The Cost of Discipleship
The question posed by this week’s sermon title, “Who Do You Say That I Am?”, sets the stage for a related and more vulnerable question… “where/when/in front of whom will you say it?” In other words, being able to answer the first question correctly, as Peter did when he said “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”, is not the end of the conversation.
Jesus followed Peter’s confession of faith with the proclamation that “on this rock I will build my church”. From this truth, that He is the Messiah, the Christian church would arise. There would be no Church today if Peter and the disciples had merely understood who Jesus was. If they had believed it with all their hearts but told no one, the Church and the gospel would have died with them.
Thankfully, that isn’t what happened. They believed in their hearts and confessed with their mouths that Jesus was Lord. And then other people heard and believed and confessed. And so it goes today. This is evangelism and this is the cost of discipleship.
For Peter and the other disciples, the cost of acknowledging Jesus publicly was significant. According to church tradition, all but one of them died a martyr’s death and prior to death, they lived lives of persecution and poverty. American Christians do not live under the same kind of persecution that the early disciples did and that many modern Believers in other countries do. But that isn’t to say that there’s no cost to proclaiming the name of Jesus.
In his book “The Cost of Discipleship”, Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the term “cheap grace”. Cheap grace is meant to describe a shallow and convenient form of Christianity that emphasizes only the pleasant and easy parts without incorporating repentance, confession, discipline, and sacrifice. Cheap grace is salvation without the cross.
“Only he who believes is obedient , and only he who is obedient believes.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Though we are saved by grace through faith and not by works, it is also true that faith without deeds is dead. If we truly know who Jesus is, it should change us on the inside AND the outside. Our lives should reflect it. Others should see it. We should be unashamed of the gospel. And all of this will cost us something.
Maybe it costs us ridicule. Maybe it costs us a job. Maybe it costs us a friendship. Maybe it costs us our resources or time. All of these things pale in comparison to what it cost Bonhoeffer.
An outspoken member of the Confessing Church of Germany, Bonhoeffer was a harsh critic of the Nazi government and their intrusion into the affairs of the Church. He was imprisoned and later executed, but used the time to pen numerous books, plays, and essays. His life and his writing both inspire the kind of faith that Jesus called out in Peter; one that would be active and sacrificial.
Jesus is still asking, “Who do you say that I am?” We must not only know the answer but be prepared to say it, with our words and our very lives.
~ Melissa Gibbs has been a member of LIFE Fellowship for over 10 years, is the mother to four boys and widow of the late JD Gibbs. She also is a founding board member of Ambassador Christian School.