costly?
Mike Abendroth
J.C. Ryle talks about the cost of being a Christian based on Luke 14:28:
“I grant freely that it costs little to be a mere outward Christian…But it does cost something to be a real Christian, according to the standard of the Bible. There are enemies to be overcome, battles to be fought, sacrifices to be made, an Egypt to be forsaken, a wilderness to be passed through, a cross to be carried, a race to be run. Conversion is not putting a man in an arm-chair and taking him easily to heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory. Hence arises the unspeakable importance of ‘counting the cost.’”
J.C. Ryle, from J.I. Packer’s Faithfulness and Holiness: The Witness of J.C. Ryle, 174.
Thomas Watson, "[Jesus] alone is the Prince of Preachers. He alone is the best of expositors."