“My friends, we don't have to live, but there’s something that we must do, and that is honor Christ. His glory, the demands of his kingdom, and the commitment that belongs to him as Lord and Savior, is a commitment that demands of us that we shall never compromise truth, justice, and honor for the sake of a livelihood or for the sake of our own worldly advancement.

Now, that’s the truth, and there it comes to us in a very concrete and practical and searching way: ‘If a man will be my disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me.’ That means nothing less than this: if we are Christ’s disciples, we shall have to say in every concrete situation of our life, in every emergency in which we are placed, ‘Here is the gibbet for my execution, and it is the only alternative when the honor of Christ and loyalty to him demands it.’ Jesus is saying nothing less than that. Oh my friend, I say it with all tenderness, but I must say it as the ambassador of Christ: we don’t have to live, but we do have to be faithful to Christ. Otherwise, we are not his disciples.” - John Murray, “The Cost of Discipleship” in Oh Death, Where is Thy Sting?: Collected Sermons (2017), p. 182 [not yet available on LCP]