Twentysome years ago, one of the first Bible studies I ever authored was entitled “Cheap Grace.” The study was inspired by an old old song by Steve Camp, who was, in turn, inspired by those same words penned in the book The Cost of Discipleship.
So after all those years, for the March “book by a dead guy” I finally got around to reading this classic, written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. There is much that can be said about Bonhoeffer the man and Bonhoeffer the theologian, but I will leave that to another time, and focus solely on this book which has challenged the lives of so many.
The Cost of Discipleship can really be thought of as four short books; for its four main divisions, although all speaking of discipleship, are distinct enough to stand on their own thematically.
The first division of the book is both the most famous and the most challenging, being an extended essay on the true nature of grace contrasted with its widespread distorted definitions and the resulting abuse of its meaning and the God behind it. The first sentence of the first chapter sums it up, “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church.” There are sentences I have underlined all through these first five chapters:
To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self.
When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.
We have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence.
Jesus has to create (with the rich young ruler) a situation in which there can be no retreat, an irrevocable situation.
The man who disobeys cannot believe, for only he who obeys can believe.
Christ must make it clear from the start that his word is not an abstract doctrine, but the re-creation of the whole life from man.
Jesus summons men to follow Him not as a teacher or a pattern of the good life, but as the Christ, the Son of God.
The second division of the book is an extended devotion & exposition of the Sermon on the Mount. There are some chapters which are very insightful, such as the chapter on Matthew 6:16-18. A favorite quote: When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh. Other chapters I felt were uneven or even marginal.
The third divison, entitled “The Messengers,” explores Matthew 9:35-10:42, where the apostles are commissioned to minister to Israel. It is short (20 pages) and honestly could have been shorter.
The last division is on the church—the nature of discipleship and the Christian life within the corporate body. Like the first section, there is some profound stuff here:
The old man cannot will his own death or kill himself. He can only die in, through and with Christ.
Baptism incorporates us into the unity of the body of Christ, and the Lord’s Supper fosters and sustains our fellowship and communion in that Body.
Now through Word and Sacrament the body of Christ is no longer confined to a single place.
If the Church refuses to face the stern reality of sin, it will gain no credence when it talks of forgiveness.
The Cost of Discipleship, although uneven in places, shows more than enough genius of writing and profound insight into the truth of Christ to merit it on any follower’s bookshelf. Highly recommended.
It’s an all too common trap: structuring our life in such a way that we are simply performing for God instead of abiding in God, and then wondering why we struggle. In Running on Empty Fil Anderson give a very personal look at his own struggles with a life lived ostensibly for Christ but in reality devoid of Christ, and his path toward healing.
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