Come and Die: The grace that leads to death
Costly versus cheap grace
The grace that leads to death
Grace that demands a response
Bonhoeffer's theological intersection with Wesleyanism
Grace is a word that can seem dull and lifeless in the church today due to its overuse and familiarity. Dietrich Bonhoeffer sees grace, costly grace, as the summary of the true Gospel. In Bonhoeffer's day, such costly grace had been exchanged for a cheap imitation of grace that was little more than empty religion, demanding little effort and no obedience. Bonhoeffer, who was eventually martyred, knew intimately that , “When Christ calls a man [sic], he bids him come and die.”1 For Bonhoeffer, then, death is the mark of true discipleship and is a manifestation of the appropriation of costly grace in the life of the believer. This paper will explore this thesis first by contrasting this costly grace with cheap grace. It will then make the connection between grace and death (both spiritual and physical), with particular emphasis on the ethical response required of this grace. Finally, a brief analysis will be given of points of intersection between Bonhoeffer's understanding of God and grace and contemporary Wesleyanism.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's understanding of grace developed in the particular historical context of the rise of the Third Reich to power in a Germany that had only recently been defeated in World War I and had suffered what many considered to be great humiliation as a consequence of the Treaty of Versailles. The German church, the church of Martin Luther, had come to align itself with the Hitler and the Nazi regime in the 1930's. Christianity in Germany accepted grace as only an abstract concept, which had little bearing on...
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...” he said, “and they can get something to eat with us, and then we’ll bring them right back.”12
Extending grace into the world, as Jesus did, entails death. It is death to comfort, to autonomy, and to the rights of self. In Bonhoeffer's case, his obedience led him to his own physical death. If Christ would pursue us to hell in order to save us, then our act of obedience requires an equal sacrifice, even if it leads to our own death. Costly grace demands a response, even unto death.
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_________. The Cost of Discipleship. 1st Touchstone ed. New York: Touchstone, 1995.
Metaxas, Eric. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Dallas: Thomas Nelson, 2010.
Reist, Benjamin A. The Promise of Bonhoeffer,. New York: Lippincott, 1969.
...e toward him as well, since at one point he felt he deserved to die for what he had done. This grace gives him a purpose and strength to go on living, even though he may never completely overcome the hurt and pain.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on February 4th 1906, as a son of a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Berlin. Throughout his early life he was an outstanding student, and when he finally reached the age of 25 he became a lecturer in systematic theology at the University Berlin. Something that is very striking is that when Hitler came to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer became a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church, the center of Protestant resistance to the Nazis. He organized and for a shot amount of time he led the underground seminary of the Confessing Church. His book Life Together describes the life of the Christian community in that seminary, and his book The Cost Of Discipleship attacks what he calls "cheap grace," meaning that grace used as an excuse for moral laxity.
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...s distributed in Theology 101 at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle on 22 April 2008.
... is playing favorites in whom he wants to grant salvation to while they are alive on Earth, there is no incentive for anyone to care. If God is so merciful, then these Calvinistic Puritan doctrines should not exist and everyone should be granted spiritual salvation and grace while they are alive on earth at all times. Edward Taylor’s arguments and symbolic imagery of the beauty of God and how gracious he is are highly questionable and shoddy – similar to God and Puritan theology.
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