The Cost of Discipleship

I've spent the last few days working feverishly to finish the rough draft of the youth leader training notes.  It's going along well, but I thought I'd pause to blog about a stray thought I had while writing about youth discipleship.

I've grown up in church and heard countless sermons on "the free gift of salvation."  Many of them use the classic verse from Paul in Ephesians:

[Ephesians 2:8 (NLT)] God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. [9] Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

The good news in this verse is that God accepts us as we are, where we are.  We don't have to get cleaned up to approach God.  We don't have to try to make ourselves acceptable to Christ.  He loves us as we are, and accepts us - flaws and all.  He loves us.  He wants to have a relationship with us.  Not because we deserve it (none of us do), but because He chooses to lavish His love on us.

BUT THAT ISN'T THE END!

It's just the beginning.  God accepts us as we are, but as we build a relationship with Him, He begins to change our hearts gradually and we become more and more like Him.  Salvation really is a free gift, but discipleship - becoming like Christ - costs us everything.  Mind you, God replaces it with something much better and longer lasting, but it will cost us. 

It's like offering a homeless man with a shopping cart full of junk the keys to a mansion.  But to get the mansion, he has to give up his shopping cart full of junk.  And a lot of us homeless people are really attached to the trinkets we're holding on to in that shopping cart.  We try to find ways to smuggle the garbage into the mansion with us.  But God won't stand for it.

That's why Jesus warned His disciples about the high cost of being a disciple.

[Luke 14:28 (NLT)] “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?

Jesus Himself claims that discipleship will cost us everything we have.  We have to get rid of our old ways - the garbage in our carts - and follow Christ, even to the point of death.

[Matthew 16:24 (NLT)] Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.

Which is why Jesus tells us that only a few people will find the road that leads to life.  Not because it's not there for them to find, but because when they find the road, they aren't willing to take it.  They're too attached to the old life to be willing to accept the great exchange Christ is offering.

[Matthew 7:13 (NLT)] “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. [14] But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

None of this fits into the materials I'm writing.  But the true essence of the gospel isn't just that Jesus Christ accepts us in our sins as we are - the true good news is that Jesus does not leave us there!  He calls us forward, to leave our failings and our sins and to move into the glorious new life that He is offering to us.

My encouragement: let Christ change you.  Put everything in your life on the table and offer it to God - let Him take away all the stuff that isn't like Him, and allow Him to replace it with His treasures.  That's the good news of the gospel for our lives.