Matthew 16:24-27
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
The Grace New Testament Commentary - Matthew 16:24-27
16:24 The issue here is discipleship, not justification. To "come after" Jesus one must "deny himself, take up his cross, and follow" Him. The Lord reveals that His disciples too will be called on to sacrifice their lives for His sake. Since Jesus was going to the cross to die for them, they too should be willing to die for Him. They were to put on hold their visions of immediate grandeur in the earthly kingdom and face the immediate cost of following Him. Suffering precedes glory (cf. 1 Pet 4:13).
16:25-27 Jesus is talking here about rewards, not salvation. The Greek word psychē is used four times in vv 25-26 and is unfortunately translated as life in v 25 and yet as soul in v 26. Losing one's psychē does not mean being eternally separated from God in hell. Neither does saving one's psychē refer to gaining eternal life. That is not in view here. Nor does salvation of the psychē mean salvation from physical death. Although it is often used that way in the OT as well as in the Book of James (Gen 19:17; 32:30: 1 Sam 19:11; Jer 48:6; Jas 5:20), the disciples were not promised that in these verses in Matthew!
Instead, salvation of the soul refers to deliverance from a wasted life to a life of heightened satisfaction, enjoyment, usefulness, victory, status, authority, and rest in the coming millennial kingdom (cf. 2 Tim 2:12; Heb 3:6, 14; 4:11). To the world, serving Christ under adverse circumstances seems like throwing one's life away and ultimately losing it. But in reality the disciple "will find" eternal life. He will gain rewards so great and so enduring that they will far exceed even the hypothetical gaining of "the whole world" during this lifetime.
The words "profited, gain, save, loses, and exchange" reflect the language of business risk and reward. An investment in Christ's unpopular enterprise will pay far richer dividends in the future than that of the world in the present.
The term reward in v 27 refers to recompense for work done. Eternal life, on the other hand, as a gift, is absolutely free (Eph 2:8-9). When Jesus returns, "He will reward each according to his works." Sharing in Jesus' sufferings now will result in a heightened experience of "the glory of His Father" in the life to come (cf. Rom 8:17: 1 Pet 4:13). Matthew 16:25-27 is often interpreted as calling for total yieldedness to Christ as Lord in every area of one's life in order to be born again. If that were true, then Peter himself, whom Christ commended for his good confession (vv 16-17), would not be saved, for he was glaringly disobedient in his opposition to Christ in v 22.
Justification by faith is different from rewards. Eternal life cannot be lost (John 10:28-29) because it depends on God's faithfulness (2 Tim 2:13), but rewards can be lost because they depend on the believers' faithfulness (2 Tim 2:12; Heb 10:35; Rev 2:26).
Charles Bing - Grace, Salvation, and Discipleship - Finding Your Life, Matthew 10:39; 16:25-26 (cf. Mark 8:35-38; Luke 9:24-26; John 12:25)
(Salvation) Interpretation: If a person lives for himself, he will not gain salvation or he will lose salvation. But if a person forsakes his selfish desires, he will gain eternal life.
(Discipleship) Interpretation: If a believer lives for himself, he will miss the abundant life that God has for him. But if he forsakes his selfish desires, he will find the abundant life.
These statements explain why the invitation to discipleship that we discussed above should be accepted. Whoever does so saves his life, or his soul. Immediately, when some hear the language about saving (or losing) one's soul, they assume a (Salvation) interpretation, taking it as a reference to salvation of one's spirit from hell. This is a problem created by the English translations of the Bible.
The word soul (psychē) is the same word translated life in these passages (which is how some Bible versions translate it). It refers to life in its essence, the immaterial part of a person comprised of mind, will, and emotions that forms one's identity. Your life is who you really are. This statement is helpful because it uses the word "himself" for "life:" "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?" (Luke 9:25).
It is also important to understand how the word save (sōzō) is used. As discussed earlier, it does not always refer to eternal salvation. It simply means to deliver, to preserve from some danger or loss. Usually, we determine its meaning from the context. Here, Jesus has just talked about losing our own desires and subsuming them to His desires for us. If someone wants to hang on to his own desires and agenda in this world ("save his life") he will lose what life is really all about - experiencing the will of God and the fullness of God's life. He may gain everything this world has to offer, but miss the greater experience of God's life now and as a reward in the future (v. 27).
Taken in this way, we see that the word lose (apollumi) is the opposite of save. It does not mean to be eternally lost in hell but has the idea of ruin or forfeit. To lose your life is to ruin it or forfeit what God would have it be. Someone can have eternal life yet waste the opportunity to enjoy life's fullness by living for God now.
If we interpret this statement by Jesus (Salvifically), we miss a profound principle for the Christian life. If we seek the things this world has to offer while avoiding the hardships that can be involved with knowing Jesus Christ, we lose the very quality of life we really desire. It is only by losing our life to God that we get it back fuller and richer than ever. When life ceases to be the issue, life becomes the reality.
We may think it is too painful to give up a consuming habit, a toxic relationship, or our own ambitions and plans. What we will discover is that in losing our life, we find true life - the fullness of God's abundant life now and forever.