Greatness in this life and in his craft came at a heavy price for Kobe during his career—relationships and closeness with his family—his wife—his daughters—friendships—and a life outside of basketball—and you can’t help but wonder if the cost at which greatness for just a game—the game of basketball came—was worth it—

But it’s an instructive story and tells us something about the cost that greatness always demands…tremendous sacrifice, strenuous effort, unwavering devotion, and singular focus, until it is finally achieved. If that’s true for earthly greatness, how much more so does spiritual greatness—eternal greatness—kingdom greatness—greatness according to God—demand—necessitate—tremendous sacrifice, strenuous effort, unwavering devotion, and singular focus, to obtain it…

How great is the cost of kingdom greatness? What does Christ demand of you if you answer the call to follow him in faith? What exactly must you be willing do to do if you want to be a great follower of Christ?! He asks one thing and one thing alone—the singular condition and cost if you want to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ and accomplish kingdom greatness is this: Total self-renunciation of your goals, desires, and purposes in life in subjection to him—you and they must all now take a backseat—

The cost of kingdom greatness is everything—yourself and your life! You must wholly and wholeheartedly submit to Christ and his cause as Lord—so much that you are even willing to follow him to death should he require that of you. You’re either in or your out—there’s no giving half of yourself—that’s not good enough—that’s not self-denial—that’s not sacrifice—no—Jesus calls his disciples to a radical new understanding of what following God and himself as the Son of God, looks like—One that his disciples never heard before—and one that many who would follow Jesus today seldom hear—death to self—and maybe even death of self.

This is the path to greatness—self-denial and sacrifice—down and up—this is the race to greatness—last is first—this is the cost of greatness—your life in life, and potentially even in death. It’s a profound paradox that in order to gain your life there, in heaven—your eternal life—you must be willing to lose your life, here, by renouncing your own personal rights, priorities, and prerogatives—and maybe even lose your life for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s sake…

This is the call Jesus summons you and anyone else who’d ever follow him to. It’s the call to and the cost of kingdom greatness that Jesus famously and soberingly puts like this: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”