The Cost of Discipleship

This book really made me think about what it truly means to follow Christ. It’s not just about belief but about living with intention and being willing to make sacrifices. Some parts were tough to read, but that’s what made it so meaningful. I found myself reflecting on my own faith and actions after each chapter. It’s the kind of book that sticks with you long after you finish it and makes you want to apply its lessons in everyday life. Definitely a book I’ll be coming back to.

Fortunately, I could finally finished reading this book, which is called one of the most important theological books of the 20c, and a modern theological classic. It required approximately two months for me to finish because of my English ability and theological knowledge, but needless to say it was worth the time and cost to examine. Even in the terrible oppression under the Nazi German government, Dietrich Bonhoeffer did not give up his faith with no fear of being killed. He is apprised as an “Apostle of the modern era” and a “defender of Western civilization”. Through this book, I had been kept seeking his core theological source of conviction which enabled him to keep his faith so resiliently: Unfortunately, the conviction lead him to his death of the young age 39. From this book, I could successfully recognize Bonhoeffer’s rigid ideological foundation that made it possible for him to be killed by a capital death of hanging, as a martyr. I found that he thought it is not only the Christian’s right but duty to protest the government which is against God’s law, righteousness or providence. Needless to say, on the premise that he was a Lutheran pastor, his logic and ethics are elaborated with these words such as “only the Bible”, “Grace alone”, “faith alone”, “the mystery of Incarnation”, and the “theology of Cross”. However, I paid attention to the logical point that how theologically he could make possible to refuse the law of “the world”, the law “on the earth”. Even though those laws and the Nazi government itself had occurred legally in a democratic regime and had legitimacy, he could deny it because of the reason that God’s law is superior to laws “on the earth”. Bonhoeffer proved theologically the superiority of God’s law than the law of the world with criticism on “leagalism”, the concept of Christ as a “Mediator”, criticism on the Reformers who justify and admits nations’ the right of revenge, criticism on some Protestant denomination who has theology that confuse Christ’s love and patriotism (p.152). Bonhoeffer’s theology depends on fine exegesis or interpretation of scriptures. In fact, we can find at least some evidence that his theology is breaching Lutheran authentic “doctrine of two kingdoms”, i.e. the mutual non-aggression between religion and states. Although it would not be completely denied the doctrine of separation of religion and states, we are able to recognize these phrases as a clue to breach the doctrine: For instance, “The law must be broken for the sake of Jesus; it forfeits all rights if it acts as a barrier to discipleship (p.61)”, Bonhoeffer wrote, “No law of the world can interfere with this fellowship (p.257)”, “They live their own life under alien rulers and alien laws (p.296)”, “Jesus, the champion of the true law, must suffer at the hands of the champions of the false law (p.121)”. From this point of view, we can find the reason of “the evil law is not a law”, in other words, he breached the dogma that “a law is a law, however undesirable it may be”. Laws on the earth are valid only if those are not against the will of Jesus, that is to say God’s law. Jesus “alone understands the nature of the law as God’s law (p.122)”. Apparently this logic is the base what enables Bonhoeffer to protest Nazi Germany and its laws. Then, if that is the case, on what ethical ground or virtue should we human beings live “in the world”. In Bonhoeffer’s theology, the corner stone of ethics is based on the Lutheran notion of “Pecca fortiter”, i.e. Sin Boldly: Human beings must recognize deeply his weakness, incompleteness, and sinfulness, and then we may be compensated if we completely rely on Omnipotent Father God and Christ as the Mediator. According to Bonhoeffer, Christians need to follow Jesus’ life and death, and to obey his teaching, that means realization of God’s Word. And they should put “beatitudes” into practice in “the Body of Christ” namely in the Church, in the Christian community. When Christians take the Sermon on the mount into practice, they need to be the Beatitudes; the poor, the person who mourn, the meek, the person who suffer from hunger and thirst, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peace makers, the person who are persecuted for righteous sake. Only through this practice, they can become disciples of Christ. If they could practice, simply to do this discipleship on the world, i.e. in daily life, with love of fellowship, they could be “salt of the earth” and they could be able to express their extraordinariness or peculiarity without intention. Bonhoeffer argues that this extraordinariness is the realization of the law of God, and Christian peculiarity will come out in their proclamation, which means manifest of God’s law. The righteousness of God can never be contributed back to “Justica Civils” i.e. laws of citizen, and therefore Christians shall be persecuted as strangers in the secular world. Nevertheless, just in the midst of the persecution, Christians must show the divinity of the righteousness of God. Therefore he wrote it down not only once that the death in martyrdom is the supreme grace for Christians who follows Jesus’ life and want to be imitative of Jesus’ death on the Cross. From above, we can confirm the base conceptions of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: First, for Christian, God’s law exceeds law on the world. Second, Christians are separated from the secular world and must show their divinity and extraordinariness in the daily life by practicing beatitudes. Third, the death of s martyr is the supreme gift which a few of Christians are given. I guess if he had not these theological conceptions, Bonhoeffer could not get the triumph of martyrdom under the cruel Nazi government. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906. He learned theology in Tuebingen University and became a lecturer of the University of Berlin when he was only 24 years old. Then he studied at the Union theological Seminary in New York. Reckless of danger, in 1935 he started protesting against the German Christian Movement that spread rapidly in Germany together with the prosperity of Nazional Sozialisms. He accused it as an Antichrist ideology. He reported to his friends in Britain and the US the truth and facts of German Church Struggle between the Deutchen Kristen and the Confession Church, and as a leader of the Confession Church movement, he also taught underground at an illegal Church Training College. When the assassination plan for Adolf Hitler comes to surface, Bonhoeffer was arrested by Gestapo, as one of the suspects on April 5th in 1943. On April 9th in 1945, he was killed by hanging through SS chief Heinlich Himmler’s order. It was only few weeks before the day when Berlin was freed by the Soviet Union Red Army.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer! One of his best.

Very good read

The Cost of Discipleship – Dietrich Bonhoeffer I found this book to be significantly instructive on how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. However, Bonhoeffer does not make a clear distinction between being saved by grace through faith and following Jesus as His disciple in obedience to His commands. He does not distinguish the salvation passages from the biblical warning passages to Christians. Nevertheless, if Bonhoeffer’s exhortations are taken by the believer to embrace costly discipleship as an invitation to follow Jesus there is great benefit. Dietrich Bonhoeffer succinctly explains justification in chapter 31, “The justification of the sinner consists in the sole righteousness of God, wherein the sinner is utterly and completely unrighteous, and has no righteousness whatever of his own, side by side with the righteousness of God…But when we are brought to faith in the death of Christ, we receive the righteousness of God triumphant on the cross in the very place where we receive our own condemnation as sinners.” Yet later in the chapter we read statements that contradict the truth of faith alone in Christ alone. “Discipline in a congregation is a servant of the precious grace of God. If a member of the Church falls into sin, he must be admonished and punished, ‘lest he forfeit his own salvation’ and the gospel be discredited.” When a Christian sins, he never forfeits his salvation, but severs his fellowship with God and harms his relationship with other believers. Above all I was drawn to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life as he lived it sold out to Jesus Christ as described in the Memoir section given by G. Leibholz before the text. He was truly a man of God who gave his life as a martyr for the sake of Christ. But he was full of life, a believer who served the Lord by serving others. This description by Leibholz gives the reader a look into Bonhoeffer’s heart: “Bonhoeffer was as open as any man could be to all the things which make life beautiful. He rejoiced in the love of his parents, his sisters and brothers, his fiancée, his many friends. He loved the mountains, the flowers, the animals- the greatest and the simplest things in life. His geniality and inborn chivalry, his love of music, art and literature, the firmness of his character, his personal charm and his readiness to listen, made him friends everywhere. But what marked him most was his unselfishness and preparedness to help others up to the point of self-sacrific. Whenever others hesitated to undertake a task that required special courage, Bonhoeffer was ready to take the risk.” Bonhoeffer believed that only a turn to Christ could save a nation, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer more than anybody else realized that nothing less than a return to the Christian faith could save Germany.” I believe that his words are true for us in the United States today. Our only hope is revival in Christ Jesus. Here are some lessons in discipleship that I took from reading The Cost of Discipleship: -“’Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ That is the love of the Crucified. Only in the cross of Christ do we find the fulfilment of the law.” -“Adherence to Jesus allows no free rein to desire unless it be accompanied by love.” -In agreeing to pray for our enemies (his enemies, the Nazis would ultimately martyr him) Bonhoeffer sees a prayer of love: “It will be the prayer of earnest love for these very sons of perdition who stand around and gaze at us with eyes aflame with hatred, and who have perhaps already raised their hands to kill us.” -More on prayer: “It matters little what form of prayer we adopt or how many words we use, what matters is the faith which lays hold on God and touches the heart of the Father who knew us long before we came to him.” -“Earthly goods were given to be used, not to be collected” Finally, Dietrich Bonhoeffer in these words speaks prophetically of himself: “A few, but only a few, of his followers are accounted worthy of the closest fellowship with his sufferings—the blessed martyrs. No other Christian is so closely identified with the form of Christ crucified.”

In true Bonhoeffer fashion he makes you think, challenges you, and then it is up to you to allow the Holy Spirit to work.

Quite simply, The Cost of Discipleship is a timeless, treasured, and an elite book that stands head and shoulders above most of its peers. The book is a theologically rich yet practical exposition on discipleship and the Christian walk by a genuine suffering servant of Christ. (The author voluntarily returned to Nazi Germany from the United States to preach the good news, only to be executed for his beliefs). This book not only challenges your imagination to consider what discipleship truly means, but also reveals how costly that choice becomes in contemporary society. In Bonhoeffer’s own words, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” In contemplating what the words of Christ mean for believers in the 20th century, Bonhoeffer develops a gorgeous argument separated into four sections. Part I, “Grace and Discipleship” brings the reader back to the Biblical tradition to explore that grace cannot be separated from sin, and that genuine discipleship essentially means a rejection of one’s very life in pursuit of God. It is here that the author develops his profound idea of “costly grace.” In other words, “what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.” Part II, “The Sermon on the Mount” ends up being a wonderfully orchestrated exegesis of Christ’s words in Matthew chapters 5 through 7. Here, what discipleship actually means in our day-to-day lives is explored, and this further expands on Part I. Parts III and IV, “The Messengers” and “The Church of Jesus Christ and the Life of Discipleship,” expand into interpersonal and group dynamics of discipleship. The book concludes with the chapter “The Image of Christ” where we learn how to regain our humanity by relinquishing our individualism. The Cost of Discipleship is a gripping commentary on the demands of sacrifice and moral stability from a man whose life and reflections were idyllic articulations of Christ-centered leadership, driven by the force of committed Christian neighborliness and an imaginative sense of civic duty. In a modern world full of opinions, Bonhoeffer’s words written more than 50 years ago are as potent and powerful now as they were then. No longer are we fit to call ourselves “Christians” when we incessantly hop from branch to branch. As the author makes very plain, there are only two ways—Christ or the world—and to choose the latter invariably leads to death. This is a highly inspirational, intellectually stimulating and empowering masterpiece that should be on the bookshelf of anyone who wants to embrace what it truly means to be an imitator of Christ. Read it, take notes, reflect on it, cherish it, and then read it again. Prepare to be convicted.

To paraphrase Bonhoeffer’s words, the phrase “I know nothing” can mean radically different things depending on who says it. The freshman in college claims ignorance because he actually is ignorant. Faust (legendary German scholar) claims ignorance having been brought back full circle by a lifetime pursuit of knowledge. The freshman says it and does not know what he is talking about. The latter says it and means it. Bonhoeffer is to the Christian what Faust is to the freshman. To the layman Christian, read this book and then reread it. Draw from his lifetime of experience and see what it means to live for Christ. Discipleship requires self-denial. It requires effort, not because we can work our way up to God, but only so we can see the ineffectiveness of our efforts and thus turn to God for help. Discipleship is war against the flesh and peace in Christ. To the clergyman, chapter one is talking about you. Everyone loves Bonhoeffer. They love to study about him. They love to read his works. But few want to actually be like him. Everyone rallies to give their Hora against cheap grace, but then when it comes to preaching divine wrath and judgment against sin and immorality, the priests and pastors are nowhere to be found. And in doing thus, men testify against themselves by building Bonhoeffer a sepulcher and decorating his grave. Make no mistake, this book is not the Bible, and it is not my intention to lionize any man-made literature. This book is but a deposit of godly insight and knowledge. But I will say this: the deep secrets of God are learned neither in Sunday services nor theology books, but only through a lifetime of personal obedience. Through Bonhoeffer, God has given us a preview of what he has in store for those who love him and obey him. Not all books are good. Not all good books can be read. Not all good books that are read are remembered. The ones that are we call “Classic”. Discipleship is a classic.

Awesome read

Gutes Buch.

A quite fabulous book. A must have for any serious Christian. Hard in places, needing concentration, deep thought and much self-reflection. But a quite incredible real life journey into what it takes to be a true Christian. Grace is costly and it is very hard to achieve. If 1 Peter is helpful in how to align being a Christian with the workings of the Nation State, then this book is an encyclopaedia.

神学を学ぶには、必読書です。英語への翻訳もナカナカで評価が高いものです。

There is nothing is say I dislike or like, but preferably I would observe text like this need to be read critically and with discernment. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was both worldly and political in his life and also at the same time I sense he was also deeply pastoral. I would advise that whatever we mentally absorb must be done from a critical understanding from our personally lived as well as intellectual experiences. This book is recommended.