'The road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus.

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer - 'Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.'

'In such a religion there is trust in God, but no following of Christ. Because the Son of God became Man, because he is the Mediator, for that reason alone the only true relation we can have with him is to follow him. Discipleship is bound to Christ as the Mediator, and where it is properly understood, it necessarily implies faith in the Son of God as the Mediator. Only the Mediator, the God-Man, can call men to follow him.'

My thoughts-

There is such a thing as Christianity without the living Christ. It sounds preposterous but it's true.  People all over believe Christ died for them, that He forgives them their sins, that His grace covers them. They believe that Christ is in their Christianity but they don't believe He is in it as a living Christ who calls them to discipleship.  This statement- 'In such a religion there is trust in God, but no following of Christ.' IS TRUE!

Christ is a living Mediator between us and God. Christ calls for us to LIVE OUR LIVES with HIM as a REALITY, a real part of our lives, and the only way Christ can be a real part of our lives is if we are His DISCIPLES in much more than mere word.

Bonhoeffer- ' Discipleship without Jesus Christ is a way of our own choosing. It may be the ideal way. It may even lead to martyrdom, but it is devoid of all promise. Jesus will certainly reject it. '

My thoughts- Discipleship without Jesus Christ- in these last days there will be a multitude of so called disciples following a false Christ- one of their OWN choosing that allows them to do what they please, that allows them to satisfy themselves without denying themselves or picking up a cross. 

Luk 9:57  And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

Luk 9:58  And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

Luk 9:59  And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

Luk 9:60  Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

Luk 9:61  And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

Luk 9:62  And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Excuses.  Jesus KNEW even as He walked the earth that most people would make a show of following Him, but it would be little more than that.

The enthusiasm- 'Lord, I will follow thee wherever you go!'   

The realization- It will be very HARD, you will suffer.

The desire quenched by obligations- 'I will follow thee, but first let me take care of my family obligations.'

The realization- The dead bury the dead, not those who are alive to Christ.

A show of desire, nothing more- 'I will follow you, but let me say goodbye to my loved ones.'

The realization-  Pretending to be a disciple, pretending to want to follow Christ, saying you desire this but all the while you truly just want to continue on in your life the same as always. 

Jesus KNEW.

How many people SAY they desire to be a disciple of Christ's, but it stops there at the desire with NO realization?  Our desire to want to follow Christ will NOT be the same as truly following Christ.

Bonhoeffer- 'If we would follow Jesus we must take certain definite steps. The first step, which follows the call, cuts the disciple off from his previous existence. The call to follow at once produces a new situation. To stay in the old situation makes discipleship impossible.  Levi must leave the receipt of custom and Peter his nets in order to follow Jesus. One would have thought that nothing so drastic was necessary at such an early stage. Could not Jesus have initiated the publican into some new religious experience, and leave them as they were before? He could have done so, had he not been the incarnate Son of God. But since he is the Christ, he must make it clear from the start that his word is not an abstract doctrine, but the re-creation of the whole life of man. The only right and proper way is quite literally to go with Jesus. The call to follow implies that there is only one way of believing on Jesus Christ, and that is by leaving all and going with the incarnate Son of God.'

'Until that day, everything had been different. They could remain in obscurity, pursuing their work as the quiet in the land, observing the law and waiting for the coming of the Messiah. But now he has come, and his call goes forth. Faith can no longer mean sitting still and waiting-- they must rise and follow him. The call frees them from all earthly ties, and bind them to Jesus Christ alone. They must burn their boats and plunge into absolute insecurity in order to learn the demand and the gift of Christ. Had Levi stayed at his post, Jesus might have been his present help in trouble, but not the Lord of his whole life. In other words Levi would never have learnt to believe.'

'The road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus. Unless a definite step is demanded, the call vanishes into thin air, and if men imagine that they can follow Jesus without taking this step, they are deluding themselves like fanatics.'

'Discipleship is not an offer man makes to Christ. It is only the call which creates the situation.'

My thoughts-

At this point how many people read this and begin to get worried that they are being told that they - like Peter, like Levi, like others - must LEAVE EVERYTHING?  How many are thinking that and simultaneously questioning where would they go, Jesus is not walking the earth and asking us to follow Him as the Apostles, as the disciples of His day. 

Bonhoeffer isn't telling us to drop everything and run off after some cult following. If we did that we'd be in great danger of once again following a path of our OWN deluded thinking and choosing, not that of Christ's!

This isn't a call to leave your current life and run off after some imagined life, but it is a call to realize the SELF sacrificing of our Savior, and what He calls His disciples to. 

We are NOT called to serve ourselves first and Christ second but that is exactly what many do.

Bonhoeffer has a LOT more to say on all this and it'll be slow going for us so please, if anyone is reading this, do not jump to any conclusions about what this man is trying to say based on my excerpts in part.  Once this whole series of excerpts are done if there is confusion and such, please, go out an buy the book and pray that as you study it that what you are reading is truly truth coming from the word of GOD, His Bible, not some made up nonsense.  It's my prayer that God guide us with His Holy Spirit so we are not caught up in any lies, but only HIS TRUTH.

Bonhoeffer so far has shown us some of the differences between Cheap Grace and Costly Grace, and now He is trying to explain the 'Call to Discipleship' to us.  This may take more than one or two blogs, so please, be patience. If I botch it all up I hope God will straighten us out.  All by HIS GRACE and HIS LOVE!

More tomorrow if He wills!