The Cost of Discipleship

In our previous study, we began looking at the requirements of discipleship. We continue with that study now, moving on to the cost of discipleship.

The Requirements for Being a Disciple

Requirement #1: Love God More Than Anyone Else

“If anyone come to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26).

As mentioned in the last study, if ever there comes a time when the call of the highest earthly love and the cross of Christ are in conflict, the call of Christ must prevail. According to Jesus, a disciple is someone who loves God more than anyone else—even family and friends.

Requirement #2: Deny Yourself and Take up the Cross

“And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:27).

Jesus expands this idea in Luke 9:23: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

The greatest barrier in discovering all that God has for you is self. We have become such a self-obsessed society that Jesus’ mandate goes against the grain of popular culture. In fact, many in the church today have been advocating that the answer to most of the problems in our society is to build up our self-esteem and self-worth. Norman Vincent Peale, one of the pioneers of the positive thinking movement, once said, “Christianity is an adventure of self-discovery that helps believers to become aware of their innate goodness.”

I don’t know where his idea of innate goodness came from, but it certainly did not come from Scripture. The Bible plainly teaches that we have an inherently sinful nature (Proverbs 20:9; Romans 3:23; 5:12-13; 1 John 1:8). The Apostle Paul seemed to have pretty low self-esteem when he cried, “O wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:24).

The Bible makes it clear that it is not a lack of love for oneself that causes problems in society; it is the obsession with self. In fact, this love of self will be one of the earmarks of the last days, leading to a host of other problems (see 2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Scripture acknowledges the fact that we already love ourselves. Ephesians 5:29 says, “After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it . . . .” No, Jesus did not say that we need to love ourselves (we already do that). He told us to deny ourselves. To better understand the significance of this, we must first understand what that means.

Denial (as defined in original text): to repudiate; to disdain; to disown; to forfeit; to totally disregard.

C. S. Lewis once wrote, “The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or you see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.”

What is the positive outcome of denying yourself? Jesus goes on to say, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:24). The word for “life” in the original Greek was Psuche, meaning “soul life”—literally your will, ambition, goals and desires. When you give that up to allow yourself to be conformed into the image of Jesus, you will discover His plan and purpose for you.

Bearing Your Cross: to die to oneself.

Why did Jesus use this particular illustration? He used a radical symbol to get people’s attention. He was not simply speaking of an individual’s personal problem or obstacle. In that day and age, a person who was bearing a cross was walking to his death. Bearing your cross means dying to self—laying aside your personal goals, desires and ambitions so that God can reveal His desires, ambitions and goals for your life. In essence, it is living life as it was meant to be lived: in the will of God.

Samuel Rutherford said, “The cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that I ever bore. It is a burden to me such as wings are to a bird or sails are to a ship to carry me forward to my harbor.”

“In every Christian’s heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross, he remains on the throne. Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and worldliness among gospel believers today. We want to be saved, but we insist that Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Man's soul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility.” "A. W. Tozer

Requirement #3: Forsake All That You Have

“So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33).

Forsake: to surrender your claim to; to say good-bye to.

Until I recognize that everything I have belongs to Jesus Christ, I am not His disciple. Consider Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler who asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus answered, “You know the commandments: Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not testify falsely. Do not cheat. Honor your father and mother.”

“Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was a child.”

Jesus felt genuine love for this man as He looked at him. “You lack only one thing,” He told him. “Go and sell all you have and give money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this, the man’s face fell, and he went sadly away because he had many possessions” (Mark 10:19-22).

Jesus is not implying that to follow Him, we need to take a vow of poverty. He asked this man to “sell all he had” because He could see that possessions were the god of this man’s life. If something else had been on the “throne of his life,” Jesus would have asked him for that.

Requirement #4: Count the Cost

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it” (Luke 14:28).

Jesus underlines the importance of counting the cost of discipleship. Many people make impulse purchases without even considering the cost, or they rush into marriage or a certain career. Sadly, some do the same in their commitment to follow Christ.

This point is illustrated in Luke 9:57-58: “Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, ‘Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’”

The man in this story did not even wait to be called. He hastily volunteered. He seemed to have a good heart, but he was impulsive. No doubt he had been watching Jesus with great admiration, and now wanted to “throw his hat into the ring.” But he had not counted the cost!

This man did not know what lay in his future, but Jesus did. By the nature of Jesus’ statement to him, it would appear that this man, in contrast to the one who wanted to avoid friction with family and friends, was too concerned with material things in general. In essence, Jesus is saying to this man (and to all who would be His disciples), “Whatever would dull your desire to serve, quench your hunger for the Word and thirst for prayer, or make the world more attractive must go.”

Jesus is not asking if you will commit 20%, 30% or 50% to Him. He is asking you to commit everything. Billy Graham has said, “Salvation is free, but discipleship costs everything we have.”

What Is the Cost of Discipleship?

1) I must pay the price for the sins that I may now cherish. As a disciple of Christ, I cannot cling to a single sin and pretend that I am following Him. In the place of those sins, I can enjoy walking in fellowship and friendship with God, living a holy and happy life.

2) I must pay the price of this world’s fellowship. In other words, I must no longer allow secular and worldly philosophy to color my thinking and living. As Romans 12:2 puts it, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold” (Phillips Translation).

As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I must pay the price of this world’s friendship. I will be laughed at for my convictions, mocked for my beliefs, and scorned for trying to live by what the Bible teaches. At the same time, in place of the world’s friendship, I will have God’s.

3) I must pay the price for the plans of my life. We all have ideas of what we want to do and who we want to be. These are not evil or wrong. Still, I must be willing to give them up if asked to do so by the Lord. And in the place of those flawed plans, I will have God’s perfect plan for my life.

What Are the Benefits of Being a Disciple? Yes, there is a cost to discipleship, but what I have in the place of the things I give up is infinitely better.

• The disciple is the one to whom God reveals more as that individual drinks in His every Word, marking the inflection of His voice with the desire to obey.
• The disciple is the one who lives the Christian life in all its fullness, receiving all God has for him.
• To the disciple, each new day is a fresh opportunity to walk with God.
• To the disciple, life has definite purpose and direction. It is life abundant.

It costs to follow Jesus Christ, but it costs more not to. If you are settling for anything short of discipleship, you are missing out.

You essentially have a choice in life:

• To live for yourself or to deny yourself.
• To ignore the cross or to take it up.
• To seek to save your life and ultimately lose it, or to lose (or invest) your life and ultimately find it.
• To gain the world or to forsake the world.
• To lose your soul or to keep it.

Though our numbers as disciples are small, we must press on and stand together. God may purge our ranks, but it is only to make us stronger as we pursue His plan and purpose to make an impact upon our world.