One of the great sins of the modern church is soft-selling the Christian life. Where Jesus promises that following him will lead to difficulties and trials, many Christians pitch the faith to others as if it promises only ease. Where Jesus insists that following him may cost much of what we hold dear, many Christians act as if it will only cost those things we would gladly leave behind anyway. Considering it bad salesmanship to speak the truth, they freely speak a lie. It does not take long before the person who has professed faith learns that Jesus was right all along: following him may cost everything. Many decide that such a cost is too high.
What did you give up to become a Christian? What did you enjoy that you left behind for the sake of following Christ? For some it may be habits that gave you pleasure in former days, but which Jesus now forbids. For some it may be vices you indulged in, but which the Lord has called you to abandon. For some it may be lovers, for some it may be desires, and for still others, relationships with family members. But whatever it is, this much is true: none who have ever come to Christ have done so without surrendering someone or something.
You have given up a lot to follow Christ. You have given up many passions and activities that were genuinely pleasurable, though now you see they were also immoral. You have given up a good portion of your money and therefore surrendered some of your lifestyle. You have given up opportunities to enrich yourself financially, vocationally, or relationally. You have given up the idols you used to live for and the identities that used to define you. You have given it all up for the sake of the cause, for the sake of Christ.
You have probably observed that the world around you pities you for what you have given up. Skeptics see you exchange self-indulgence for self-denial and excess for abstention. They think you are ridiculous. Unbelievers see you exchange sleeping around for faithfulness and pornography for purity. They feel sorry for you. Doubters see you relate differently to time and to money and to every other gift and they roll their eyes and shake their heads, for they consider it a waste to use such resources for God’s purposes instead of your own. In so many ways, the world fixates on what you give up.
The word the Old Testament uses to describe consecration—the setting apart of the priests—has the sense of “filling the hands.” The priest was to receive the priesthood as a gift and his consecration was complete only when his hands had been filled with the sacrifices he would soon offer to God. When you consecrated your life to the Lord, the world saw you empty your hands of much of what it counts dear, and it pitied you for this. But it did not see that you have only emptied your hands of what you now count as little so they can be filled with what God counts as much. It did not see that you are releasing mere wood, hay, and stubble so you can take hold of the lasting treasures of God’s grace. It did not see that you are merely releasing what you cannot keep in order to gain what you cannot lose.1
You have exchanged what is fleeting for what is lasting and what brings death for what brings life. You have traded what makes you more like the enemy of your for what makes you more like your soul’s dearest friend and what causes your soul to shrivel for what sparks it to life. You have come to believe, to see, and to know that you are most fully alive when you live within the will of the one who created you rather than outside of it. Take heart, for the time will come when your faith will become sight and, in that day, you will be fully vindicated, for all will know and all will agree that you made the best of all bargains.
- To slightly paraphrase Jim Elliot ↩︎
