Willing to Pay the Price?
· Jonnie Wright – Bible Teacher and Author of The Silver Bullet: God's Rx for Chronic Pain, Choices: Managing Chronic Pain
"Religious people are just weak individuals who can't deal with life's problems so they need a crutch called God! They don't want to be responsible for their actions." Have you ever heard a statement like this before? I have. I used to think and speak this way as I breezily dismissed God, church and the whole religious scene. Then God led me back to Himself, after an eighteen-year hiatus, and began to teach me the cost of following Him.
The first lesson was accountability. Life requires choices for which we are responsible. No Christian can say, "The devil made me do it!" Many of our choices cause us difficulty because they require that we pay a personal price. Jesus told His disciples: "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:27 NASB) Jesus carried His cross to His death—now that's enough to make one pause.
Death to self is another hard-to-swallow lesson. The world we live in proclaims the virtues of being our own person, taking what we can get, living with gusto. At any moment, my needs try to eclipse another's. And so, another choice: "For 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?" (Luke 14:27 NASB) Jesus tells us that there is a cost, not a crutch, to follow Him; and sometimes I feel disinclined to pay the price.
What if Jesus had chosen to forgo the cost of our Salvation? Without His death by crucifixion, we would never have tasted freedom from sin's bondage. Here's where "the rubber meets the road," and all Christians must face the question: Can my obedience to Jesus be just as important as my Salvation?
Are Christians who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ weak? Christianity is not for the faint of heart. If we take responsibility for our choices, count the cost of discipleship, and step forward in Jesus' Name, we are anything but feeble personalities and frail egos. We are saints and warriors of the risen Lord. We are promised: "You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you… Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you"(2Ch 20:17).
Photo Credit: Simona Dumitru, Oxford, England