THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP Dietrich Bonhoeffer Book Review

The Cost of Discipleship
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Author

translated from the German Nachfolge first published by Chr. Kaiser Verlag Münschen by R.H. Fuller, with some revision by Irmgard Booth.

Publisher: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster
ISBN 10: 0-684-81500-1
ISBN 13: 978-0-684-81500-8
Publication date: 1 September 1995
Retail price: $15.00

babamarusia's Review: I recommend this book.
Since my first encounter with pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I have been enamored by how clearly he can put into words the essence of deep theological thought. As with the British teacher Oswald Chambers, Bonhoeffer didn’t live a long life, and as a matter of fact both died during a war—one with war as the cause, the other far away from home ministering to those who fought in the war. One lived imprisoned by the destructors of WWII, one lived and moved freely, leading many soldier in Egypt to Jesus Christ during WWI. Both were energetic in their faith, each given great wisdom that can only come from God through diligent daily study of the Living Word.

That God gives to some more than others is true. This doesn’t mean that wisdom is gleaned only to a faithful few, but in fact it is open to all of us. In chapter 13 of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus tells the parable of the sower. He tells us, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” (NIV).

Certainly there are variable factors, but what is common to all is the diligence of study. Daily study is the key, and this doesn’t mean reading through the Bible—as beneficial as that may be—it means study. Think of how you might prepare a text on which you will be examined. You read it, and read it again. You look for what it is telling you, and learn the important points well enough to remember them. This is also the key to study of the Holy Bible, except that it is not us seeking out what is important, it is God bringing to us what He wants us to understand in His Living Word.

Perhaps the best known of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s offerings is his book, The Cost of Discipleship. Though some may find it difficult to comprehend, I don’t think it beyond an adult Christian’s capability of understanding, and well worth reading and making the effort for the message inside.

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church.
We are fighting today for costly grace.

What is the cost? What are we to make of Bonhoeffer declaring that grace has a price? Is the underlying message of such a statement heretical? I propose not, as is proved out by the reading of his book. Should you take only two words, costly grace, that absolutely seems to be a heresy. To do so, however, is to take out of context the complete message, and is no different than taking verses from the Bible to prove whatever one wants to prove.

Grace is free. Period. What is grace? It is God’s mercy, it is complete forgiveness of remorseful sin. Forgiveness without remorse is cheap, and it is false. As Bonhoeffer states, “cheap grace is the forgiveness of the sin without forgiveness of the sinner.” Costly grace came with a price, the price was the brutal execution of God’s Son who had no sin, Jesus Christ. Jesus was obedient to his calling, though in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed for his Father in heaven to take the cross away.

Our cost is insignificant compared to the godly price. Our cost is remorse—the understanding of our true human nature that has no ability to live sinless. It is the understanding that someone who never did a wrong thing to us or anyone gave His life, and painfully so was the accomplishment of that fact. Our cost is the turning away from the nature of the world, turning our backs on a future that is short-lived without hope of change to a future where there is positive change to growing goodness and a forever throughout eternity.

I am currently leading a class that is studying the Bible along with The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We are exploring what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in our daily lives, and what God’ Living Word speaks to us in 2009 on this subject. The fact of the matter is that the year 2009 is the same as when Jesus lived, and that without God it is impossible for the standards are humanly beyond reach.

What seems to be going in a circular direction, in Bonhoeffer’s book become truths. That God calls us to himself first is true, and the grace bestowed upon us is true, yet faith must also be present. When faith is present there must also be obedience.

“Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes."

Without belief (faith) there can be no obedience to the Christian way of life, and without obedience (in the following of Jesus’ teaching on the Christian life) faith will wax and wain.

I highly recommend The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as I also recommend the reading of any of his books.

Hello! I am babamarusia (Mary Katherine May), and with my husband, Rick we own Quality Music and Books. Our retail store in Minneapolis, Minnesota is open by appointment during the move to our new location, but our online webstore is always open. To go to our website, please CLICK HERE.