Discipleship: A call to count the cost

Every Christian is called to a clear and dedicated life of discipleship, whatever the personal cost may be. The call to discipleship is a call to self-denial, to surrender all. Noted German evangelist and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, follower of Christ during Nazi Germany, said in his book The Cost of Discipleship: ‘When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die’.

Jesus was so plain speaking about the cost of discipleship and its demands that many of His initial enthusiastic followers, having considered the cost, walked with Him no more. Jesus exemplified for us this self-denial from an early age when searched for in the temple by His parents, His response to their rebuke was ‘didn’t you know I would be about my father’s business’ (Luke 2:49). At the end of His earthly ministry battling in the Garden of Gethsemane He prays to His Father, ‘not my will but yours be done’ (Luke 22:42). Jesus’ life was a surrendered life from start to finish; totally laid down for God’s purposes and plans.

I confess growing up in Northern Ireland shaped a negative view of the word surrender in my mind and heart. The word surrender culturally was often viewed as defeat, where you had fought something or someone better or stronger than you and, if they ultimately won, then you might forfeit your freedom and independence. Yet the Bible teaches that the surrendered life is where liberty truly lies; when you recognise a better strength, a better way to live. To surrender to God is to acknowledge that His way is the better and best way and the pathway to true freedom and is the most positive choice for your life.

So, the nature of true discipleship is a call to self-denial and a surrendered life. It is the process of coming to the end of ourselves, laying our lives down to pick up the life of Jesus. Martin Luther used a Latin phrase to describe the state of a person without the life of God. Luther said that person is incurvatus meaning bent inward into oneself. Surrender calls us to face our pride and ego and say I need God’s grace, strength and help to live well and for eternity. If all I have is me, I will not make it.

Discipleship is a call to count the cost; it is learning to live a surrendered life. Jesus said ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it’ (Matthew 16:24,25).

• To deny ourselves is to lay down our own lives knowing we cannot fulfil God’s purposes while focusing on our own plans.

• To take up our cross is to be willing to identified with Jesus and His sufferings.

Here lies the challenge, if Christ was living your life what might it look like? Paul knew that he was crucified with Christ, that he no longer lived but Christ lived in him (Galatians 2:20).

• To follow Jesus is to walk in close proximity to Him. It is living with Jesus at the centre of your life, making what He wants the priority of your life.

Paul pleads with the Roman Christians in most striking terms, ‘I appeal to you therefore brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship’ (Romans 12:1,2). The picture here is that of the Hebrew worshipper bringing the lamb for a sacrifice. When the priest lifts the lamb on to the altar, the worshipper knows that he will never get his offering back again. To lose our lives is to say my old life is finished; the person that used to be is no more. Yet let us not forget in losing our lives we find them. It is our willingness to die that opens the door to LIFE in Jesus.

The surrender of ourselves to God means that our longings, our rights, our plans, our ambitions, our desires, our affections, our will, our choices, our hearts, our minds, and our emotions all must be fully and finally surrendered to Jesus. At the cross we are invited to lay down our broken lives and take up the abundant life of Christ, identify ourselves with the crucified one and live as a sacrificial cross-shaped follower.

William McDonald in his marvellous little book ‘True Discipleship’ has a chapter on commitment. He says, ‘Surrender must be everything or nothing. There can be no half-hearted allegiance, no divided loyalty. Therefore, no person should consider discipleship if they are not prepared to be fully yielded to Him. Yielding all is not giving everything to God but taking our hands off what already belongs to Him’.

Jonathan Edwards’ words stir my heart, ‘I have this day been before God and have given myself – all that I have and am - to God, so that I am in no respect my own. I have given myself clean away’.

John Wesley, when asked what he would do if he knew Jesus Christ was coming that day outlined his itinerary and then stated, ‘I wouldn’t change my programme’. Wesley had no last accounts to settle. Everything given over, everything in order.

Oh, that God would give us more of this consecrated attitude and spirit. Is your life yielded? Are you utterly His? Is He Lord of all? God waits for your wholehearted consecration. Are we living this and expecting this of those we are discipling in our churches?