The Cost of Discipleship

The Cost of Discipleship Plot Summary

Introduction

The concept of discipleship stands at the heart of Christian faith, yet its meaning has been profoundly misunderstood in modern religious practice. At its core lies a radical distinction between what can be termed "cheap grace" and "costly grace" - a distinction that challenges comfortable religious assumptions and demands a fundamental reorientation of Christian life. This distinction is not merely theological hairsplitting but addresses the very essence of what it means to follow Christ in a world that has domesticated and tamed the revolutionary nature of the gospel. The implications extend beyond individual spirituality to encompass the nature of Christian community, ethical demands, and engagement with the surrounding culture. The exploration of authentic discipleship presented here offers a penetrating critique of religious complacency while simultaneously opening a path toward genuine Christian existence. Through careful examination of biblical texts and theological reflection, we encounter a vision of discipleship that integrates belief and practice, individual commitment and community life, divine grace and human responsibility. This integrated vision speaks powerfully to contemporary spiritual seekers who find themselves disillusioned with shallow religiosity yet hungry for authentic faith that transforms rather than merely comforts. The journey through these concepts reveals not only what has been lost in modern Christianity but also what might be recovered through a return to the costly grace at the heart of the gospel.

Chapter 1: Cheap Grace vs. Costly Grace: The Fundamental Distinction

Cheap grace represents one of the most dangerous distortions in Christian faith - a counterfeit that offers comfort without transformation, forgiveness without repentance, and salvation without discipleship. It manifests as grace sold as bargain-basement goods, cut-rate forgiveness, and blessing without obligation. When grace is reduced to a doctrine, a principle, or a system rather than the living word of God, it becomes a cover for sin rather than true redemption. This cheap grace proclaims forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without community discipline, communion without confession, and absolution without personal accountability. Most dangerously, it offers grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, and grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ. In stark contrast stands costly grace - the treasure hidden in the field for which one sells everything with joy. It is the pearl of great price that demands total commitment. Costly grace calls to discipleship; it is grace precisely because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It costs people their lives yet makes them truly alive. It condemns sin while justifying the sinner. Above all, costly grace is costly because it cost God the life of His Son - "you were bought with a price." Nothing can be cheap to us which is costly to God. This grace is the incarnation of God Himself, demanding our lives in return for the life it gives. The distinction between cheap and costly grace touches the very essence of Christian existence. When Luther rediscovered the gospel of pure, costly grace, he did not proclaim a dispensation from following Christ's commandments. Rather, he affirmed that justification of the sinner does not excuse one from works but endlessly sharpens the call to discipleship. The tragedy of subsequent church history has been the distortion of Luther's insight - turning grace from an outcome of faith into a presupposition that justifies sin rather than the sinner. This distortion has had devastating consequences for Christian witness and practice. Churches have poured out rivers of grace without end, but the call to rigorously follow Christ is seldom heard. The result has been a Christianity that is indistinguishable from the world - a faith that comforts but does not transform, that blesses but does not challenge, that offers forgiveness without demanding change. Cheap grace has been unmerciful against us, closing rather than opening the way to Christ. It has hardened us in disobedience rather than calling us to discipleship. The recovery of costly grace represents the essential task for contemporary Christianity. This recovery involves recognizing that grace and discipleship cannot be separated without destroying both. Grace without discipleship inevitably becomes cheap grace; discipleship without grace inevitably becomes legalism. Only when these elements remain in proper relationship can authentic Christian existence emerge - an existence characterized by joyful obedience rather than either license or legalism. Blessed are those who, in following Jesus Christ, are overcome by grace and praise the grace of Christ which alone is effective.

Chapter 2: The Call to Discipleship: Immediate Obedience to Christ

The call to discipleship is characterized by its directness and immediacy. When Jesus called his first disciples by the Sea of Galilee or Levi from his tax booth with the simple words "Follow me," the obedient deed followed without hesitation or deliberation. The Gospel accounts emphasize that they "immediately" left their nets, their boats, their tax booths, and their families. This immediacy reveals something essential about the nature of discipleship - it demands a response that cannot be postponed, analyzed, or partially accepted. There is no psychological preparation, no historical explanation, no theological discussion - only the call and the response. What explains this proximity between call and deed? Only Jesus Christ himself. His authority demands obedience to his word. The call creates a new situation in which obedience becomes both possible and necessary. Before the call, there stands the individual in their old relationships; after the call, there stands only Christ and the individual. The call creates a break with the past that makes immediate obedience not only possible but inevitable for those who truly hear it. This break is not something the disciple accomplishes through moral effort but something that happens to the disciple through the power of Christ's call. The content of discipleship is strikingly simple: "Follow me, walk behind me!" This command has no specific content beyond itself. It is not a program for life that would be sensible to implement. It is neither a goal nor an ideal to be sought. Those called leave everything they have, not to do something valuable, but simply for the sake of the call itself. The first step separates followers from their previous existence, creating an entirely new situation where staying in the old situation and following Christ mutually exclude each other. Discipleship is not a path to something else but is itself the goal - being with Christ, walking in his steps. Discipleship is commitment to Christ himself, not to an idea about Christ or a program derived from his teaching. Because Christ exists, he must be followed. An idea about Christ, a doctrinal system, or a general religious recognition of grace does not require discipleship - in fact, it excludes it. Christianity without the living Jesus Christ remains necessarily a Christianity without discipleship, and a Christianity without discipleship is always a Christianity without Jesus Christ. It becomes merely an idea, a myth, a religious system rather than a living relationship with the incarnate Lord. The story of the rich young man illustrates this reality. He approached Jesus asking what good deed he must do to have eternal life. Jesus directed him to the commandments, which the young man claimed to have kept. When Jesus told him to sell his possessions, give to the poor, and follow him, the young man went away grieving. This encounter reveals three crucial points: First, it is Jesus himself who commands with divine authority. Second, Jesus creates a situation that eliminates all ambiguity - the young man must make an irrevocable decision. Third, Jesus accepts the young man's question about what he still lacks, but transforms it into a call that abolishes everything of his past. The call to discipleship leads to a profound paradox: "Only the believers obey, and only the obedient believe." Faith is the prerequisite of obedience, yet obedience is the prerequisite of faith. This seeming contradiction resolves in the reality that faith exists only in obedience, never without it. The first step of obedience must be taken for faith to be true faith rather than self-deception. Yet this step remains a dead work unless Christ has called us to take it. The path to faith passes through obedience to Christ's call, and the path to obedience passes through faith in Christ's enabling grace.

Chapter 3: The Cross: Suffering as Essential to Christian Life

The cross stands at the very center of discipleship, not as an optional aspect of following Christ but as its inevitable consequence. Jesus taught his disciples that he must undergo great suffering, be rejected by religious authorities, and be killed. This suffering was not merely tragic but specifically dishonorable - the suffering of one rejected and cast out. When Peter objected to this path, Jesus rebuked him sharply, revealing that from its very beginning, the church has taken offense at the suffering Christ. The natural human tendency is to seek a Christianity without the cross, a discipleship without suffering, a crown without thorns. Jesus then made clear that this suffering applies to his followers as well: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Self-denial means knowing only Christ and no longer oneself. It means seeing only him who goes ahead, not the way that seems too difficult. The cross is not random suffering or harsh fate, but necessary suffering that comes from allegiance to Jesus Christ alone. It is not suffering that stems from natural existence but suffering that comes from being Christian - from standing in opposition to the world's values and powers. The essence of the cross is not suffering alone but suffering and being rejected for the sake of Jesus. When Christianity no longer takes discipleship seriously, it remakes the gospel into mere solace and draws no line between natural and Christian existence. Such a Christianity understands the cross as one's daily misfortune rather than as being shunned and despised for Christ's sake. The cross is suffering with Christ - indeed, it is Christ-suffering. It represents the fundamental pattern of Christian existence in a world that remains hostile to Christ's lordship. The first Christ-suffering that everyone must experience is the call which summons us away from our attachments to this world. This is the death of the old self in the encounter with Jesus Christ. Those who enter discipleship enter into Jesus' death. The cross stands not at the end of a pious, happy life but at the beginning of community with Christ. Discipleship is passio passiva - passive suffering. This is why Luther could count suffering among the marks of the true church. The church that has ceased to suffer has ceased to follow its crucified Lord. Suffering must be borne for it to pass. Either the world must bear it and be crushed by it, or it falls on Christ and is overcome in him. This is how Christ suffers as vicarious representative for the world. The community of Jesus Christ vicariously represents the world before God by following Christ under the cross. God is a God who bears. The Son of God bore our flesh, the cross, and all our sins. That is why disciples are called to bear what is put on them. Bearing constitutes being a Christian. Just as Christ maintained his communion with the Father precisely in the act of bearing human sin, so disciples maintain their communion with Christ by bearing the opposition of the world. The cross reveals the fundamental pattern of Christian existence - a pattern that contradicts all natural human desires for comfort, success, and self-preservation. It establishes that the way to life leads through death, the way to victory through defeat, the way to power through weakness. This pattern appears as foolishness to the world but represents the wisdom of God. The disciple who embraces this pattern discovers that the cross not only brings suffering but also joy - the deep joy of communion with Christ that transcends circumstance and transforms suffering itself into a means of grace.

Chapter 4: The Visible Community: Embodying Christ in the World

Jesus addresses his disciples as "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world," identifying them as the most indispensable commodity and the highest value the world possesses. Without them, the earth cannot survive. The world lives because of these poor, ignoble, and weak people whom it rejects. This "divine salt" penetrates the entire earth as its very substance. When Jesus calls his disciples "the salt" instead of himself, he transfers his efficacy on earth to them, bringing them into his work. This remarkable identification establishes the church-community as Christ's visible presence in the world. The disciples are salt not by choice but by the power of Christ's call. Jesus does not say "you should be salt" but "you are salt." This applies to their whole existence as newly grounded in Christ's call to discipleship. The only alternative is that salt loses its taste and ceases to be salt - a condition that renders it hopelessly spoiled and good for nothing but to be thrown away. The call of Jesus Christ means being salt of the earth or being destroyed. There is no middle ground, no partial saltiness, no occasional effectiveness. The community either preserves and flavors the world through its distinctive existence or loses its very reason for being. Similarly, Jesus promises his community not only the invisible efficacy of salt but also the visible shine of light. "You are the light" - again, not "you should be the light." The call itself has made them light, and they cannot help but be seen. The city on a hill cannot be hidden; it is visible far into the countryside. The followers of Jesus are the visible community of faith; their discipleship is a visible act which separates them from the world. To flee into invisibility is to deny the call. This visibility directly challenges both individualistic conceptions of faith that reduce Christianity to private belief and spiritualized conceptions that deny the necessity of concrete, embodied community. What sort of light should shine from the disciples? It is the light of the cross - the place where something extraordinary has become visible in complete darkness. The good works of the disciples are to be seen in this light - not human virtues but the works Jesus created in them when he called them: poverty, being strangers, meekness, peacemaking, and being persecuted. These works bear witness to the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross becomes visible, and the works of the cross become visible. The want and renunciation of the blessed become visible. But human beings cannot be praised for the cross; only God can be praised. The visible community of disciples stands as a city on a hill, letting its light shine before others so they may see these good works and give glory to the Father in heaven. This visibility is not for self-glorification but for the glorification of God. The disciples' light shines not because of their own righteousness but because of Christ's righteousness working through them. Their visibility serves as witness to a different order of existence - the kingdom of God breaking into the world through the community that lives under Christ's lordship. This visible community takes concrete form in practices that distinguish it from the surrounding culture. The early church in Acts shared possessions, cared for the needy, gathered for worship and teaching, and lived in daily fellowship. These practices were not optional additions to their faith but essential expressions of their new identity as Christ's body. Through these visible practices, the church-community makes tangible the reality of Christ's presence and the distinctive values of his kingdom. In a world of individualism, the church practices community; in a world of accumulation, it practices sharing; in a world of violence, it practices peace.

Chapter 5: Authentic Righteousness: Fulfilling Rather Than Abolishing the Law

Jesus makes a startling declaration to his disciples: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill." After granting his disciples full promise and complete communion, Jesus unexpectedly refers them back to the Old Testament law. This creates an apparent tension: What is valid, Christ or the law? To which do disciples owe allegiance? This tension has led to various distortions - either elevating the law above Christ or dismissing the law entirely in the name of Christ. Jesus resolves this tension not by choosing one over the other but by establishing their proper relationship. The law Jesus speaks of is not a new law but the one old law of the Old Covenant. His concern is not for a "better law" than that of the Pharisees but for a "better righteousness." This righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees not by being more rigorous but by being qualitatively different. Jesus himself stands between his disciples and the law - he who has completely fulfilled the law and in whose community they live. The disciples' relationship to the law is now mediated through their relationship with Christ, who both fulfills the law and enables them to fulfill it. Jesus fulfills the law to the last letter, and by fulfilling it, he does "everything that is needed" for the law's fulfillment. He understands the law as God's law, not as an idol replacing God nor as something separate from God. Against both misunderstandings - the Jewish idolizing of the law and the disciples' potential separation of God from God's law - Jesus validates anew the law as God's law. This validation prevents both legalism that makes the law an end in itself and antinomianism that rejects the law in the name of freedom. The law remains God's good gift, now fulfilled in Christ. Jesus, as the Son of God who stands in full communion with God, renews the validity of the law by coming to fulfill it. Because he was the only one who did that, he alone could truly teach the law and how it is fulfilled. The fulfillment of the law could only come about through his being nailed to the cross as a sinner. He himself, as the crucified one, is the perfect fulfillment of the law. This fulfillment transforms the law from an external demand that condemns to an internal reality that gives life. The law is fulfilled not by being abolished but by being internalized through union with Christ. This means that Jesus Christ and only he fulfills the law because he alone lives in perfect communion with God. He steps between his disciples and the law, but the law does not come between him and his disciples. The disciples' path to the law leads through the cross of Christ. Because Jesus points the disciples to the law, which he alone fulfills, he thus binds them anew to himself. The disciples' adherence to Jesus requires the same obedience from them. Their righteousness flows from their union with Christ rather than from their own moral achievement. The righteousness of Christ is really the disciples' righteousness. It is righteousness under the cross - the righteousness of the poor, the mournful, the hungry, the meek, the peacemakers, and the persecuted for the sake of Jesus' call. It is the visible righteousness of those who in following him become the light of the world and the city on a hill. The righteousness of Christ should not just be taught but done. In a word, this means to follow him in genuine, simple obedience in faith in the righteousness of Christ. This righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees precisely because it flows from relationship with Christ rather than from scrupulous observance of external requirements.

Chapter 6: The Hidden Life: Prayer and Piety Beyond Self-Reflection

After emphasizing the visibility of discipleship, Jesus introduces a paradoxical dimension: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them." The disciples' righteousness must be simultaneously visible and hidden. This apparent contradiction is resolved in the concept of discipleship itself - exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. The visibility of discipleship refers to its objective reality in the world; the hiddenness refers to the disciples' subjective relationship to their own righteousness. Their good works are visible to others but hidden from themselves. The disciples' righteousness is hidden from themselves. They see the extraordinary only when they look at Jesus, and in him they do not see it as extraordinary but as something obvious and normal. What is visible is hidden from them in obedience to Jesus' word. If the extraordinariness were important to them because it is extraordinary, they would act like enthusiasts, out of their own power. But because Jesus' disciples act in simple obedience to their Lord, they view the extraordinary as only the normal act of obedience. This hiddenness prevents spiritual pride and self-consciousness that would corrupt genuine discipleship. This hiddenness extends to prayer, which Jesus teaches must be done in secret. Prayer is not a demonstrative act but is directed solely to God. Even in private prayer, one can create a public display by simultaneously being the one who prays and the one who listens. True prayer occurs when one's own will dies and Jesus' will alone reigns. The disciples pray the Lord's Prayer not as an example but as the essence of all prayer - addressing God as Father, hallowing His name, praying for His kingdom and will, asking for daily bread, forgiveness of sins, protection from temptation, and deliverance from evil. Similarly, Jesus addresses the practice of fasting, which he takes for granted as part of discipleship. The life of disciples requires strict discipline to make them more willing and joyous in following Christ. The selfish will is disciplined; the flesh is chastened. However, these practices must remain hidden: "When you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret." The disciples should remain humble in their voluntary exercises of humility, never burdening others with such exercises or using them as a reproach. Jesus further teaches about the simplicity of the disciples' life regarding possessions: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth... but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven." The disciples' vision must remain simple, focused solely on Christ. If the eye sees something other than what is real, the whole body is deceived. If the heart clings to appearances rather than to the creator, the disciple is lost. No one can serve two masters - God and wealth. This simplicity of vision prevents the divided heart that tries to serve both God and mammon, both Christ and the world. The hidden life of discipleship is characterized by complete self-forgetfulness. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. This is not a disguise or mask but the proper hiddenness of Christian deeds - the humility that does not know itself. Such hiddenness will one day be revealed by God, not by oneself. The reward ordained by God for hiddenness is being revealed in public, but only at God's timing and discretion. This eschatological perspective prevents both present pride in spiritual achievement and despair over lack of recognition. The disciple lives before the audience of One, seeking approval from God alone.

Chapter 7: Extraordinary Love: The Radical Demands of Discipleship

The Christian life is marked by what Jesus calls the "extraordinary" (περισσόν) - that which exceeds the ordinary, rises above the world, and distinguishes disciples from non-believers. This extraordinary quality is most powerfully expressed in Jesus' command: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." While loving one's kindred could be misunderstood as natural affection, loving enemies makes unmistakably clear what Jesus intends - a love that transcends natural inclination and social boundary, a love that can only be explained by reference to the supernatural love of God in Christ. For the disciples, "enemy" was no empty concept. They encountered enemies daily - those who cursed them as destroyers of the faith, those who hated them for leaving everything for Jesus' sake, those who insulted them for their weakness and humility, and those who persecuted them out of fear. Jesus commands his followers to love these enemies, not out of natural sentiment but from the will of Jesus acting in them. This love represents a radical break with natural human tendencies toward retaliation, self-protection, and in-group preference. It establishes a new pattern of relationship based not on reciprocity but on unilateral grace. This love knows no difference among diverse kinds of enemies. Whether political or religious, all enemies can expect only undivided love from Jesus' followers. This love recognizes no inner conflict within the disciple, even between being a private person and being an officeholder. Jesus instructs his disciples to bless those who curse them, do good to those who hate them, and pray for those who abuse and persecute them. This comprehensive love challenges all attempts to compartmentalize discipleship - to separate private faith from public responsibility, personal ethics from professional role, religious conviction from political action. How does such love become unconquerable? By never asking what the enemy is doing to it and only asking what Jesus has done. Loving one's enemies leads disciples to the way of the cross and into communion with the crucified one. This love makes disciples able to see enemies as brothers and sisters because they themselves were once enemies of Jesus who were conquered by his love. The disciple's love for enemies thus flows from their own experience of having been enemies of God who received love rather than condemnation. Having been loved as enemies, they now love their enemies. The extraordinary nature of Christian existence is not found in ethical rigor or eccentric lifestyles but in the simplicity of obedience to Jesus. This deed will prove to be "special" by leading Christians to share in Christ's suffering. In this action, Christ himself becomes the disciples' passio. The περισσόν is thus the fulfillment of the law, the keeping of the commandments in Christ the Crucified and his community. The extraordinary is not an achievement to boast about but the natural expression of life in Christ - a life that inevitably appears extraordinary to a world governed by self-interest and reciprocity. Here are those who are perfect, perfect in undivided love, just as their Father in heaven is perfect. It was the undivided, perfect love of the Father which gave the divine Son up to die on the cross. Likewise, communion with this cross is the perfection of Jesus' followers. The perfect are none other than those who in the Beatitudes are called blessed - those who have taken the extraordinary step of following Jesus in radical love, even toward their enemies, in the ordinary circumstances of daily life. This perfection is not moral flawlessness but wholeness of heart - the undivided devotion that loves as God loves, without calculation or condition.

Summary

The fundamental insight that emerges from this theological exploration is that authentic Christian faith requires a radical reorientation of our understanding of grace, discipleship, community, and freedom. Grace is not cheap religious comfort but a costly call that demands our entire lives; discipleship is not optional religious devotion but the essence of Christian existence; the church is not an invisible spiritual reality but Christ's visible body in the world; and freedom comes not through autonomy but through submission to Christ's lordship. These interconnected truths challenge both religious complacency and secular autonomy with equal force, revealing a path of discipleship that is simultaneously more demanding and more liberating than either alternative. The enduring value of this theological vision lies in its refusal to separate what God has joined together - grace and discipleship, faith and obedience, individual and community, freedom and submission. In an age of fragmentation, where faith is often compartmentalized and discipleship domesticated, this integrated understanding of Christian existence offers a compelling alternative. It speaks to those disillusioned with shallow religiosity yet hungry for authentic spirituality, to those weary of individualism yet skeptical of institutional religion, and to those seeking freedom yet aware of autonomy's limitations. The path it illuminates is narrow and demanding, but it leads to the only true freedom - the freedom found in costly grace, in the community of Christ, and in the extraordinary love that flows from undivided hearts.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was also a participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, a founding member of the Confessing Church. His involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging in April 1945, shortly before the war's end. His view of Christianity's role in the secular world has become very influential.

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