FREE BUT COSTLY – Part 2 of 2

Then Jesus said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will save it.”  (Luke 9:23-24 NIV)

In offering ourselves as fully as we can, we discover the cost of discipleship. For to bind our lives to Jesus Christ requires that we try to walk with Him into the sorrows and sufferings of the world. Being bound to Jesus Christ, we see barriers broken down and we are led to places we have never been before. Having offered ourselves to Jesus Christ, we may expect to become the eyes, ears, voice, and hands of Jesus Christ in the world and in the church.

The cost of salvation? It is completely free and without cost. The cost of discipleship? Only our lives -- nothing more and nothing less. 

-- Rueben P. Job in “A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God” 

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COUNTING THE COST

“Then Jesus said to the crowd, ‘If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.’”  (Luke 9:23 NLT)

Let’s face it: commitment is costly. It calls us away from self-interest into sharing our lives and ourselves with others. It calls us to make difficult choices, and to live with the consequences. It means we cannot spend our lives keeping all our options open.

To live as committed individuals is, in fact, to live life as costly ointment, poured out in love to others, poured out in worship to God.

Is it worth it?

To find out, we will have to relearn the meaning of words like “sacrifice.” And still harder: “self-sacrifice.” We will have to relearn the special pleasure of deference as compared to instant gratification. We will have to give up our quick-fix, magic-wand approaches to Christianity, and pay the price of entering into relationship with a God who created and redeemed us for fellowship with Himself. We will have to learn how to sometimes say a final and ultimate “No” as well as a meaningful, and even eternal, “Yes.” 

-- Maxine Hancock in “Re-Evaluating Your Commitments: How to Strengthen the Permanent and Reassess the Temporary”

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COSTLY LOVE

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son,…” (John 3:16a NIV)

Love is costly. To forgive in love costs us our sense of justice. To serve in love costs us time. To share in love costs us money. Every act of love costs us in some way, just as it cost God to love us. But we are to live a life of love just as Christ loves us and gave Himself for us at great cost to Himself.

“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 NIV)

-- Jerry Bridges


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CONTINUING IN JESUS’ WORD - Part 2 of 2

"If you continue in My word you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31:32)

Continuing in Jesus’ word is… costly. It costs us our pride, for we have to yield to Jesus’ better judgment. It costs us our self-determination, because we must follow Jesus’ word wherever it leads. It may cost us our reputation, because Jesus’ word is neither the reigning popular philosophy nor the philosophy of being popular. It will, in short, cost us everything that binds us to our fallen selves.

But -- and what a contrast it is -- in becoming His disciples we will be made free -- free from error, free from false values, free to be fully as we were intended to be, fully human, fully God’s creation, fashioned in His own image, fallen (to be sure) but redeemed, restored to reflect again the glory of His goodness, truth and love (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). As we continue in God’s Word, this is God’s promise to us.

-- James W. Sire in “Scripture Twisting”

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THE COST OF LOVE

Novelist Reynolds Price said there is one sentence all humankind craves to hear:  "The Maker of all things loves and wants me."  That is the sentence Jesus proclaimed, loud as sweet thunder.  The Maker of all things is the Maker of all human beings, an odd species that He, unfathomably, deemed worthy of individual attention and love.  He demonstrated that love in person, on the gnarly hills of Palestine, and ultimately on the cross.

What the prophets spoke about, Jesus lived. "I have engraved you on the palms of My hands," God said in Isaiah's day.  When He visited earth in the form of a Servant, He showed that the hand of God is not too big for the smallest person in the world.  It is a hand engraved with our individual names and engraved also with wounds, the cost to God of loving us so much.

-- Philip Yancey in “The Bible Jesus Read”

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COSTLY GRACE

“For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”  (1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV)

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His Son; "you were bought with a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us.

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in “The Cost of Discipleship”


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