Q. Why do you use language like “forsake everything,” “death to self,” and “unconditional surrender”? The absoluteness of those demands is intimidating. Aren’t you afraid you’ll turn people away from Christ?

A. Actually, it was Jesus Himself who said, “Whosoever he be of you that for-saketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33 KJV). And He said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).He also preached, “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off . . . and if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off . . . and if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell” (Mark 9:43 – 47). And “I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. . . . He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:35, 38). And “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).It was Jesus, after all, who first stated, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).We could go on and on quoting from Jesus’ hard sayings, which He often preached to unbelieving multitudes but never offset with any qualification. Clearly He was insisting on wholehearted commitment. He did not soften His demands with words that would accommodate the halfhearted.Our Lord was certainly not fearful that people would be turned away by such hard demands. He said, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me” (John 6:37). Likewise, I am confident that those being drawn by the Father and convicted by the Holy Spirit will not be turned away by the straightforward truth of His Word.