1 Jan 2000

The great cost to follow Jesus?

Submitted by theshovel
Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionSend to friendSend to friendPDF versionPDF version

I was told last Sunday by a respected preacher that if anyone tells you that it will not cost to follow Jesus, he is a liar. Maybe there is something deep to make this statement true, but he was talking about the cost of money and time. Am I correct to say that it will only cost someone if they haven't yet given up on self and believed to have died with Christ? I have a wife and three young beautiful children. If I lost them and it appeared they were taken away because I followed Jesus, I still couldn't say that it cost me to follow Jesus. So there is no way I would consider it a cost to give money or time. This is something I now want to do. Some seem to be so close to our Lord but then speak of things like two natures and the great cost (money, time, ridicule) we will face. I have become so angry at some teachings like this and want to learn more. What are your thoughts about the "great cost" to us for following Jesus?

Excellent thoughts, bro! The whole push to "count the cost" comes from fleshly motivations because of the lack of resting in God's sufficiency. I've heard Luke 14:28 (KJV) used many times in "following Jesus" sermons.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Luke 14:28

The amazing thing is that we overlook the obvious point that if they were to sit down and calculate the cost they would realize that they didn't have enough to complete it! Look at the full passage and you'll see that Jesus preceeded the "following Me" with taking up a cross, which would have been seen as telling them that following Him would lead to the death of those condemned by both man and God. His message to man was simple: you don't have what it takes to follow Me. This only highlights the amazing reality of God's grace toward us in making us the righteousness of God and giving us His Spirit. It is no surprise that you now want to follow Jesus! :)

Related Content: 
New Testament: 

Comments

Many fail to count the cost in that it has already been paid. They try to perform this new life while still hanging on to the old. So many fail because because they will not reckon them selves dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ. They prize there life they were given at birth by the flesh and long for God to bless it.
God will only bless and give life to what he has started in Christ for many the answer is death and ressurection they cant see that when Christ died they died with Him the good news is he is the ressurection and so are we in him. The life i started out on 56 years ago changed at 30 and all was left behind and it was worth it. I dont see any thing in the flesh we come into the world in. Only in Christ do we find life. Many are not willing to lose the old to imbrace the new. To many the cost is to great and they will only follow so far and they turn back.

Dave.L

I went through the painful process of the flesh death but did not know what was happening until after the work was complete. It wasn't that I was not willing I did not KNOW or understand the flesh and how it controlled. But now that it has been cut off completely through death and I have been shown HIM as LIFE we truly are in the world but are not of this world. Thank you for your comments Dave. I have never seen anyone show us Life as it is like the shovel. Vivian R

Oh man, I thank you for this. I have never seen this ever being said from that perspective, which perspective is truly gracious rather than legal. How we would pervert these saying and make standards out of them by which we can compare ourselves with others!
theshovel's picture

Based upon my own experience listening to religious preachers in the past, I can only imagine how many legalistic sermons and messages have been built around this passage in order to bring about a fleshly motivation. I am glad that this has helped you. :)

Jim

Add new comment

Random Shovelquote: The living side of the grave (view all shovelquotes)

there is no advice in this world – even if it comes from a Bible verse or a preacher’s sermon – that can produce God’s work within you. Oh, it might make you appear more spiritually productive, but the working of God doesn’t come from the practical side of the grave … but from the living side that has risen past it. When I tell you that Christ is your life, I’m telling you about the one and only present-tense reality that causes you to live as one who is truly alive in this world. source