming death. He wasn’t looking forward to it. But he knew the beautiful future he would bring to millions of people who would die to sin and live for God through his death, burial, and resurrection.

Have you thought about the possibility you might bring to the glory of God as a seed in the kingdom? Are you ready to take your place there at Jesus’ side?

1/ “Commentary on John, by Guy N. Woods, 1989 Gospel Advocate Company.

by John Henson