Luke 18:18-23
The Rich Young Ruler
18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.
Luke 14:25-33
The Cost of Being a Disciple
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
Matthew 5:48
On Being Perfect
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus always told the Truth, because He is absolute Truth...When the rich young ruler ask Him about how he might inherit eternal life, Jesus answered him...The answer was much like this...As to your question about eternal life, you know what the Ten Commandments say—don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t lie, honor your parents, and so on...The man replied, “I’ve obeyed every one of these laws since I was a small child.”...“There is still one thing you lack,” Jesus said. “Sell all you have and give the money to the poor—it will become treasure for you in heaven—and come, follow Me.”...But when the man heard this he went sadly away, for he was very rich...
Reverend John Stott wrote this about the cost of following Jesus in his book Basic Christianity...“Jesus never concealed the fact that His religion included a demand as well as an offer...Indeed, the demand was as total as the offer was free...If He offered men His salvation, He also demanded their submission...He gave no encouragement whatever to thoughtless applicants for discipleship...He brought no pressure to bear on any inquirer...He sent irresponsible enthusiasts away empty...Luke tells of three men who either volunteered, or were invited, to follow Jesus; but no one passed the LORD’s test...The rich young ruler, too, moral, earnest and attractive, who wanted eternal life on his own terms, went away sorrowful, with his riches intact but with neither life nor Christ as his possession…The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half built towers—the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish...For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow Him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so...The result is the great scandal of Christendom today, so called “nominal Christianity.”...In countries to which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent, but thin, veneer of Christianity...They have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved, enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable...Their religion is a great, soft cushion...It protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life, while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience...No wonder the cynics speak of hypocrites in the church and dismiss religion as escapism…The message of Jesus was very different...He never lowered His standards or modified His conditions to make His call more readily acceptable...He asked His first disciples, and He has asked every disciple since, to give Him their thoughtful and total commitment...Nothing less than this will do”...
C. S. Lewis talked about the Cost of Discipleship and wrote this, "Our Lord is like the dentists...If you give Him an inch, He will take an ell...Dozens of people go to Him to be cured of some one particular sin which they are ashamed of (like masturbation or physical cowardice) or which is obviously spoiling daily life (like bad temper or drunkenness)...Well, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there...That may be all you asked; but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment...That is why He warned people to “count the cost” before becoming Christians. “Make no mistake,” He says, “if you let me, I will make you perfect...The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for...Nothing less, or other, than that...You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away...But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through...Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect—until My Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with Me...This I can do and will do...But I will not do anything less."...