back to kingdomready.org

Recently, I have been reading The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The book was published in 1937 in Munich, Germany. The church had to a large degree lapsed into a doctrinal pride based on Luther’s view that justification occurs by faith alone apart from any works. Bonhoeffer writes with passion and confronts this luke-warm mentality. Though he confronted his fellow countryman in an effort to bring revival to the church, sadly, Bonhoeffer failed, and the church was whisked off her feet by a zealous new leader–Adolf Hitler. As time went on the church became more and more afraid of opposing the Nazi regime and Bonhoeffer and a few others eventually broke away forming “The Confessing Church” which opposed Nazism publicly. I find his words surprisingly relevant to the state of Christianity today.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, (London: SCM Press, 2006) pp. 3-4.

Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth…An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. The Church which holds the correct doctrine of grace has, it is supposed, ipso facto a part in that grace. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin…

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. ‘All for sin could not atone.’ The world goes on in the same old way, and we are still sinners ‘even in the best life’ as Luther said. Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin. That was the heresy of the enthusiasts, the Anabaptists and their kind. Let the Christian beware of rebelling against the free and boundless grace of God and desecrating it. Let him not attempt to erect a new religion of the letter by endeavoring to live a life of obedience to the commandments of Jesus Christ! The world has been justified by grace. The Christian knows that, and takes it seriously. He knows he must not strive against this indispensable grace. Therefore–let him live like the rest of the world!…Let the Christian rest content with his worldliness and with his renunciation of any higher standard than the world. He is doing it for the sake of the world rather than for the sake of grace. Let him be comforted and rest assured in his possession of this grace–for grace alone does everything. Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolations of his grace! That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs.

Thoughts anyone?