A book critique on "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

The Cost of Discipleship

Before Bonhoeffer could challenge his readers, he had to convince them to "get on his bandwagon". He begins by writing about grace. Bonhoeffer categorizes grace into two groups: one is cheap grace and the other is costly grace. To Bonhoeffer, cheap grace is the denial of the living Word of God and the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. He goes so far as to say, "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession" (p. 44). Bonhoeffer even goes as far as to say that cheap grace is another word for damnation. Obviously, he isn't advocating this type of grace. The grace Bonhoeffer longs for Christians to have is costly grace. This type of grace requires action of the Christian. "Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again..." (p. 45). Bonhoeffer states that since we are called to follow it, it is costly, and because we are called to follow Christ, it is grace. "Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son..." (p.45). Any Christian with any conviction to follow Christ is almost forced to agree with Bonhoeffer, and that is exactly what he wanted. Now that you're "on the bandwagon", he can hit you with his radical ideas of what it means to follow Christ.

Now that Bonhoeffer has you, he says to just obey God, don't rationalize. We should not question God; we should just do as He says. He also points out that following God isn't a cakewalk. Discipleship means suffering, and we should not kid ourselves by believing otherwise.

Bonhoeffer then shifts to show us how we should follow Christ. He does so by thoroughly covering the Sermon on the Mount. He doesn't beat around the bush here. He is very straightforward in conveying his ideas. In this section, Bonhoeffer makes the claim that disciples should not dream of progress, or power and of the future; rather, we should meditate on the end and the coming kingdom. He emphasizes that true disciples show by every word and gesture that they are not of this world.

Bonhoeffer also discusses the issues of being visible for the world to see and the righteousness of Christ. He says, although I do not agree, that we should still adhere to the original law of the Old Testament. Bonhoeffer also denounces lust, as this would interfere with our "absolute adherence to him" (p. 131).

Bonhoeffer also makes an excellent exposition on revenge. He says, "The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it" (p. 141). Instead of being overcome by evil, we should let evil run its course, and let it run itself out so no further evil can be done. He supports this by stating that Jesus died when he didn't have to. He could've easily avoided the whole situation, but he put up with a lot of evil when he could've taken himself out of this world with only a thought. He didn't resist the evil given to him; he accepted it willingly.

Then Bonhoeffer hits his readers with a difficult part of Christianity: "Love your enemies", "Bless them that persecute you", Do good to them that hate you", Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you". This is related to his discussion on revenge. Instead of returning hate to those who hate us, we should return love.

Bonhoeffer then discusses messengers of the Gospel. He talks about how they are called, what they do, and what kind of persecution they receive for following God. He does end this section on a good note; he discusses the reward for being faithful to God, "...indeed forgiveness and salvation, life and bliss" (p. 220).

Bonhoeffer concludes by describing what the church of Christ should be. He discusses baptism. He writes what our churches and we as believers should be like, also.

I thought The Cost of Discipleship was a very challenging book to say the least. I didn't know what to expect when I started this book, but I know what I got out of it: a God-sent kick in the pants. Although some of Bonhoeffer's ideas were radical, I can't really fault him on it. He was trying to follow God so closely that it led him to maybe carry some things too far. I admire him for that.

Bonhoeffer got me right off the bat with his discussion of grace. Until now, I had never really thought about how easy it was for me to accept Christ as my Savior. It made me wonder, "what kind of grace do I have?" and "am I happy with the grace that I have?" Obviously, these were very tough questions to swallow. It also made me consider the type of grace that we are preaching and teaching at my church at home. Are we only preaching the salvation message without teaching what being a Christian really means? Again, this was tough to swallow. All in all, we do have it easy today. We aren't persecuted for our faith. The worst we can expect is some teasing and ridiculing from coworkers or classmates, but nothing really serious. We may be asked to give up a group of friends or habits, but is it not worth it? We certainly do not endanger our lives by choosing to follow Christ. It's almost too easy for us to receive Christ today. For these reasons, it's obvious why cheap grace is a problem. If more people today would realize just how good we have it in Christ, the world wouldn't be in the sad condition that it is in. If more people realized just how special grace is, and give it the honor it deserves, people's Christian lives would be much closer to God. If people would consider that grace wasn't cheap for God - it cost him his only begotten son - no Christian would settle for cheap grace. I know I won't any longer.

Bonhoeffer made the statement, "If you dismiss the word of God's command, you will not receive his word of grace" (p. 67). Bonhoeffer says not to be surprised if prayer is difficult if I'm holding on sin. This is so true. As if we didn't have enough reasons to turn away from all of our sins, Bonhoeffer gives us another one: if we have sin in our life, we will not experience God the way He is meant to be experienced. Our prayers will go unanswered and our lives unblessed if we do not obey God's commandments. Bonhoeffer says that we will not hear Christ if we are willingly disobedient. This was very convicting. If I had some justification for trying to hold on to sin in my life, this just blew it out of the water.

Bonhoeffer's idea of single-minded obedience went directly against my personality. Beneath his single-minded obedience was the principle, just obey and do not rationalize. I cannot help but want to know how and why things happen and will happen. I want to know every little detail on how things work and why they work like they do. Bonhoeffer encouraged me not to try to work things out in my mind before obeying or following God, just to do it. If I'm in God's will, He will not lead me wrong. I do not have to know why things are the way they are; I just need to know what God is telling me to do and to do it.

The chapter on Discipleship and the Individual made me really question my level of commitment to God. From this chapter, it can be concluded that true discipleship will result in suffering. Since in today's society, Christians do not suffer as they have in past times, how can I tell if I am a "true disciple" of Christ? This was frustrating because I really couldn't think of any way that I am suffering because I am following God. It makes it especially difficult to consider my suffering for the cause of Christ since I'm here at Ouachita Baptist University. Here, Christianity is not discouraged, but the norm. So how can I know if I'm a true disciple? I don't think that giving up worldly pleasure is suffering, so am I a true disciple. This is a question that I will continue to struggle with.

In his discussion of the Beatitudes, I found another point of conviction for me. Bonhoeffer says that the meek "show by every word and gesture that they do not belong to this earth" (p. 110). I had to consider if my peers could say this about me. Can people tell be my every word and every gesture that I am a child of Christ. If they cannot, they should be able to, and if they can't, the problem is with me and not with them. Every Christian should want to be identified with Jesus, and I am no different, but is everything I do a testament to that? If it isn't, it should be.

As I said above, Bonhoeffer's book was very challenging. It wasn't fun finding out things that I need to change in my life, but I don't think that chastisement is supposed to be fun. I know that I will be better for the changes that I must make, and that makes the temporary shame worth it all in the end.