Summary Of The Book 'Cost Of Discipleship'

In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer begins by discussing the cost of grace. Through time grace has lost its meaning. Bonhoeffer explains the difference between cheap grace and costly grace. The cheapening of grace wasn’t new, even to Bonhoeffer; it was something that began with the Christianizing of the world. Though the cheapening of grace is realized by some, it is a major issue in the modern Christian Church.
Cheap grace is an unfortunate understanding of grace that has taken hold in the church. Grace, which is priceless, has been manipulated by man and given a cheap price. The general understanding of grace is that it is God given, has been paid in advance, and delivers us from sin. This hasn’t changed. But what has changed, is that’s all grace is to people. It’s simply something that wipes away your sin and then you can keep on sinning from there. The people don’t want a change of heart, they want their sins to be looked over or accepted. But that is not what grace is. Grace isn’t just the forgiveness of sin, but it is also the call to follow God, the giver of grace, and to become his disciples. Grace is bestowed on the sinner, not just the sin, and that grace, costly grace, is transformative.
Bonhoeffer identified that the cheapening of grace came along with the Christianization of
More frequently, churches only preach cheap grace. They want to tickle our ears and make us feel better about ourselves, and less convicted of our sins. I’ve personally noticed this with numerous amounts of my friends, who look at me like I’m crazy when I speak of the convictions that I feel after a church service. To understand the depth and worth of grace we will often times end up finding it in the darkest of places and most difficult of times. Grace is thrown around in Christian circles like it is worth nothing. They like the concept of grace, but not what our commitment should be to