Salvation is free, but being a disciple isn’t

Early in my journey through ministry, I had the privilege of organizing our youth to go on a mission trip. We were to go to Alabama and help with hurricane cleanup. The kids and parents were all excited until I shared what the cost would be. I had planned for a few fundraisers to make the trip. The response I received was, “You really expect me to pay so I can work?” As an inexperienced pastor, I was at a bit of a loss on how to answer that. Now it isn’t much of a problem.

The fact of the matter is this: Salvation may be free, but discipleship has a cost. We are saved by grace through faith, but to follow Christ, we must be willing to pay a price and lose what we have. Jesus points this out in Luke 14:25-33. Verse 27 is blunt about it — “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple!”

Folks, there is not way to sugar coat that verse. Unless you are willing to take on a burden, you can’t follow Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor and teacher prior to World War II. When he saw Hitler take over the Lutheran Church of Germany, he went underground and started his own seminary. He had tried to warn his countrymen of the dangers of Nazism, but was shut down. Eventually he went to America to study and preach, but he was not happy. He knew his fellow church leaders and followers were suffering under the Nazi regime.

He went back. He became a messenger of sorts for the underground and got caught up in the assassination plot against Hitler. He was arrested and eventually hanged two weeks before the end of World War II. The book he is probably best known for is “The Cost of Discipleship.” In it he says that discipleship without cost is merely cheap grace.

We cannot earn our way into heaven. Salvation is free, but there is a responsibility that we must take up to be true followers of Christ. The question is, are you able to take up that cross? Even the founder of Methodism constantly reminded his pastors of the need to daily make the sacrifices that will lead others to Christ.

I encourage you to look at your own lives and decide whether you can be a follower of Christ. What is standing in the way of you picking up your cross? What are you not willing to let go of that keeps you from being a disciple?

The world needs disciples now more than ever. There are so many that need to hear the good news. There are places that need to be covered in God’s hope and love. Bearing a cross may mean going where angels fear to tread. It may mean leaving all you have behind so others may live. But isn’t that what Christ did? If he had to go to the cross, why can’t we?

Just a thought.

Shalom my friends. See you in church.

Rev. Kent Wilfong is the pastor at the United Methodist Church, Doniphan/Neelyville.