The Cost

Luke 14 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.

Loving someone always costs something.

I wonder...When God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit said, Let Us make man in Our image, had they sat down already and counted the cost? I believe they had.

Since God is not constrained by time, He is in all time and space currently. Hence, I AM. He always is present. The same is true in His name Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and the end so it makes sense that He could see the end of this age before the beginning began.

If I can let my imagination go for a moment I can almost hear some of that conversation....Let Us make man in Our image. They will fall to sin; they will be rebellious. A price will have to be paid to redeem them. Are you willing to pay it? Are they worth it?....Yes, they are worth it to Me.

And if I can, for a moment, give holy God man like qualities, I wonder if Jesus thought about that conversation when He told this parable. First sit down and consider the cost. Did He think of that in the garden at Gethsemane? Did He remember when the decision was made that He could finish what they were about to begin that first day?

Loving us cost. It cost a lot. Can we even imagine how much? Leaving all the splendor and perfection of heaven. His home. His Father. His heavenly body. His will, in essence. Humbling himself to flesh, humiliation, hunger, cold, fatigue, thirst, and the agony of the cross. I can't imagine how much it must have cost. I can't imagine thinking that we would be worth it.

No one will ever be able to say that Jesus didn't count the cost and that He was unable to finish what He had started once the foundation of the world was laid. No one can mock Him for an inability to bring to conclusion what He began. This Man, Jesus, began to build and accomplished His work.

Aren't you glad?

Jesus, Master builder, cornerstone...Thank You for counting the cost. For being able to complete what You began. In us. In me. Remind me of the cost of my salvation. A gift given freely to me yet so expensive to You. Flesh and blood. Life and death. Heaven and hell. Expensive. May we walk worthy of the price You paid.

Isaiah 28 Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold I AM the One who has laid a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation.

John 17 Father I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

Genesis 1 Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.