The Cost of Discipleship
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his book The Cost of Discipleship, “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for the costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap?
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at 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. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
Common practice
Although no one admits their acceptance of cheap grace, the practice is the same, just as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance”. It smears the differences between sin and righteousness, rebellion and obedience. The scripture says in 2nd Timothy 4:3(MKJV) For the time will be when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they will heap up teachers to themselves according to their own lusts, tickling the ear. Today many people will not endure sound doctrine —– the Bible, they want to hear something new every Sunday instead of reading scriptures. They avoid talking about sin, repentance and obeying the word of God. They quietly encourage everybody to do whatever is convenient without taking up our cross daily.
Jesus said (Mat 5:29,30 ISV); So if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into hell. This passage is very serious, as the Bible repeated it multiple times. In chapter 18 Jesus said; So if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life injured or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell fire. Jesus’ warnings are serious, but many “Christians” may feel uncomfortable or dislike, for there is no intention to put Jesus’ word into practice, no desire to know what is sin. Therefore, it’s very rare to see anyone seeking the Lord for instruction on how to do it.
Fear Him
In Luke 12:5 Jesus said, But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! After meditating on it for a long time, I have to admit I have no fear of Him. I need read Acts 5:1-5 a lot more often; But a man named Ananias, with the consent of his wife Sapphira, sold some property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back some of the money for himself and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Peter asked, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you should lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back some of the money you got for the land? As long as it remained unsold, wasn’t it your own? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? So how could you have conceived such a thing in your heart? You did not lie to men but to God!” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear seized everyone who heard about it. If Ananias walked in our church today, will he be rebuked or welcomed?
On a typical Sunday service we may sing “Jesus, we live for you” but deep down inside we know this is not true. We are so accustomed to saying one thing and doing the other. Should we have concerns of repeating something similar to Ananias? Now I can see that not only I have no fear of God, nor do I take His word seriously. For example Jesus said, “Enter in through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it“. If I take it seriously, I would have to asked Him to teach me how to enter the narrow gate. The same apply to all His teachings. Only if I truly want to obey His Word then Psalms will become my heart’s desire, “I will cry to You, O LORD; my Rock, do not be silent to me, lest, if You be silent to me, I become like those who go down into the pit.”
Doers of the Word
Those who love cheap grace have something in common, no intention to put the word of God into practice. This is exactly what I did for a very long time. I know Jesus said, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” I know Jesus also said, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. I didn’t realize my heart has no intention to obey it, because I did not ask the Lord to teach me or show me how to fulfill the commandments. To do what Jesus’ word is not a priority in my life. Only after went through all 150 psalms multiple times I then wake up slowly.
Jesus warned us in Revelation 3:1-5 And to the angel of the church in Sardis, write: These things says He Who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works, that you have a name as if you are alive, but are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die. For I have not found your works complete before God. Therefore, remember what you have received and heard, and hold on to this, and repent. Now then, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you shall by no means know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with Me in white because they are worthy. The one who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments; and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
The church in Sardis is dead because their works are incomplete, that indicates they may choose to obey some Word from God and refuse to do others. Thus the faith, hope and love remained in them are about to die. Only a few are different, they should walk with our Lord. Does this description fits our churches today? Would Jesus find our works complete or incomplete? Did we not love cherry-picking scriptures to create water-downed gospels? Jesus made it very clear only the names of those who walk with Him will not be blot out from the book of life. And we all know it is written; work out your salvation with trembling and fear. But are we trembling? Do we have any fear?
It is written; (II Thessalonians 1:6-9) Since it is righteous with God to recompense tribulation to those who are persecuting you; And to you, who are persecuted, rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His mighty angels, Dealing out vengeance with flaming fire upon those who do not know God, and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; Who will suffer the penalty of eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His strength. Don’t know why I can’t see this before. Many are only willing to pick and choose a few scriptures to keep, the result is partial-transformed. If we choose to ignore these warnings the final result will be very tragic.
Learn to be a servant
We are God’s servant, but our many prayers do not sound like from any servant, for we often present him a list of things-to-do. We need to learn how to seek the Lord for instruction on how to repent and to do his will, to become perfect as He said in the sermon on the mount. It’s written in Psalm 139:23,24; “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting“. I did prayed this Psalm many times, but since I don’t fear Him, it didn’t register into my heart. I know very little of being a good servant because I am too used to my own ways. Also too afraid to leave my comfort zone for I have too little love for Him.
It is written (II Timothy 3:16) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. A servant has to be rebuked, corrected in righteousness. James 4:13-15 is the example of rebuking and teaching a servant how to live everyday; Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town, stay there a year, conduct business, and make money.” You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you should say, “ If the Lord wants us to, we will live—and do this or that.” How to know “if the Lord wants us to”, the answer is simple just ask. There are many prayers in Psalms, such as 25:4-5; “Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You do I wait all the day long.” Remember we need to learn; “on You do I wait all the day long”.
Pray in the Holy Spirit
In respond to Revelation 3 we need to remember Jude verses 20; But you, beloved, be building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. It is time to heed this warning and not to be deceived by man’s doctrine or false theory any more. Build up in the most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit, this word of instruction has been forgotten and hidden for a very long time. The answer is already written, but only after I started seeking to do the Word I was able to see it. It is Ephesians 5:18-19; And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; In this way we build up our faith. On the other hand, we often find ourselves reading the Bible with no further understanding, then we turn to man-made doctrines. It may sound more interesting or encouraging, however it is the word of God building up our faith, not word of man.
Speaking to yourselves here means we speak to our soul, our heart and mind. We do it alone, like Psalm 4:4 “commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still”. In this way we feed our inner being with the spiritual food. While Colossians 3:16 refer to a group of people, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord”. Perhaps many people have tried, but not seeing immediate result then gave up. We need to persevere, it takes time to transform our inner being.
In the beginning, I was merely repeating and meditating after the word everyday, I don’t know the meaning and it’s not the kind of prayer I like to pray. After a few years many scriptures started to make sense. It’s written “speaking to yourselves” it means when we read Psalms the Word is directly speaking to our heart, mind and soul. This is the daily bread, for Jesus said (Jhn 3:34) My food is doing the will of the one who sent me and completing his work.; And we can see it is written (1Ts 5:16-18) Rejoice ever more. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. The church in Sardis is dead because they don’t take this daily bread. In the process of practicing the Word —– pray without ceasing, we fulfill the scripture of “Build up yourselves on your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit”. It’s by no means easy, it’s a battle against our old self, it’s the cross we have to pick up everyday, for it’s the spiritual war no one can avoid.
Paul’s prayer examples
We also need to remember Philippians 4:9, The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. This is the same as Rev 3:3, Therefore, remember what you have received and heard, and hold on to this, and repent. We can see from Paul’s letters about his prayers and “practice these things” likewise.
(Romans 15:5-6) Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(II Corinthians 13:7-9) Now we pray to God that you do no wrong; not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear unapproved. For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak but you are strong; this we also pray for, that you be made complete.
(Ephesians 1:15-19) Therefore, because I have heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I never stop giving thanks for you as I mention you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father most glorious, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation through knowing Christ fully. Then, with the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you will know the hope of his calling, the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and the unlimited greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his mighty strength,
(Ephesians 3:14-19) This is the reason I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its name. I pray that he would give you, according to his glorious riches, strength in your inner being and power through his Spirit, and that Christ would make his home in your hearts through faith. Then, having been rooted and grounded in love, you will be able to understand, along with all the saints, what is wide, long, high, and deep— that is, you will know the love of Christ, which goes far beyond knowledge, and will be filled with all the fullness of God.
(Philippians 1:9-11) And this is my prayer, that your love will keep on growing more and more in full knowledge and perfect insight, so that you may be able to determine what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
(Colossians 1:9-11) For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
(Colossians 4:12) Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
(I Thessalonians 3:12-13) May the Lord greatly increase your love for each other and for all people, just as we love you. Then your hearts will be strong in holiness and blameless in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his saints.
(I Thessalonians 5:23-24) May the God of peace himself make you holy in every way. And may your whole being—spirit, soul, and body—be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
(II Thessalonians 1:11-12) With this in mind, we always pray for you, asking that our God might make you worthy of his calling and that through his power he might help you accomplish every good desire and faithful work. That way the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.
(II Thessalonians 3:5) May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.
(Hebrews 13:20-21) Now may the God of peace, who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good to do his will, accomplishing in us what pleases him through Jesus Christ. To him be glory forever and ever! Amen.
What can I say, lets pray psalm 51 and 123;
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin,
For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done evil in Your sight, that You might be justified when You speak and be in the right when You judge.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which You have broken may rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and let Your free spirit uphold me.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall turn back to You.
Deliver me from the guilt of shedding blood, O God, O God of my salvation, then my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
O LORD, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Your praise,
For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shall You be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then they shall offer bulls upon Your altar.
Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You Who dwell in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look to the LORD our God until He shall have mercy upon us.
Be gracious unto us, O LORD, be gracious unto us; for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud oppressors.
Amen.