Luk 14:28 "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?
"cost" = expense
How can we ever clearly count the cost of following the Master? I don't know that it's possible to specifically enumerate the cost but in general He Himself makes it plain.
Paul puts it well:
Php 3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
This is an interesting perspective that the English fails to convey clearly. It's not just that Paul counts all that gave him place and status in the world as loss - but also that he counted it as damage/detriment with a view to violence. It was violently damaging.
We put sooooo much confidence in our achievements here and in doing so we damamge ourselves - especially our walk. If there is nothing we can do to be His we can't place confidence or take fleshly pride in our achievements.
It's the "not I but Christ" conundrum. We did and do things that the world and the flesh applaud and encourage us to build our view of ourselves upon. Education, training, talents, skills - all these things the world encourages the flesh to revel in and use to get ahead in the world with.
But where are we told we are to, "get ahead" in the world - especially by the world's criteria? Paul saw, in comparison to knowing Christ, all he had achieved (which was considerable) as damaging and detrimental.
Here is a nice insight into:
Rom 7:18-24 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. (19) For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. (20) But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. (21) I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. (22) For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, (23) but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. (24) Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
We're currently "downsizing" and I've found certificates and plaques and awards - all kinds of neat things that I could take pride in and use in the world to advance there. But - is that where I really want to advance? Do I want to fight my way downfield just to score a goal for the other team? Do I want to run their plays - work their gameplan? Even use their players? I don;t think so.
Dieing to self is not some weird nebulous hippy dippy idea - it is a very real and necessary and intentional giving over all "we" have done, do and will do to His glory and honor. all I have achieved in all of my life is His to glory in not mine. It is His glory and - my sorrow (when it takes my eyes off Him and put them on me.)
D. Bonhoeffer said it well, "Christ calls men to come and to die." Dead men achieve nothing. But Christ makes us alive and lives in/through us so we may, in His power, in His divine mercy and grace "do" - whether it "achieves" ought or not is in His power to determine ( as well as "what" it does or does not achieve). We can claim no credit, accept no applause, hear no accolades.
We are dead men made alive again and that life is not our won (never really was). We are not of the Kingdom of God and not of the world.
Paul writes:
Php 4:12-13 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. (13) I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
We soooo abuse verse 13. Paul is calling us to "contentment." The "all things" here are aimed at verse 11 and 12.
Php 4:11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
Consider:
2Co 12:10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
1Ti 6:8-10 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. (9) But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. (10) For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Heb 13:5-6 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU," (6) so that we confidently say, "THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?"
The cost of our redemption was Him - the cost of our sanctification is "me."
Am I willing to meet that cost.
Luk 17:33 "Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
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