Cost of Discipleship Pt 36 Christ above all

Chapter 5- Discipleship and the Individual

Bonhoeffer- 'Of course, there are plenty of gods who offer men direct access, and the world naturally uses every means in its power to retain its direct hold on men, but that is the very reason why it is so bitterly opposed to Christ, the Mediator.'

The world is AGAINST Jesus Christ.

Many would cry out against this, but it's truth.

They are against the TRUE MEDIATOR JESUS CHRIST.  They are for the IMPOSTER Jesus Christ who is NOT a mediator at all but someone whose name they use while having none of the power of our Savior.

2Ti 3:5  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof…

A form of godliness, but NO POWER.

You can't have the power of Christ to salvation if you are not believing in the true Mediator Jesus Christ.

The power you might think you have is a false power, a lie, deceit.

Bonhoeffer said- 'The world NATURALLY uses every means in it power to retain its direct hold on men.' 

Do you have anything that has a 'hold' on you?

Do you have anything that you'd like to be rid of but just can't seem to get rid of it? Those sins that so easily beset us, perhaps? 

Satan will use EVERYTHING to snare us.

Satan wants to retain his hold on us.

Satan does NOT want us to even imagine we have a Mediator in Jesus Christ.  Satan wants us brought to DESPAIR- hopelessly caught up in all that would keep us from God, from God's love, from eternal life in Christ!

Bonhoeffer: 'The call of Christ brings us as individuals face to face with the Mediator. The call of Jesus teaches us that our relation to the world has been built on an illusion.

Between father and son, husband and wife, the individual and the nation, stands Christ the Mediator, whether they are able to recognize him or not.'

My thoughts-

Christ is our REALITY.

The reality of Christ is something many don't have. 

Christ has to be more real to us than anything or anybody else.

When Christ isn't real to us we choose to let other things, and other people come between us and Christ, we put those other things and other people first.  Satan LOVES when we regulate our Savior to such a status as putting Him behind all others.

So how can we read this--

Luk 14:26  If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

-- and NOT comprehend that it's truth?

HATE your father.

HATE your mother.

HATE your wife.

HATE your children.

HATE your brothers.

HATE your sisters.

HATE your own life.

Hate?

Jesus is LOVE so how can He tell us to hate when the commandments themselves tell us to LOVE!?

Bonhoeffer-'Christ stands between us and we can only get in touch with our neighbours through him. That is why intercession is the most promising way to reach our neighbours, and corporate prayer offered in the name of Christ  the purest form of fellowship.  We cannot rightly acknowledge the gifts of God unless we acknowledge the Mediator for whose sake alone they are given to us. There can be no genuine thanksgiving for the blessings of nation, family, history, and nature without that heart-felt penitence which gives the glory to Christ alone above all else. There can be no real attachment to the given creation, no genuine responsibility in the world unless we recognize the breach which already separates us from it. There can be no genuine love of the world except the love wherewith God loved it in Jesus Christ.

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Yes, but we must also remember that … Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. '

My thoughts-

We cannot be disciples, true disciples without Jesus being our all in all FIRST and FOREMOST and through HIM we can LOVE as we need to LOVE.  Our love without it being Christ's love isn't love at all, not really. 

Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Truth.

The hate spoken of here is not the hate we imagine- the despising selfishly.  The hate spoken of here is like the hate of Leah.

Gen 29:30  And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

Gen 29:31  And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.

Rachel was loved more by Jacob than Leah was loved.

If we LOVE any one more than Jesus we aren't LOVING them, because only our Savior can give us true LOVE to love others with.

Many people throughout history have had to leave family and friends for God, ultimately for their own good, ultimately for some meaning they'll have that good in eternal life with love, with God!

A Christian martyr thousands of years ago,  a Christian martyr today both murdered for Christ when they could have kept from being murdered by denying Christ. They put Christ first because they KNEW that He is LOVE above all else and NOTHING could come between them and the love of CHRIST, nothing!

Do YOU love Christ that much?! Do YOU?!

Maybe we aren't going to be called to give up our family, friends, the things we love, but maybe we will be.

Our Savior must be our all in all! ALL by HIS GRACE,LOVE, and MERCY. All through HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! 

Please Lord, help us to love You as we need to love You.

Satan will try everything to keep us from this love, this real love of Christ, but God is stronger than Satan, God has defeated Satan and Christ has the power to give us the power to LOVE above all that Satan would have us not love, and Satan does NOT want us to love Christ above any.

By YOUR LOVE LORD, by YOUR LOVE!