The Pastor’s Perspective
By Brad Mercer

Summer Sunday Nights

Look for more detailed information coming soon on our summer Sunday evening series, “Manhood and Womanhood: A Christian Perspective on Roles, Rules, and Responsibilities.” This series will emphasize the practical aspects of God’s design for men and women in their relationships with one another.

Beginning Sunday evening, June 7, I will lead us through a study of the Bible’s teaching on issues such as masculinity and femininity, authority and equality, singleness and marriage, roles in the church, responsibilities at home, and gender confusion in the culture.

The Cost of Discipleship

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” This is how Dietrich Bonhoeffer summarizes the essence of discipleship in his classic, The Cost of Discipleship.

Bonhoeffer possessed a rare combination of academic giftedness and love for people. By time he was twenty-four years old, he was lecturing on systematic theology at the University of Berlin. He was known for his humility and his deep concern for the spiritual lives of his students.

When Hitler came to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer concluded that he could best serve Christ by moving out of the academy and into the church. “I cannot get away from Jeremiah 45,” he said. “And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go” (Jeremiah 45:5). After openly denouncing Hitler for setting himself up as idol and a god, Bonhoeffer left Germany to pastor two churches in London. After a brief period back in Germany and then America, he realized that Christ was calling him back to his native land.

He returned to Germany knowing his probable fate. He ministered to oppressed and persecuted Christians throughout the country until he was arrested by the Gestapo in the home his parents on April 5, 1943. His ministry continued. He prayed for, taught, and comforted prisoners and prison guards until he was hanged by the direct order of Heinrich Himmler on April 9, 1945. Dietrich Bonhoeffer responded to Christ’s call—and died.

He knew, and embraced, the true “cost” of discipleship. Whenever I re-read this book I am confronted with my laziness, fear, and hesitation. I find myself deeply convicted by this young German Lutheran who didn’t just talk—he acted. He followed through. He served. He sacrificed.

Bonhoeffer’s words and actions teach us that grace is never “cheap.” It is “costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.” He continues:

It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man his only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies a sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: ‘you were bought with a price,’ and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.