Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes About Grace
-
Jesus says that every Christian has his own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God. Each must endure his allotted share of suffering and rejection. But each has a different share: some God deems worthy of the highest form of suffering, and gives them the grace of martyrdom, while others he does not allow to be tempted above that which they are able to bear. But it is the one and the same cross in every case.
→ -
Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
→ -
The world upon whom grace is thrust as a bargain will grow tired of it.
→ -
Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together.
→ -
God comes into the very midst of evil and of death, and judges the evil in us and in the world. And by judging us, he cleanses and sanctifies us, comes to us with his grace and love. He makes us happy as only children can be happy.
→ -
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace.
→ -
The gift of Christ is not the Christian religion, but the grace and love of God which culminate in the cross.
→ -
We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth. There God dealt with us, and there he still deals with us, our needs and our sins, in judgment and grace.
→ -
Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
→ -
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.
→ -
Struggling against the legalism of simple obedience, we end by setting up the most dangerous law of all, the law of the world and the law of grace. In our effort to combat legalism we land ourselves in the worst kind of legalism. The only way of overcoming this legalism is by real obedience to Christ when he calls us to follow him; for in Jesus the law is at once fulfilled and cancelled.
→ -
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all he has. It is the pearl of great price to by which the merchant will sell all his goods.
→ -
But they all stood beneath the cross, enemies and believers, doubters and cowards, revilers and devoted followers. His prayer, in that hour, and his forgiveness, was meant for them all, and for all their sins. The mercy and love of God are at work even in the midst of his enemies. It is the same Jesus Christ, who of his grace calls us to follow him, and whose grace saves the murderer who mocks him on the cross in his last hour.
→ -
grace at a low cost, is in the last resort simply a new law, which brings neither help nor freedom.
→ -
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship.
→ -
Christ became our Brother in order to help us. Through him our brother has become Christ for us in the power and authority of the commission Christ has given him. Our brother stands before us the sign of the truth and the grace of God. He has been given to us to help us. He hears the confession of our sins in Christ's stead and he forgives our sins in Christ's name. He keeps the secret of our confession as God keeps it. When I go to my brother to confess, I am going to God.
→ -
The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. Such a man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace, and that the call is inseparable from the grace. But those who try to use this grace as a dispensation from following Christ are simply deceiving themselves.
→ -
It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.
→ -
The proclamation of grace has its limits. Grace may not be proclaimed to anyone who does not recognize or distinguish or desire it... The world upon whom grace is thrust as a bargain will grow tired of it, and it will not only trample upon the Holy, but also will tear apart those who force it on them.
→ -
God honors some with great suffering and grants them the grace of martyrdom, while other are not tempted beyond their strength. But in every case it is one cross.
→ -
Monastic life thus became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity, against the cheapening of grace.
→ -
The preaching of grace can only be protected by the preaching of repentance.
→ -
The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.
→ -
Cheap grace is the idea that "grace" did it all for me so I do not need to change my lifestyle. The believer who accepts the idea of "cheap grace" thinks he can continue to live like the rest of the world. Instead of following Christ in a radical way, the Christian lost in cheap grace thinks he can simply enjoy the consolations of his grace.
→ -
Discipleship means adherence to Christ and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship. An abstract theology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge of the subject of grace or the forgiveness of sins, render discipleship superfluous, and in fact exclude any idea of discipleship whatsoever, and are essentially inimical to the whole conception of following Christ....Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.
→ -
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.
→ -
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
→ -
The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works.
→
Related Authors
-
Soren Kierkegaard Philosopher -
Karl Barth Theologian -
Martin Niemoller Pastor -
William Wilberforce British Politician -
Eric Metaxas Author -
Stanley Hauerwas Theologian -
Paul Tillich Philosopher -
Henri Nouwen Priest -
Reinhold Niebuhr Theologian -
Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil rights activist -
-
Oscar Romero Biographer -
Thomas Merton Writer -
Martin Luther Monk -
Dorothy Day Journalist -
C. S. Lewis Novelist -
-
Adolf Hitler Former Chancellor of Germany -
-
Corrie Ten Boom Author