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“No one ever loses by what he sacrifices for the Father.”
—Andrew Murray
Jesus invited you to become his disciple and you have responded. So far so good. Did you reckon with how expensive, how painful the way may become? Have you counted the cost? You have found the small gate and the narrow way that lead to life (Mt 7.14) but do you know the course upon which you have embarked?
While it is unequivocally true that Jesus’ yoke is easy and his burden is light, let it be known at the outset that the way of discipleship chafes against our natural inclinations. There is a cost to assess, a price to pay, for the way of the disciple of Jesus is one of painful self-denial.
On the track often what separates the champion from the “also rans” is a millisecond won not on the basis of raw talent but because of raw endurance and pressing through pain. The champion has disciplined her body to be stressed and pressed slightly further. Her practice has been more rigorous, more painful, more disciplined and so her performance is more explosive. In the trial the same adrenalin has more to work with. Those hours of lonesome training under the hot sun, those laps, those endless knuckling down and firing out exercises have borne fruit. She has counted the cost, and it seems puny compared to the victory lap, the winner’s gold.
Not by accident followers of Jesus are urged to run in such a way so as to win (1 Co 9.24). For many the costs of training are prohibitive. Let me list them for you. It takes time and energy—your time and energy to sprint spiritually. You will have to set aside precious hours to read, study, learn and memorize God’s Word. This will be time taken from other things, some of which are good things. You may have to give up that time you love in your workshop, with your books, swapping stories over coffee. Your physical, spiritual, emotional and mental resources will be often drained, and only just barely to launch a project, or move in a new spiritual direction. There will be attacks from Satan and his minions—some of whom wear church faces and carry a church tune better than you ever will. No doubt your priorities will become scrambled (by other folks’ standards) as you learn to follow Jesus and take steps to do so. Somehow it doesn’t matter much to him what your social standing in the community is. It is of little concern to Christ that your fashion isn’t the latest, that your car has rust spots, that your family wants you to “drop the religion bit.” His concern is to develop your character—to make you God’s woman, God’s man. He loves you enough to teach you to love despicable sinners, lost sons and daughters of Adam.
It’s costly to become a disciple of Jesus. Your time and energy will be required. Spiritual opposition, the gaping maw of Satan looms ominously. Previously set priorities get shuffled, chucked, changed. Worse, few understand. Your motives will be questioned at every turn. “You don’t need to take that so literally.” “Jesus couldn’t have meant for you really to do that.” “Don’t you think you’ve done enough for God already?” “What do you get out of this? You can’t be doing it out of simple gratitude!” The majority of Christians will not dare the journey you are about to embark upon, so friendships will be rare, though deeper and wiser.
Don’t take up the yoke of Jesus without considering the cost. Don’t make a fool of yourself and confirm the wisdom of the undisciplined majority. Chesterton was on the mark suggesting that the way of Jesus has never been tried and found wanting, but it has often been found difficult and so, not tried. Count the cost before embarking.
Once on the road Jesus’ promise is true. Though you must press through pain, though there are sacrifices that cost you dearly he never leaves nor abandons his own. When the way leads through the Valley of the Shadow of Death he is there. Down the Via Dolorosa he walks and comforts his disciple. Further, as habits of faithfulness develop through obedience, as persistence in godliness and character deepen with time, it becomes easier to hear the voice of Gods’ Spirit saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” Likewise one becomes more attuned to the wiles and wages of sin, and more skilled in service and usefulness in God’s kingdom.
The champion runner looks back over the sweat and toil of training with satisfaction. So also the disciple of Jesus. None who has walked the pathway has ever at the end turned and regretted that she has sacrificed to follow her Lord. The only regret is that she didn’t follow more closely, more quickly, more zealously. Out of breath she sighs, “It was a good race, but I think I could have trained a little harder, pressed a little more toward the finish....”
So I issue a summons and a warning. Count the cost. Then come farther up, farther in. There can be no lasting spiritual and moral gains without discipleship. It is the only way, but it was blazed by Jesus and so leads into the very throne room of God. It is the way of holiness.
Soli Deo Gloria!