Having heard the author quoted by various prominent preachers from John MacArthur to John Piper I had heard much said about the book’s power, and I desired to experience that for myself. After finishing it, I can see why “Cost of Discipleship” has challenged so many in their walk with Christ. The book’s major theme centers on what it really means to be a disciple of Christ. This is summed up by Bonhoeffer’s statement “that when Christ calls a man he bids he to come and die.” Christ wants all of us - nothing is to be held back. One is either a disciple of Christ, or they are not. There is no middle ground. The true disciple is dying to his life as a whole, and their old life is being replaced with the life of Christ.

Bonhoeffer constantly refers to Biblical passages to make his points, and he does not resort to storytelling or even personal anecdotes. Even though “Cost of Discipleship” was published in 1937, every page in this book counters the “easy believism” and license that tempt and seduce many Christians today. Bonhoeffer attacks “cheap grace” and demands a steadfast, deep loyalty to Christ. However, I did have a couple of minor issues with the book. It is somewhat densely written, and therefore may be daunting to the average layreader. Bonhoeffer was a highly educated theologian, and it shows in his writing style. In addition, Bonhoeffer tends to neglect grace in favor of emphasizing absolute holiness and commitment. His moralistic leanings have the danger of encouraging legalism and asceticism if a reader is inclined toward those pitfalls. I’m sure this was not his intent, since it was Bonhoeffer’s genuine love for Christ that motivated his passion and perseverance.

Bonhoeffer was a person of limitless courage and faith. Born 1906 in Breslau, Germany to a prosperous family Bonhoeffer studied theology and completed his doctoral thesis when he was 21. He rose to some measure of fame in the 1930s by virtue of his writings and radio sermons.

As is set out in the introductory memoir in this edition, Bonhoeffer understood immediately that Hitler and his national socialist ideology represented a grave threat to Germans, to Christianity, and to western civilization. In a radio adress he gave in February, 1933 Bonhoeffer denounced Hitler and denounced his fellow Germans for accepting a corrupt and inhumane leader and system as its idol. Although Bonhoeffer spent a great deal of time living in England, safe from harm, he understood that he could not in good conscience “participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.” Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1939 to take up the struggle against Nazi-ism. He had to have known that his return would lead to his death but he knew he could not do otherwise. He was called and he obeyed that call without question. Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943 after being caught assisting the escape of a number of Jews from Germany. On April 8, 1945, with Allied troops only days from liberating his prison, Bonhoeffer was executed on the orders of Hitler by the S.S. Black Guards. One cannot read the Cost of Discipleship without an acute understanding that his writings on sacrifice, on obedience, and on the cost of grace were mirrored by his actions.

The Cost of Discipleship is one of those rare works of classical Christian writing that points the reader to what it means to be a true follower of Christ. I use the word “true” because in today’s modern church the false doctines of “decisionism” and/or “acceptionism” have taken hold; meaning one “makes a decision to accept Jesus” or one “accepts Christ.” But “from the beginning it was not so.” Both Jesus and John the Baptist preached a doctrine of repentance. This remarkable young Lutheran Pastor makes a compelling statement of what the difference is between the “cheap grace” that is all too prevalent in so-called christendom and true Bible-based “costly-Grace.” Bonhoeffer uses the term “costly” because Jesus Himself demands our all; “If any man will follow me, let him deny himself daily and follow me.”

It is enlightening and encouraging that such a book could be penned by one of the great Lutherans of the 20th century. The subject of this book is grace - too often, in Bonhoeffer’s day and our own, people seem to look at grace as something free, instead of something freely offered.

The exposition of the Sermon on the Mount is fantastic. Boenhoeffer is straight-forward and leaves you no wiggle room in terms of conviction. He has a gift for communicating our thought processes as we try to justify sin in our lives, and I was amazed that his insight was written decades ago in a different country, because they perfectly described the way I think today. It is by faith alone that we are saved, but that faith is never alone. As Bonhoeffer said, “Only those who obey can believe, and only those who believe can obey”

Bonhoeffer begins his classic commentary with a discussion of what it means to be a follower of Christ. He contrasts the cheap grace (to just believe) with the costly grace by which we are saved, if we continue in obedience to Christ. He brings the reader to the Cross of Christ and takes the Sermon on the Mount as a command rather than an ideal. In conclusion he applies his teaching within the context of the greater community of Christ that is found in the Church.

He `counted’ the cost of discipleship and found Grace a Costly Truth. Cheap Grace, as he called it, is grace bestowed on ourselves, preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, eliminating self denial and the death of self life. Cheap Grace is grace without Discipleship. He states that “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace. The sacraments, the foreignness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices.” He attempts to demonstrate how the church along with the gospel ha s been diluted by this teaching. See it in his own words “We …..have gathered like eagles round the carcase of cheap grace, and there we have drunk of the poison which has killed the life of following Christ.” He implores Germany Christianity that they have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence. Also that if the German Church refuses to face the stern reality of sin, it will gain no credence when it talks of forgiveness.

This book will drive home the important Truth that GRACE is NOT LISENCE to sin. It is the Power of God to transform a sinful soul into Newness of Life. Although one would have only a limited vision of Bonhoeffer’s work if one read only the Cost of Discipleship, this is an excellent first Bonhoeffer book to read. Then in which I greatly advise to follow with reading Letters and Papers from prison. Staggering in its theological depth and its unflinching call for the crucifixion of self, “The Cost of Discipleship” is a true classic, an essential book for any Christian library. ( )

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who plotted to kill Hitler although he was an ordained Lutheran minister, and in fact was motivated to act as a Christian by plotting to kill Hitler, commented on Romans 13:4 and the state practicing ekdikos (defined as 1. avenger: Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 238; 1. champion; 2. legal representative: Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon, p. 427). You should note that Romans 13:4 is the only verse where the term applies to the state. Every other biblical use of the word refers to God as the avenger and the context refers to the state as a legitimate avenger to "bring (God's) wrath upon the evil-doer" (Bauer, Lexicon, p. 238). The state is a legitimate avenger only in the case of an evil-doer. Bonhoeffer clarifies the verse by stating: "no state is entitled to read into St. Paul's words a justification of its own existence. Should any State take to heart those words, they would be just as much a challenge to repentance for that State as they are for the Church" (The Cost of Discipleship, p. 294). Bonhoeffer means that no State can justify its existence based on this passage, rulers should be "God's minister for the sake of the fellowship of charity" (Discipleship, p. 294). The State should be driven to repentance just as believers are.

The issue for a believer, also in the same context, is in Romans 13:5, suneidesin (conscience). The State for Bonhoeffer, as for many Christians, is what to do when the State is not repentant and in fact evil, i.e., Nazism. Bonhoeffer concluded his righteous act, acting as a faithful God-fearing Christian, was to plot and kill Hitler.

For many Christians our opposition to the State is not quite as dramatic as Bonhoeffer, who eventually was hung for his efforts to kill Hitler, although his point is still valid. Our conscience dictates that we must at times oppose the State. Otherwise, one could argue for example if a Christian lives under a legitimate God-appointed State ruler, such as a Christian living under sharia law, Christians ought to convert to Islam. Surely there are places and times where Christians will live in a non-repentant, evil regime and the duty of the Christian is to resist the regime. Christians must have opposed Roman authorities or Christianity would have had a short existence.

Even though I have read this atleast five times there are still things I glean from each reading. There are individual points that one can quibble with at this point in Bonhoeffer's theology, particularly in light of his later writing in Ethics and Letters and Papers, but he still remains one of the most influential theologians even 60 years after his death.

The Fortress edition is helpful in filling in the gaps in documentation that Bonhoeffer leaves as well as giving some historical context to the work but ideally one only gets to glimpse Bonhoeffer's development by going through his work and Bethge's biography (or atleast Renate Winds much shorter one). Even apart from the background it is a work well worth any thoughtful Christians time. ( )

An incredible look at the Christian life. Bonhoeffer does not dodge any issue here, or sugar-coat any word. His message is clear, and it is clearly biblical -- if you will follow Christ, you will follow Him completely and with everything. Anything less is not following at all.

It has been a long time since I was so engaged, so awestruck, and so enthusiastic about a book. The Cost of Discipleship is an important book and one that every Christian should read. Being a Christian is not something to be taken lightly, for the Grace that saves us was bought in Blood. That Grace is costly, and so should be accepted as such.

Of course, I do not agree with everything in here. The chapter on baptism, I believe, misses the mark quite a bit. And yet one chapter will not squelch my enthusiasm for the whole book, and this one I recommend wholeheartedly. ( )

A powerful work by an excellent and lucid theologian. Bonhoeffer does well at exposing the "cheap grace" often present in historic Protestantism and Evangelicalism and does well to show what the Scriptures teach about discipleship. Focus is made on the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 10 and Jesus' commissioning of His disciples.

Unfortunately, sometimes Bonhoeffer's Lutheranism gets the better of him, and I would have found his discussion of Paul to be better had he not been fighting the Reformation conflict over justification by faith only.

Otherwise the book demonstrates the depth and greatness of Bonhoeffer and his insights. ( )