'Tear yourself away from ALL other attachments, and follow him.'

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- 'In the name of Christ he (the pastor) must exhort the man to obedience, to action, to take that first step. He must say: "Tear yourself away from all other attachments, and follow him."  For at this stage, the first step is what matters most. The strong point which the refractory sinner had occupied must be stormed, for in it Christ cannot be heard. The truant must be dragged from the hiding-place which he has built for himself. Only then can he recover the freedom to see, hear, and believe. Of course, though it is work, the first step entails no merit in the sight of Christ-- it can never be more than a dead work. Even so Peter has to get out of the ship before he can believe.

Briefly the position is this. Our sinner has drugged himself with cheap and easy grace by accepting the proposition that only those who believe can obey. He persists in disobedience, and seeks consolation by absolving himself. This only serves to deaden his ears to the Word of God. We cannot breach the fortress so long as we merely repeat the proposition which affords him his self-defense. So we must make for the turning point without further ado, and exhort him to obedience-- "Only those who obey can believe."

Will that lead him astray, and encourage him to trust in his own works? Far from it. He will the more easily realize that his faith is no genuine one at all. He will be rescued from his entanglement by being compelled to come to a definite decision. In this way his ears are opened once more for the call of Jesus to faith and discipleship. '

My thoughts--

'Tear yourself away from ALL other attachments, and follow him.' 

This is something people DO NOT WANT TO DO!  They war within themselves constantly. The silly thing is, people have got it in their heads that there is such a thing as giving something up and never being tempted again.  They believe the 'setting aside' of the sin that so easily besets them as a one time deal.  They read these words-

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

And this-

Luk_9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

And they imagine that God isn't telling us that we have to die to self daily. That we aren't really being told to crucify our spiritual selves daily.  In that spiritual crucifixion we have to DENY ourselves, and give up EVERY SIN that would keep us from Christ.

Why don't we believe these words? Why do we NOT comprehend that each day as we wake up we are being told we have to truly SPIRITUALLY pick up our cross and die daily?  We don't fully comprehend that we have to sacrifice and fight the good fight in REALITY, on a REAL daily basis. The cross you are to bear, the sins you are to set aside, will be sins you do not want to give up,  the natural man loves these sins. You will have a choice to sin or not sin and you'll make the choice. When you make the choice to sin then you are making the choice to separate yourself from God.

If you sin in ignorance, sin without contemplating sinning, you have to immediately seek forgiveness.

The idea that God accepts sin in us is ludicrous, yet cheap grace has told millions that is the truth.

Cheap grace tells us NOT to worry about setting aside any besetting sin, God understands.  Cheap grace tells us to ignore the cross we are to pick up daily, it tells us to just forget all about struggling.

The Bible tells us this--

Heb_12:4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

Please Lord help us! Bless us! Keep us from EVIL! Forgive us! May we let it be a reality in our lives- the cross we are to pick up, the setting aside of our sins, all by YOUR GRACE, YOUR COSTLY GRACE! We long to be Your disciples!  In a world that has gone so totally crazy, twisting everything calling evil good and good evil, we need to be YOURS, only YOURS!

In YOUR LOVE!