I recently finished reading The Cost of Discipleship and was powerfully affected by its message, of how the rise of Nazism drove Bonhoeffer’s theological leanings, with implications for today.
BONHOEFFER BIOGRAPHY BY ERIC METAXAS
I shared some of what I read on facebook where I have a friend who was reading the biography on the author, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.
At first, I passed it off as a possibility for summer reading, when I was done homeschooling.
As we continued to chat about Bonhoeffer and The Cost of Discipleship, I became driven to get the biography and incorporate an additional 500+ pages into our homeschool reading.
I trusted Bonhoeffer would be the key I was looking for, to give our rhetoric history studies a further glimpse into European history of why and how Hitler came into power.
WINSTON CHURCHILL’S THE GATHERING STORM
I was currently reading Winston Churchill’s, The Gathering Storm, where he documented how he repeatedly warned Britain and Europe of the dangers lurking at the hands of Hitler.
His warnings fell on deaf ears.
BONHOEFFER’S 1937 COST OF DISCIPLESHIP
Published in 1937, a year before Hitler’s tanks rolled into Austria, and then Czechoslovakia, The Cost of Discipleship details how the German Lutheran church of the 1930’s supported Hitler to the extent that they effectively rewrote the Bible and made Hitler god.
Although Bonhoeffer spoke against this, his words fell on deaf ears.
He and others formed the Confessing Church.
In the book, Bonhoeffer elaborates on the definitions of cheap grace and costly grace.
CHEAP GRACE
To paraphrase, cheap grace is claiming Christ without following the teachings of the Bible, living as one wishes instead of as Christ leads.
In cheap grace, Jesus is not viewed as Lord.
COSTLY GRACE
However costly grace submits to Christ, follows the Word, and seeks His will.
Jesus is viewed as Lord.
Bonhoeffer expounds upon these ideas as he looks at the Sermon on the Mount, found in the book of Matthew, chapters 5-7.
BONHOEFFER QUOTES
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace. p43
The price we are having to pay to-day in the shape of the collapse of the organized Church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available to all at too low a cost. p54
How can we live the Christian life in the modern world? p55
…some God deems worthy of the highest form of suffering, and gives them the grace of martyrdom… p89 (Note: Bonhoeffer was martyred shortly before the Allies came into Germany.)
Suffering means being cut off from God. Therefore, those who live in communion with him cannot really suffer. p92
How can we convince the world by our preaching of the passion when we shrink from that passion in our own lives? p144
They (Christians who choose costly grace) wander on earth and live in heaven, and although they are weak, they protect the world; they taste of peace in the midst of turmoil; they are poor, and yet they have all they want. They stand in suffering and remain in joy, they appear dead to all outward sense and lead a life of faith within. p270-271 (Summary of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:3-10)
