Bonhoeffer: Costly grace, not in cloisters but carried as a cross

In his chapter on costly grace, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”  And that “Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”  Bonhoeffer indicates that costly grace is exemplified in the incarnation of Christ, in His intentional and obedient en-flesh-ment.  In what might be considered an early creed, a summary of the Christian faith, the Apostle Paul says “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2: 5 – 8).   Christ Jesus is “…the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.” (Hebrews 1: 3a)  Jesus laid aside His glory as God and became a human being, “a little lower than the angels…” (Hebrews 2: 9) in order to save humanity.  This was the cost of our salvation—the incarnation of the God of the universe Who suffered death for our sake.  

1)      What would it mean for your Christian faith if Jesus Christ were just “a good man”?  What if His death on the cross were simply the death of a good and kind human man, killed by a political machine and by misguided people?  What does this false understanding of Christ’s death do to the idea of grace; how does it relate to this discussion of “cheap” versus “costly” grace?

2)      Conversely, what would it mean for your faith if Jesus Christ were simply a shadow-man, God wearing a costume, so to speak—as if Christ were not really human flesh and blood, but an apparition of God?  What would that version of Jesus—a version who only seemed to be human, who only seemed to suffer, who only seemed to die—mean in our discussion of “cheap” versus “costly” grace?

Jesus told His disciples in Luke 9: 23 – 27:

“If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?  If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” 

We are called to take up our individual crosses and to come and follow Jesus.  Peter was called by Jesus to “follow Me”—once early in Jesus ministry when Peter left his nets to be a fisher of men (Matthew 1), then again after Peter’s betrayal when Jesus reinstated Peter through his tri-fold confession of faith (John 21).  Peter was called to take up his cross and follow Jesus—to follow Him into ministry and ultimately to his own martyrdom, to literal crucifixion.  This is the call of our Savior; it is a costly call, one which demands that we leave everything for the sake of the gospel.  This is costly grace.

Bonhoeffer follows his discussion of Peter’s calling to that of the pre-Reformation Catholic church and the function of monasteries where men who felt called by God to be set apart removed themselves from the world for a life of prayer and intentional self-sacrifice.  As Bonhoeffer says “Here men still remembered that grace costs, that grace means following Christ.  Here they left all they had for Christ’s sake, and endeavored daily to practice His rigorous commands.”  But the unfortunate consequence of the presence of monasteries and nunneries was that the ‘average Joe and Jane’ of the time felt that such holiness, such taking-up-of-the-cross, was beyond them; they lived untouched lives, they took up no crosses and made no personal sacrifices for the sake of holiness. 

But enter Martin Luther, whom God showed (per Bonhoeffer) “…through the Scriptures that the following of Christ is not the achievement or merit of a select few, but the divine command to all Christians without distinction.”   “Luther did not hear the word: “Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolation of forgiveness” No, Luther had to leave the cloister and go back to the world, not because the world in itself was good and holy, but because even the cloister was part of the world.”  “The only way to follow Jesus was living in the world….The commandment of Jesus must be accorded perfect obedience in one’s daily vocation of life….It was hand-to-hand conflict between the Christian and the world.”

The premise of Luther, Bonhoeffer and the larger Lutheran tradition is that each Christian is called to live out his or her faith in whatever sphere of life he or she is found—to be a Christian mother, father, sister, brother, child; a Christian teacher, lawyer, construction worker, firefighter, cashier, tailor, police officer, farmer.  This is not Christianity as an abstract, lived out in solitary prayer behind the walls of a monastery; this is Christianity in the trenches—“hand-to-hand conflict”, as Bonhoeffer says.  This is the doctrine of vocation, and it demands simultaneous obedience to the call of Christ to take up one’s cross in humility and self-denial while living side by side with other people:  unsaved who need to hear of God’s love and see it lived out in our lives; the annoying and abrasive who demand every ounce of patience and kindness; the desperately poor, the hungry, the sick, who need our love and service.  For anyone who has ever had to patiently, lovingly parent a raging toddler or a raging teenager for years on end; who has ever had to compassionately provide care to a demanding customer or a patient in pain; who has worked long hours to complete a project with integrity and excellence—in contrast, living a quiet life of hymns and prayer behind castle walls seems much preferable.  

3)      There is an appeal to cloistering oneself away from the temptations, trials and chaos of the world:  simplicity, fewer choices, fewer distractions from prayer and spiritual contemplation.  How does this cloistering reject the call of Christ to be “fishers of men”?  How is this then taking grace as cheap, without personal cost?

4)      Bonhoeffer says “…for Luther the Christian's worldly calling is sanctified only in so far as that calling registers the final, radical protest against the world.  Only in so far as the Christian’s secular calling is exercised in the following of Jesus does it receive from the gospel new sanction and justification.”  How are you called, in your individual vocation (parent, child, employer, employee….) to “register [a] final, radical protest against the world”?  Or have you reserved portions of your life from your calling as Christ-follower..and cheapened the grace of God in Christ?

Throughout this chapter, Bonhoeffer has contrasted why grace is grace (it gives life; it is the free gift of God give in Christ; we are promised that “My [Jesus’] burden is light) and why grace is costly (it cost God His Son; it calls us to follow Him, to submit to Him).  “It was grace, for it was like water on parched ground, comfort in tribulation, freedom from the bondage of self-chosen way, and forgiveness of all [Luther’s] sins.  And it was costly, for, so far from dispensing from good works, it meant that [Luther] must take the call to discipleship more seriously than ever before.  It was grace because it cost so much, and it cost so much because it was grace.  That was the secret of the gospel of the Reformation—the justification of the sinner.”  
 

5)      How do you feel called to take “discipleship more seriously than ever before”?  Have you kept your Christian faith "cloistered" away?  Prayerfully consider your calling as Christian in the world.

6)      Do you feel burdened and beaten down by life or by expectations, or that somehow you have cheapened God’s grace and been unworthy of it?  Meditate on the fact that you are justified and declared righteous for Jesus’ sake, not because of anything you have done or left undone or done poorly or inadequately.  Everything was finished on the cross when Jesus declared it to be finished; it was done for you.  There is nothing you can add.  This is grace and it is costly, but it is given to you for free in Christ.