Counting The Cost!
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples
also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Mark 8: 34
Crucifixion was among the horrific forms of death known
in the ancient world. It was practiced by the Egyptians
and others long before the Romans popularized it.
So when Jesus spoke of the cross in His teachings on discipleship,
the Twelve would have understood the reference. But they wouldn’t
have understood the high cost involved until they witnessed Jesus
taking up His own cross on Golgotha.
Long after connecting death with discipleship, Jesus
made another reference on the night before His death:
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down
one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).
While many followers of Jesus have suffered death for His sake
since, the apostle Paul explained how dying for Jesus applies to
all: spiritual death when one dies to self and sin to identify with
Christ (Romans 6:1-7). Even if one dies physically for Jesus,
dying daily to self and sin is also a high price.
Jesus warned against not counting the cost
of being His disciple (Luke 14:28-33), a cost
that must be reckoned with daily.
"Salvation without discipleship
is cheap grace."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
