03/19/2025 – “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer / excerpts from Chapter 19 – “The Great Divide” (Matthew 7: 13-23)
I pick it up on pg. 190:
“A little band of men, the followers of Christ, are separated from the rest of the world. The disciples are few in number, and will always be few. This saying of Jesus forestalls all exaggerated hopes of success. Never let a disciple of Jesus pin his hopes on large numbers. ‘Few there be…’ The rest of the world are many, and will always be many. But they are on the road to perdition. The only comfort the disciples have in face of this prospect is the promise of life and eternal fellowship with Jesus…
The disciples of Jesus must not fondly imagine that they can simply run away from the world and huddle together in a little band. False prophets will rise up among them, and amid the ensuing confusion they will feel more isolated than ever…
In such times as these, Jesus requires his disciples to distinguish between appearance and reality, between themselves and pseudo- Christians…
Verse 21. The separation which the call of Jesus creates goes deeper still. After the division between Church and the word, between nominal Christans and real ones, the division now enters into the very heart of the confessional body. St Paul says: ‘No man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit.’ (1 Corinthians 12:3). It is impossible to surrender our lives to Jesus or call him Lord of our own free will. St. Paul is deliberately reckoning with the possibility that men may call Jesus Lord without the Holy Spirit, that is , without having received the call… The Church is marked off from the world not by special privilege, but by the gracious election and calling of God., ‘say’ and ‘do’ – this does not mean the ordinary contrast between word and deed, but two different relations between man and God. … the man who says ‘Lord, Lord’ – means the man who puts forward a claim on the ground that he has said ‘it,’ the doer — is the man of humble obedience. The first is the one who justifies himself through his confession, and the second, the doer, the obedient man who builds his life on the grace of God…
If we follow Christ, cling to his word, and let everything else go, it will see us through the day of judgement. His word is his grace.”
Soli Deo Gloria!