As an intellectual, he quotes Latin and Greek expecting all to understand.
Parts of it feel like preaching at church, at other times, a scholarly work of hermeneutics. His moving prose provoke, but his book can be a tough read. The Cost of Discipleship provides a stark contrast to the teaching of popular preachers today, who proclaim that Jesus represents a path to wealth, blessing and influence. We are fighting today for costly grace…Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship Following Jesus costs and if it doesn’t, what Jesus are you following? The one you imagined.Ĭheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. When we water down Jesus’ teaching on discipleship, we enter a counterfeit faith. It is a unique blend of biblical exegesis, pastoral advice and the challenge of discipleship. And the cross is the only justification for the precept of non-violence, for it alone can kindle a faith in the victory over evil which will enable men to obey that precept – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of DiscipleshipĪt 288 pages long, his signature classic, The Cost of Discipleship, first published in 1937, takes up to seven hours to read. It looked as though evil had triumphed on the cross, but the real victory belonged to Jesus.
But Jesus is no draughtsman of political blue-prints He is the one who vanquished evil through suffering. To make non-resistance a principle for secular life is to deny God, by undermining his gracious ordinance for the preservation of the world. He knew it could cost him everything, but cheap grace was unknown to him. The time is coming when the confession of the living God will incur not only the hatred and the fury of the world, for on the whole it has come to that already, but complete ostracism from ‘human society,’ as they call it – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleshipīonhoeffer with his circular glasses, altruistic rotund face and the glance of a benevolent professor, packed his bags willingly and returned to fascist Germany. Noted as a significant theologian of his time, Christians in Britain and the United States succeeded in enticing him safely abroad, but to help rebuild Germany after the war, he felt he needed to suffer with it first. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleshipīorn in 1906, in Breslau, then Germany, Bonhoeffer loved his nation, but came to believe Germany had to be destroyed to deliver it from the plague of Nazism. He fully embodied his teachings on costly grace, sacrifice, and discipleship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer willingly died at the hands of the Nazis in 1945 and as a result of his sacrifice, his writings continue to have a profound impact.
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