HAVE WE LOST COUNTING THE COST?
The preacher asked those that wanted to escape hell to come forward. So I went forward at the first altar call I had ever witnessed. Who in his right mind wouldn’t want to escape the hell that the preacher had described???
The counselor in the back room I was led to asked if I believed Jesus was my Savior. Being a good Catholic, I said yes. The counselor then read 1 John 5.14-15: “These things were written that you might know that you have eternal life”, emphasizing the word “know”. I didn’t have to guess or merely hope, he said. I could know I had a home in heaven. “Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise,” he said, hoping to confirm me in my (supposed) new-found faith.
He meant well and was just doing what he was trained to do. But his advice was mistaken in a dangerous way. My counselor was essentially saying that my profession of faith was real merely because it was a profession of faith. In other words, every profession of faith is true faith.
Jesus denied this was the case (Matthew 7.21-23). Therefore, so do I.
Luke 14.25 says “Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them.” So Jesus was walking, looking straight ahead, and throngs of people came with him. Luke says “he turned” – Jesus stopped and instead of looking where he was going, he looked at those behind him – those ‘following’ him.
‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father or mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life,’ said Jesus, ‘he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.’ (A ‘disciple’ is a ‘learner’ who follows a teacher.)
According to Jesus, there is following, and there is following.
Some people ‘followed’ Jesus hoping to see amazing things.
Some people ‘followed’ hoping to get something from Him for themselves.
Jesus is saying that truly following Him is something more than just coming along for a nice walk.
Real following means you’re not in it merely for what following gets for you.
Real following means you can’t help but follow because you see that who Jesus is demands that – no matter what that means for you. In the words of the old hymn, the truth of Jesus “demands my soul, my life, my all.”
A moment of decision that doesn’t lead to more following is not following. One cannot follow without continually following.
I don’t deny the need for a moment of decision, nor do I deny that a few, like the thief on the cross, have only a short path to follow after that decision. But long or short, that path involves the rest of your life, not just an isolated moment of decision. Following Jesus is a commitment to a life of following, a life that keeps flowing out of the decision to follow made at the outset – no matter what.
The ‘no matter what’ explains the next thing out of Jesus’ mouth: “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?” Before you decide to follow me, Jesus says, you must count the cost of following me.
What is the cost if ‘following Jesus’ is a single moment’s decision that gains everything for me and demands nothing more of me?
And if those invited to follow must count the cost of following Jesus, must we not lay out some idea of that cost when we invite them to follow Jesus?
The counselor in the back room I was led to asked if I believed Jesus was my Savior. Being a good Catholic, I said yes. The counselor then read 1 John 5.14-15: “These things were written that you might know that you have eternal life”, emphasizing the word “know”. I didn’t have to guess or merely hope, he said. I could know I had a home in heaven. “Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise,” he said, hoping to confirm me in my (supposed) new-found faith.
He meant well and was just doing what he was trained to do. But his advice was mistaken in a dangerous way. My counselor was essentially saying that my profession of faith was real merely because it was a profession of faith. In other words, every profession of faith is true faith.
Jesus denied this was the case (Matthew 7.21-23). Therefore, so do I.
Luke 14.25 says “Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them.” So Jesus was walking, looking straight ahead, and throngs of people came with him. Luke says “he turned” – Jesus stopped and instead of looking where he was going, he looked at those behind him – those ‘following’ him.
‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father or mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life,’ said Jesus, ‘he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.’ (A ‘disciple’ is a ‘learner’ who follows a teacher.)
According to Jesus, there is following, and there is following.
Some people ‘followed’ Jesus hoping to see amazing things.
Some people ‘followed’ hoping to get something from Him for themselves.
Jesus is saying that truly following Him is something more than just coming along for a nice walk.
Real following means you’re not in it merely for what following gets for you.
Real following means you can’t help but follow because you see that who Jesus is demands that – no matter what that means for you. In the words of the old hymn, the truth of Jesus “demands my soul, my life, my all.”
A moment of decision that doesn’t lead to more following is not following. One cannot follow without continually following.
I don’t deny the need for a moment of decision, nor do I deny that a few, like the thief on the cross, have only a short path to follow after that decision. But long or short, that path involves the rest of your life, not just an isolated moment of decision. Following Jesus is a commitment to a life of following, a life that keeps flowing out of the decision to follow made at the outset – no matter what.
The ‘no matter what’ explains the next thing out of Jesus’ mouth: “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?” Before you decide to follow me, Jesus says, you must count the cost of following me.
What is the cost if ‘following Jesus’ is a single moment’s decision that gains everything for me and demands nothing more of me?
And if those invited to follow must count the cost of following Jesus, must we not lay out some idea of that cost when we invite them to follow Jesus?