And Jesus said to another, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, let me first to go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead to bury their own dead but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the Kingdom of God." Another also said, "I will follow you, Lord but let me first say good-bye to those at home." But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Luke 9:59-62.Following Jesus is a top priority, not something we do after we have attended to our worldly desires and affairs. Today, many church goers are led to believe that there is no cost to being a disciple of Jesus and everything is simply a matter of receiving freely given things from God. Indeed, many of these people think of salvation as another commodity which they add to all their other possessions. While God does indeed freely give us the gifts of His grace, His grace was given so that we might know Him in this life and do the good works of God following in the footsteps of His son. A cheap grace teaching which ignores the cost of discipleship is quite contrary to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.
Jesus taught his disciples that the cost of following him involves a very high commitment. While eternal life is a free gift of God, it is a reality of the Kingdom and it cannot be received without forsaking this our life in this world. Nothing at all can have a higher value than obeying Jesus.
If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? Matthew 16:24-26.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:34-39.
If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be my disciple who does not forsake all that he has. Luke 14:26-33.
Jesus' point is that we must leave all the things of this world behind, including our own life, and nothing at all must have a higher value than serving him. Once we die with him we are then children of the Kingdom of God and we are not of this world. We cannot be children of the world and children of the Kingdom at the same time. There is no dual citizenship with God. If we choose the Kingdom of God and God's righteousness, then we do not choose to pursue worldly things and we did to this world. Rather, we leave all of that behind to serve Jesus and that includes our very own physical life. Just as Jesus did not choose to save his own life when he was praying in Gethsemane but to rather choose the will of His Father and suffer the cross, Jesus is indicating we cannot be his disciple if we ourselves will not lose even our own life to follow him.
Paul expresses how he counted the cost of following Jesus and counted all things he had gained in the world as loss to know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings:
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord....that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:7-14.To follow Jesus means we must take up our own cross and walk in his footsteps fellowshiping in his suffering.
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.Following Jesus means walking as he walked taking up our own cross to lay down our lives for the love of others just as he loved us and laid down his life for us. If we have the Spirit of Christ in us, the Spirit of the Son of God, and we are led by this the Holy Spirit, then we have the mind of Christ and carry our own cross walking just as he walked.
Romans 8:16-17.
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his footsteps. 1 Peter 2:21.
By this we know that we are in him: the one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk just as he walked. 1 John 2:5-6.
We who live are being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 2 Corinthians 4:11.
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship. Romans 12:1.Our present suffering is nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed in the children of God.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:18.Jesus taught that we cannot be his disciple if we do not forsake all that we have and pick up our cross and follow after him. Nothing in this world can take priority over following Jesus. Nothing. Even first saying "Good-bye" to our family before we leave and follow him. Following Jesus is a serious affair.
We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our temporary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
