We have always been taught that there are no free lunches. Everything has a price, and we all must pay. However, there is one thing that is offered to us freely and that is eternal life. You can’t buy it, you can’t earn it, and you can’t bargain for it. While it is a free gift to those who will believe and place their faith in Jesus, it was not free to God, or to Jesus. It cost God the life and fellowship of His Son, and it cost Jesus the splendor of Heaven and the fellowship with His Father. He had to live and experience all the temptations, trials, cruelty, and pain, this world can offer.
While salvation is free, the journey of following has a price. Once we are saved, Jesus makes it clear that following Him will be painful in many areas of our life. Matthew 10:38-39 makes it clear, we are to take up our cross and follow Him. We are to be willing to live our lives as though we have no jurisdiction over them. When someone was condemned to die on the cross, part of the punishment was to carry their own cross. It was disgraceful and burdensome. As you would carry your cross, people would be lined up along the way to jeer and make fun of you. The humiliation was almost as bad as the physical pain. Jesus is teaching us that we must be willing to follow Him at all costs.
Matthew 10:38 “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”
Matthew 16:24 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
To deny ourselves is a character trait that we must work on daily. We are born with a sinful, selfish nature, and if that was not enough, everyone around us tells us to look out for ourselves and to love ourselves first and foremost. Yet, scripture teaches we are to surrender our will to His will. Our supreme objective is to seek Christ, not our own happiness. We should be willing to lay down our lives for the sake of Christ. Millions have given their lives for the cause of Christ, and multitudes around the world still are being murdered for their faith.
Matthew 16:25 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
If we are consumed and concerned about this temporal life, and the comforts and security it can bring, we shall lose our eternal life. However, the person who is willing to lose or risk the comforts of this life, for Christ’s sake, will secure his eternal life.
It’s all about who we love most, Christ, or this world. Think about it, when you have someone that you love more than anything, such as a spouse or a child, you would gladly give your life for them. When you love them this much, you would give up everything for them, money would mean nothing compared to what you would do for them.
This is how we should feel about Christ. There may come a time when you must deny him if you want to live, or confess Him and die. Have you thought it through and resolved that your love for Him is deep enough to carry you through?
Philippians 3:7-8 “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Nothing is more important to me than my relationship with Jesus Christ. I have counted the cost and pray that I am strong enough to pay the price.
Philippians 3:13 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
I want to keep on following until I reach Heaven. I don’t want to act as though I’m following by going through the motions. I want to follow with everything in me. To push as though I were running a race where everyone was watching and I was about to lose. I lean forward and cross the finish line with not an ounce of energy left within me. That is how I want to follow.
Excellent. Thank you so much.