Complete Surrender (Luke 14:33)

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:33

Jesus says some pretty radical things in the Gospels. From "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you" (John 6), to "unless you hate your parents, spouse, children, and your own life you cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14).

Why does He use such strong and provocative language? It wasn't simply to offend people, and it certainly wasn't arbitrary. It was for a very specific reason, and that reason is this - He wanted, under no circumstances, for anyone to be following Him under false pretenses.

If you agreed to be His follower, He wanted you to know that you were agreeing to a radical proposition. You were agreeing to sign your entire life away to Him.

If anyone else asked for this level of devotion, we would be wise to turn and flee as fast as possible. Jesus fully understands that what He is asking of us is radical and extreme.

As humans, we value things based upon what it cost us to acquire them - thus, our car is more valuable to us than our toaster.

The only way for us to appreciate the value of the gift Jesus offers us (which is infinite) is to be willing to surrender everything we have to Him. Anything less than that, and we would be implying that His gift is not infinite and eternal.

The paradox is that once you do surrender all to Him, it becomes abundantly clear that in reality you have not actually lost anything. Only by being willing to forsake your family for the sake of Christ will you actually gain the ability to love them fully. Only by being willing to lose your entire life for Him will you be able to begin living life in your true identity.

It is impossible to truly lose anything for the sake of Christ, because anything that is sacrificed for His sake will be given back in glorified form.

And everyone who has left

houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands,

for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold

and will inherit eternal life

Matt 19:29