The Cost and Reward of Following Jesus
Dr. Ian Hamilton is a husband, father of four, and grandfather of six. He spent thirty-seven years ministering to local churches in Scotland and now continues to serve Christ and His Church as professor of historical theology and president at Westminster Presbyterian Theological Seminary, UK and adjunct professor of applied theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
We were privileged to partner with Dr. Hamilton on the publication of his multimedia Bible study, The Nature & Practice of True-Hearted Discipleship. This 8-week study guides you back to Scripture in order to examine Jesus’ descriptions of what it means to be His follower.
The following excerpt is from Lesson 5: “True Disciples Take Up Their Cross.”
To take up your cross is to relinquish any control over your life, give yourself unreservedly to the Savior, and embrace Him and His cause, whatever the cost. The cost will take many different forms:
Relatively Minor Costs. Ensuring that nothing hinders you from the ordained means of grace, regardless of pressures from friends, family, circumstances, or government, will cost you! Peter and the apostles’ words to the Jewish religious leaders should be the unyielding testimony of every authentic Christian: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). An unyielding commitment to gathering for worship on the Lord’s Day should be non-negotiable for a disciple. This was the fundamental pattern of life for new converts in the New Testament. Consider what Luke tells us about the multitude who came to faith through Peter’s gospel preaching at Pentecost (see Acts 2:42): “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Disciples devote themselves to the fellowship of the saints. Where else would a right-thinking believer want to be on the Lord’s Day than joining fellow believers in praising and rejoicing in their risen, exalted Savior?
Financial Costs. Authentic disciples understand that they are not their own, and all they have belongs sacrificially to the spread of the kingdom. All you have is by the good pleasure and gracious purpose of God. And all you have, you are to use for His glory, the spread of His kingdom, and the prospering of His church. This does not mean denying yourself legitimate pleasures but rather seeking first God’s kingdom (Matthew 6:33).
Deeply Personal Costs. Embracing Christ as Savior and Lord and allowing His truth to shape all you are might mean losing your job, being ostracized, or even facing the loss of your life. In the West, we have been shielded for centuries from the cost of gospel faithfulness; this may be changing. Is Jesus worth the cost?
Costs Involving Family and Friends. Going to the ends of the earth with the gospel may require leaving behind family, friends, and comforts for hardship, opposition, and possibly even death. Every Christian is called to witness of Christ. Some are called to “go and make disciples.” The verb’s form makes it clear that while every Christian is a witness, the church is called to send out missionaries to the ends of the earth. To “go” means leaving behind everything familiar. The Lord continues to ask, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” Will you answer that call?
Triple Incentive
Jesus provides a triple, compelling incentive to encourage us to embrace self-denial.
Incentive 1: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (v. 35). To lose your life is to surrender it to the unqualified lordship of Christ. You are not your own. You belong body and soul to Him. He lost His life to save you and reconcile you to God. Will you lose your life for His sake so that others may be saved? To live for Christ is real life. To lose your life for Him is gain. To try to hold on to it and rule yourself is loss. Your life will be a life of emptiness.
Incentive 2: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (vv. 36–37). What is the great priority in your life? The ancients had a phrase that sums up the thrust of Jesus’ rhetorical question: sub specie aeternitatis—live your life in the light of eternity.
Incentive 3: “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (v. 38). How little we think about and live in the light of the Lord’s coming.
Jesus is urging His hearers to live their lives now in the light of eternity. Could anything be more truly awful than hearing the Lord Jesus Christ say to you, “I am ashamed of you. Depart from me”?