Words to live by ~ Costly grace...

“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

I am fascinated by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was faithful and courageous. Elder Christofferson quoted him in a talk he gave last General Conference. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a brilliant German theologian, Lutheran pastor and a prolific writer.

Bonhoeffer was born in 1906, son of a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Berlin. He was an outstanding student, and at the age of 25 became a lecturer in systematic theology at the same University. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer became a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church, the center of Protestant resistance to the Nazis. He organized and for a time led the underground seminary of the Confessing Church. His book Life Together describes the life of the Christian community in that seminary, and his book The Cost of Discipleship attacks what he calls "cheap grace," meaning grace used as an excuse for moral laxity. Bonhoeffer had been taught not to "resist the powers that be," but he came to believe that to do so was sometimes the right choice. In 1939 his brother-in-law introduced him to a group planning the overthrow of Hitler, and he made significant contributions to their work. (He was at this time an employee of the Military Intelligence Department.) He was arrested in April 1943 and imprisoned in Berlin. After the failure of the attempt on Hitler's life in April 1944, he was sent first to Buchenwald and then to Schoenberg Prison. His life was spared, because he had a relative who stood high in the government; but then this relative was himself implicated in anti-Nazi plots. On Sunday 8 April 1945, he had just finished conducting a service of worship at Schoenberg, when two soldiers came in, saying, "Prisoner Bonhoeffer, make ready and come with us," the standard summons to a condemned prisoner. As he left, he said to another prisoner, "This is the end -- but for me, the beginning -- of life." He was hanged the next day, less than a week before the Allies reached the camp. He was only 39 years old.

He wrote this hymn in the concentration camp, shortly before his death.

By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered,
  And confidently waiting come what may,
we know that God is with us night and morning,
  and never fails to greet us each new day.

Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented,
  Still evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
Oh, give our frightened souls the sure salvation
  for which, O Lord, You taught us to prepare.

And when this cup You give is filled to brimming
  With bitter suffering, hard to understand,
we take it thankfully and without trembling,
  out of so good and so beloved a hand.

Yet when again in this same world You give us
  The joy we had, the brightness of Your Sun,
we shall remember all the days we lived through,
  and our whole life shall then be Yours alone.

Above the Great West Door of the renowned Westminster Abbey in London, England, stand the statues of 10 Christian martyrs of the 20th century. Included among them is Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

St. Maximilian Kolbe
Manche Masemola
Janani Luwum
St Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Óscar Romero
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Esther John
Lucian Tapiedi
Wang Zhiming