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Bonhoeffer: Costly Grace (a repost)

Bonhoeffer: Costly Grace

Hey, here's a novel idea. Posting once a month. Yeah, well, probably not a good idea if one wants to holds the attention of others. Oh well . . . .

After reading Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, Chapter 1: Costly Grace, I was forced to come to re-examine my understanding of discipleship.

Because Bonhoeffer has a Lutheran, and thus sacramental, mindset, he is a bit of a anomaly to me. When he defines cheap grace, he states, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” (46)

When I first see this statement, I am thinking "Isn't that the way I've always seen discipleship?"

Then I realize that Bonhoeffer himself is railing against Lutherans who see salvation as sacramental and lost in Lutheran tradition. However, I am moved because Baptist have their own set of traditions and legalism. We don't define it as sacramental, but having worship without an offering time in a traditional baptist church. Someone will let you know that you screwed up worship. I admire churches who have gotten past the legalism of tradition in that sense.

However, his last line really hits me. Grace without discipleship and the cross is cheap grace. I want to shout Amen! But I stop because grace is grace without my effort. Bonhoeffer is attempting to describe the heart of the disciple. I am trying to clarify my motivation. I do not act as a disciple in order to prove the nature of grace. I act as a disciple because the grace is so overwhelming. In fact, my acts as a disciple prove that I understand the nature of God's grace. I think this is the heart of Bonhoeffer's point. He is not calling on Christians to make grace valuable. Grace stands on its own. He is instead calling on Christians to live their lives as if the grace they have received is precious and costly.

In other words "Grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus."

One of Bonhoeffer's greatest criticisms of Radicals and Baptists is that they preferred the contentment to the world rather than promoting works of discipleship. He felt that Baptist preferred to live in cheap grace rather than promote obedience to the law, which might annul grace and saving faith. In other words, accept salvation by faith, and then live however you want without rigorous discipline and spiritual boundaries. Again, I think Bonhoeffer defines these boundaries in terms of his Lutheran background, and probably in light of Luther's own love for monasticism. However, his criticism is not lost on me. And I think he is correct in this: that many Baptist will err on the side of grace and faith, costing them spiritual discipline and lulling themselves into spiritual mediocrity.

In the end, Bonhoeffer senses that cheap grace hardens our hearts to following Christ and to disobedience. We have been seduced to a mediocre level of the world, quenching the joy of discipleship because we chose the way to go. After all, our salvation is already accomplished by the grace of God.

Thus, if I want to get away from mediocre Christianity, I need to accept a call to more discipline in obeying Christ, which will involve submission to the way of the Savior.

As a Baptist, I cling to salvation by grace. Yet, I find myself hearing the call to take up my cross as well, not for my salvation, but because I understand the salvation that has been given to me.

Bonhoeffer: Suffering and Discipleship

Mark 8:31-38 states that Jesus predicts his death, and challenges his disciples to take up their cross and follow him.  They, of course, find this line of thinking to be offensive and ridiculous.  They criticize Jesus for his statement.


And he rebuked them, comparing them to Satan himself:  Get behind me!  (How many things in our life need to be treated the same: either help me follow Jesus, or get out of my way.)


So, you can follow Jesus, or you can get the heck out of the way!


But what does this mean: to take up your cross and follow Jesus?  For Bonhoeffer, it means suffering.


There is a "must" in this suffering.  According to Bonhoeffer, "A disciple is a disciple only as he shares his Lord's suffering and rejection, and crucifixion."  There is no discipleship without following in the path of Jesus' suffering for the truth.


Yet, there is also an "if."  IF anyone take up there cross.  Does this mean that Jesus is aware that few, or possible none, would respond to this challenge?  Once again, obedience takes center stage for the disciple.


For me, this chapter has been the most touching so far.  I found myself drawn in to his wording and description with little intellectual difficulty.  This may be attributed to my  understanding of the book of Revelation and the place of martyrdom in that vision.


Several quotes seems to grab my attention here. (With my comments in parentheses)

Only when we become oblivious to self are we ready to bear the cross.  (Is anyone able, then to meet that standard and bear the cross?)

If we cease to notice the pain of our own cross, we are indeed looking at Christ.  (Amen, and Amen!  The lens of thanksgiving, praise, identification with Christ, and dependence on his promises will lessen suffering and help us realize his glory.)

Suffering is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.  (The competition is fierce, and the world with its desires will not let go of the flesh without struggle.  Praise be to Jesus that Satan is already defeated, and we are called to allegiance to the Victor!)

The Cross is rejection and shame, and thus sharing in Christ's suffering to the fullest.  Suffering is the true badge of discipleship, and yet a joy and token of Christ's grace in our lives.

So, in my own thoughts, when I hear someone ask about the reason for suffering, I am reminded that we suffer 1) to identify with Christ, 2) as a test of faith, 3) as a shaping of the will, which must be melted with fire, 4) because the world doesn't like losing, and it is a bad sport, 5) as an opportunity for self-discipline in the name of Jesus, which is the heart of being a disciple.  Romans 5 captures the essence for me.


Romans 5:1-5
 ¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

So, how is your Christian walk today, based on your suffering for the cause of Christ?

Bonhoeffer: Single-Minded Obedience (Ch. 3)

What if Jesus came to you and said, "Leave everything you have and follow me"--including home, family, job, all of it?  Would we?  Could we?

When I was 12 God called me to leave behind dreams and potential in order to serve him.  So, I did not pursue a music career, or an engineering degree, or attempt to play sports in college (not that it would have made any difference).  In some ways, it was easier to give up those potentialities than to think of giving up current realities.  And now, I am faced daily with this thought: Did Christ call me then to live how I am now?  Or are there still things in life that require a daily response of "Here I am.  Send me."

Bonhoeffer has encouraged me to again think on these things with his continued dialog on obedience.  In CH. 3 he hits particularly hard on the excuses that we use to avoid true discipleship and obedience.  His launching point is the sorrow of the Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19 who could not obediently respond to God's call, and thus lost an opportunity of discipleship.    In his discussion he further explains the relationship of faith and obedience.  "The actual call of Jesus and the response of single-minded obedience have an irrevocable significance.  By means of them Jesus calls people into an actual situation where faith is possible.  For that reason his call is an actual call and he wishes it so to be understood, because he knows that it is only thorugh actual obedience that a man can become liberated to believe."

Thus, the call itself empowers both inward belief and outward actions of faith.  This reasoning leads to a firm conclusion:  We cannot believe without God himself acting on us and in us.

And what is Christ's calling?  FOLLOW ME!  This is the mantra of the disciple.  Follow Jesus.  Wherever he leads.  Whatever he says.  Whenever he speaks.  Obey.

So, how are you doing today in your single-minded obedience, which is faith in action?

James 1

  ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

As a side note, I find myself connecting the book of James to the thoughts of Bonhoeffer.  I wonder what Luther himself would say to Bonhoeffer's Lutheranism, knowing how much Luther liked the book of James.

Bonhoeffer: Faith, Works, and the Demand of Jesus (Chapter 2)

It has long been a Baptist confession of faith that salvation comes by faith alone.  And the long list of verses that were planted in my brain a long time ago concerning this doctrinal truth included Ephesians 2:9 (for by grace are you saved, through faith; not of works, lest any many should boast).

So, you might imagine the internal conflict that arose when I read in Ch. 2 of The Cost of Discipleship, this statement by Bonhoeffer:

Two propositions:  Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.  It is quite unbiblical to hold the first without the second." The thought is finished with the idea that faith only works when it is obedience, and thus faith cannot be truly separated from works.

This boils down a long discussion by Bonhoeffer on the relationship between faith and obedience.  For Bonhoeffer, it is not enough for a Christian simply  to hold to the "confessions" or "creeds" of the church. (For Bonhoeffer, this would be Lutheranism--and he is railing against the tendency of his church culture to simply follow the cultural rules of state and church in Germany during the rise of Nazism, rather than stand and follow Christ.)  I agree with Bonhoeffer in this point.  Yet, Bonhoeffer does not, and perhaps cannot, differentiate between faith and obedience.  And he is in good company with James 2: "I will show you my faith by my works.  Faith without works is dead."

This statement brings into focus the self-limiting language that Baptists often use concerning salvation.  We see salvation as a moment suspended in time--that point where sin was forgiven and a new life born.  Yet, the moment cannot exist in a vacuum.  There were events leading to it, and it launches us into a new and resurrected life.  However, I fear that many Baptist converts have been still-born into Christianity, with little hope of a resurrected life, because all we preach is salvation by faith, but we forget that discipleship is about obedience.  They hear the call to fire insurance, but they do not hear the call of Christ to take up the cross and follow.  What kind of Christianity do we preach and live if we offer forgiveness of sin, but no new life to live?  Sounds like we are offering people the freedom to what they want with no guidance on doing what God wants.  No wonder the Church is in decline in the West.

Bonhoeffer goes on to say this about obedience and faith:

First, faith, then obedience.  If by that we mean that it is faith which justifies, and not that act of obedience, all well and good, for that is the essential and unexceptionable presupposition of all that follows.  If however we make a chronological distinction between faith and obedience, and make obedience subsequent to faith, we are divorcing the one from the other—and then we get the practical question, when must obedience begin?   . . .  For faith is only real when there is disobedience, never with out it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.

For Bonhoeffer, faith and obedience are both necessary for salvation.  His biblical example for this is Peter.  According to Bonhoeffer, Peter cannot save himself, but he must "act" by leaving his nets and following.  Thus, while salvation comes from outside of himself, Peter must both believe and leave in order to experience this salvation.

Talk about stepping into the gray.  It is always much easier for me to see a clear distinction between faith and works as Paul does, rather to take James' language and apply it to the salvation moment.

Yet, Paul speaks in similar terms in Phillipians 3: 7-12. 

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  ^(NIV)

He recognizes that Christ has already obtained the prize, yet he feels led to work as hard as he can to obtain the same status, as if that were even possible.  He knows that he is only striving to hold what Christ is already holding for him.


So, is Paul fighting a losing battle that he does not need to worry about, or is this the epitome of discipleship--answering the call and holding onto what Christ has already claimed?


For Bonhoeffer, the call of Jesus is more than a mere call to salvation.  Discipleship is an act of obedience that is characterized by continued obedience.  Thus, he concludes that the reason why many Christians are not acting like disciples is that they are coddled and treated like babies, rather than being confronted with the true demands of Christ.  "Follow me" is not a request.  Instead, it is a demand of Christ upon the life of the believer. Those that are true believers obey in faith.  Those that obey will experience a resurrected life with power.  Truly our churches would be transformed if we would leave behind our "fire-insurance" policies and take on the discipline of Christ's demand: FOLLOW ME!

Bonhoeffer and Jeremiah 45

Jeremiah 45 says this:

1 This is what Jeremiah the prophet told Baruch son of Neriah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, after Baruch had written on a scroll the words Jeremiah was then dictating:² "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: ³ You said, 'Woe to me! The LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest.' "

⁴ The LORD said, "Say this to him: 'This is what the LORD says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the land. ⁵ Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.' " (NIV)

Interestingly, Bonhoeffer read the last line as "I will bring evil upon all flesh; but your life will I give unto you for a prey (Beute in Luther's translation, thus NASB's "booty") in all places wherever you go." Bonhoeffer wrote from prison that he could not get away from this chapter. Bonhoeffer felt he was oppressed by Nazi Fascism and the idolatry of the Fuhrer. Yet, as a Christian, he felt that his lot was still with his people. Why? Bonhoeffer writes, "I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people." (R. Neibuhr, Death of a Martyr, 1945).

Fact: Bonhoeffer died in prison before the end of the war, hung without a trial for his faith and resistance to the Nazis. He did not personally participate in the rebuilding of German Christianity.

However, he did have a role in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany because of his on-going testimony, martyrdom story, and teaching influence within the prison walls itself.

He knew his life was forfeit if he stayed in Germany. He knew that God wanted him to stay. "Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose; but I cannot make the choice in security."

Indeed. I cannot make the choice in security. Seems like I make every choice as a matter of security. Am I really willing to live in a way that considers my life as "stolen goods" and only mine because it was spared? Actually, that is what Christ has done for me, right? My life was forfeit until Christ bought it. It is my life only because the one who ransomed it offers it--and that offer requires me to recognize who owns my heart, does it not? Those who are enslaved live for the master, without thought of security. Am I capable of this kind of abandonment? Can I leave security behind?

Bonhoeffer was capable of such thoughts and actions because of his God and his faith. "I am sure of God's hand and guidance. You must never doubt that I am thankful and glad to go the way which I am being led. My past life is abundantly full of God's mercy, and , above all sin, stands the forgiving love of the Crucified."

Ah. To be satisfied with God's love and calling. I am not capable of anything apart from Christ. If he is enough, then I will fulfill my service within his grace, under the shadow of the forgiving love of the Crucified.

NOTE: These quotes and ideas were derived from the reading G. Leibholz's "Memoir" in The Cost of Discipleship by D. Bonhoeffer.

My trip to the BGCT (Back from blogger haitus)

Random thoughts to get back into the groove.

I didn't realize it had been two months since I had posted. Between teaching at WBU and starting a new worship service on Wednesday mornings I just ran out of time. Throw in a couple weeks of travel and intensive church work and--well you don't have time to blog thoughtfully.

I guess I also ran out of desire for the blogs on the Measure of Man as well. Great book. Time to move on. Been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Phew. Very challenging. More on that later.

So, I did enjoy my time at the BGCT, or should I say, the convention with the Texas Baptists. I enjoyed working for the Credentials Committee, and look forward to travelling to McAllen next year. Yes, I did say McAllen.

So, what does it mean to be a Texas Baptist? More separation from a national identity? More provincialism and focus on our own state? The opportunity to start a new North American Fellowship of Baptists? Do most Texas Baptists want to be identified separately from the national body of Southern Baptists? Do most Texas Baptists even care?

I enjoyed the conference itself. Seemed like the attendance was down again. Can't see it getting better in McAllen. Most pastors that I run into believe that the Convention model of church gathering is declining (and it seems so) and dying. Makes me wonder why we do it (business? fellowship? promoting Baptist missions and causes?) and if there is any better way to accomplish these things. Can we gain the same benefit from self-improvement conferences or mission conferences? (By conference, I mean informational and motivational speakers with little of now actual business.) Can the convention model be saved? The younger generation says no. The older generation shrugs and keeps doing what it does.

Speaking of the younger generation, the BGCT had a convention track available for pastors and leaders under 35. I don't know when I became old, but at 41, I no longer fit into the "young leaders" of our convention. I think it stinks being the youngest of an older generation. And yet, I don't know that I have the desire or energy to fit the mold of the "younger" generation. So, does that make me old before my time?

It seems to me that the spirit of decentralization that is striking our conventions and associations is isolating individual churches. This is a danger for the small church and the small church pastor. Where is the support for the single-staff pastor? I may not always agree with what local associations do, but I am glad to have the support and strength that the Lubbock Area Baptist Association provides. I know that I personally benefit from the encouragement and fellowship of the believers and pastors in Lubbock. I am also glad that the BGCT (or should I say, Texas Baptists with assistance from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship) provides funding and a thought process for "peer groups" for pastors. I have gained a greater appreciation and fellowship for other pastors in the wider West Texas area. I have also been challenged professionally, in ministry and missions, and personally through the peer group model. Special thanks to Stacy Conner, FBC Muleshoe, for leading our regional group.

I also think that our universities, like Wayland, can play a huge role in providing networking and encouragement for pastors who are more geographically isolated. If only those pastors could take advantage of the connections available. I know some pastors who are getting educations through Logsdon and Baylor (Truett), but that also means that the network they are moving into is based with pastors located more in central Texas. We really need to support Wayland and help them to grow so that they can continue to support the ministers in this part of the country. And I don't know what those guys up in the northern Panhandle do . . .

And special thanks to Robert Revier for going the Convention with me and keeping things interesting. We "crashed" the "young" ministers fajita dinner Monday night. Great food. Fun times.