Does a person 'count the cost' before or after salvation?

When I got saved...I just got saved! It just happened and I didn't know what it meant but I know God touched me forever. I didn't know what I was getting into, lol.

Now years later I'm realizing there are things I have to give up...maybe forever. But I would have never known until I walked with God for many years.

I know God will finish the work he started in my life but do you count the cost before or after you know what your doing?

Luke 14:28

Praise Jesus that there is not a chapter on the sequence of the Christian walk (the closest you may find is the parable of the sower.) If I thought there was a sequence I would be concerned I was damned in Hell already. If you are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin you can embrace the fact that God loves you deeply and has yours and His best interests in mind Silo.

I do not see a single passage of scripture that shows Jesus rejecting a repentant heart.

I do however see numerous passages where Jesus rejects the prideful, scornful hearts that say they don't need him.

I look back over my walk and realize that there were just times in my life where I was completely and utterly blind to the gospel. I had no concept of what it was about...Like Jacob, I wanted the spiritual blessing, but honestly knew no way to receive it apart from grappling.

We don't ALWAYS know when we have received the seed, and it has gestated to life out of darkness.

To be honest, I am one of those people who cannot tell you the "Date" I got "Saved." But I can tell you when I placed faith in Christ. If the Just shall live by Faith, and David was among those to whom the same concept applied, then many many people have hope in Christ whom would be told by the Judaizers that they were not really saved.

***Edit***

It is also worth remembering that Salvation is a process for the Christian. Past, Present, and Future.

When JESUS spoke of counting the cost
He was speaking about being a disciple!!
There are many who are happy to be saved
because GOD offers HIS gift of grace freely
but they have no understanding of what
it really means to forsake all to follow
JESUS!!

Salvation and discipleship are one and the same. You can't have one without the other.

You must count the cost prior to salvation. And as you grow in the Lord and he gives you new light, you must continue to count the cost and be willing to pay the costs of surrender.

Luke 22:31-32

Judas was a "Disciple" of Christ.

So Judas followed Jesus but didn't accept the cost?? I guess he counted the cost and said NO!

some may do before they come to the Lord, some may do after... I dont recall Saul from Tarsus calculating the cost before he became a christian, neither did I. And i must say as time goes buy the price seem to be higher and higher. Of course it is worth it but it seems this way to me, the closer we draw to God the more he demands we "lay our life down" and this "cost" may look different to all of us, for me some things may be very easy to lay down and thus there is no real cost, it may look outward "great" and "mighty" , but God is seeking deeper for that thing that might hinder us from going all the way with him, and from time to time there is a new "war" up ahead, and scripture says the man who goes to war not calculating the cost and his chances to win is a fool.

So in short i think it is impossible to set a rule if this calculating the cost is before and after, i am sure for some it was before, and for others after conversion.

There are many today that are counted among the disciples of Christ. But true disciples they are not. And in the end, Christ will say, "Depart from me, I never knew you". There are sheep and goats. There are many that may appear to us to be sheep, but God knows they are goats.

Judas sure counted something...I think it was thirty pieces of silver.

I am just saying that the way we tend to categorize concepts like "Discipleship" and "Salvation" are more rigid than scripture is.

As much as I want to agree with 1over, and have said the exact same thing myself in the past, I am humbled by how the gospels are much more difficult to pin down than that. I am just saying I guess I disagree that discipleship, salvation, and counting the cost, all must occur in some particular order.

Work out "Your" "Own" "Salvation" with fear and trembling. It will not look like Peter's it will not look like Paul's, it will look like a White Stone, upon which will be written a name that no one else will know but you and Christ.

Alreadymind, I think we agree in large part as to the order of events or the lack thereof. The doctrines of discipleship and salvation are critical to our faith, and yet the experience is as unique to the individual as are God's dealings with each of us. Christ's call was to "follow me". That is to be a continual "following". We all fail and falter, slip and stumble. But for God's elect there is no "Plan B" It's always "Plan A", which is follow Jesus, even if it means falling down over and over again. God's true children have learned to ask for His forgiveness when we fall, then get back to following Jesus.

Praise Jesus that there is not a chapter on the sequence of the Christian walk

That's a great realization.

I have to remember the way I got saved is not the only way people have there born-again experience.

As a follower of Christ I am learning everyday what it means to be a disciple that cost something. I think that it takes time to truly comprehend what ALL means and then to give all is yet another matter all together I have to learn how to give up a little bit of me everyday. SO in my opinion its both, if you are lead to the Lord properly you know that it will cost you everything to be a follower of Christ yet it may and will take a lifetime to really understand what that means and do.

The so-called "ordo salutis" (order of salvation) is mostly an academic exercise that the Scriptures never really engage in. Salvation, discipleship, faith, repentance, obedience, counting the costs, etc., are part of one big package. Certainly, each element is important in itself, as well as how each element interacts with the others.

But, of late, I've been fond of a less technical view of salvation. I like the illustration Jesus offered when He lamented over the Jews and their rejection of Him: "...How often I would gather you as a hen does her chicks..."

I like to think of salvation as being where Jesus "takes hold" of you. He lamented that the Jews of his day "were not willing," and therefore their house would be left to them desolate. That's salvation and damnation in a nutshell. Salvation is where Jesus takes hold of you. Damnation is where He leaves you desolate.

In recent times there has been a deceptive teaching which says you can accept Jesus as Savior before you surrender to Him as Lord. This teaching tries to seperate the passages which speak of being a disciple from the passages which speak of salvation. There are multitudes deceived right now through this teaching, and on their way to hell. I think it comes down to what it means to repent, because it is clear that without repentance there is no salvation. Biblical repentance and faith include a full surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. One may not fully be aware that they are doing that when they are saved but they are. All they know is that they need Jesus and want to give their lives over to Him as best they know how. Afterward they learn more of what it is to be a disciple.

Jesus makes a few statements using the words "Unless [condition], you cannot be my disciple." If you did not hate your father and mother and family and friends and self, you were never a disciple. You just thought you were. If you did not take up your cross daily and deny yourself and "give up all your own possessions" you were never a disciple of Jesus. You just thought you were.

When I saw this title, my mind went to a song that ministers to me. It is Titled "Have You Counted the Cost". I know this is looking at the issue from the opposite spectrum from what you were saying...Following Jesus is costly; following the devil is costlier still.

Here are the lyrics:

Have you Counted the Cost by A.J. Hodge

1 There's a line that is drawn by rejecting our Lord
Where the call of His Spirit is lost
And you hurry along with the pleasure-mad throng
Have you counted, have you counted the cost?

2 You may barter your hope of eternity's morn
For a moment of joy at the most
For the glitter of sin and the things it will win
Have you counted, have you counted the cost?

3 While the door of His mercy is open to you
Ere the depth of His love you exhaust
Won't you come and be healed, won't you whisper, I yield
I have counted, I have counted the cost

Chorus:
Have you counted the cost if your soul should be lost
Tho' you gain the whole world for your own?
Even now it may be that the line you have crossed
Have you counted, have you counted the cost?