“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 14:28 NLT
To be a disciple of Jesus, he advises us to sit down and calculate the cost to see if we want to truly follow him. Jesus cannot simply be our Savior. He must also be the Lord of our lives. We must devote ourselves to him fully. Below, we take a look at a few verses by Jesus himself and break them down into his requirements for being his disciple.
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me’” (Matt. 16:24).
From this verse, we have the following conditions.
1. Decide to follow Jesus. We must decide to follow Christ. It’s a choice. It’s an act of the will.
2. Deny yourself.
“Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. 7 Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self-ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing.” Rom. 8:6-7 MSG
3. Die daily. The cross is an agent of death.
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” 1 John 3:16 NIV
4. Direction. Let Jesus direct your life. He says “Follow me”. When Jesus met potential disciples, he would tell them, “Follow Me”. He said to them “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matt. 4:19. What does follow me really mean? It means let me direct your lives. It means to take the passenger seat and let me drive and direct your life. Discipleship is a personal, passionate devotion to a person, not to principles or doctrines or cause. It’s a devotion to Christ first, then devotion to his teaching because of an existing personal passionate devotion to the person of Christ. Surrender and dependence on Christ.
Jesus once said to a large crowd, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?” Mark 8:34-36 MSG
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32 NIV
5. Do what Jesus commanded. The fifth condition is to do what Jesus teaches. Jesus’ disciples are expected to obey his commands.
“You are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:14 NIV
“Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. ‘If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.’” John 8:31-32 MSG
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” Luke 14:26-33 NASB
6. Devotion to Christ must be far greater than to family members or anybody else.
“Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters – yes, even one’s own self! – can’t be my disciple.” Luke 14:26 MSG
7. Devotion to Christ must be far greater than your life itself.
“Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters – yes, even one’s own self! – can’t be my disciple.” Luke 14:26 MSG
8. Determine/count the cost and accept it.
“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 14:28 NLT
9. Deny yourself