Why ‘Count the Cost’ Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means

Reading the Bible through the lens of grace changes everything. Often I find myself reading familiar scriptures and thinking, “I never saw it this way before” or “Jesus is talking about himself, not me.”

This happened a lot while I was writing my book on The Parables of Jesus. Consider the parables of the tower builder and the warring king. Here’s the first one:

For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ (Luke 14:28–30)

For years, I thought Jesus was saying we need to count the cost of discipleship before signing up as his followers. It’s obvious, right? He’s saying, “Don’t think about becoming my follower unless you intend to do the work that will take you all the way to the finish.”

Only, that’s not what Jesus is saying. It is the opposite of what he is saying.

This parable of the tower builder is about the folly of starting something you can’t finish and the lesson is don’t start what you can’t finish. Don’t even try, because if you do, you will fail. Guaranteed.

Discipleship isn’t hard. It’s impossible.

The unbearable cost of discipleship

Being someone’s disciple was a big deal in Biblical times. Some people said, “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos.” And there were always those who said, “I follow Jesus” (see 1 Cor. 1:12).

It must have come as a great shock to the original twelve disciples to hear Jesus say, “You cannot be my disciple” – and he says it three times in this chapter:

You cannot be my disciple unless you hate your family and your own life. You cannot be my disciple unless you carry a cross. You cannot be my disciple unless you give up all your possessions. (Luke 14)

Jesus gave impossible standards to show us that where he was going (to the cross), no one can follow. He wanted to show us that the price for our redemption is greater than we can bear. Only he can pay it.

Jesus said his yoke was light and easy, but religion says the opposite. “Only those who endure trials and persecutions are genuine believers. Only those who make sacrifices are worthy of salvation.”

Don’t you find it interesting that none of the epistle writers exhort us to carry our cross? Instead, they remind us, “You died with Christ” (Col. 2:20), “We died with Christ” (Rom. 6:8), and “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20).

For those of us on this side of the cross, this is good news. This is the gospel of grace! You don’t need to count the cost because Jesus already paid it all.

If you are worn out from trying to perform for Jesus, or are weighed down by the sense that you can never quite measure up, take this truth to heart: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion (Php. 1:6).

You can’t finish what Jesus started

Here’s the second parable, the one about the warring king:

Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. (Luke 14:31–32)

Both stories make the same point, which is don’t start what you have no hope of finishing. Just as it is foolish to start a war that you will lose, it’s foolish to think you can make yourself a disciple of Christ. You can’t do it.

No cross you bear and no sacrifice you make can ever substitute for the cross of Christ. No one can save or sanctify themselves. No one can say, “It is finished,” except Christ alone.

Someone who relies on their own strength to save themselves is like a king who goes to war against a much stronger army. You are going to lose. So give up, surrender, and ask for peace.

Those who come to God carrying crosses and boasting about all they have sacrificed will be turned away. But those who come empty-handed, trusting in the sacrifice of the Son, will be welcomed, justified, and received into the family of God.

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If you liked this, you will love my new verse-by-verse study Bible on The Parables of Jesus. For one week only, I’m offering readers a chance to get advance copies a month before the book comes out and to get their names listed in the acknowledgements. Details here.