Dietrich’s Cost of Discipleship

The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Boenhoffer was one of the first Christian books that I ever read.

Most people know Dietrich (I think he would want me to call him Dietrich) as the German Christian who tried to assassinate Hitler during World War II.  He almost pulled it off, too.

In The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich said that although salvation is free from God through Jesus, it isn’t cheap.

Dietrich said (I’m liberally paraphrasing) that people show up for church or bible study, or even volunteer, not because they’re really that interested in God, but just so that they can get the heaven points.

Even though the book was written more than 60 years ago, I think he was onto something.

If we say that we’re Christians, then it means that we believe that Jesus is the only way to get into heaven.

It also means that we believe that this life really isn’t very important.  Whatever we accomplish or do, whether accumulate wealth or write a great book, it doesn’t matter.  This life is just a staging area for our eternal life with God.

Now, if we believe that Jesus is the only way to get into heaven and we also believe that this life isn’t important, then how could we not spend 100% of our time trying to save our friends?

I’m guilty of this too.

It’s not just a state of laziness or apathy.

If we really believe it, it should be impossible to not spend as much time as we can, and do everything that we can for Jesus.

It should follow naturally.

My faith in gravity causes me not to walk off of cliffs.

My faith in gravity doesn’t pester me to spend this much time or that much time trying not to walk off of cliffs.  But because I believe in gravity, I have a natural, involuntary action to stop before the cliff.

If we really believe in Jesus, then the action, the sacrifice of our lives, should be involuntary as well.

So what’s holding us back?

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