Cost of Discipleship

Notes and highlights for

The Cost of Discipleship

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich

Foreword

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“ When Christ calls a man , he bids him come and die . ”

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The subject of his dissertation was the question “ What is the Church ? ” , which

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Bonhoeffer believed that if one could not translate one’s theological

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ideas from the academic realm down to the layman in the pew — and not just to him but to his children — perhaps one did not understand much at all or have much to say .

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So taking his theology to real people , and not just to be understood but to be lived out as disciples of Christ , was for him paramount .

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He was willing to pay whatever price necessary for his convictions , but he didn’t want others to pay for his bold stand .

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But Bonhoeffer knew that if serving God meant doing so outside the church , so be it . He knew that much of what God had done in history was done without the help of — or sometimes in spite of — those who called themselves God’s people .

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“ religionless Christianity , ” a Christian faith that was more than mere “ religion , ” that consisted of far more than simply avoiding sins and attending a church service once a week . Rather , it was the kind of faith Bonhoeffer had seen among the African Americans in Harlem . But Bonhoeffer did not find this kind of faith in Germany when Germany needed it most . And so now Bonhoeffer felt more alone than ever , but he knew that in the end he answered to his audience of One , the only One whose opinion mattered .

Memoir

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When a man really gives up trying to make something out of himself — a saint , or a converted sinner , or a churchman ( a so - called clerical somebody ) , a righteous or unrighteous man , … when in the fullness of tasks , questions , success or ill - hap , experiences and perplexities , a man throws himself into the arms of God … then he wakes with Christ in Gethsemane .

Part I: Grace and Discipleship

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CHEAP GRACE is the deadly enemy of our Church .

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Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner .

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Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance , baptism without church discipline , Communion without confession , absolution without personal confession . Cheap grace is grace without discipleship , grace without the cross , grace without Jesus Christ , living and incarnate .

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Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again , the gift which must be asked for , the door at which a man must knock .

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The world was Christianized , and grace became its common property .

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Thus monasticism became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity and the cheapening of grace .

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By thus limiting the application of the commandments of Jesus to a restricted group of specialists , the Church evolved the fatal conception of the double standard — a maximum and a minimum standard of Christian obedience . Whenever the Church was accused of being too secularized , it could always point to monasticism as an opportunity of living a higher life within the fold , and thus justify the other possibility of a lower standard of life for others .

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the following of Christ is not the achievement or merit of a select few , but the divine command to all Christians without distinction .

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Luther did not hear the word : “ Of course you have sinned , but now everything is forgiven , so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness . ” No , Luther had to leave the cloister and go back to the world , not because

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Luther had taught that man cannot stand before God , however religious his works and ways may be , because at bottom he is always seeking his own interests .

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Costly grace was turned into cheap grace without discipleship .

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By laying hold of God’s forgiveness , he made the final , radical renunciation of a self - willed life , and this breach was such that it led inevitably to a serious following of Christ .

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The upshot of it all is that my only duty as a Christian is to leave the world for an hour or so on a Sunday morning and go to church to be assured that my sins are all forgiven .

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I need no longer try to follow Christ , for cheap grace , the bitterest foe of discipleship , which true discipleship must loathe and detest , has freed me from that .

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The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ . Such a man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace , and that the call is inseparable from the grace . But those who try to use this grace as a dispensation from following Christ are simply deceiving themselves .

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Cheap grace has turned out to be utterly merciless to our Evangelical Church .

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Instead of calling us to follow Christ , it has hardened us in our disobedience .

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Having laid hold on cheap grace , they were barred for ever from the knowledge of costly grace .

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The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works .

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To put it quite simply , we must undertake this task because we are now ready to admit that we no longer stand in the path of true discipleship . We confess that , although our Church is orthodox as far as her doctrine of grace is concerned , we are no longer sure that we are members of a Church which follows its Lord .

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We must therefore attempt to recover a true understanding of the mutual relation between grace and discipleship .

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It is becoming clearer every day that the most urgent problem besetting our Church is this : How can we live the Christian life in the modern world ?

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The response of the disciples is an act of obedience , not a confession of faith in Jesus .

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Because Jesus is the Christ , he has the authority to call and to demand obedience to his word .

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According to our text , there is no road to faith or discipleship , no other road — only obedience to the call of Jesus .

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And what does the text inform us about the content of discipleship ? Follow me , run along behind me ! That is all . To follow in his steps is something

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At the call , Levi leaves all that he has — but not because he thinks that he might be doing something worth while , but simply for the sake of the call .

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When we are called to follow Christ , we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person .

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The first disciple offers to follow Jesus without waiting to be called .

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That is the meaning of Jesus ’ answer — he shows the would - be disciple what life with him involves .

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A definite legal ordinance acts as a barrier between Jesus and the man he has called . But the call of Jesus is stronger than the barrier . At this critical moment nothing on earth , however sacred , must be allowed to come between Jesus and the man he has called — not even the law itself .

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Discipleship to him is a possibility which can only be realized when certain conditions have been fulfilled .

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If we would follow Jesus we must take certain definite steps . The first step , which follows the call , cuts the disciple off from his previous existence .

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To stay in the old situation makes discipleship impossible .

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The call to follow implies that there is only one way of believing on Jesus Christ , and that is by leaving all and going with the incarnate Son of God .

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If he refuses to follow and stays behind , he does not learn how to believe .

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The new situation must be created , in which it is possible to believe on Jesus as God incarnate ; that is the impossible situation in which everything is staked solely on the word of Jesus .

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The road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus .

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only he who believes is obedient , and only he who is obedient believes .

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For faith is only real when there is obedience , never without it , and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience .

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Only the obedient believe . If we are to believe , we must obey a concrete command .

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Without this preliminary step of obedience , our faith will only be pious humbug , and lead us to the grace which is not costly .

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Although Peter cannot achieve his own conversion , he can leave his nets . In the gospels the very first step a man must take is an act which radically affects his whole existence .

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If we think our first step is the pre - condition for faith and grace , we are already judged by our work , and entirely excluded from grace .

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Unless he obeys , a man cannot believe .

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No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith , if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus .

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Do not say you have not got faith . You will not have it so long as you persist in disobedience and refuse to take the first step .

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No one wants to know about your faith or unbelief , your orders are to perform the act of obedience on the spot .

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Unbelief thrives on cheap grace , for it is determined to persist in disobedience .

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You cannot hear Christ because you are wilfully disobedient .

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With our consciences distracted by sin , we are confronted by the call of Jesus to spontaneous obedience .

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This is only possible and right for somebody who has already at some point or other in his life put into action his single - minded understanding , somebody who thus lives with Christ as his disciple and in anticipation of the end .

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The elimination of single - minded obedience on principle is but another instance of the perversion of the costly grace of the call of Jesus into the cheap grace of self - justification .

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In our effort to combat legalism we land ourselves in the worst kind of legalism . The only way of overcoming this legalism is by real obedience to Christ when he calls us to follow him ; for in Jesus the law is at once fulfilled and cancelled .

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The problem of discipleship then becomes a problem of exegesis as well .

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The step into the situation where faith is possible is not an offer which we can make to Jesus , but always his gracious offer to us .

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Self - denial is never just a series of isolated acts of mortification or asceticism . It is not suicide , for there is an element of self - will even in that . To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self , to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us .

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Only when we have become completely oblivious of self are we ready to bear the cross for his sake .

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If in the end we know only him , if we have ceased to notice the pain of our own cross , we are indeed looking only unto him .

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The first Christ - suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world .