The Cost of Dicsipleship

"God is the giver [of the law] and its Lord, and only in personal communion with God is the law fulfilled" pg 122



The Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer begins his books speaking about Grace. The costly Grace that we are given, rather than the cheap Grace of self-justification. He continues to write about Grace's relationship to obedience, something else that has been wrongly interpreted. 

In our culture, we have seen the pendulum swing from cheap Grace (sins are already forgiven so why quit) to legalism. As a great example of this himself through his involvement with WWII, he goes on the say "the only way to follow Jesus was by living in the world." His writing is convicting to those who 1) do not engage in the world, and 2) those are settle for a secularized Christianity. 

Bonhoeffer always points to Jesus, and that the call to Faith and Obedience are both calls to follow Him. He refers to Peter, who "had to leave this ship in order to learn both his weakness and the almighty power of the Lord," pg 63. "We can only take this step aright if we fix our eyes not on the work we do, but on the word with which Jesus call us to do it... Christ must first call him... the first step of obedience proves to be an act of faith" pg 66. 

"The call to follow means...adherence to the person of Jesus Christ and fellowship with him...is not the hero-worship we would pay to a good master, but obedience to the Son of God," pg 76. "In Jesus the law is at once fulfilled and cancelled," pg 83

"The call of Christ...sets the Christian in the middle of the of daily arena against sin and the devil," pg 90. It is impossible to do this without his strength, yet "adherence to him means persecutions," pg 101.

Bonhoeffer gives a sobering insight to Jesus' statement that we are the salt of the earth, "everything else needs to be seasoned with salt, but once the salt itself has lost its savour, it can never be salted again," pg 116.