The Repetition of History

My youth discipleship class and I have taken the challenge of going through The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As I was reading our chapter in review for our class this afternoon, I began feeling as though the issues I was reading about were familiar. Much like the book of Judges, the story seems to be stuck in loop. Bonhoeffer was in a time where the Grace of God was so cheap that it was the work of the few that saved his entire nation. It was a similar story that we see in the story of Luther who saw that Grace was being cheapened by the use of monasticism to save the rest of the world. Now, we have a country that claims to be a “Christian Nation” and that alone has apparently saved us from the wrath of the Almighty God, but if we were to open our eyes and look at the state of the church we would recognize the same thing that Bonhoeffer saw in the Lutheran faith and Luther saw in the Catholic faith.

Grace comes at a price. I am saved by faith, but if that was where my faith ended then would I truly be considered a follower of Jesus Christ?

“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship)

Bonhoeffer brings the point that we who believe in Christ should follow Christ. To just simply believe in Christ and go back to our lives as they were is to think grace is cheap, but the cost of Grace was much, and true discipleship is the cost. We are to willingly lay our lives down. Bonhoeffer even so boldly points out that the Roman Catholics may have it right to say that this way of believing and going back to our normal selves may be the blaspheming of the Holy Ghost.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV)

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that once we are in Christ we are no longer our old selves. We are now born again, redeemed, children of God. All of our old selves should be gone. Yet, when we see our faith in today’s world, too many of us “Christians” seem to wear our new creation for a few hours then go back to the sinful nature we hold dearly.

Grace should not be held so cheaply since the cost was so high. God sacrificed God’s only begotten son so that we may have a chance to be justified. It cost the literal life of Christ to pay the debt of our sins, yet we look at it as if it was a quarter toy from the gumball machines. If we are to consider ourselves justified in faith, then we need to make sure that we are doing our best to follow Christ in discipleship. We are to do our best to follow the Christ who paved the way. If we do not, then we are saying the sacrifice made on the cross was nothing.