The Cost of being a Christian

The following is a very close paraphrase from J.C. Ryle's Holiness outlining the 4 costs of being a Christian. I wanted to be able to refer back to this and take it to heart, so I personalized it with "I" throughout instead of "he" as was originally written.

1. It will cost me my self-righteousness.
I must cast away all pride and high thoughts, and conceit of my own goodness. I must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner saved only by free grace, and owing all to the merit and righteousness of another. I must be willing to give up all trust in my own morality, respectability, praying, Bible-reading, Church-going, and sacrament-receiving, and trust in nothing but Jesus Christ. To be a true Christian it will cost my self-righteousness.

2. It will cost me my sins.
I must be willing to give up every habit and practice which is wrong in God’s sight. I must set his face against it, quarrel with it, break off from it, fight with it, crucify it, and labor to keep it under, whatever the world around me may say or think. I must do this honestly and fairly. There must be no separate truce with any special sin which I love. I must count all sins as deadly enemies, and hate every false way. Whether little or great, whether open or secret, all my sins must be thoroughly renounced. To be a Christian it will cost me my sins.

3. It will cost me my love of ease.
This also sounds hard. There is nothing I naturally dislike so much as ‘trouble’ about my religion. I hate trouble. I secretly wish I could have a ‘vicarious’ Christianity, and could be good by proxy, and have everything done for me. Anything that requires exertion and labor is entirely against the grain of my heart. But the soul can have ‘no gains without pains.’ To be a Christian it will cost a me my love of ease.

4. It will cost me the favor of the world.
I must be content to be thought ill of by others. I must count it no strange thing to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered, persecuted, and even hated. I must not be surprised to find my opinions and practices in religion despised and held up to scorn. I must submit to be thought by many a fool, an enthusiast, and a fanatic – to have my words perverted and my actions misrepresented. In fact, I must not marvel if some call me mad. I dare say this also sounds hard. I naturally dislike unjust dealing and false charges, and think it very hard to be accused without cause. I should not be flesh and blood if I did not wish to have the good opinion of my neighbors. It is always unpleasant to be spoken against, and forsaken, and lied about, and to stand alone. But there is no help for it. The cup which our Master drank must be drunk by His disciples. I must be ‘despised and rejected of men’ (Isaiah 53:3). To be a Christian it will cost me the favor of the world.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? {Matthew 16}