The Cost of Discipleship

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

Luke 14:28-35

THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. 34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." 

NIV

This is all about carrying our cross in that both these examples that Jesus uses are about counting the cost. Dietrich Bonhoeffer made the same point in his book, “This Cost of Discipleship”. Of course, when we first accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we did not sit down and ponder how much it was going to cost us to be a disciple of Jesus. However, once began to read the scriptures and hear the word of God preached, we began to see this was a life that was going to be one where a great change was going to occur in our lives. There was going to be a cost. As we grew more and more aware of the changes that we were going to make within ourselves it could have been possible that we might have decided it was not worth going up all the pleasures of the flesh, all the giving into every whim and fancy of our hearts that were bent toward evil, although, we would not confess that we had an evil heart. However, the cost of allowing Jesus to cleanse us within, and purify our hearts, was more than worth it, for without the cleansing blood of Jesus, we would certainly not be able to enter into the kingdom of God and inherit eternal life in the paradise of God. No cost is too great, and after we began to understand all that was ours within the kingdom of God, we determined to finish the race, to walk all the days of our lives in service to our Lord. How can we say that we are carrying our cross, serving our Lord, and then retiring from that service? We understand when Adam was sent out from the garden that he was told he would toil all the days of his life. Although we have been restored and are once again within the kingdom of God, we still live in this corruptible body, this imperfect self that continues to fail. Sure, we do not look for ways to sin, but it just happens because we have not yet attained our resurrected glorified bodies. Still, we know the cost, and we have made the choice and we will finish the course that the Lord has laid out for us, the path he lights the way, until that day we take our last breath. We will win the prize and be victorious over our enemy for God fights for us. The cost of discipleship is worth it all.