WHAT DOES IT COST TO BE A CHRISTIAN?

I know that salvation and eternal life are the free gifts of God. Our salvation is accomplished entirely by the grace of God. God the Father chose us in eternal election. God the Son redeemed us by an effectual atonement. And God the Holy Spirit gave us life by sovereign, irresistible grace in regeneration. The people of God are chosen, redeemed, justified, called, sanctified, preserved, and glorified in Christ by sovereign grace alone. But I know this also - If you and I obtain salvation and eternal life in Christ, IT WILL COST US EVERYTHING WE ARE AND EVERYTHING WE HAVE!

Our Lord said, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple...Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26,27,33). My friend's, Christ is no man's Savior unless he is also that man's Lord. And he will be Lord of all, or he will not be Lord at all. Either you will be a servant under the dominion of King Jesus, voluntarily giving up all to his rightful claims as your Master, or you will go to hell. You may or may not, in actuality, have to give up anything; but surrender to Christ must be as real in your heart as if you had sacrificed everything to Christ, down to life itself. Our Lord requires a total, unreserved surrender to himself. The Word of God knows nothing of this "easy-believism" and "decisionism" that requires no surrender and commitment of the heart to Christ. To believe on Christ is to bow to him as Lord.