In verse 25 the Lord says, “For whoever desires to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.” In following the Lord we should not save our soul-life, that is, we should not let the soul have its enjoyment. If we save it in this age, we shall lose it in the coming age. But if we lose it for Christ’s sake, we shall find it in the enjoyment of the kingdom in the coming age.
In verse 26 the Lord asked, “For what shall a man be profited if he should gain the whole world, but forfeit his soul-life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul-life?” The enjoyment of the soul-life today is wrapped up with the world. To gain the world for the enjoyment of the soul is to forfeit the life in the enjoyment of the kingdom in the coming age. Even if we gained the whole world for the enjoyment of the soul-life in this age by forfeiting the enjoyment of the soul-life in the coming age, it would profit nothing. Nothing is worthy to be given in exchange for the enjoyment of the soul-life in the kingdom.
Verse 27 says, “For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each man according to his doings.” The word “For” at the beginning of this verse indicates that the Lord’s rewarding of His followers at His coming back in verse 27 will be according to whether they lose or save their soul, as mentioned in verses 25 and 26. The reward will be given according to how we have borne the cross. It depends on whether or not we keep ourselves under the killing of the cross, on whether we save our soul-life in this age or lose it.
This will be judged by the Lord at His coming in the glory of His Father. If we do bear the cross to follow Him by losing the enjoyment of our soul in this age, He will reward us with the enjoyment of the soul in the kingdom.
In verse 27 the Lord says that “He will reward each man according to his doings,” that is, according to whether or not we lose our soul-life’s enjoyment in this age. This will have nothing to do with our eternal salvation; however, it has very much to do with the Lord’s dispensational reward to us.
The reward will be given to every man at the judgment seat of Christ when Christ comes back (2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12). This indicates that this will transpire in the air after all the believers have been raptured into the presence of the Lord there.
The Lord’s reward will be the entering into the kingdom, which will be at the manifestation of the kingdom. The Lord refers to the manifestation of the kingdom in verse 28: “Truly I say to you, There are some of those standing here who shall by no means taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” This was fulfilled by the Lord’s transfiguration on the mountain (17:1-2). His transfiguration was His coming in His kingdom, which was seen by His three disciples, Peter, James, and John. In the next message we shall point out that the transfiguration of Christ was a miniature of the manifestation of the kingdom. The manifestation of the kingdom in the millennium will be the reward to the followers of Christ who remain under the killing of the cross on the pathway to glory. All the dear ones who follow Christ in this way will be rewarded with the manifestation of the kingdom.