"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:24-26).
There is an irony observable in nature that Jesus sees and relates to the spiritual realm. When wheat dies and falls to the ground, out of the death of that wheat comes many seeds. Through the death of that wheat kernel comes the potential for so much life.
This is analogous to what happens in the spiritual realm. If we die to self, and let Jesus live through us we create life. If we die to ourselves and allow Christ to live through us, we will be witnesses for Him. Those seeds of the gospel that we scatter will produce born again children of God. But it all starts with us making the decision to be dead to self and alive to Christ.
There is another irony in this passage of scripture. Jesus says that people's efforts to hold on to their own lives are futile because ultimately such people lose their lives in the end. In a sense Jesus is giving us a picture of the person that is truly saved.....the truly saved person has lost his life.....God is not fooled by people who participate in religious activity yet hold on to their own lives in every other sense.....that is not a born again person, that is a religious person. Jesus said you must be born again to see the Kingdom of Heaven. So according to Christ, losing your life is not just a matter of being a good Christian.......it is the evidence of whether or not you are a Christian at all.
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