TEXT: Luke 14:25-35

SUBJECT: Luke #56: The Cost of Salvation

If salvation could be bought, what would you pay for it?

• A mid-range new car goes for $20,000. Would you pay that much for eternal life?

• A middling house in the Bay Area will set you back nearly half-a-million dollars. Would you give that much for the forgiveness of sin?

If salvation could be bought, what would you pay for it?

The question is not hypothetical! Looked at from one angle, salvation is not for sale and cannot be had at any price you could pay. Peter says

Because Jesus Christ has bought salvation for us, we can have it free of charge. The Gospel call is to people who have nothing to offer God--nothing but empty hands.

Salvation—Paul says—is by grace alone. And that means it is not bought with the good works you do. Not the prayers you pray, not the chapters you read, not the charities you give to.

Nothing you can do—or not do--will earn your salvation. Grace is free or it’s not grace at all. This is plainly what the Bible teaches—especially in its more doctrinal parts, such as Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians.

This is one angle of salvation—and it’s very dear to people who know they’re sinners and know the promises they’ve made to God have all been broken.

But as important as this angle is, it is not the one our Lord has in mind in today’s story. He’s looking at salvation from a different angle—and what He sees from there is every bit as true as what He and the Apostles see from the other side!

Looked at from one angle, salvation is free, but from another angle it’s the most expensive thing in the world. In many places, the Lord emphasizes its freeness, but in today’s story, it is a costly discipleship He has in mind.

He starts off by describing salvation for us. How would you do that? If an unbeliever came to you and said, "What does it mean to be a Christian?" what would you tell him? I bet you would underline the brighter parts of salvation. To be a Christian means: (1) to have your sins forgiven, (2) to have a meaningful life, (3) to have a Friend in heaven, (4) to have hope even in hard times, (5) to go to heaven when you die. Every one of these things is true and good and beautiful!

But, let’s face it, it’s not the whole story. There is more to salvation than all these wonderful things. You might say there is a dark side to it. Not "dark" in the sense of wicked, but very much "dark" in the sense of hard or unpleasant.

The Lord is quite clear on this point. Thousands are following Him at the time—and most of them—think it’s all about free food, amazing entertainment, and maybe a rich kingdom here on earth.

But they’ve got it wrong—and the Lord tells them so! Unlike politicians who don’t care why people vote for them, but only how many do, the Lord wants His disciples to know what they’re getting into. They’re not diving into a pool of whipped cream!

No, they’re choosing a life of crucifixion.

For the Lord, it was a literal cross He bore. Peter, it seems, died in the same way. Paul was beheaded for Christ; Stephen was stoned to death, James was killed by the sword, and many others died in other vicious ways.

The cross they bore did not fall out the sky; they walked toward it all their Christian lives. They accepted torture and death—you see—because they chose a life of self-denial and putting Christ first—even when it hurt.

Looked at from one angle, that’s what salvation is—putting the Lord first, being loyal to Him, even when it means the loss of everything most precious to you.

The cost of salvation is put in words that could not be better chosen. The Lord says to be His disciple means you have to

Many believers I know seem to do pretty well with much of this: they don’t get along with anyone! But this, of course, is not what the Lord is getting at. He’s not telling us to despise our parents or to mistreat our kids or beat our wives, and so on.

No, the word, "hate" is used comparatively. It means your loyalty to Christ must be so great that every other love must seem like hate next to it.

We mustn’t miss the impact of what the Lord is saying. Today’s culture is strongly individualistic. You think of yourself as a person more than as a part of a group. But this is not how a Jew of the First Century felt! He belonged to a community—to God’s People. Because of this, his family, clan, tribe, and nation were extremely dear to him. They gave him identity; they gave a past; they gave him a future. For him, it wasn’t just seventy years and you’re dead. No, he belonged to God’s People and his history went back to Abraham and his future went forward to the Messiah’s Kingdom.

For him, to hate his family, his land, and his people was appalling in a way we cannot fathom! It meant losing everything!

Which is precisely what the Lord demands of people who want to follow Him. We have to be more loyal to Christ than anyone or anything else: more loyal to him than to our husband or wife, kids, parents, friends, church, team, nation, or anything else you feel a part of.

Thankfully, the loyalties often go together. But not always. And when they don’t, we do what Christ wants us to do more than what others demand of us.

There’s a scene in The Pilgrim’s Progress that always makes me cry. The main character is a man named Christian who lives with his family in The City of Destruction. But, reading a Book, he becomes scared of staying in his hometown and runs away as fast as he can. His first temptation to come back is from his weeping wife and kids! They don’t understand why he’s leaving them. They beg him to come home—doesn’t he love them any more? How will they live without him? Christian is so upset by their cries, that he plugs up his ears so he go on.

Did the man hate his family? Not in the way we use the word. But that is exactly what the Lord has in mind when He commands us to hate our dearest friends to follow Him.

If you’ve ever lost someone for Christ’s sake, you can see why He compares discipleship to a bloody cross.

Loyalty to Christ. That’s what salvation will cost you. A love for Him that excels any other. A commitment stronger than your marriage vows. That’s the price of salvation.

And that’s why so few have it. They want Christ and heaven, but they’ll have them at a lower price. But the Lord bargains with no man! He won’t haggle with you or negotiate better deal. You take salvation on His terms--or not at all.

If you listen to car ads on the radio, you’ll hear low prices, often followed by a disclaimer, spoken in a voice both very low and very fast. What the disclaimer says is something like this: "Plus tax and license and dealer fees; one available at this price". Con men have a name for this: bait and switch. The bait is the low price, but when the buyer gets there, you switch to a car that costs a lot more than the one he heard about.

The Lord Jesus Christ is not a used car salesman! He is not conning anyone about the cost of salvation. We preachers often do it from the pulpit and so do other Christians when witnessing to the lost. You understand why: forgiveness and heaven sound way better than taking up your cross. We believe in Christ and we want to attract people to Him.

The Lord wants to do that too, but He thinks the honest approach is a better way to do it. He uses two illustrations to make His point.

The first is about a man who wants to build a new house. He lays the foundation with great enthusiasm (maybe bragging to all his friends what a palace it will be), but before long, he runs out of money, and his palace isn’t much more than a charming foundation! His neighbors laugh at him because he didn’t count the cost.

The second story is about a king marching off to war. He’s got 10,000 men on his side and he guesses his enemy has maybe half as many. But when his scouts come back, they tell him the other king has 20,000 men at arms. The first king sends an ambassador to settle on terms very bad for himself. The first king is stupid because he didn’t count the cost.

The two stories have one meaning: You must count the cost of being a disciple of Christ. If you think it’s a picnic, you’re going to fall away when things don’t go so well. Thus, you’ve got to think long and hard about it. Are you willing to follow Christ—I mean really follow Him—and not just say you want to?

In another parable, our Lord compares people who hear the Gospel to various kinds of soil—and most of them no good for farming. Some are like a dirt road—they get hear the Word, but pay no mind to it. Others are like rocky ground—they hear the Word, get excited about it for a time—but soon get bored with it and it does them no good. Others are like thorny ground—they too receive the Word, but when bad things happen, they give it up. But others are like good soil, who take it the Holy Seed, and produce fruit.

The first three types of people did not count the cost. Two of them started with Christ, but they never became His disciples—and they perished. Only the last one counted the cost, became a disciple in deed and not in word only and went to heaven when they died.

Discipleship is not about being happier in this life or about rewards in the Millennium. It’s about salvation. You are a disciple of Christ or you’re lost. There is no middle ground. There are many stages of discipleship and some are much farther along than others, but discipleship is not negotiable. You follow Christ or you go to hell.

That’s what the Bible teaches. And that’s what our story is all about.

One more thing. At the end of our text, the Lord says something about good salt--and bad. He doesn’t tell us what the point of His comparison is, but He does say it’s mighty important.

What’s He getting at? The Lord is telling us what good it is to be a phony disciple. By phony, I don’t mean a knowing hypocrite, but someone who sort of follows the Lord, but not all the way. The Lord is important to him—no doubt about that—but He’s less important than some other people or things. They’re not sinful things or wicked relationships, but good things (like work, maybe) and dear people (like a respected father or a beloved child).

The Lord says that kind of "disciple" is about as useful as salt without a salty taste. It doesn’t season anything; it doesn’t preserve anything; it’s no good for anything except to be thrown out!

That’s what nominal discipleship is worth: nothing!

And that’s why you shouldn’t be a nominal disciple. But a true one, one who knows the hardships of following Christ, but finds it well worth the pains because the prize is so great.

Is it discipleship costly? Yes it is. It may cost you your best friend or your dearest dream. But what you pay for it is nothing compared to what it is worth!

Discipleship means far more than crosses and self-denials, and so on. It also means the forgiveness of sin, a clear conscience, a meaningful life, a hopeful death, and fellowship with God both now and forever. Thus, though it costs you everything you’ve got, it’s the best bargain you’ll ever see. So why don’t you take it?