Have you ever heard a deal that seems to good to be true? In our consumer society we are constantly bombarded with sales pitches. Marketing is a multi-billion dollar business in which any measure will be used to get money out of our hands. The majority of us have been bamboozled so many times that we think there is a catch to every deal.
When it comes to salvation the bible says we are saved by grace alone. It is a free gift from God through believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet, how free really is it? A contract usually has words we overlook until it's too late and we are bound to the contract, they often our written with massive words in small lettering, so we skip by it, not realizing what we signed our name too.
Is there a cost factor that we have not observed in regard to being a disciple?
Salvation is sometimes pitched in a way to get people to buy in without knowing what they are really purchasing. See we live in a culture that holds quantity as chief important. That is why the main question people ask other leaders is how many people do you have? Like, we're playing a number game like Monopoly. So therefore church leaders often use methods to convince people to get saved, like Jesus will take all your problems away, just come unto Him and receive Him.
In Luke 14:25-35 Jesus states the true cost of following Him. The early Roman Catholic church made you basically buy your salvation. No it's not that, it costs more, it means all your money, all you own, all that you are, your entire life. It is an exchange, His life for your life. We are no longer our own. He purchased our salvation, He paid the price, but receiving it from Him, costs us our life.
In this passage Jesus has a large crowd following Him, the "American Dream." If He was like many of us He would have been careful what He said, to not offend anyone, to keep everyone together. That is not what He did, He spoke the hard Truth of what it really meant to follow Him.
“If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)
Wow, hard to swallow! How often is this said in a salvation message or altar call. We won't get as much as a response, we will scare people away. Well the question is are we trying to lead people to ourselves or to Jesus? If it's Jesus we must tell people the truth or we will mislead them. Some of the biggest frauds are so called ministers they are misleading people to think they have received something they have not.
Vs.33"So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own."
In verse 27 it says you must "carry the cross", meaning living a life of self denial, putting Jesus and His call above your own life. So as it explains in verse 28-31, we must "count the cost," are we really willing to make this kind of commitment. Are we willing to surrender everything? It takes all we have to follow Him. That is why so many backslide, not that it is there fault, they were given false hope, a sales pitch that did not explain all the requirements.
So now the question is have we really made a true commitment to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Were we fooled, we just did not fully understand, what we were doing. It is time we make up our mind, there is no gray area, we cannot serve God and live for ourself at the same time. It is all in or nothing!
Now, the work of salvation is His work not our own, when we sincerely surrender our heart to God, knowing it will not be easy and it is a life long process, His grace will now change the desires of our heart, and the things we could never imagine letting go of will be made possible. For it is not "by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit, says the Lord."
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