Sarah Winbow reviews ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2025 edition)
As one who has a ministry of ‘disciple-making’, I have long-contemplated reading this Christian classic but, being rather afraid of what its challenge might be to me personally, I had successfully managed to put it off for more than 30 years!
Up-to-date and relevant
This summer, God did something very deep in me that changed me quite profoundly. Suddenly I knew that the time had come for me to grapple with its challenges, and, for the serious seeker after Him, there are many.
The book was written more than eighty years ago, yet its message is at once immensely up-to-date and relevant, because our current global context is actually also the background to the book – the rise of anti-Semitism and its inevitable leading to the persecution of both Jews and Christians. For some it also meant the ultimate cost of martyrdom.
Life summary
Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran priest who understood very early on in the twentieth century that Hitler’s National Socialism was a brutal corrupt political system which had grossly misled a nation and he used the wireless, his preaching, teaching and abundant literature to denounce it publicly.
... its message is at once immensely up-to-date and relevant, because our current global context is actually also the background to the book.
He spent the years between 1933-39 living between London, Germany and the U.S. But in 1939 he took the brave decision to return to Germany in order to stand alongside his fellow believers who were being oppressed and persecuted for openly opposing the regime. He was eventually arrested at his parents’ home in April 1943.
Fellow prisoners and guards alike were greatly inspired by his unselfish courage, and he was described as a “a giant before man but a child before God” (p.20). On 9th April 1945, just four weeks exactly before the end of World War II and by the personal order of Himmler, Bonhoeffer was hanged by the Gestapo.
His great friend, G.K.A. Bell, late Bishop of Chichester, quoted Bonhoeffer as saying “When Christ calls man he bids him come and die.” And in that sentence is contained the essence of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Bell goes on; “There are different kinds of dying…Dietrich himself was a martyr many times before he died” (Foreword , by G.K.A. Bell).
Dying to self
The Cost of Discipleship is not a light read. But it contains a rich treasury of Christian doctrine that is rarely taught in churches today.
The Cost of Discipleship contains a rich treasury of Christian doctrine that is rarely taught in churches today.
Bonhoeffer’s teaching is divided over four sections:
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Grace and discipleship.
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The Sermon on the Mount.
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The messengers.
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The Church of Jesus Christ and the life of discipleship.
Cheap vs costly grace
Bonhoeffer exposes the superficiality of ‘cheap grace’ that was as much prevalent in the Church of his day as it is today. In contrast, he urges us to embrace the transformative power of ‘costly grace’. This is the example that flows from the heart of God and invites us into a deeper relationship with Him – into complete union with Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – whilst also compelling us to constantly share that love with others.
It is a grace that invites us to lay down our own desires and comforts, as did the early apostles, and stand in solidarity with the marginalised as agents of reconciliation in a broken society.
Jesus will be incarnated in the world through us His living Body.
Love is the key: “It is through love that we find the courage to confront injustice, the compassion to serve the needy, and the humility to walk alongside those who suffer” (p.239).
Jesus incarnated
Despite its age, this book is entirely contemporary. As we make the choice to ‘lay down self’ to live out our faith authentically and courageously – walking in love and being the hands and feet of Jesus to a lost and broken world – we will find true life; joy, contentment, peace, grace, and the rich abiding reality of the indwelling presence of God.
Jesus will be incarnated in the world through us His living Body.
The challenge is: to what extent are we willing to pay the cost of true love?
The Cost of Discipleship (283pp) is published by Blue Harvest Publishing and is available from Amazon for £16.36
Sarah Winbow, 02/12/2025