Dr. Tom Hicks
Adapted from Holiness by J.C. Ryle
What does it cost to be a Christian? The question is not what it costs to be justified, since that costs the righteousness and blood of Christ received by faith alone (Gal 2:16). Rather, the question is what true Christians must be ready to give up (Lk 14:33).
It costs little to be an “outward Christian.” Many attend worship services twice on Sunday, and they have a tolerable external morality during the week, such that others would say they are good people (Lk 18:11-12). But, these things require no real self-denial and sacrifice. They are no evidence of genuine belief.
To be Christian requires fighting battles, making sacrifices, and running races. True believers look upon the Lord Jesus Christ and love Him such that more and more, they hate what He hates and love what He loves.
Consider what it costs to be a true Christian:
It costs you your self-righteousness. You must put away pride and high thoughts of yourself. A true Christian must give up trust in his own morality, respectability, praying, Bible-reading, churchgoing, and trust in nothing but Jesus Christ for his righteousness before God. “Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord . . . and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that depends on faith” (Phil 3:8-9).
It costs you your sins. You must be willing to give up every habit and practice that is wrong in God’s sight. There must be no truce with any sin. “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good” (Isa 1:16-17; cf. Ezek 18:31; Dan 4:27). You must be willing to fight against all known sin: “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus . . . In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Heb 12:1-4).
It costs you your love of ease. You must take pains and trouble yourself to run the race and stand guard in every company, in every place, public and private, at home and among strangers. You must watch your time, tongue, temper, thoughts, imaginations, and conduct in all of life. There can be no progress without pain. “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied” (Prov 13:4).
It costs you the favor of the world. A Christian must be willing to be ridiculed, mocked, hated, and thought a fool or fanatic by the world. Jesus said, “Remember the word that I said to you: a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours” (Jn 15:20). Christ Himself was rejected by the world: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed Him not” (Isa 53:3).
