The Cost of Discipleship Paperback – September 1, 1995

Fortunately, I could finally finished reading this book, which is called one of the most important theological books of the 20c, and a modern theological classic. It required approximately two months for me to finish because of my English ability and theological knowledge, but needless to say it was worth the time and cost to examine.Even in the terrible oppression under the Nazi German government, Dietrich Bonhoeffer did not give up his faith with no fear of being killed. He is apprised as an “Apostle of the modern era” and a “defender of Western civilization”. Through this book, I had been kept seeking his core theological source of conviction which enabled him to keep his faith so resiliently: Unfortunately, the conviction lead him to his death of the young age 39. From this book, I could successfully recognize Bonhoeffer’s rigid ideological foundation that made it possible for him to be killed by a capital death of hanging, as a martyr. I found that he thought it is not only the Christian’s right but duty to protest the government which is against God’s law, righteousness or providence.Needless to say, on the premise that he was a Lutheran pastor, his logic and ethics are elaborated with these words such as “only the Bible”, “Grace alone”, “faith alone”, “the mystery of Incarnation”, and the “theology of Cross”. However, I paid attention to the logical point that how theologically he could make possible to refuse the law of “the world”, the law “on the earth”. Even though those laws and the Nazi government itself had occurred legally in a democratic regime and had legitimacy, he could deny it because of the reason that God’s law is superior to laws “on the earth”.Bonhoeffer proved theologically the superiority of God’s law than the law of the world with criticism on “leagalism”, the concept of Christ as a “Mediator”, criticism on the Reformers who justify and admits nations’ the right of revenge, criticism on some Protestant denomination who has theology that confuse Christ’s love and patriotism (p.152). Bonhoeffer’s theology depends on fine exegesis or interpretation of scriptures. In fact, we can find at least some evidence that his theology is breaching Lutheran authentic “doctrine of two kingdoms”, i.e. the mutual non-aggression between religion and states. Although it would not be completely denied the doctrine of separation of religion and states, we are able to recognize these phrases as a clue to breach the doctrine: For instance, “The law must be broken for the sake of Jesus; it forfeits all rights if it acts as a barrier to discipleship (p.61)”, Bonhoeffer wrote, “No law of the world can interfere with this fellowship (p.257)”, “They live their own life under alien rulers and alien laws (p.296)”, “Jesus, the champion of the true law, must suffer at the hands of the champions of the false law (p.121)”. From this point of view, we can find the reason of “the evil law is not a law”, in other words, he breached the dogma that “a law is a law, however undesirable it may be”. Laws on the earth are valid only if those are not against the will of Jesus, that is to say God’s law. Jesus “alone understands the nature of the law as God’s law (p.122)”. Apparently this logic is the base what enables Bonhoeffer to protest Nazi Germany and its laws.Then, if that is the case, on what ethical ground or virtue should we human beings live “in the world”. In Bonhoeffer’s theology, the corner stone of ethics is based on the Lutheran notion of “Pecca fortiter”, i.e. Sin Boldly: Human beings must recognize deeply his weakness, incompleteness, and sinfulness, and then we may be compensated if we completely rely on Omnipotent Father God and Christ as the Mediator. According to Bonhoeffer, Christians need to follow Jesus’ life and death, and to obey his teaching, that means realization of God’s Word. And they should put “beatitudes” into practice in “the Body of Christ” namely in the Church, in the Christian community.When Christians take the Sermon on the mount into practice, they need to be the Beatitudes; the poor, the person who mourn, the meek, the person who suffer from hunger and thirst, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peace makers, the person who are persecuted for righteous sake. Only through this practice, they can become disciples of Christ. If they could practice, simply to do this discipleship on the world, i.e. in daily life, with love of fellowship, they could be “salt of the earth” and they could be able to express their extraordinariness or peculiarity without intention. Bonhoeffer argues that this extraordinariness is the realization of the law of God, and Christian peculiarity will come out in their proclamation, which means manifest of God’s law. The righteousness of God can never be contributed back to “Justica Civils” i.e. laws of citizen, and therefore Christians shall be persecuted as strangers in the secular world. Nevertheless, just in the midst of the persecution, Christians must show the divinity of the righteousness of God. Therefore he wrote it down not only once that the death in martyrdom is the supreme grace for Christians who follows Jesus’ life and want to be imitative of Jesus’ death on the Cross.From above, we can confirm the base conceptions of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: First, for Christian, God’s law exceeds law on the world. Second, Christians are separated from the secular world and must show their divinity and extraordinariness in the daily life by practicing beatitudes. Third, the death of s martyr is the supreme gift which a few of Christians are given. I guess if he had not these theological conceptions, Bonhoeffer could not get the triumph of martyrdom under the cruel Nazi government.Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906. He learned theology in Tuebingen University and became a lecturer of the University of Berlin when he was only 24 years old. Then he studied at the Union theological Seminary in New York. Reckless of danger, in 1935 he started protesting against the German Christian Movement that spread rapidly in Germany together with the prosperity of Nazional Sozialisms. He accused it as an Antichrist ideology. He reported to his friends in Britain and the US the truth and facts of German Church Struggle between the Deutchen Kristen and the Confession Church, and as a leader of the Confession Church movement, he also taught underground at an illegal Church Training College. When the assassination plan for Adolf Hitler comes to surface, Bonhoeffer was arrested by Gestapo, as one of the suspects on April 5th in 1943. On April 9th in 1945, he was killed by hanging through SS chief Heinlich Himmler’s order. It was only few weeks before the day when Berlin was freed by the Soviet Union Red Army.

A must read. Bonhoeffer's testimony is life-changing!

I love and appreciate all of his work, this book arrived in perfect condition.

Excellent book. And if you’re going to get it, make sure to get the companion study guide. Good for a Bible study or just individual reading.

The Cost of Discipleship – Dietrich BonhoefferI found this book to be significantly instructive on how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. However, Bonhoeffer does not make a clear distinction between being saved by grace through faith and following Jesus as His disciple in obedience to His commands. He does not distinguish the salvation passages from the biblical warning passages to Christians. Nevertheless, if Bonhoeffer’s exhortations are taken by the believer to embrace costly discipleship as an invitation to follow Jesus there is great benefit.Dietrich Bonhoeffer succinctly explains justification in chapter 31, “The justification of the sinner consists in the sole righteousness of God, wherein the sinner is utterly and completely unrighteous, and has no righteousness whatever of his own, side by side with the righteousness of God…But when we are brought to faith in the death of Christ, we receive the righteousness of God triumphant on the cross in the very place where we receive our own condemnation as sinners.” Yet later in the chapter we read statements that contradict the truth of faith alone in Christ alone. “Discipline in a congregation is a servant of the precious grace of God. If a member of the Church falls into sin, he must be admonished and punished, ‘lest he forfeit his own salvation’ and the gospel be discredited.” When a Christian sins, he never forfeits his salvation, but severs his fellowship with God and harms his relationship with other believers.Above all I was drawn to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life as he lived it sold out to Jesus Christ as described in the Memoir section given by G. Leibholz before the text. He was truly a man of God who gave his life as a martyr for the sake of Christ. But he was full of life, a believer who served the Lord by serving others. This description by Leibholz gives the reader a look into Bonhoeffer’s heart:“Bonhoeffer was as open as any man could be to all the things which make life beautiful. He rejoiced in the love of his parents, his sisters and brothers, his fiancée, his many friends. He loved the mountains, the flowers, the animals- the greatest and the simplest things in life. His geniality and inborn chivalry, his love of music, art and literature, the firmness of his character, his personal charm and his readiness to listen, made him friends everywhere. But what marked him most was his unselfishness and preparedness to help others up to the point of self-sacrific. Whenever others hesitated to undertake a task that required special courage, Bonhoeffer was ready to take the risk.”Bonhoeffer believed that only a turn to Christ could save a nation, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer more than anybody else realized that nothing less than a return to the Christian faith could save Germany.” I believe that his words are true for us in the United States today. Our only hope is revival in Christ Jesus.Here are some lessons in discipleship that I took from reading The Cost of Discipleship:-“’Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ That is the love of the Crucified. Only in the cross of Christ do we find the fulfilment of the law.”-“Adherence to Jesus allows no free rein to desire unless it be accompanied by love.”-In agreeing to pray for our enemies (his enemies, the Nazis would ultimately martyr him) Bonhoeffer sees a prayer of love: “It will be the prayer of earnest love for these very sons of perdition who stand around and gaze at us with eyes aflame with hatred, and who have perhaps already raised their hands to kill us.”-More on prayer: “It matters little what form of prayer we adopt or how many words we use, what matters is the faith which lays hold on God and touches the heart of the Father who knew us long before we came to him.”-“Earthly goods were given to be used, not to be collected”Finally, Dietrich Bonhoeffer in these words speaks prophetically of himself: “A few, but only a few, of his followers are accounted worthy of the closest fellowship with his sufferings—the blessed martyrs. No other Christian is so closely identified with the form of Christ crucified.”