count the cost...

cost of Christ dying? Is that what you are asking.

I like this for the gospel
God is holy, we are sinners. Jesus died for our sins and rose again. We repent of our sins/faith in Christ.

 

It appears that it was apart of Christ's message:

26 "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. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. 34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." -Luke 14

 

Think that we do need to proclaim in the message of the Cross that while it costs nothing to become a Christian, that Christ atoned in full on my behalf, and you need to have faith in His work to have eternal life...
it costs it all IF you want to be a disciple of His, as this World right now is being operated under a satanic system, that those not saved will despise the Cross and its message, and that you will have persecution for His name sake.
Think we do a pretty good job with first aspect, but tend to at times leave a message of "easy believism"

 

Absolutely.

The Church today is full of persons who want their proverbial cake and eat it too--they want to avoid hell, but they don't want to live the proper Christian life.

We must be clear that becoming a Christian does indeed cost us everything--up to and including our lives. Everything must be placed on the altar.

We must be like the man who discovered the treasure in the field: Out of joy he sold all he had so that he could have the field.

The Archangel

 

It most definately should be. When my son came to me for baptism, this is exactly what we talked about.

 

During my mission trip to Romania, we were told that when Communism ruled, anyone who came to believers wanting to confess Christ as Lord was given warnings.

In fact, the pastor told us that they would try to talk him out of it. They warned that his public confession could get him killed, get him beaten up, cost him his job, cost him his family, or get him thrown into prison.

If he still wanted to go ahead, the pastor said they figured his conversion was real.

Now, think about today. All over this world, Christians are being killed all the time because they are confessing believers. In many countries confessing Christ can be a self-imposed death sentence.

 

I have always understood that it was apart of it?

When did I miss the memo?

 

This was first came to my mind when I read the OP. Very well stated!! Kudos!!

 

(((((AMEN!!!!))))) :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbs:

 

About ten years ago I taught a new member class. On the first Sunday I passed out Fire Insurance policies that I had developed. They stated, "This give the above named person a right to go to heaven when he or she dies thus giving him or her eternal protection from hell. Signed, "God." I then stated that if this is all he or she wanted then he or she now had an offocial certificate and that he or she was free to go. This class and this church was not the place for them. Thank God that none left but I think it served the point well.