Jesus said that if we follow him, it will cost us everything … and, in the end, gain us everything. Do you really believe that?
One of my favorite parables, where Jesus drives this truth home, is in Matthew 13 when Jesus compares discovering his kingdom to a man who unexpectedly finds a great treasure. In the story, an ordinary man stumbles upon a treasure in an open field. While random to us, it was common for people in those days to bury their life’s savings as they fled their homes, hoping to one day return to retrieve it. Often, however, these treasures remained unclaimed, and first-century Jews likely lived with excitement about what treasure they would find.
The man in the parable, after discovering this treasure, couldn’t simply take it—Jewish law said that any treasure belonged to the field’s owner. So he does something shrewd. He re-hides the treasure, finds the landowner, and asks to buy the land. I imagine that the landowner, who doesn’t need to sell the land, quotes an astronomical price. But the man quickly accepts and then sells everything he owns to purchase it. Matthew 13:44 says he did all this with joy. Sure, he’s giving up all that he has, but in his view, what he’s gaining is far superior to, better than, anything he’s leaving behind.
This, Jesus says, is how we’re to respond to following him. Yes, it’s costly, but the gain is infinitely better.
Centuries earlier, the patriarch Abraham felt this too when he traded in his earthly cities with shaky foundations to seek after the eternal city, one with a foundation that will never crumble (Hebrews 11:10). The Bible says this city was infinitely better for four reasons.
1. Satisfaction
God is not just the most valuable thing in the universe; he’s what we’re missing deepest in our souls. The human heart has an innate hole, one that we spend our lives searching to fill. The trouble is, it’s a God-sized, God-shaped hole, so only God can fill it. Everything we try leaves us empty, alone, and worse off.
The original drummer of Hootie and the Blowfish once said (and I agree) “If I had 10,000 lives to live, I’d live every single one of them for Jesus Christ. Every single one.” I’ve never known anyone who got to their deathbed and said, “I regret giving my life to Jesus.” No one. I’ve known a lot of people who regretted not doing it sooner.
2. Certainty
God’s city isn’t subject to the changing winds of culture or capricious vicissitudes of public opinion. The decisions we feel so confident in today, a mere decade from now, might leave us scratching our heads at how we could have been so naive. (Don’t believe me? Just do a quick audit of the kinds of decisions you were making a decade ago. Start with your fashion choices.) But in the midst of all this change, we have a more certain word- something unchanging, verified not by the latest insights but by an empty tomb. The Word left by the resurrected Jesus is a rock that stands the test of time on which we can build our lives.
3. Security
One of the things about other foundations is they are conditional. They say, “If you obtain me, I’ll take care of you. If you fail me, I’ll curse you.” Riches, marriage, family, reputation—they all work the same way. If you get them, you’re okay. The moment you fail them, however, you’re crushed. But the foundation of God’s city is different. Our acceptance is guaranteed. And God communicated that to Abraham in the most amazing way.
In Genesis 15, God made a covenant with Abraham at sundown by passing through a river of blood from severed animals. Typically, in a ceremony like this, both parties would walk together, getting blood on themselves in the process. It was meant to say, symbolically, “May all of this happen to me if I don’t keep my word!”
But Scripture tells us that after Abraham prepared all of the sacrificed animals, God put Abraham into a deep sleep. Then God passed through the animals himself. What does this mean? Simply this: That God, and God alone, would be responsible for upholding both sides of the covenant. If God failed or if Abraham fell, God’s blood would be the price. Tough to imagine anything more secure than that!
4. Permanence
One day, everything on this earth will pass away. Our bodies, communities, families—everything we’ve built washes away like a message written into the sand on the seashore. But God is taking us to a city with eternal foundations, with relationships and joys that will never end.
Some of us worry that heaven will be boring. I know you think you’re the only one, but you aren’t. Here’s some good news about that: The Bible describes a renewed heavens and earth. Not an immaterial place where we all float around dressed like babies and strumming harps. No, Revelation 21 tells us that everything we’ve loved here will be waiting for us there—in all its unhindered, God-given glory, with no touch of the curse. It’ll be the best food, architecture, and art in the world. Think Mardi Gras (without the debauchery), Disney World (without the heat and the lines), and the Jersey Shore (without the … Jersey). And this will never fade.
This is the eternal city we’re being invited to. But to get it, like Abraham, we have to leave behind our earthly one. Make no mistake, it’s not easy, and it requires faith in things as yet unseen.
Showing that faith is difficult. It certainly was for Abraham! He left all he had in pursuit of God and died before he ever possessed it. That’s the life of faith: Sometimes, we never see the earthly fulfillment of our faith on this side of eternity. Like Abraham, we have to be willing to step out into the unknown with our lives as a blank check, trusting in no one but God.
So many people want heaven, but they are unwilling to do so. When considering following God, they want to know, If I surrender everything to you …
Where are you going to make me go?
Do I have to become a missionary?
Do I have to change careers?
Will I have to break up with my boyfriend?
What if you tell me to change some part of my life that I don’t want to change yet?
What about …?
How will …?
I used to try to answer those questions for people, but then I realized that this was just people wanting to know exactly where God is going to take them before they decide to follow him. But we can’t do that. Following God is not about a what. It’s about a who. Our main concern should not be what he asks us to do but who is behind the question. John Calvin summarized God’s call to Abraham: “Just close your eyes and take my hand.” Are we willing?
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Pastor J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Chick-fil-A, serves as a Council member for The Gospel Coalition, and recently served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor J.D. and his wife Veronica are raising four awesome kids.
"Editor's Note: Pastor JD Greear's "Ask the Pastor" column regularly appears at Christianity.com, providing biblical, relatable, and reliable answers to your everyday questions about faith and life. Email him your questions at [email protected]."
