The Cost of Discipleship: Costly Grace

I am reading through some classics in an effort to focus on my inward spiritual journey in addition to my regular Bible study (Isaiah right now) and reading (Every Day with Jesus Daily Bible--our entire congregation is reading this).

Many years ago I read Bonhoeffer's 'The Cost of Discipleship' but I believe it deserves a re-visit.

“Discipleship is joy.”

I’ve never really thought about discipleship in this way before but if you stop to think about it, it is absolutely true. Discipleship should be a joy for us as we journey and grow closer to the LORD. I am hoping to remember this description of discipleship and use it.

Bonhoeffer starts off the book talking about how the Church has become to manmade and makes it difficult and confusing for people to truly follow Jesus. People end up replacing one burden with another.

For the Church to be successful, our quest needs to be Jesus Himself and what He is saying to us. Our preaching and teaching needs to be focused on the Scripture and not on superfluous church-ease.

Cheap Grace

p.37 “ cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.”

Cheap grace amounts to a denial to the living word of God

Cheap grace is the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship

First and last words Jesus spoke to Peter were “follow Me.” Inbetween were a life of discipleship.

Christian double standard= maximum and minimum standard of obedience

Cheap grace is thinking we can live as before and use grace as the card to allow it. This has led to the mass secularization of Christianity around the world. Real grace is real costly.

Cheap grace is the bitterest foe of all discipleship

The grace and the call to follow are inseparable.

Grace as a principle versus grace as a living word. Difference between cheap and costly grace.

“discipleship means life that springs from grace, and that grace simply means discipleship”

Wow. There’s a lot to take in. Basically to live as a true Christian one must be willing to accept the grace that He has for us by giving up everything. It is for very few and is very costly, but by doing so one can find true life. The mass secularization of Christianity has cheapened this idea of grace so much that it is essentially raped as a way for people justify what they are doing (sins) rather than truly justify themselves (the sinner). The focus is kept on the action rather than the heart. True grace, real grace, is a matter of the heart.