Is He worth it?

I was a professional automotive sales consultant for over 30 years. In the early training I received I was taught the principle of value vs price.

As consumers, most of us are value driven. We want to get the most for our hard earned money.

It is wise to shop around and find the best value. The principle is simply, when value exceeds price we make a purchase or buy in!

After a certain time of the crowd following Jesus He challenged each person to make a decision. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record these words of Jesus: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

Jesus spoke these words to the “crowd” by saying “whoever.” Every place in Scripture where Jesus said “whoever” is an open invitation to everyone!

This was not just addressed to the 12 disciples but to all that were present.

To follow Jesus requires “a long walk of obedience in the same direction!” To claim to believe in Jesus in our culture doesn’t cost us anything.

However, Jesus is looking for people who want to follow Him, who want to be His disciples!

Jesus said plainly that to follow Him or to be His disciple is costly. This is still true today.

Is Jesus worth it? Is He worth paying the price to follow Him? Is He worth choosing to be His disciple by “taking a long walk of obedience in the same direction?”

If we cannot say yes then we need to dig into the Word of God and study it so we can grow to love Jesus. We need to fix our gaze upon the price Jesus paid to win our love.

Jesus is worth giving up everything to follow Him! Jesus is worth paying the price of discipleship! Jesus is worth taking up our cross daily and denying our self-centered, self-seeking and self-promotion! Jesus is worth “taking a long walk of obedience in the same direction!”