According to the standard of the Bible, it does cost something to be a real Christian. There are enemies to be overcome, battles to be fought, sacrifices to be made, Egypt to be forsaken, a wilderness to be passed through, a cross to be carried, and a race to be run. Conversion is not putting a man in an armchair and taking him easily to heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict in which it costs much to win the victory. Therefore arises the unspeakable importance of counting the cost…. It will cost him his self-righteousness. He must cast away all pride and prideful thoughts and any conceit of his own goodness. He must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner saved only by free grace, owing all to the merit and righteousness of another. He must really feel the words of the prayer book that he has “erred and gone astray like a lost sheep,” that he has “left undone the things he ought to have done, and done the things he ought not to have done, and that there is no health in him.” He must be willing to give up all trust in his own morality, respectability, praying, Bible reading, church-going, and sacraments, and he must trust in nothing but Jesus Christ.
