The Cost

Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew 8:19-22 A scribe came, and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
      Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
     Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.”
      But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

Luke 9:61-62 Another also said, “I want to follow you, Lord, but first allow me to say good-bye to those who are at my house.”
      But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom.”

Mark 9:43-46 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that will never be quenched – ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’

Luke 13:24 Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able.

Luke 14:26-29,30-33 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
      For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build, and wasn’t able to finish.’
      Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an envoy, and asks for conditions of peace.
      So therefore whoever of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has, he can’t be my disciple.

Luke 18:18,22-33 A certain ruler asked him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
      When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me.”
      But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was very rich.

John 6:56,60,66 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him. . . . Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?”  . . . At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Matthew 10:33 But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Mark 8:34-38 He called the multitude to himself with his disciples, and said to them, “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? For what will a man give in exchange for his life? For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in his Father’s glory, with the holy angels.”