One Level Deeper......

God has been really digging deep inside my soul since February of this year.  Book after book my heart takes a journey that peels back the superficial surface, layer by layer, to reveal a level deeper than the prior.  My most recent reading was The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  I have yet to come across a book that has stopped me in my passionate tracks as much as this one.  I really appreciate the depths that he went to explain discipleship.  All I have to say is AMAZING! 

Bonhoeffer very boldly classifies grace as either cheap or costly.  In my opinion, this section is the best of his book.  He clearly draws the line between secularized Christians and those who follow Christ.  His definition for cheap grace is “the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without a cross, and grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”   Costly grace, according to Bonhoeffer, “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 leave his nets and follows him."  As he continues to drive his point home he states that “grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.  It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.  It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner.  Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were brought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.”

Revealing isn't it?  I have to admit, I think my heart skipped a beat reading these couple of pages.  What's more amazing is that each section of this book is the blunt force interpretation and understanding of man who truly loved Christ. His devoted attitude oozes out in each section, page after page, point after point. His ultimate goal is to help others recognize how blessed one is to be a chosen believer but most importantly to understand the cost we must all be willing to make and experience for that choosing. To Bonhoeffer, there is no gray line in living a life for Christ. There is no such thing as mediocre Christianity. To not be obedient in living out discipleship (in its costliest form – death) is to not choose Christ.

Regardless of how others might interpret this thought, I believe we desperately need this call in our individual life and the body of Christ today. Because we don’t live out discipleship in the way Jesus intended, we can’t understand or experience all that he extends to us freely. Instead, we go through the motions of doing what other so called Christians do - living out religion instead of relationship with Christ. We hardly ever use the Word of God as a light unto our path - instead we use media, friends, and secular pastors. We don’t live in a constant state of prayer - but one that’s only based on certain events (for dinner and bed time, when we need something, or for religious holidays). Worldly influence has infiltrated our lives and church beyond recognition. We have allowed the body of Christ to become like a shirt barely clinging on to a hanger of a picked through clearance rack. For if we truly understood the magnitude of his love, peace and grace we would all live our lives in Christ to their fullest.  Experiencing his love and grace to the extremes would never allow the need to lessen the value of grace by classifying or living it out cheaply.