Cost of Discipleship – D. Bonhoeffer, Ch. 2 - The Call to Discipleship*

“The call goes forth, and is at once followed by the response of obedience. The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a confession of faith in Jesus.”

Consider the call of Matthew (Levi). It started with a call and his response to the call immediately followed by obedience. “Follow me,” Jesus said. Matthew responded with obedience.

When Jesus calls us to follow him, we do not first contemplate our spiritual condition, give a statement of faith or express a doctrinal belief, take a theological approach or wait until we have been baptized. We follow. That is our only response, and in following, we obey. This summoning and following makes us exclusively attached to Christ and in adhering to Christ we begin engaging in discipleship. Being called brings us to a position where we have faith to do as Christ wants. Peter (Luke 14:28-29) called out to Jesus to walk on water, and when Jesus said “Come,” Peter obeyed, stepped out in faith, taking Jesus at his word.

“Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” Anything else means we are choosing our way and regardless as to where that way leads, as religious as it appears, Jesus will certainly reject it. Only adherence to his calling will result in salvation. I purposely did not say ‘perfect adherence’. None of us is perfect, but out of obedience we follow the one who is, we are his disciples. The question you must answer is: Whose disciple am I?

When we follow Christ, we are separated from our previous existence, our past sin-filled nature. You cannot stay in your past condition and follow Christ, it is impossible.  When Jesus addressed two men (Luke 9:57-62) their primary focus was their life away from Christ. They were unwilling to pay the cost of discipleship.

The rich ruler (Matther 19:16-22) comes to Jesus, wanting the eternal result of being a disciple, and he believes that being a good Jew, adhering to all the law, puts him in line. Yet in listening to Jesus he is aware that there is something missing in his life, a barrier to be overcome in order to receive salvation. There is no doubt as to his sincerity or devotion. Where he fails is when Jesus confronts him it reveals that he has violated the first commandment, he has another god he is unwilling to give up. The ultimate issue, failure to yield everything to God.

We must examine every aspect of our life and let God reveal those matters that we cannot seem to release that bring disobedience to the forefront of our lives and that may require outside assistance. ‘Doing it myself’ is the same failure the men mentioned above experienced. Myself is just another god we put before Christ. Our unbelief is revealed, we persist in disobedience and to cover ourselves, we promote cheap grace, the fuel of unbelief. “Only those who obey can believe, and only those who believe can obey.” Keeping control of any part of your life is disobedience.

“With our consciences distracted by sin, we are confronted by the call of Jesus to spontaneous obedience.”  Failure to obey leaves us where we were before Jesus called, lost and alone.

We cannot engage in enough Christian behaviors and activities to qualify as a disciple. Likewise, we cannot be a disciple without being in community with other Christian believers. Sitting in church every Sunday does not make you a Christian any more than sitting in your garage makes you a car.

*Unless otherwise indicated all quotes are from The Cost of Discipleship by Deitrich Bonhoeffer.