Counting the Cost

“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 are watching it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This person began to build, and was not able to finish” Lk.14:28-30

        When conveying to His followers the weightiness of the decision to become one of His disciples, Jesus compared that decision to building what He describes as a “tower” or a large impressive structure.  Although that structure has the potential to be an admired and useful edifice that brings glory and honor to its builder, if left in an unfinished state it will bring only shame and dishonor. Therefore, He admonishes each soul to “count the cost” before beginning such an eternally impacting endeavor.  This admonition is here clearly directed towards the individual soul who considers becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. 

            There is a cost to living the Christian life that many do not “count” when making their decision to follow Jesus. Because of this many re-adjust their building plans, determining to not build so great a structure as the Spriit filled Christian life suggests, instead settling for a lesser version of the “spiritual house” that all believers are called to become (1 Pe. 2:4).  Abandoning such things as the costliness of total consecration, daily sacrifice, the yielding of one’s own will, and surrendering the course of their own lives, many build only religious “shacks” that in no way portray the glory and honor of the one whom they call Lord. Rather than recognizing they have erred in estimating the cost of discipleship, they reassess the need to spend such great assets as their own will and livelihood while presumably declaring that their religious or natural houses are a sufficient means of salvation.

            However, in doing so they have not avoided the greatness of the cost of following Jesus Christ. For just as there is a cost in this life to serving the Lord, there is also a cost, although only reconned in the life to come, of not faithfully surrendering all of our will and ways to the Lord.  That cost is eternal punishment and damnation that pays it greatest price in the eternal separation from the One true God. There is most certainly a cost to faithfully serving Jesus Christ in this world, a cost that the soul who is only religious seeks to avoid. However, the cost that they will pay is of such greater proportion and weightiness that it should be given even more serious consideration than their temporal comforts. 

Just as the rewards of eternal life are a powerful and persuasive argument when encouraging a soul to give the entirety of his or her life to Christ, so the severe and extreme judgments of eternal damnation and separation from God that are a result of a life not consecrated to God are a cost that any honest reckoner cannot overlook.   Have you “counted the cost” of what giving the whole of your life to Jesus today will cost you? And even more importantly, have you “counted the cost” you will pay for not giving the entirety of your life to Him?  Today, while the opportunity to choose remains, “count the cost”.