Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. – Luke 14:25-33
I truly believe that we are in a time where there are many church members and church goers, but there are very few disciples. In our walk with Christ there is no such thing as being too passionate about Him, there is no such thing as giving Him too much, or loving him too excessively. In light of this, have we ever consider the true cost of being a disciple? What is the true cost of being a disciple? The answer is EVERYTHING! The verses above describe for us a list of non-negotiable terms that Christ gives for being his disciple.
When coming out of High School I was offered a full ride to play sports in a college back home. My tuition would be free, the books free, room and board free, meals free, but little did I know that this free ride would actually cost me everything. Hours on the practice field in the hot humid Florida sun, running until I was sick, hours and hours sacrificed away from friends and family to better my skills, and injuries that still affects me to this very day.
You see the Christian life is not very different from this, and that is exactly what Christ is telling us here. That He, the innocent lamb of God would stand as a substitute for us bearing our iniquities and sins, burdened with the weight of our transgressions, and was crushed on the cross. He shed His blood making an atonement for our sins, and at the end said, “It is finished.” Paid in full, and there is not one dime that you can bring to the cross and contribute to your own eternal salvation. However, there are terms to receiving this gift, and this is what this gift will cost you. It will require a total commitment of all that you are to Jesus Christ.
There are some who are reading this who think you are saved because you are a “good person,” and that you came up one Sunday and answered all the questions right, but you have never done any business with God. You have never come to a place of total and complete surrender of yourself and who you are to Jesus Christ. Only then can you receive the gift.
The terms that Christ has set in the above Scriptures are fixed, and they are the same for each and every one of us. I love that Jesus never softens the requirements, He doesn’t sugar coat the message, and there is nothing politically correct in His speech. His words are bold, but they are truth. May we examine them and examine our lives in the process.
You see this was a huge crowd that was following Jesus. The thing about crowds is that they are easy to get lost in and they are easy to roam around inconspicuously with little chance of becoming fully noticed. With crowds it is easy to blend in and just ride the wave of emotions and never make any kind of commitment to the Lord. People have a crowd mentality. Where people are, people want to be. Crowds grow exponentially because they provide a place for people to be a part of something that requires little to no commitment. It is a place where you can just blend in and take upon yourself the identity of the majority. It is a sad belief of mine that there are many churches that are no longer congregations, just crowds.
When faced with this crowd the Lord stops, and sifting through the people He delivers a message that transcends the crowd and penetrates the individual. What our Lord says is shocking, surely it stirred every heart in the crowd that day, just as it does to every reader who looks upon these words today. Christ is literally saying to all that are listening, if you are to be my disciple, I am to be the supreme devotion of your life. I am to be your greatest love, your highest affection, and that nothing can compete with our devotion to Him. If Jesus Christ is not our number one we cannot get in line and follow Him.
Matthew 28:19 tells us to “go and make disciples.” Our Lord is not about spectators, He is about disciples. Men and women that have totally committed their souls to God. Disciple in the Greek means “learner.” Disciples are those who have come to sit at the feet of our blessed Savior to be taught by Him, and He has outlined the requirements for those who are to follow Him.
It will cost you everything to be His disciple, but surrendering everything in this life is but a small transaction, when we consider the gift that was freely given to us through our mighty savior Jesus Christ!
