'We must get into action and obey'

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

The following encounter between Jesus and the lawyer is another example of someone trying to tempt Jesus into a religious debate, rather than someone seeking honest truth in order to obey.  In this example it says outright that the lawyer was tempting Jesus- his intentions obviously not good ones.

Luk 10:25  And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Luk 10:26  He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

Luk 10:27  And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

Luk 10:28  And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

Luk 10:29  But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

Bonhoeffer has this to say about those who live to dispute, debate, and generally do all they can to question the truth rather than obey it.

Bonhoeffer- ' The first round is already lost, so the lawyer must try again. Like the rich young man, he tries to escape by raising his moral difficulties. "And who is my neighbor?" How often has this question been asked since, in good faith and genuine ignorance! It is plausible enough and any earnest seeker of truth could reasonably ask it. But this is not the way the lawyer meant it. Jesus parries the question as a temptation of the devil, and that in fact is the whole point of the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is the sort of question you can keep on asking without ever getting an answer. Its source lies in the "wrangling of men, corrupted in mind and bereft of truth"; of men "doting about questionings and disputes of words." From it "cometh envy, strife, railings, even surmising's" (I Tim. 6:4). It is the question of men who are puffed up, men who are "ever learning, and never able to come to knowledge of the truth." Of men "holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof" (II Tim. 3:5). They cannot believe, and they keep on asking this same question because they are "branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron" (I Tim. 4:2), because they refuse to obey the Word of God, Who is my neighbor? Does this question admit of any answer? Is it my kinsman, my compatriot, my brother Christian, or my enemy? There is an element of truth and falsehood in each of these answers. The whole question lands us into doubt and disobedience, and it is a veritable act of rebellion against the commandment of God. Of course, I say, I want to do his will, but he does not tell me how to se about it. The commandment does not give me any clear directions, and does nothing to solve my problems. The question "What shall I do?" was the lawyers first attempt to throw dust in his own eyes. The answer was: "You know the commandments, do you not? Well then, put them into practice. You must not ask questions-- get on with the job!"  And the final question "Who is my neighbor?" is the parting shot of despair (or else of self-confidence); the lawyer is trying to justify his disobedience. The answer is: "You are the neighbor. Go along and try to be obedient by loving others." Neighborliness is not a quality in other people, it is simply their claim on ourselves. Every moment and every situation challenges us to action and to obedience. We have literally no time to sit down and ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our neighbor or not. We must get into action and obey--we must behave like a neighbor to him. But perhaps this shocks you. Perhaps you still think you ought to think out beforehand and know what you ought to do. To that there is only one answer. You can only know and think about it by actually doing it. You can only learn what obedience is by actually doing it.  You can only learn what obedience is by obeying. It is no use asking questions; for it is only through obedience that you come to learn the truth.

With our consciences distracted by sin, we are confronted by the call of Jesus to spontaneous obedience. But whereas the rich young man was called to the grace of discipleship, the lawyer, who sought to tempt him, was only sent back to the commandment.'

MY THOUGHTS-

People love the idea of loving a God they can control, a God they dictate terms to, a God who they decide is only truly concerned with their 'TRYING' to lead a 'GOOD' life and nothing more.  They love having a God in their back pockets, someone to pray to whenever the mood strikes and is expected to listen at all times. The love the God who placates them. That old fire and brimstone God preached from the pulpits is outdated and transformed and has been for a long, long time. Extremism in any form makes for a God of their choosing.  And more often than not, the God we say we believe in, ends up being far from real. People love to call God a fable, and it's no wonder so many do when people have spent many, many years, even a couple millenniums offering up their versions of God rather than the TRUTH of God.

This is when people JUMP into the conversation and begin to ask questions like- 'Who can know what's truth?', 'Isn't it all just a matter of private interpretation?', 'What does it matter as long as you believe?'  And on and on. They want to trip you up, they want to bring their evil surmising's and such into play all because the very bottom line is- THEY DO NOT WANT TO OBEY.  Make up your own God and forget about having to OBEY.  It's NO wonder at all whatsoever that Jesus is going to say to many people in the day of His return that He never knew them. He couldn't possibly know them because they've NEVER truly been His at all in any way, shape, or form. They've allowed themselves to be deluded, deceived, damned by the devil himself, all because the idea of TRULY OBEYING goes against the kind of God they want to believe in.

I'm not telling you to make God your old fashioned, fire and brimstone preacher- because like I mentioned earlier, extremism is wrong in both directions- cream puff, marsh mellowy and malleable as well as rigid rock, fire, and damnation without any compassion at all. 

God is what He says He is… love.

Love is God.

And our God says these words-

Joh_14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Keep them.

Not- just learn them.

Not-just recite them.

Not- just keep one or two.

Not- make up your own versions and keep them.

Not-just think about them.

Not-abandon them.

KEEP THEM.

And that is an action- the keeping.

These aren't piece of stone we shove under our beds and keep hidden, these are living, breathing commandments of living! These are commandments meant to be lived by.  These commandments are to be a PART of us, a part of our daily lives as surely as our breathing is. These commandments are supposed to be kept with every beat of our heart.

Why did the rich young ruler and the certain lawyer ever question what they are to do to inherit eternal life? They did it because God's love wasn't fully realized in them in His commandments. They didn't take the commandments to heart or else the rich ruler would have already been using his wealth to LOVE His neighbors so much so his wealth wouldn't have been a barrier to the realized love of the SAVIOR. The lawyer would know that his neighbor included all his fellowman and not those of his own choosing, if he were obeying, if he were keeping the moral law of God in his heart of hearts. Way too many people carrying on believing as their parents believed, never making their belief a real, personal thing at all. Generations of people continue on performing rituals- physical, spiritual, and mental rituals that hold not a single shred of LOVE, of GOD.  They live God-less lives because the God they claim to be worshipping is a false god, nothing like God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit- three who fully agree as ONE.

Joh_14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Obeying.

'We must get into action and obey'

By the GRACE of GOD!

Obedience to the Son of God

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- ' The call to follow means here what it had meant before--adherence to the person of Jesus Christ and fellowship with him. The life of discipleship is not the hero-worship we would pay to a good master, but obedience to the Son of God.'

My thoughts-

Truth.

Obedience.

Not lip service, not our own contrivances of worship, not any thing other than OBEDIENCE.  The call to FOLLOW Jesus is a command for us to obey. The teachings of Jesus Christ are given to us to obey, not to discard. How many of Jesus' teachings do we choose to discard because we'd rather just remain who we are? 

We get used to ourselves, so much so that we start to believe that there is NOTHING in us that needs changing.  We get comfortable with who we are, so much so that when we start suspecting there are things about us that don't quite line up with Jesus' teachings, we start making excuses for them rather than add them to the LIST of sins that they really are.  We don't like calling our non-Jesus-like behavior - a sin.  When we label our actions, our words, our thoughts even- sin, then we realize that we have to seek forgiveness and NOT accept the sin in our lives.  We hate not being able to just put our sin blinders on and go about our business. The thing is… Satan has sin blinders ready for us and he is very eager for us to put them on. We make our choices and when we choose to accept our SINS having labeled them just minor annoyances, then Satan slips those blinders on us and suddenly we are finding it very easy to excuse our sins. As soon as we excuse our sins we are choosing to be spiritual blind.   It's such a slippery slope is it any wonder our Savior gave us such amazing teachings to follow so we can KNOW when we are NOT following Him by our behavior, our lives, the fruit we produce.  We need to STUDY how Jesus wants us to LIVE, and make it a LIFE LONG STUDY. When we have our conscience pricked we need to thank the HOLY SPIRIT then and there as we feel the weight of our sins- the tiniest ones to the largest sin. We need to thank the Holy Spirit and then we need to seek forgiveness from God, repenting of those sins and seeking to OBEY our God.  Our obeying is keeping His commandments to LOVE Him and Others and that is clarified for us in the Moral Law of God. 

We believe and we OBEY.

We aren't to let our worship of God become hero worship by setting aside our obedience to Him.  He won't be mollified by our songs of worship and songs of praise to Him all the while we keep disobeying Him at every opportunity.  He wouldn't be pleased with that or accept us that way any more than we would accept that in our own children, or SHOULD accept that in our own children. How would we as parents like our children loving us to our faces and yet turning around and disobeying us as soon as they can? We know in our heart of hearts that disobeying is wrong, the disobeying of God or parents is wrong.  When we disobey we declare the one we are disobeying as unworthy, and when we declare God unworthy we've stopped believing in Him as our Creator, our Redeemer.

Please LORD help us to obey, teach us the need to obey, not just once in a while but ALWAYS.  

Save us from ourselves Lord, please, save us.

All in YOUR LOVE, YOUR FORGIVENESS, YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!

Practical Obedience

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- 'The one thing that matters is practical obedience. That will solve his ((the rich young ruler)) difficulties and make him ( and all of us) free to become the child of God. Such is God's diagnosis of the man's moral difficulties.'

My thoughts- We DON'T want to believe that 'practical obedience' is the answer. It's too simple but at the same time,  much too hard for us to follow. If we were told that we had to undergo a special quest, travel here and there, recite special words, buy certain things and all that would guarantee us eternal life, we'd do it! We'd gladly do all of that as long as we didn't have to truly obey God's commands. People would be lining up to undergo that quest waiting to lay their hands on that golden ticket to paradise. Once they had that ticket and were assured of eternal life  that would leave them free to behave any way they choose. They would never have to worry about sin, never have to worry about anything at all. Some people want us to believe that CHEAP GRACE is a golden ticket we put in our safety deposit box and no longer have to really worry about anything concerning eternal life ever again.

Tell me, why would Jesus tells us to STRIVE against sin?

Why would Jesus tell us to PICK up our CROSS DAILY?

Why? If we have His grace?

Why would He tell the sinners to go and SIN NO MORE, if it didn't matter is they did sin, as long as they just believed in Him and His dying for them?

Clearly, beyond ANY doubt whatsoever SIN is still in play after we've accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, His grace forgiving us, saving us.

Luk 18:18  And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Luk 18:19  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

Luk 18:20  Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.

Luk 18:21  And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

Luk 18:22  Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

We ASK this same question don't we?

And Jesus makes sure that this ruler knows that GOD is good, and it is GOD he is talking to asking this question. Then Jesus says- 'You know the commandments.'  And the ruler countered with the fact he'd kept them all from his youth till then. 

So WHY did Jesus bring up the moral law? Was it to tell the ruler that it wasn't going to guarantee eternal life, just keeping the moral law? 

Jesus went on to say, 'Yet lackest thou ONE thing.'  

You've got most of it right but not all of it.

Jesus didn't say forget about the moral law, stop keeping it, you don't need to obey that old moral law any longer.  Jesus said that ruler was doing good but there was one thing missing.  That one thing was a REAL desire to follow Jesus above all else- above all the money in the world, above everything, believing in Jesus as if He matters more than ANYTHING, literally anything in the entire world and beyond!

The ruler did NOT believe that much and he went away sad, unwilling to give up his riches for eternal life.

He was willing to obey the commands but NOT believe in Jesus.

We are more than willing to say we believe in Jesus but NOT obey the moral commandments given to us by Christ.

He wanted the obey without the believe and most people today want the believe without the obey.

Bonhoeffer- 'The one thing that matters is practical obedience. That will solve his ((the rich young ruler)) difficulties and make him ( and all of us) free to become the child of God. Such is God's diagnosis of the man's moral difficulties.'

Practical obedience.

We'd rather do just about anything other than truly obey God as His word tells us we need to obey Him.

Do you remember all those studies on what Jesus was teaching us about life and how to live it? How much of it have we retained? How much of it do we follow? Are we living our Savior's words?  Are we seeking constant forgiveness for falling far short of the mark set before us? Are we striving against the sins that would take from us our desire to follow our Savior all the way to eternal life with Him?   That's what happens when we disobey without any striving, without any seeking of forgiveness and grace, we LOSE our desire to belong to Jesus.  Please LORD help us to NEVER lose the desire to be YOURS!

Save us LORD, save us!

When we decide to forsake obeying we are also forsaking true belief.

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- 'Doubt and reflection take the place of spontaneous obedience. 

The grown-up man with his freedom of conscience vaunts his superiority over the child of obedience.

But he has acquired the freedom to enjoy moral difficulties only at the cost of renouncing obedience.

In short, it is a retreat from the reality of God to the speculations of men, from faith to doubt.'

My thoughts--

Spontaneous obedience.  We love to question God and His commands at every turn. The serpent in the garden had Eve questioning God and ever since man has questioned God.  You'll have a whole group of people who will gladly say, 'Shouldn't God be able to stand up to questioning?'  In truth, God should NOT have to stand up to anything. We are the CREATURES HE is the CREATOR! When He was obeyed mankind felt no pain, there were no tears, no hatred, nothing that is born of the evil that Satan is. It was only when man decided to disobey that all the horrors of sin were allowed into the world. Our disobedience and continued disobedience brings the pain. Yet people love to say all that God asks of us is TOO hard! That God is evil for even wanting us to obey! These are the awful things people say to excuse their desire to sin and live in a world of sin, continuously disobeying. Every single human being in their right mind knows what it means to obey and disobey. And they know that true good only comes from obeying.  The trouble is that people love to sin and enjoy the sin. They love to disobey and feel joy from that evil, they are twisted people who are controlled by Satan.   'Spontaneous obedience'  Obeying spontaneously. 'DOUBT and REFLECTION take the place of spontaneous obedience.'  As we question obeying, allowing room for doubt and reflection we are inviting Satan to play in our heads. We are inviting Satan to fill us with all sorts of things that will lead us from obedience, not towards it.

'The grown-up man with his freedom of conscience vaunts his superiority over the child of obedience.' 

My thoughts--

People who love to debate truly do vaunt their supposed superiority over those who live a life of simply obedience.  They love to call those who believe and obey - stupid, unintelligent, naïve, foolish, all because they have this notion implanted by the author of deception that God is not even real, and if He is real then He surely doesn't deserve blind obedience.

All through history those who are controlled by Satan have demeaned the simple obedient man, and it's that man who is closest to God and will gain SALVATION truly the most treasured of anything in existence.

'But he has acquired the freedom to enjoy moral difficulties only at the cost of renouncing obedience. In short, it is a retreat from the reality of God to the speculations of men, from faith to doubt.'

My thoughts--

At the cost of RENOUNCING obedience we use our freedom to enjoy moral difficulties. We pride ourselves on being able to challenge God's teachings but in reality we are only hurting ourselves - in  a very eternal way. When we stand up and shout to God (even silently) that we don't have to obey His commandments because they are just too hard, not meant for us human beings to keep, they are what denies us the happiness we deserve, their restrictions are just too constraining.  When we give all our speeches going into great detail about why God's commands are unjust we have given up our ability to truly obey God. When we give up that ability to obey, we are truly retreating from the REALITY of GOD and into mere speculations of men. We ARE in TRUTH caught up in DOUBT having forsaken FAITH.

Obeying and belief go hand in hand.  When we decide to forsake obeying we are also forsaking true belief.  So many DO NOT BELIEVE this and they are deceiving themselves! 

LORD please, please help us OBEY.

Please.

'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!

"Your difficulty is Your sin..."

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- 'Unbelief thrives on cheap grace, for it is determined to persist in disobedience.'

My thoughts- How true this is.  Those who say they find it hard to believe want someone to tell them that it's easy and very simple, just do it and don't worry about anything else.  The truth is that we need to OBEY to BELIEVE and BELIEVE to OBEY, the two, as we've learned, are inseparable.  Those who do not want to obey will leap at the chance to grab ahold of cheap grace, a grace- a belief, that they can have faith without any action at all. They are content to a cling to faith without works believing that their faith is not dead. Yet the Bible tells us this--

Jas 2:24  Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

Jas 2:20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Yet people want to believe that they can have faith without obeying, they comfort themselves with this belief and they are deceived.

Bonhoeffer- (A pastor confronting one who does not want to believe that to believe is to obey.) '"You are disobedient, you are trying to keep some part of your life under your own control. That is what is preventing you from listening to Christ and believing in his grace. You cannot hear Christ because you are willfully disobedient. Somewhere in your heart you are refusing to listen to his call. Your difficulty is your sins." 

My thoughts- 'Your difficulty is your sins.'   NO one wants to hear those words because people are ATTACHED to their sins.  Remember this--

Heb_12:1  ... and the sin which doth so easily beset us…

The sin which doth so easily beset us, they are our CHERISHED sins. They so easily beset us because we LOVE those sins, they are a part of our lives giving us so much comfort, so much pleasure, so much contentment, so much ease. To SET aside those sins which so easily beset us means giving up pleasure, comfort, ease, contentment, enjoyment, happiness.   We don't want to admit something that is DEADLY (SIN) can bring us such joy, but it does because Satan wants us to have our minds focused on ourselves and only ourselves and our joy, not denying ourselves, not thinking of others at all.  As long as we are settled on focusing on our joy, our ease, our contentment, our happiness, our pleasure, our comfort etc, then we are susceptible to falling into sin. 

"Your difficulty is your sins.'  TRUTH! 

Please LORD, help us! Our sins beset us! Help us to lay them aside! Help us, LORD. Please, help us OBEY You in all things!

If you persist in disobedience you will not have faith...

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer - 'Do not say you have not got faith. Your will not have it so long as you persist in disobedience and refuse to take the first step. Neither must you say that you have faith, and therefore there is no need for you to take the first step. You have not got faith so long as and because you will not take the first step but become hardened in your unbelief under the guise of humble faith.'

My thoughts- TRUTH!

We read this--

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

Just two examples of men of FAITH and what are we told- BY FAITH  - Noah MOVED, PREPARED.  He OBEYED actively!  BY FAITH -  Abraham OBEYED, WENT OUT.  He OBEYED actively!  These two examples alone in this chapter tells us that faith is more than mere thinking you have faith- it is an active belief- it is an obeying belief. As long as we do not obey any faith we have has been twisted by Satan into a false faith and he loves getting people to believe falsely.

Bonhoeffer-'The situation is therefore not the consequence of our obedience, but the gift of him who commands obedience. Unless we are prepared to enter into that situation, our faith will be unreal and we shall deceive ourselves. We cannot avoid that situation and our objective is, and always will be faith, and faith alone. ("from faith to faith," Romans 1:17).'

My thoughts- 'The GIFT of him who commands obedience' -TRUTH. By faith we obey.  Noah didn't know exactly what was going to happen but he knew he had to obey God and it was by faith- he believed and ACTED upon that belief- it was a REAL belief to him. Taking Christ at His promises we obey.  Noah was immersed in a flood, half drowned by a freak storm and then taken out of that situation and told to build an ark because worse was coming. Abram (Abraham) wasn't miraculously taken into the future and show the land he'd possess and the offspring that would come from him. They were told what to do and they did it without proof. Today we want proof before we obey but it doesn't work that way. We have been told extensively about the Gospel of the Kingdom, the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel our Savior came to earth in the form of a human being to deliver unto us, the Gospel of our Savior dying for us so that we would be SAVED by Him and ONE day upon His return for us we would be with Him forever. We are told this and we must OBEY all that our Savior tells us so that we will have the faith we need to have.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

LAY ASIDE every weight.

LAY ASIDE every sin.

RUN with patience the race set before us.

LOOKING unto JESUS the AUTHOR and FINISHER of OUR FAITH.

We are told what to do, and we MUST OBEY! Why do we honestly believe that we do not have to obey and can still have true faith?  If Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc all disobeyed they would NOT have had the faith they needed to have.

Remember from yesterday Bonhoeffer said this-

'Only those who believe obey" "Only those who obey believe."

He continues to day this very thing--

Bonhoeffer- 'The truth is that so long as we hold both sides of the proposition together they contain nothing inconsistent with right belief, but as soon as one is divorced from the other, it is bound to prove a stumbling block. "Only those who believe obey" is what we say to the part of a believer's soul which obeys, and "only those who obey believe" is what we say to that part of the soul of the obedient which believes. If the first half of the proposition stands alone, the believer is exposed to the danger of cheap grace, which is another word for damnation. If the second half stands alone, the believer is exposed to the danger of salvation through works, which is another world for damnation.'

My thoughts- TRUTH! 

May God bless us as we continue to study this chapter, this book all by looking to HIS HOLY WORD for the real truth of what is being said.

It is BIBLICALLY sound the points we have touched on so far.  Obeying, believing- believing, obeying, this is FAITH and it's truth that neither can stand alone, but only together to be truth.

Bless us LORD, help us to be YOURS fully in FAITH- believing and obeying, obeying and believing in all YOU would have us do and believe, believe and do.

All in YOU LORD, all in YOUR LOVE!

By YOUR GRACE and MERCY forever!

'Are you worried because you find it so hard to believe?'

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Bonhoeffer- 'Are you worried because you find it so hard to believe? No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus.'

Read that again, please.

'No one should be surprise at the difficult of faith- IF there is some part of his life where he is CONSCIOUSLY resisting or disobeying the COMMANDMENT OF JESUS.'

My thought- Why do we imagine that we can disobey willfully, resist willfully and then believe that our LOVING God will be apart of our lives through FORCE. Because isn't that what it'd be? Wouldn't God be forcing Himself on us if against our will He gave us Himself while we WILLFULLY resist Him and disobey Him? 

If you're purposely resisting someone and they keep at you, they are forcing themselves on you.

If you constantly disobey someone's rules you are NOT in any way desiring to follow them, or desiring to be a part of their life, are you?

As adults we know that if we constantly break society's laws that we are showing disrespect for society and we are punished accordingly and some people are taken out of this society and put into a special society called prison.

Society doesn't (as a rule) tolerate repeated offenders of its rules without repercussions. And judges have no choice but to believe those who choose to break society's rules don't want to be a part of that society any more. 

If we find our faith lacking and we are WILLFULLY (consciously) in some part of our life, in any part of our life, resisting or disobeying the commandments of Jesus then we are given a clue as to why our faith is lacking. We are choosing NOT to believe (not to have faith) when we choose to disobey and resist the SAVIOR. 

Our God did not leave us with the dictate to believe and then give us nothing to believe. Our God gave us the LIVING CHRIST to believe in, to follow. HE is our example!

More now from Bonhoeffer-

'Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at his behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? If so, you must not be surprised what you have not received the Holy Spirit, that prayer is difficult, or that your request for faith remains unanswered. Go rather and be reconciled with your brother, renounce the sin which holds you fast-- and then you will recover your faith! If you dismiss the word of God's command, you will not receive his word of grace. How can you hope to enter into communion with him when at some point in your life you are running away from him? The man who disobeys cannot believe, for only he who obeys can believe.'

My thoughts- TRUTH!

Run from this truth if you want, but you do so at your own peril.  Seriously.

Luk 10:25  And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Luk 10:26  He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

Luk 10:27  And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

Luk 10:28  And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

Asked of Jesus-  What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Answered of Jesus- Nothing.   

NO!  That's not what Jesus answered! Jesus did not tell that man- do nothing.  Jesus could have told this man that but it wouldn't have been TRUTH.

Answered of Jesus- What is written in the law? How readest thou?

Answered of the man-  The reciting of the MORAL law.

Answered of Jesus-  Thou answered RIGHT.  DO and thou shalt live.

Do.

Jesus said- DO.

And in reality what Jesus was telling this man to do was LOVE Him and LOVE others, because that is what the moral commandments are.  People have perverted the law into harsh restrictive commands they need to be free of, Satan's handiwork to be sure.  When we look upon the moral law of God and find them restrictive how are we seeing the love in them? 

'The man who disobeys cannot believe, for only he who obeys can believe.'

Honestly, how can we say we have faith if we do nothing that reveals that faith to be real?

If I say I have faith in you, then I'm believing in you.  And if you tell me to do something and I believe in you then I should do it, right? If you say you have faith in me, and then don't do something I tell you to do, do you really have faith in me? Are you really believing in me? Has anyone ever said to you- 'Believe me, just believe me.'  They are asking you to have faith in them.

We've learned not to have faith in others by repeated failure for others to truly love us and desire our best interests. We've been lied to time and time again and it's made it hard for us to have faith in others.  Our God has NEVER LIED, NEVER, NOT EVEN ONCE.

Our lack of faith is NOT a fault of God's, but a fault in us for refusing to obey God, for refusing to believe enough to obey.  We ultimately choose, we are NOT forced to believe. Faith and obeying truly do go hand in hand.

When Bonhoeffer wrote the following he knew what he was talking about--

'Are you worried because you find it so hard to believe? No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus.'

'The man who disobeys cannot believe, for only he who obeys can believe.'

Truth.

Jas_2:20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Faith without action is not true faith.

Mat_7:20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Truth.

By the grace and mercy of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, more tomorrow!

Help us LORD. Bless us this Sabbath day, open our hearts to YOUR truth. Open our understanding to YOUR truth. Bless us with the Holy Spirit through YOUR love, YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, YOUR FORGIVENESS, YOUR LOVE.

Fix our eyes on the Word.

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship  (continued)

Please read the following excerpts slowly, contemplatively.  If you need to (like I usually do) read them more than once.  We are trying to discern TRUTH from these words. This isn't God's word, it's not set in stone, it is subject to error and by the grace of God may we be able to glean the truth out of what is written and grow in Christ, grow in the knowledge of our Savior even more!

*******

Bonhoeffer-  '...only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.' 

'...we must never lose sight of their essential unity. For faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.'

'Only the obedient believe. If we are to believe, we must obey a concrete command. Without this preliminary step of obedience, our faith will only be pious humbug, and lead us to the grace which is not costly. Everything depends on the first step. It has a unique quality of its own. The first step of obedience makes Peter leave his nets, and later get out of the ship, it calls upon the young man to leave his riches. Only this new existence, created through obedience, can make faith possible.'

'This first step must be regarded to start with as an external work, which effects the change from one existence to another. It is a step within everybody's capacity, for it lies within the limits of human freedom. It is an act within the sphere of the natural law (justitia civilis) and in that sphere man is free. Although Peter cannot achieve his own conversion, he can leave his nets.  In the gospels the very first step a man must take is an act which radically affects his whole existence.'

'Once we are sure of this point, we must add at once that this step is, and can never be more than, a purely external act and a dead work of the law, which can never of itself bring a man to Christ. As an external act the new existence is no better than the old. Even at the highest estimate it can only achieve a new law of life, a new way of living which is poles apart from the new life with Christ. If the drunkard signs the pledge, or a rich man gives all his money away, they are both of them freeing themselves from their slavery to alcohol or riches, but not from their bondage to themselves. They are still moving in their own little orbit, perhaps even more than they were before. They are still subject to the commandment of works, still as submerged in the death of the old life as they were before. Of course, the work has to be done, but of itself it can never deliver them from death, disobedience and ungodliness. If we are already judged by our work, and entirely excluded from grace. Hence the term "external work" includes everything we are accustomed to call "disposition" or "good intention,"…'

'Nevertheless the external work must be done, for we still have to find our way into the situation where faith is possible. We must take a definite step. What does this mean? It means that we can only take this step aright if we fix our eyes not on the work we do, but on the word with which Jesus calls us to do it.  Peter knows he dare not climb out of the ship in his own strength-- his very first step  would be his undoing. And so he cries, "Lord, bid me come unto thee upon the waters," and Jesus answers: "Come."  Christ must first call him, for the step can only be taken at his word. This call is his grace, which calls him out of death into the new life of obedience. But when once Christ has called him, Peter has no alternative-- he must leave the ship and come to him. In the end, the first step of obedience proves to be an act of faith in the word of Christ. But we should completely misunderstand the nature of grace if we were to suppose that there was no need to take the first step, because faith was already there. Against that we must boldly assert that the step of obedience must be taken before faith can be possible. Unless he obeys, a man cannot believe.'

My thoughts-

'We can only take this step aright if we fix our eyes NOT on the WORK we do, but on the WORD with which Jesus calls us to do it.'  TRUTH.

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.

Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Joh 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

'The step can only be taken at his word.'

'This CALL is His GRACE'  

We truly are being called out of death and into a new life that is a call to obey our SAVIOR.

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Shall we continue to sin? No. God forbid!

And we know this--Jas_4:17  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

So if we KNOW what actions are approved by God as good acts, and what actions are not approved by God as good acts then it stands to reason that we sin when we choose NOT to ACT in a way approved by God.  Obey God, obeying His commands is NOT sinning.

1Jn_3:4  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

We are CALLED by grace.

We must die to sin by living in Christ.

We are buried with Christ by baptism.

We are raised up from that death like Christ, by the glory of the Father.

Because we are called by our Savior we truly do have to walk in NEWNESS of life.

We cannot serve sin. We are NOT called by Christ to serve sin, not ever!

The Costly grace is costly because it cost our Savior His life! If we are called by our Savior and accept His sacrifice for us, we are called to obey Him all through FAITH, all through BELIEVING in HIM and all He's done for us!

Bonhoeffer is explaining the truth that there is MORE to following Christ than willfully living our lives in our old sins while trying to claim Christ's grace.  We must obey, and this is where so many fall short choosing to disobey rather than obey. They claim they no longer are obligated to obey, but NO where are we told by our SAVIOR to not listen and do what He tells us to do. Our Savior did not spend three years ministering, teaching, just so we can ignore all He said.

Please LORD, help us as we struggle to learn more about our call to discipleship, our call to follow YOU in pure LOVE.

Bless us LORD, keep us IN YOU and ONLY in YOU- not in ourselves, not in any other, only YOU.

'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!

The Call to Discipleship

Bonhoeffer- Chapter 1 - Costly Grace.   (This chapter finished)

Chapter 2 - The Call to Discipleship (Begun)

'It has becoming clear every day that the most urgent problem besetting our church is this: How can we live the Christian life in the modern world?'

My thoughts-  This is an urgent problem besetting ALL of us, isn't it? Seriously, we all look so much like the world that we are definitely not set apart from it, and if we look like the rest of the world does that mean we've conformed to the worldly ways and accepted CHEAP grace rather than COSTLY grace? Bonhoeffer asks this question many years ago and it's still relevant for us right now, in fact, more relevant than ever before as the world calls evil good in so many, many ways.

'Happy are they who have reached the end of the road we seek to tread, who are astonished to discover the by no means self-evident truth that grace is costly just because it is the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Happy are the simple followers of Jesus Christ who have been overcome by his grace, and are able to sing the praises of the all-sufficient grace of Christ with humbleness of heart. Happy are they who, knowing that grace, can live in the world without being of it, who by following Jesus Christ, are so assured of their heavenly citizenship that they are truly free to live their lives in this world. Happy are they who know that discipleship simply means the life which springs from grace, and that grace simply means discipleship.  Happy are they who have become Christians in this sense of the word. For them the word of grace has proved a fount of mercy.'

My thoughts- Truth.

Chapter 2 - 'The Call to Discipleship.'

Mar 2:14  And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.

'Because Jesus is the Christ, he has the authority to call and to demand obedience to his word.'

'The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity (that is, in truth, into the absolute security and safety of the fellowship of Jesus), from a life which is observable and calculable (it is, in fact, quite incalculable) into a life where everything is unobservable and fortuitous (that is, into one which is necessary and calculable), out of the realm of finite (which is the one liberating reality). Again it is no universal law. Rather it is the exact opposite of all legality. It is nothing else than bondage to Jesus Christ alone, completely breaking through every programme, every ideal, every set of laws. No other significance is possible, since Jesus is the only significance. Beside Jesus nothing has any significance. He alone matters. When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person.'

My thoughts-

Jesus is the only significance.  TRUTH!  Yet we spend countless number of hours believing so much else in life is significant. We are actually raised to believe that we- outside of Jesus- are significant. We are told we are special. We are raised believing just because we exist we have rights. We are told that we deserve to be treated with respect no matter who we are, and we tell others the same. We build people up and make them believe that no matter what they are important all on their own.  It's not true, but instantly doesn't that statement want to make you contend that it is true?  We are NOT important in and of ourselves. We are important ONLY because God loves us, and for no other reason. Our significance exists ONLY because our SAVIOR, our CREATOR exists.  Without our Creator we would not exist at all but people have gone to great lengths to deny that we even have a Creator. Unfortunately, tragically even, many people believe those who would tell them they have no Creator, no God who created them, who spoke them into being.  They believe that since we propagate ourselves that there is no Creator creating us. That the fact GOD created the first of us and gave us the ability to propagate is merely false, the first of us simple came into being out of nature with also just came into being all on its own some how. They believe that TIME itself creates things, given enough time everything and anything is impossible. Put a rock on a shelf and over millions and trillions of year it'll make life all on its own, this is what people who do not believe in a Creator, believe. Nothing sprang from nothing and then it was something. Logic alone defies all that sort of thinking but there are millions caught up in it because they do NOT want to believe they have a Creator that they owe their very lives to. They do not want to believe that their significance only exists because God, their Creator, created them and in doing so gave them significance. Our Savior deemed us worthy enough to save from certain nothingness, from ultimate non-existence. The significance lies within our Savior, not in us. We didn't do anything special to make ourselves worthy.  Jesus is the only significance this is TRUTH.

'When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person.' - We want to believe we've been called to follow Christ and indeed we have been, all of us have been called. And it is truth that when Jesus calls us to follow HIM, He wants us be a part of HIM.

Jesus said-- Joh_15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

Bonhoeffer goes on to say--

'Discipleship means adherence to Christ, and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship.' 

My thoughts--

I watched this show where this girl escaped from a cult where her parents had raised her and she went back after many years to see her parents and they believed she'd come back hoping to once more become a part of the cult, a disciple to their cult.  When we think of modern day disciples we rarely think of that word, that term, in connection with ourselves. Why? Because cheap grace has destroyed our sense of being disciples. That word disciple isn't used widely, not for the average everyday person who calls themselves a Christian. That word has more meaning to those SPECIAL people who join cults, or who become monks and such, those who have a higher calling than any average Christian.  If you told someone you are a disciple of Christ do you know that word alone would stop and make them wonder if you weren't meaning some special religion- or a member of a church called Disciple of Christ.  Whatever their thought, it wouldn't be one that is common at all, it wouldn't be one of instant understanding and acceptance, because Christ's followers have forgotten they are truly HIS DISCIPLES.

More on this tomorrow by the GRACE of GOD.

We are Christ's disciples! Please Lord help us to be YOUR disciples in TRUTH.