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.