Radical
Obedience
There
is no point in sugar coating any statement made by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He has
not given theology students that luxury. What students must realize is that
they are dealing with a man who has such a proper view of the God of the
universe and how small he, and every other being is. Bonhoeffer is a rare man.
Many people seek to find faults in mankind and with any system, but Bonhoeffer
strove to find remedies to the faults. This could be seen in the way he
preached and the way he stressed the sovereignty of God in all facets of life.
Perhaps the greatest of these areas was when it came to discipleship.
The
first two chapters looked at describing what grace and the call to discipleship
looked like. The next three chapters focus on obedience to that irresistible
call. What was obedience to Bonhoeffer? Obedience was something that one did
because Christ had done a work in that person’s life. Obedience, for
Bonhoeffer, could cover salvation in response to Christ’s call, or it could
cover the sanctifying process. For Bonhoeffer, obedience was and always will be
tied directly to faith. The faith of man is never better on display than when
it is demonstrated through the obedience to Christ.[1]
“Again,
when Peter was called to walk on the rolling sea,
he
had to get up and risk his life. Only one thing was required
in
each case¾to
rely on Christ’s Word, and cling to it as
offering
greater security than all the securities of the world.”[2]
For
Bonhoeffer, the word of God is something far more than a plea to live for
righteousness. It is a command from the incarnate God-Man. Scripture never
makes a request of the unrepentant. Scripture never seems to reason with the
lost so as to negotiate a peaceful surrender. These are not the actions of the
God of all creation. The Apostle Paul states in Acts 17:30,31 a command from
God that all men are to repent. The question must then be asked, what is this
repentance?
For
Bonhoeffer, repentance was nothing less than radical obedience.
“But
no, he went away sorrowful.
Because
he would not obey, he could not believe.”[3]
This
is a sobering truth for all Christians. John 3:18 says that those who do not
believe in Christ have already received their judgment. Obedience to Christ’s
calling is never in control of the decisions of man. Christ never asked mankind
to obey Him legalistically. Christ has not asked of Christians to sell all
their possessions because material wealth is of the devil. He has asked for
radical obedience, obedience that does not require material wealth, obedience
that does not require potential followers to cross items off of their bucket
list before taking up the cross for the first time, obedience that is so
dedicated to the incarnate God-Man that it radiates a love that is so bright
that the evil hate it and the righteous flock to it, obedient love that is so
devoted to Christ that it almost comes across as hate since a Christian’s love
must pale in comparison to the radical obedience to Christ.
The
Subtle Joy
Christians
are called to be like Christ. That is a truth that cannot be argued. Though it
is true that Christians cannot be like Christ in His perfections, Christians
must be like Christ in how they live and act. This is most beautifully
expressed in how the incarnate God-Man suffered and was rejected.
“Had
He only suffered, Jesus might still have
been
applauded as the Messiah. All the sympathy
and
admiration of the world might have been focused
on
His passion.”[4]
What
Christians must understand is that Christ did not just suffer pain physically
during His passion week. The people rejected Christ as an outworking of their
father, the devil, whom Christ accused accurately the Pharisees of being just a
short time ago. This was ultimately what Satan had done to God. He rejected
Christ, and the sovereignty of God, and was used by God to cause Christ to
suffer and be rejected at the hands of His creation. This is the relationship
that Bonhoeffer tried to stress with dying to Christ. Dying on the cross
necessitates being despised and rejected by men.[5]
If suffering and rejection is what makes Christ the Christ, then suffering and
rejection is what makes a disciple a disciple since we are to be crucified with
Christ. The suffering and death of Christ is so integral to the theology of the
Church. Christians need the death and resurrection of Christ for salvation as
empirical proof against a world gone mad as it drowns in a quasi wave of
“reason.” The fact that so many churches were trying to disprove the
resurrection of Christ proves that the Suffering Servant at its very nature, is
a scandal to most churches.[6]
But it is this very suffering and rejection that is a source of joy for the
believer.
“Only
the man who is dead to his own will
can
follow Christ.”[7]
Every
command of Christ is a desire to put to death the desires of the flesh and to
put on the actions of the regenerated man. Christ demands radical obedience
because the Father answered Christ’s prayer to have the “cup” taken from Him by
having Him pass through the ordeal. So also, Christians will have the “cup” of
tribulation taken from them as they live through it.
Personal
Attention
When
Christ described Himself as the Good Shepherd, He stated that if one were
wandering astray, he would leave the others and go out looking for that one
lost sheep. This begs the question, how does discipleship occur on a personal
level?
“Through
the call of Jesus men become individuals.
Willy-nilly,
they are made to decide, and that decision
can
only be made by themselves. It is no choice of their
own
that makes them individuals: it is Christ
who
makes them individuals by calling them.”[8]
Paul
wrote to the Corinthian church that he determined to know nothing but Christ
and Him crucified. This is what Bonhoeffer was trying to get at, at its core.
Man is at a state of hostility with all of creation, whether God or man. Man
needs an mediator who can restore relationship to the King of Glory. Only a fait
accompli action of Christ can separate man,
as a disciple, from a world of material and relational chaos. This is what
happens when the words of Christ are no longer an ideal or an ethical system,
but rather, as the words of Mediator who restores relationship to the hearers
of the call to discipleship. It is this call, that severs ties to the world and
places Christians into relationship with the God-Man. To love one an exterior
relationship more than the relationship to Christ, is to hate Christ, according
to Bonhoeffer.[9]
Some
may say that since Christ has paid the penalty of the sin of Christians that
they need not worry since Christ has established relationship with them, they
can go back to the relationships they just left. What many Christians forget is
that this is the same world that crucified the King of Glory. When Christians
embrace this, they embrace merely a justification of sin, and not the sinner.[10]
Conclusion
As
we can see in this section of The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer was stressing how the outward change
meets the inward change in the life of the believer. This is such an important
concept to understand for the Christian community today. We live in an era
where most accusations of legalism are, in actuality, someone just trying to
encourage someone to abide to a standard of holiness. This is the point that
Bonhoeffer tried to stress. Faith is so much more than a mere mental assent, as
most in the church see it today. Faith is obedience, and obedience is faith.
I
believe that the church should study this book since we live in an age of
Christianity where discipleship is in most circles, vague. Most people view
discipleship solely as a man-to-man relationship. This is what Bonhoeffer was
trying to get away from. As always, he got back to the root of the issue.
Discipleship is a vertical relationship first, and a horizontal relationship
second.
The
church must realize that we are facing an epidemic of believers who do not
understand that they are clinging to ties that separate them from a firm
relationship with Christ. This could be the form of anything that supplants the
King of Glory in the life of a believer. Christ does not desire acquaintance.
He desires intimate, personal relationship.
“…the
same Mediator who makes us individuals is also
the
founder of a new fellowship. He stands in the centre
between
my neighbour and myself. He divides, but He also unites.
Thus
although the direct way to our neighbor is barred, we now
find
the only real to him the way which passes through the Mediator.”[11]
“Radical
obedience
begot
radical relationship,
which will beget radical joy.”
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