The Cost of Discipleship
Week Two
Foreword, Memoir, Introduction, Chapter One

Favorite Psalms

Background

  • Luther fought against a Catholic church that was selling indulgences. The church (to raise money for crusades and cathedrals) sold indulgences, technically not to forgive sins but to avoid temporal punishment for sins already forgiven at the sacrament of confession.
  • Abuses culminated in John Tetzel’s saying, “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.”
  • Led to Luther’s formulation, “Grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone.” Grace alone saves us; we are not capable of winning or even cooperating with God’s grace. Faith alone (generated by the Holy Spirit, not by us) receives God’s grace and mercy. Scripture alone (not the doctrines, principles or practices of popes or the Catholic Church) contains all we need to know for salvation; the church is subject to correction by Scripture, even by an individual member. Luther: “A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it.”
  • Grace alone should never be seen as a justification for disobeying or ignoring the commands of Jesus.

Monastic orders (and convents) set up a distinction between what could be expected of a monk and a typical believer

  • Monasticism was meant to preserve the realization of the costliness of grace; it gave final justification to the secularization of the church
  • (A state church – such as the Lutheran church in Germany – extends this trend even more. Everyone’s a member; everyone can nod when they’re asked if they’re Christian and if they’re saved. No one has to think and wrestle with faith.)
  • Luther’s return from the monastery to the world was a great blow to the world. What had been the achievement of a few was once again seen as a duty laid on every believer.

Lutherans’ strength: redemption. Lutherans’weakness: sanctification

  • That’s the temptation toward cheap grace.
  • Preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance
  • Baptism without church discipline
  • Communion without confession
  • Absolution with personal confession
  • Grace without discipleship
  • Grace without the cross
  • Grace without Jesus

Cheap grace versus costly grace

  • Cheap grace holds that an intellectual assent to an idea is sufficient to provide forgiveness of sins; costly grace recognizes and leads to the obligation of discipleship.
  • Cheap grace leads people to believe that their only duty as Christians is to go to church for an hour or so on Sunday and be assured that their sins are forgiven; costly grace leads to a serious following of Christ.
  • God gives us grace; we give ourselves cheap grace.
  • Grace is intended to open the door to Christ; cheap grace only closes it.
  • Cheap grace is a vaccination. It gives us just enough of Jesus to prevent us from catching the real thing. Costly grace is the grace of Christian discipleship.
  • Cheap grace costs us nothing (in the short term). Costly grace costs us our life, but it is also the source of the only true and complete life.

Quotes for discussion

  • “Costly grace is the Incarnation of God…it is therefore the living word, the Word of God.” (p. 45)
  • “As Christianity spread … the world was Christianized, and grace became its common property. It was to be had at low cost.” (p. 46)
  • “Monasticism had transformed the humble work of discipleship into the meritorious activity of the saints.” (p. 47)
  • “For Luther, the Christian’s worldly calling is sanctified only in so far as that calling registers the final, radical protest against the world.” (p. 49)
  • “The outcome of the Reformation was the victory…of the vigilant religious instinct of man for the place where grace is to be obtained at the cheapest price.” (p. 49)
  • “Luther had said that grace alone can save; his followers took up his doctrine and repeated it word for word. But they left out its invariable corollary, the obligation of discipleship.” (pp.49-50)
  • “The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works.” (p. 55)
  • “We confess that, although our Church is orthodox as far as her doctrine of grace is concerned, we are no longer sure that we are members of a Church which follows its Lord.” (p. 55)

NEXT WEEK – CHAPTERS TWO THROUGH FIVE