Are you persevering in what you set out to accomplish, or giving up? Perseverance—tenacity toward achieving a particular goal—is one of the most essential life skills we need to develop as human beings, yet many don’t have this; they set out after something, only to give up once they see how much it’s actually going to cost them to accomplish.
“But the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13 NIV)
You’ve heard it said that failures are just successes that gave up too soon? It’s true; most famous inventors, for example, experienced multiple failures before finally getting it right. It’s the same for us, regardless of what particular goal we’re talking about. Most goals that are valuable don’t come easily; they require payment in terms of time, effort, and money. They also require what economists call opportunity cost: what we give up having or getting, in order to have or get something else.
If I set my mind on passing a life-altering licensing exam I may have to give up money for a prep class to show me what and how I need to study—money I could’ve gone on a vacation with or spent on something else. I will have to give up time to study—time I could’ve been enjoying with friends or just relaxing. Yet worthwhile goals are worth what it costs to achieve them.
1) So the first step we need to do is determine the value of what we’re going after—we need to make sure it’s worth what we’re going to have to sacrifice to get it.
2) Once we determine the goal is worth the cost, we have to set our heart and mind toward achieving it, and not give up until we do.
It’s the same with our eternity—with what comes after we die. God told us what is and what’s coming afterward—we can’t say we didn’t know. He’s said we’re sinful, but His Son Jesus Christ paid for our sins and if—and this is a very big if—we repent and trust in Him, then we are forgiven and made right with God, and will experience eternity with Him. If we do not—if we don’t repent, or genuinely trust in Jesus—we remain condemned and have only fear and horror to look forward to after death; we should rightly fear death as many do:
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:17-19 NIV)
We don’t have to actively do anything to be damned—to be condemned: it’s our default position. That’s why Jesus commanded His followers to tell everyone they no longer have to be condemned—that forgiveness, acceptance, and rightness with God is now possible. But there are conditions: genuine faith in Jesus evidenced by repentance precedes forgiveness and acceptance.
Modern churches have obfuscated the pure message of the gospel. Salvation is offered all, but all will not be saved. Salvation is not the wide and easy road most are traveling on; damnation is. Salvation is a narrow path difficult to traverse, and very few find it, by Jesus’ own declaration.
Yes, forgiveness and salvation from eternal death is by faith in Jesus, but real faith acts. There is no forgiveness without repentance—without an acknowledgment of guilt and a conscious turning away from unholiness. Why? Because God is holy and those who belong to Him must also be. We will never be perfectly holy because we sin without even realizing it; for that we look to God’s mercy to forgive us because of Jesus. But repentance precedes forgiveness.
“Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:13-25 NIV)
So what about repentance and faith in Jesus? There is an opportunity cost involved! Did you know that?
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17 NIV)
You can’t “have your cake and eat it too;” you can’t live for self ignoring God and be saved; you can’t have your own kingdom and God’s. Jesus isn’t an add-on; it’s one or the other.
“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?” (Matthew 16:24-26 NIV)
If you read or listen to the entirety of Scripture, you can’t with any degree of integrity arrive at the conclusion that faith in Jesus and eternal salvation doesn’t cost. It costs everything!
Jesus said this about realizing what it’s going to cost you to follow Him:
“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 [not literally hate, as we typically think of it these days, but we must value everyone else less than God]. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 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? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 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? 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. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” (Luke 14:26-33 NIV)
So—realize that gaining Christ and eternal life has an opportunity cost! Instead of building your own kingdom, you’re going to spend your life building Christ’s. Instead of gaining all the good things this life has to offer, you may lose everything—up to and possibly including your actual physical life—in order to gain Christ and be found in Him. It’s me or Christ; my life or His life in me; my kingdom or His.
Jesus also said this about the choices we will have to make:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44-46 NIV)
We may have to sell everything we have to gain what is most precious—Jesus. Yet we have to be prepared to do it! But why? Why would anyone give everything up for Jesus?
Have you ever had a death scare—a moment when, correctly or incorrectly, you thought you were at death’s door? There’s nothing like a genuine death scare to cause us to take an honest evaluation of ourselves to assess our spiritual condition, because I do believe we tend to lie to ourselves. We say, “I believe in Jesus; I trust in Him,” but we don’t believe enough to let Him have His way completely in our lives. We “claim” forgiveness through Jesus, but conveniently neglect genuinely repenting. We try to tell ourselves we are Christ’s—sometimes, perhaps, without genuinely being.
The Bible has some very sobering portions, as well as comforting ones:
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them…” (1 John 2:15)
“For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” (1 Peter 4:17-18 NIV)
“Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” (Luke 14:33)
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NIV)
1) The conclusion? There is an opportunity cost to following Christ—but it’s worth every breath of our life!
2) And once we determine that we’re going to do this—that nothing in this life is worth the fear and horror of finishing out our lives guilty before God because we rejected Christ—we have to set our faces resolutely toward eternity, and not give up until we’re done, just like Jesus did: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51 NIV) Jesus knew an excruciating death awaited Him; He knew He would carry the weight and punishment for our sins in His person—but He had made up His mind to do it and pressed on.
St. Paul wrote, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:7-14 NIV)
Press on in your faith; persevere—it will be more than worth it to pass from death to life, forgiven and accepted in Christ through faith!
Dear Lord God,
Give me genuine faith, evidenced by true repentance. Help me not store up wrath for the day of judgment, but have a lavish welcome into Your eternal kingdom. Help me not put it off thinking I still have forever to resolve this; help me realize it is only Your grace that keeps me from eternity right now! Amen.
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