One of the more difficult concepts to wrap our minds around in the current religious climate we live in is that salvation is free but discipleship costs everything.
It’s not a difficult concept because the Bible presents it that way; it’s a difficult concept because of false teachers. In the tremendous pressure that churches feel today to fill their seats, the high cost of following Jesus has been cheapened – but don’t buy what they’re selling!
This is also not an “us” versus “them” article, as in, at our church we’re doing everything right and those other folks are the problem. I’ve seen different versions of the “cheap grace” or “easy believism” salvation taught at a variety of churches.
All false teachings quickly melt away when we simply look at what the Bible says. Jesus never taught an easy salvation. He said things like,
If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. (Luke 9:23-24)
In Jesus’ teaching there is a constant corrective element and a calling for repentance. Jesus didn’t tell the rich young ruler that all he had to was believe He was the Son of God. He told him, it doesn’t matter that you believe in Me because you worship a false God. If you get rid of your false God, you can find salvation, but it not, you can’t.
Maybe an analogy will help. Salvation and discipleship are like hiking the Grand Canyon. It is free to hike the Grand Canyon, but being free does not make it easy. It’s terribly strenuous, but well worth the effort.
On a spiritual scale that makes the Grand Canyon look like a mud puddle, salvation is offered to us for free. The cost of salvation is free to us but it wasn’t free to God. There was an exorbitant cost for our salvation. It cost Jesus His life. He freely gave His life to buy our salvation, so it is true that salvation is free.
The disconnect comes in the teaching when it is taught that salvation is free and then the teaching ends there. The disconnect comes when there is no teaching of repentance and no teaching of the responsibilities I have as a follower of Christ. Teaching that I can be saved and unchanged is the opposite of, but is just as damning as, teaching that I am saved by what I do.
We might also compare salvation and discipleship to joining the military. Signing the dotted line gets you in but being a soldier is not defined by singing a dotted line. Soldiers are made by the military. Christians are made by the power of the Holy Spirit. Soldiers have responsibilities. Christians also have responsibilities.
Faith in Jesus is our dotted line, but it is only our actions that prove our commitment. A person can’t join the military and then simply go back home and live the life they were living prior to joining. Neither can a person be joined to Jesus and continue to do whatever they please.
I hope this makes sense. If not, I hope I can clarify things further in the sermon!
Much love,
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
