Cost of Discipleship-Single-Minded Obedience

Call to Discipleship – Ch 3 Single-Minded Obedience Unless otherwise indicated all quotes are taken from The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Consider this conversation paraphrased from Matthew 19:16-22.

A man approaches Jesus and asks. What must I do to get eternal life [into heaven]?

Jesus says. Keep the commandments.

Which ones?

Start with don’t murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, honor your father & mother and love your neighbor as yourself.

Done that, so what do I lack?

Abandon everything, follow me.

Response (unspoken) – I cannot obey the first commandment (Ex. 20:3; Deut. 4:7). I will not follow you on your terms, believe in you, rely on your word.

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To follow Christ only one thing is required, reliance on Christ’s word and clinging to it as the ultimate security, far above any securities of this world. Know there are forces that are attempting to wedge in the words of Jesus, “follow me”, and our response to obey. The call of Christ is the word of God (John 1:1-5) which states first and foremost, “follow me”.

What must we (I) do, you ask? The only answer is obey. The problem with humanity is simple. “All along the line we are trying to evade the obligation of single-minded, literal obedience.” Jesus’ call and our obedience places us in the situation where faith is possible.

“The elimination of single-minded obedience on principle is but another instance of the perversion of the costly grace of the call of Jesus into the cheap grace of self-justification.”

“By eliminating simple obedience on principle, we drift into an unevangelical interpretation of the Bible.”

“Step into the situation where faith is possible is not an offer we [can] make to Jesus, but is always his gracious offer to us.”

The point is there is nothing about salvation we can achieve or do for ourselves. Our only options are follow and obey, or abandon Christ and go our own way, eternity without God in hell. Only God can offer salvation, and his salvation is available only on his terms. All of our efforts are meaningless, but with God all things are possible (Matt. 19:26). The choice is yours.