The Cost of Discipleship

Today we celebrate the 101st anniversary of the birth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the person who wrote the book on discipleship. Literally. His book The Cost of Discipleship has been so influential to Christianity and is so foundational for The Just Life that we thought it might be helpful to summarize some of his key ideas.

Published in 1937, The Cost of Discipleship grew out of Bonhoeffer’s seminars, sermons, and study groups he was a part of as the world around him seemed to be self-destructing.

Bonhoeffer knew that following Jesus meant a response of obedience, not merely a confession of faith in Jesus. Following Jesus meant participating in Jesus’ life and ministry, as well as in his death and resurrection. “When Christ calls a man,” says Dietrich, “he bids him come and die.” He modeled that in the way he lived and died. His ideas were just as powerful as his witness:

As a good Lutheran, Bonhoeffer grew up hearing the famous Reformation rallying cry. We are saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ! And he wouldn’t have argued with it. But he DID have a problem with Christians who taught and/or thought that, since we don’t have to do anything to be “saved,” therefore we don’t have to do anything at all. That, he said, is cheap grace.

“Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord’s Supper without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ.”

Bonhoeffer contrasts cheap grace with what he calls “costly grace,” grace that is always connected to discipleship.

“It is costly because it calls to discipleship; it is grace, because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly, because it costs people their lives; it is grace, because it thereby makes them live. It is costly, because it condemns sin; it is grace, because it justifies the sinner. Above all, grace is costly, because it was costly to God, because it costs God the life of God’s Son — you were bought with a price’- and because nothing can be cheap to us which is costly to God.”

The gift of salvation can never be separated from the call to follow Jesus. We don’t have to do anything to be saved; that is a gift! But this gift sets us free to answer Christ’s call to love God and serve our neighbor. We are called and set free to give ourselves away for the sake of others. We are called and set free to follow Christ.

For grace is not discipleship.

“It is not enough for man simply to recover right ideas about God, or to obey his will in the isolated actions of his life. No, man must be refashioned as a living whole in the image of God. His whole for, body, soul, and spirit, must once more bear that image on earth.”

Nor is discipleship something reserved only for an elite or monastic class of Christians “called” to such commitment. Those who answer the call are not monks but are Christians.

“…Thus monasticism became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity and the cheapening of grace. But the Church was wise enough to tolerate this protest, and to prevent it from developing to its logical conclusion. It thus succeeded in relativising it, even using it in order to justify the secularization of its own life. Monasticism was represented as an individual achievement which the mass of the laity could not be expected to emulate. By thus limiting the application of the commandments of Jesus to a restricted group of specialists, the Church evolved the fatal conception of the double standard — a maximum and a minimum standard of Christian obedience. Whenever the Church was accused of being too secularized, it could always point to monasticism as an opportunity of living a higher life within the fold, and thus justify the other possibility of a lower standard of life for others.”

No, the call of discipleship is inseparable from grace. Bonheoffer instructs that the only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.

Nor is leaving all to follow Christ merely metaphysical or metaphorical — it is actual. As evidenced by response of the disciples being an act of obedience, not a confession of faith.

“With an abstract idea it is possible to enter into a relation of formal knowledge, to become enthusiastic about it, and perhaps even put it into practice; but it can never be followed in personal obedience. Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is Christianity without Christ…since he is the Christ, he must make it clear from that start that his word is not an abstract doctrine, but the re-creation of the whole life of man.”

“Unless a man obeys he cannot believe.”

When we answer Christ’s call to follow, Bonhoeffer reminded us, it is like finding a treasure hidden in a field or a pearl of great price. It is worth leaving your nets behind. It is an easy burden to bear.

“[Blessed are those who follow Christ because...] their heavenly home has become so certain that they are truly free for life in this world”

Answering the call to discipleship is not easy. It is a path paved with sacrifice and suffering. But Bonhoeffer wouldn’t have had it any other way. It is the only path to freedom. It is the way to joy.

“When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die.” In fact, the only reason we can answer the call to follow is because it is Jesus who calls us.

“Because Jesus is the Christ, he has authority to call and to demand obedience to his word. Jesus calls to discipleship, not as a teacher and a role model, but as the Christ, the Son of God.”

The Great Commission: “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, emphasis added).

The guiding force in Bonheoffer’s life, underlying all that he did, worked and suffered for, was his faith and love of God in whom he found peace and happiness. From his faith the breadth of vision came which enabled him to separate the gold in life from the dross and to differentiate what was and what was not essential in the life of man. From it came the constancy of mind, persistency of purpose, love of suffering humanity, and of truth, justice, and goodness. But it was not enough for him to seek justice, truth, honesty, and goodness for their own sake and patiently suffer for them. No, according to Bonheoffer, we have to do so in loyal obedience to Him who is the source and spring of all goodness, justice and truth and on whom he felt absolutely dependent. (G. Leibholz)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested in March 1943 for his part in attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was imprisoned and eventually hanged just before the end of WWII.

Admittedly, this summary doesn’t do justice to The Cost of Discipleship — please read the book, you will not be disappointed.