Ames, Iowa
Day 2 of reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, and the next chapter talks about the call to discipleship and how Christian's should be willing to obey the call of Jesus to follow Him without making excuses for yourself and to believe and trust in Him. The last chapter talked about Cheap Grace v. Costly Grace and part of costly grace is giving up your life to live the only true life and part of that also is answering His call to follow Him without hesitation.
"There is no road to faith or discipleship, no other road - only obedience to the call of Jesus."
In the book, Bonhoeffer talks about a passage out a Luke 9: He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." - Luke 9: 59-62
Breaking this passage down, the two men are caught up in their own priorities and aren't allowing themselves to obey to Jesus' call to follow. They find excuses to stop them from following Him. What I took out of this passage and from the chapter in this book is that you shouldn't let other objects, whether it be duties bound by law (burying the dead) or setting your own rules to follow Him, get in your way. You need to follow Him and give up your life without second guessing yourself, without finding ways of escaping his call.
Now I am not saying that you should give up your family in order to be closer to God, but I am saying that his calling for you to follow is extremely important and you will need to find what is distracting you from allowing yourself to give your life to Him.
Only those who obey believe. Bonhoeffer tells about a scenario that happens all the time to pastors dealing with people struggling to overcome their disobedience to God. He talks about how they will come to the pastors telling them they have lost the faith they once had and are having really listening to the sermons he is preaching. Bonhoeffer says that they should just grab the bull by the horn and say:
"Only those who obey believe. 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 wilfully disobedient. Somewhere in your heart you are refusing to listen to his call. Your difficulty is your sins."
With this he is trying to get the once believer back into following Jesus and giving up his life to Him once more. If you obey His call you are truly believing.
My challenge to anyone reading this to sit down and think about anything in your life that is distracting you or blocking you from listening to Christ and try to find ways to get those out of your life or fix them so they won't hurt you from the word of God anymore. Once you clear that distraction, you will start to feel closer to Him and will start to obey his call.
"As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him." - Mark 2:14
Friday, August 6, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Costly Grace v. Cheap Grace
Ames, Iowa
So first off, I want to say I am sorry that it has been so long since I have posted last. When I was on my trip in California, I had a lot of free time to really sit down and talk about what has been on my mind. Once I got back home I started my summer class of Business Law, which by the way really sucks. I had a good time learning all the stuff, but I could never see myself doing business law for a career. There is so much you have to know and I would think there would be countless amounts of sleepless nights studying for the bar exam and preparing for court cases.
Anyways, as I sit here in my sister and brothers house in Ames, Iowa, hanging out for the week, I brought a book to read so I could really get back into the habit of doing a daily devotional. At Baker, we have the infamous slap game, where if you forget to do a devotional for that week you get slapped. So guys get ready because I am coming back stronger than ever! Haha :)
The book that I chose to bring and read was Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, The Cost of Discipleship. I am reading a chapter a day and in this first chapter I was really blown away about how he described the world as it was back in the early 1900's and how it is similar to right now in 2010. He talked about how some Christians today live off of cheap grace, where they believe they can sin as much as they wanted as long as they spend an hour or two out of their Sunday's to ask God to forgive them and then go on with there lives.
"Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
As a Christian we should not be living our lives to conform to the world around us, but we should be living our lives in the light of Jesus. Living our lives with cheap grace is getting us no where! YOU AREN'T GAINING ANYTHING OUT OF CHEAP GRACE! Instead we should be giving our lives to God, so that we may receive the ultimate gift. Everlasting love from Him!
"Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock."
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life in return. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son, and has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
Believing in God is just one step in the right direction, next you need to take a step closer by giving your life to God and keep repaying that price day by day and with that He will look down at you and love you like a son.
"Deceived and weakened, men felt that they were strong now that they were in possession of this cheap grace - whereas they had in fact lost the power to live the life of discipleship and obedience. The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works."
As you can see, Costly Grace v. Cheap Grace, costly grace wins every time. I you can think of anyone in this sort of view of Christianity, I challenge you to go out and talk to him/her about the true meaning of being a Christian is and describe to them how Peter left everything he did not just once, but twice to follow Jesus and live by his word.
So first off, I want to say I am sorry that it has been so long since I have posted last. When I was on my trip in California, I had a lot of free time to really sit down and talk about what has been on my mind. Once I got back home I started my summer class of Business Law, which by the way really sucks. I had a good time learning all the stuff, but I could never see myself doing business law for a career. There is so much you have to know and I would think there would be countless amounts of sleepless nights studying for the bar exam and preparing for court cases.
Anyways, as I sit here in my sister and brothers house in Ames, Iowa, hanging out for the week, I brought a book to read so I could really get back into the habit of doing a daily devotional. At Baker, we have the infamous slap game, where if you forget to do a devotional for that week you get slapped. So guys get ready because I am coming back stronger than ever! Haha :)
The book that I chose to bring and read was Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, The Cost of Discipleship. I am reading a chapter a day and in this first chapter I was really blown away about how he described the world as it was back in the early 1900's and how it is similar to right now in 2010. He talked about how some Christians today live off of cheap grace, where they believe they can sin as much as they wanted as long as they spend an hour or two out of their Sunday's to ask God to forgive them and then go on with there lives.
"Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
As a Christian we should not be living our lives to conform to the world around us, but we should be living our lives in the light of Jesus. Living our lives with cheap grace is getting us no where! YOU AREN'T GAINING ANYTHING OUT OF CHEAP GRACE! Instead we should be giving our lives to God, so that we may receive the ultimate gift. Everlasting love from Him!
"Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock."
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life in return. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son, and has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
Believing in God is just one step in the right direction, next you need to take a step closer by giving your life to God and keep repaying that price day by day and with that He will look down at you and love you like a son.
"Deceived and weakened, men felt that they were strong now that they were in possession of this cheap grace - whereas they had in fact lost the power to live the life of discipleship and obedience. The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works."
As you can see, Costly Grace v. Cheap Grace, costly grace wins every time. I you can think of anyone in this sort of view of Christianity, I challenge you to go out and talk to him/her about the true meaning of being a Christian is and describe to them how Peter left everything he did not just once, but twice to follow Jesus and live by his word.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)