“Nothing but Dirt”
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Suppose someone suggested you sell absolutely everything you have – your car, house, furniture, jewellery, even your best clothes – to raise the cash to buy a barren piece of land that to you is nothing but dirt. That’s about as ridiculous as what Jesus seems to be asking of us – to give up things we hold dear and for this enormous sacrifice he offers what seems little better than dirt.
But what if the person urging you to buy the land were a devoted friend who had discovered oil on the property? Underneath that land is enough crude oil to make you an instant multimillionaire. You would not be able to stop grinning as you excitedly sell all you possess. You would be focused not on the house you are losing, but on the mansion you will soon be able to buy.
You would be too busy thinking about sports cars, limousines and Lear jets to mourn the loss of your old car. That’s how eagerly we would follow Jesus’ seemingly crazy requests if we really understood what God is offering us in exchange. If, for instance, we are horrified when God asks us to give up our puny, selfish ambitions, it is only because we have been too pre-occupied with ourselves to gain the slightest conception of how excitingly superior are God’s ambitions for us. If only we understood we could hardly contain our joy.
Back to Earth
As wonderfully true as this is, for me to leave you floating in the clouds would be less than honest without first tackling the issue that most preachers and teachers, myself included, are sorely tempted to side-step. We must face up to the cost, plunging into those icy waters while desperately clinging to the truth that by an incomprehensible but divinely-guaranteed miracle, the benefits are exceedingly greater than the enormous cost.
Jesus is our Saviour – saving us from many things we could never bear, including an eternity in hell. In addition, Jesus is our Example – the Pioneer who trail-blazed the route for us to follow, all the way to the cross and beyond. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2). Not only was it necessary for our Leader to suffer en route to indescribable victory, joy and honor, so must his followers. Prayerfully consider the following:
. . . if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. (21) To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:20-21).
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude . . . (1 Peter 4:1).
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. (13) But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed (1 Peter 4:12-13).
This truth is strongly emphasized in Scripture. Most of us will find the relevant Scriptures in the verses not underlined in our Bibles. For more Scriptures, see The suffering Lord: our Example.
Hebrews 2:10 In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.
John 15:20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
1 John 3:16 . . . Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. (13) Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Matthew 20:26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, (27) and whoever wants to be first must be your slave –(28) just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Ephesians 5:2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Philippians 2:2-9 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who . . . made himself nothing . . . and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place . . . Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (3) Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Emphasis mine.
Act like Christ – which is possible only by letting Christ live in you and express himself through you – and you will end up like Christ – despised, rejected, humiliated and finally reigning in honour on God’s throne for all eternity.
Sheer Agony
“Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” declared our Saviour (Matthew 10:38). I dare not rob that chilling statement of the dread filling the thumping hearts of Jesus’ original hearers. Crucifixions were so common that all Jesus’ contemporaries must surely have seen condemned criminals dragging their crosses on the way to a most torturous death. Later, many of his hearers witnessed their Leader agonizing on the cross, confirming the enormity of the cost involved.
It is an inescapable fact that the cross is sheer agony. I would be little better than a charlatan to suggest otherwise. I, for instance, made what at the time seemed a huge sacrifice for the Lord. Over twenty years later it still hurts deeply every day, with no hint that the pain will ever cease this side of eternity. I am unaware of the slightest compensation for all the suffering, except for an increased capacity to minister to hurting people. If I hold on until the end, however, what had seemed a sacrifice will prove itself one of the shrewdest imaginable investments.
Following Christ starts by sweating drops of blood, sobbing the prayer, “Not my will but yours.” It necessitates abandoning our pet sins, even though the incessant craving may gnaw at our insides day after endless day. It involves lowering ourselves in our own eyes; viewing ourselves as weak, ignorant and useless without Jesus’ constant input, and believing we are so morally corrupt that we deserve endless torment in hell.
It could well mean letting people walk all over us, or choosing a path that exposes us to rejection, ridicule, perhaps even physical suffering. It will probably involve giving up whatever is dearest to our heart. It might be prized possessions, hobbies, loved ones, a promising career, financial security, or the right to marry the person we love, but whatever most rivals our love for God may have to go. Jesus’ teaching is crammed with this emphasis and if it is currently unpopular to talk about it, that just shows how far we have yet to go before we truly reflect Jesus.
Our Lord was forever warning would-be followers of the enormous cost involved. This worries most of us so much that we would like there to be two categories of believers: disciples and ordinary born again Christians. But Scripture makes no such distinction.
Disciple = Believer
The Twelve Apostles were just some of Jesus’ many disciples:
Luke 6:13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles
Before the name Christian was even coined, all true Christians were called disciples:
Acts 11:26 . . . The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. (None of the twelve apostles were in Antioch.)
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George A Buttrick et al, Abingdon Press (Vol 1, page 845) says that in the Gospels and Acts disciple is:
the most frequent and general term for believers in Christ. The word is used twenty-two times in Acts, as compared with four instances of “saint, ” two of “Christian,” and one of “Nazarene” . . .
Of over 230 instances of the term in the gospels, about 90 per cent either are not limited to the Twelve at all, or else do not make clear whether these or some other larger group is indicated.
There are indeed two categories: true Christians and fake Christians. Or, expressed another way: those who are genuinely born again and those who merely think they are. Space allows only a couple of reminders of how Jesus’ approach to potential converts differs so markedly from what we typically hear today:
Luke 14:25 Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: (26) “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. (27) And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (28) Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? (29) For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him . . . (33) In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
Matthew 10:25 It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!
John 16:2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
The apostles, of course, followed Jesus’ method of evangelism and teaching. Thus, for example, we find Paul and Barnabas “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,’ ” they said (Acts 14:22). “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” promises 2 Timothy 3:12. Today we are so eager to declare people “co-heirs with Christ” that we often gloss over Scripture’s proviso, “if indeed we share in his sufferings” (Romans 8:17).
“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ,” said Paul (1 Corinthians 11:1). We know how much Paul suffered. “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church,” he wrote (Colossians 1:24). Paul kept his side of the bargain. He paid the price of following Christ. What about us?
The cost highlights why faith is so essential to authentic Christianity. Faith is the glue without which our entire spiritual life disintegrates. Without faith, we would not dare pay the price. We would be left only with false religion, no matter how much we cite Christian doctrine. And what faith it takes! Without a foretaste, it is nearly impossible even to imagine anything so wonderful as to make the cost worthwhile.
Whatever could move anyone to pay such a price? I suggest the greatest of all motivations: love. The future joy that moved Jesus to endure the cross was not the happiness that ease and luxury gives, nor an empty euphoria like a drug-induced high. What held Jesus to the cross was the thrill and matchless satisfaction of knowing he was delighting the Father who meant everything to him, and the ecstasy of obtaining eternal fellowship with us, whom he loves with an intensity beyond our comprehension.
Likewise, it was supernatural love pumping through the hearts of the early Christians that propelled them to exult in what they regarded as the privilege of suffering for their Lord (Acts 5:40-42). And it was that same love that exploded within the heart of Paul, driving him to count all his earlier achievements as trash relative to the joy of intimately knowing Christ and of sharing in Christ’s suffering (Philippians 3:8-10). We love because Christ first loved us. We embrace pain because he first did it for us.
When I remind you that “hope” is a theological term about the certainty of the reward, you will see that we have been discussing the big three – faith, hope and love. No wonder Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 sang the praises of these three qualities. They empower us to embrace the cross and thus plunge into the riches Christ has purchased for us.
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