Saving Your Life

Saving Your Life

ELDER D. TODD CHRISTOFFERSON

CES Devotional for Young Adults • September 14, 2014
(excerpts with highlighting added)

Then Jesus kindly instructed Peter and his Brethren about taking up one’s cross and losing one’s life as the way to find an abundant and eternal life, Himself being the perfect example.

I want to talk to you about the Lord’s seemingly paradoxical declaration that “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” It teaches a powerful, far-reaching doctrine that we need to understand and apply.

A thoughtful professor offered this insight: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, God’s work in your life is bigger than the story you’d like that life to tell. His life is bigger than your plans, goals, or fears. To save your life, you’ll have to lay down your stories and, minute by minute, day by day, give your life back to him.”

Christ’s commandment to follow Him is a commandment to reject once again the Satanic model and to lose our life in favor of the real life, the authentic life, the celestial–kingdom-enabled life that God envisions for each of us. That life will bless everyone we touch and will make saints of us.

It would have been helpful to have some additional light about what it means, in practice, to lose one’s life for His sake and thereby find it. But as I pondered it, I realized that the Savior’s comments just before and after His declaration provide valuable guidance. Let’s consider three of these contextual comments.

1.Let Him Deny Himself, and Take Up His Cross Daily

First are the Lord’s words spoken just before He said, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it.” As recorded in each of the synoptic gospels, Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Luke adds the word daily—“let him … take up his cross daily.” In Matthew, the Joseph Smith Translation expands this statement with the Lord’s definition of what it means to take up one’s cross: “And now for a man to take up his cross, is to deny himself all ungodliness, and every worldly lust, and keep my commandments.” (see  Matthew 16:24-25 JST, Luke 9:23.) 

 This accords with James’s declaration: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” 

It is a daily life of avoiding all that is unclean while affirmatively keeping the two great commandments—love of God and fellowman—on which all other commandments hang. Thus, one element of losing our lives in favor of the greater life the Lord envisions for us consists in our taking up His cross day by day. (see  James 1:27, See Matthew 22:37–40.)

2.Whosoever Confesses Me, I Will Confess before the Father

 A second accompanying statement suggests that finding our life by losing it for His sake and the gospel’s entails a willingness to make our discipleship open and public: “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed ofme and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him alsoshall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (see  Mark 8:38)

• One obvious and rather sobering meaning of losing your life by confessing Christ is to lose it literally, physically, in sustaining and defending your belief in Him. We have grown accustomed to thinking of this extreme requirement as applying in history as we read about the martyrs of the past, including most of the ancient Apostles. Now we see, however, that what was historical is moving into the present...We know not what may come in the future, but if any of us should face the trauma of literally losing our life in the Master’s cause, I trust we would show the same courage and loyalty. 

• The more common (and sometimes more difficult) application of theSavior’s teaching, however, has to do with how we live day by day. It concerns the words we speak, the example we set. Our lives should be a confession of Christ, and together with our words testify of our faith in and devotion to Him. 
• “Think not that I am come to send peace on [the] earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword..." Yet the inevitable result of Christ’s coming is conflict—between Christ and the antichrist, between light and darkness, between Christ’s children and the devil’s children. This conflict can occur even between members of the same family. (see  Matthew 10:34–38.)  In one way or another, your superior love of Christ has required the sacrifice of relationships that were dear to you, and you have shed many tears. Yet with your own love undiminished, you hold steady under this cross, showing yourself unashamed of the Son of God.
• In reality, the best way to help those we love—the best way to love them—is to continue to put the Savior first. If we cast ourselves adrift from the Lord out of sympathy for loved ones who are suffering or distressed, then we lose the means by which we might have helped them. If, however, were main firmly rooted in faith in Christ, we are in a position both to receive and to offer divine help. If (or I should say when) the moment comes that a beloved family member wants desperately to turn to the only true and lasting source of help, he or she will know whom to trust as a guide and a companion. In the meantime, with the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide, we can perform a steady ministry to lessen the pain of poor choices and bind up the wounds in so far as we are permitted. Otherwise, we serve neitherthose we love nor ourselves.

3. For What Shall It Profit a Man If He Shall Gain the Whole World, and Lose His Own Soul?

“Therefore, forsake the world, and save your souls; for what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and yet he receive him not whom God hath ordained, and he lose his own soul, and he himself be a castaway?” (see  Joseph Smith Translation, Luke 9:25)

• To say that forsaking the world in favor of receiving “him … whom God hath ordained” is countercultural in today’s world is certainly an understatement. The priorities and interests we most often see on display around us (and sometimes in us) are intensely selfish: 
• a hunger to berecognized; the insistent demand that one’s rights be respected (including a supposed right never to be offended); a consuming desire for money, things, and power; a sense of entitlement to a life of comfort and pleasure; a goal to minimize responsibility and avoid altogether anypersonal sacrifice for the good of another; to name a few.
• This is not to say that we should not seek to succeed, even excel inworthy endeavors, including education and honorable work,.. but if we are to save our lives, we must always remember that such attainments are not ends in themselves, but means to a higher end. 

Success means living in harmony with Their will.  In contrast to the narcissistic life, President Spencer W. Kimball offered a simple expression of the more excellent way:

“Service to others deepens and sweetens this life while we are preparing to live in a better world. … When we are engaged in the service of our fellowmen, not only do our deeds assist them, but we put our own problems in a fresher perspective. When we concern ourselves more with others, there is less time to be concerned with ourselves! In the midst of the miracle of serving, there is the promise of Jesus that by losing ourselves, we find ourselves! [See Matthew 10:39.] 

“Not only do we ‘find’ ourselves in terms of acknowledging divine guidance in our lives, but the more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls. … We become mores ubstantive as we serve others—indeed, it is easier to ‘find’ ourselvesbecause there is so much more of us to find!”

Examples of Losing One’s Life in Christ and His Gospel

By the things which he suffered, the Prophet Joseph Smith learned to lose his life in the service of his Master and Friend. 

He once said, “I made this my rule: When the Lord commands, do it.” 

I think we would all be content to match Brother Joseph’s level of faithfulness. Even so, he was once forced to languish for months in the jail at Liberty, Missouri, suffering physically but probably more emotionally and spiritually as he was unable to help his beloved wife, his children, and the Saints whilethey were being abused and persecuted. His revelations and direction had brought them to Missouri to establish Zion, and now they were being driven from their homes, in winter, across the entire state. Despite it all, in those conditions in that jail, he composed an inspired letter to the Church of the most elegant and uplifting prose, parts of which now comprise sections 121, 122, and 123 of the Doctrine and Covenants, concluding with these words, 

“Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see thesalvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.”

Of course, the greatest illustration of saving one’s life by losing it is this:“O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” In giving His life, Christ not only saved His own—He saved the lives of all of us. He made it possible for us to exchange what would otherwise have been an ultimately futile mortal life for eternal life.

Testimony

The theme of the Savior’s life was “I do always those things that please [the Father].” I pray that you will make it the theme of your life. 

If you do, you will save your life.

My dear young friends, be content in all your striving and achieving to 

• put His will first. 
• Learn to want what He wants. 
• Confess and acknowledge Him in every aspect of your life.  
• Do not be ashamed of Christ or His gospel, and 
• be willing to lay down cherished things, cherished relationships, and even life itself for Him. 
• But while you live, let your life be an offering. 

Take up His cross each day in obedience and service. 

These are the implications and the fruits of our faith.