What God Has Opened My Eyes To This Week 4/6/25

This week for "What God Has Opened My Eyes To" a lot of it comes from a book that I started reading in the last couple weeks. Now again, God can talk to us, teach us, and rebuke us in many different ways. And for me this week, a lot of it comes from the book, The Cost of Discipleship. By Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This is a very good book that I believe every Christian should read. But even though there is some really good stuff in this book. It is the wrestling with God with the things in this book, Him using the themes of this this book to open my eyes, and God talking to me through this book that really helped me the most. Because the truth is without God this book would be nothing. So let's dive in to the things God opened my eyes to this week.

Before we get to how God opened eyes this week, however we should do some background information so that we can get the full picture. As I said, most of how God talked to me this week was from the book, The Cost Of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor before and during World War 2. Pastor Bonhoeffer was one of the few German pastors at the time who stood against the Nazi Empire. He did this because he believed God had given him this duty to do so. And that it was a part of his discipleship to do so. But I'm getting ahead of myself. During the rise of the Nazi Empire starting in 1933. Pastor Bonhoeffer saw the signs of what the Nazi Empire was going to become. As well as, he started to see that there were many churches in Germany that was standing with how radical the Nazi party and Hitler was becoming. Which is one of the reasons why Pastor Bonhoeffer wrote "The Cost Of Discipleship" to encourage Christians to stand up, represent God, and be a true disciple of Jesus Christ no matter what the cost. Since Pastor Bonhoeffer stood up, and risk his life to stop Hitler. Pastor Bonhoeffer ended up becoming a spy, with the ultimate plan of killing Hitler. However, the Nazi party found out about this and killed Bonhoeffer in April of 1945. But his writings and life still shines as a light in a dark world even today. You can see from his life and his writings that Pastor Bonhoeffer truly loved God and God's people. Which is one of the reasons that I have always wanted to read The Cost Of Discipleship, because you can see how God uses his life to draw people to Himself. And as I have said in other articles and videos I have a passion for discipleship. So let's see what God has shown me through The Cost Of Discipleship.

In the first part of the book, Pastor Bonhoeffer opens with the theme of cheap grace vs costly grace. He then explains what cheap grace is. Which the best way to describe cheap grace would be saying your a Christian by name only. You might go to church on the special holidays but you there is no real obedience behind it. You are more or less just try to check off a box so you are safe if there really is a God out there. You can also define cheap grace like this. Cheap grace is a superficial understanding of God's grace that lacks the commitment to discipleship and the willingness to embrace the cost of following Christ. Like I said, its saying you are a Christian with very little obedience. Before we go on, may I say that the only thing that save us is the grace of Jesus Christ. And the act of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. However, because of this fact it should move us into a huge love for Christ. That love will move us into being obedient. But I'll talk more about that later.

We need to be aware of how dangerous this cheap grace truly is. Pastor Bonhoeffer says in the opening of The Cost Of Discipleship that ,"Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church." And what he means by this is that there are more and more Christians out there, that are practicing this cheap grace. The scary thing is that this book was written almost a hundred years ago. And you can see the same thing in the modern church. A lot of what Pastor Bonhoeffer says is true for the modern church as well. The reason why cheap grace is such an enemy of the the church. Besides other reasons is because you have people riding the fence. As I said they are not completely devoted to Jesus Christ. John say this in Revelation 3:15-16 "[15] “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! [16] So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." (ESV). We are being told clearly here that Jesus will spit out those practicing cheap grace. Because there is a danger to having these types of people in our churches. Now can they develop into will Jesus following disciples? Yes of course they can. But there are still dangers that come from having cheap grace in the church. This is a slow death for any church, because of burn out. And because you don't have many disciple makers. Later on in the chapter, Pastor Bonhoeffer says the reason that you are seeing a rise of cheap grace in the Christian faith is because of the rise in Christians. This is just what happens when you get more in your numbers, you get more people who are just trying to be cool or check off a box. And so we need to be aware of cheap grace.

Pastor Bonhoeffer then says that the opposite of cheap grace is costly grace. This is Grace that cost. Like I said before, salvation and the grace of Jesus is free. All we need to do is accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. But what Bonhoeffer, would say that this free gift should move us into obedience and ultimately a grace that cost something. And what that cost is a desire to follow Christ. As well as being a disciple making disciple. As I hinted to, Pastor Bonhoeffer would say costly grace should move you to being a true disciple. This is the main issue between between cheap grace and costly grace. Are we going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ or are we just going to be a Christian in name only. Discipleship must be a huge part of the Christian life. That is why it was Jesus's last command to his followers. Matthew 28:18-20 "[18] And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (ESV) So being a disciple and making disciples is a huge part of being a Christian that we should all do. Which if you have read my past articles, you would know that this is something that is no longer happening in the modern church. At least here in America it isn't as big of a focus anymore. A study came out a couple months ago saying that one in ten Christian are actually making disciples. You could say that this is because a lot more of followers are just practicing cheap grace. So we need to go out and make disciples, be disciples, and be obedient.

Why does this matter, why did God open my eyes to this? Will firstly, it's because we should all always take inventory of our lives. And be praying that God point out what needs to be changed. Psalm 139:23-24, "[23] Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! [24] And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" (ESV) If we are praying this verse, God will point out what we must change, and what we need to get rid of. So let us search and see if we are practicing cheap grace or costly grace. Secondly, I believe cheap grace is a trend we will see more and more often. So we need to be prepared to interact with this. And allow God to use us to help people with dealing with cheap grace move to a place where they have costly grace. Lastly, I believe that this theme of cheap grace vs costly grace is something that we can all go in and out of. What I mean by this, that our relationship with God is a journey. In this journey there will be valleys and peaks. So there will be times that we are practicing costly grace and being true disciples. And then there are also times that we will most likely be practicing cheap grace and we are on the fence. So we need to be aware of when this is happening and how to get out of it. So how do you get out of cheap grace and move into a place of costly grace? First you become aware of your state in cheap grace. Second you pray that God will develop more of a constantly Grace and your life costly grace in your life. You read your Bible, and be obedient. Then you truly release and surrender your life completely to Jesus Christ. This commitment must be a everyday decision.

So I want to close this article with this. What have you given up to follow Jesus? You see when the disciples were called to follow Jesus. They left everything behind their fishing boats ,their jobs, the wives, and the kids. Again, what have you given up to follow Jesus?