Charles Craig Lantz

Dietrch Bonhoeffer's Doctrine of "Grace" Charles Craig Lantz

In 1937, on the threshold of Nazi Germany's war on the world, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote what turned out to be one of the most influential books of the century, "The Cost of Discipleship." In it, he challenged the faulty faith and compromises of German Christians, famously writing, "When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die." Now, eighty-two years after the book was first published, Charles Craig Lantz writes on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's doctrine of Grace. Lantz examines Bonhoeffer's doctrine of grace in his academic works, books, and life. Bonhoeffer complained that the Nazi German Church had proclaimed a "cheap grace." The Church in 2019 is not much different. Bonhoeffer spoke as prophet in his times and prophetically denounced the Church for preaching "cheap grace." If Bonhoeffer were alive today, he would say the same thing about the condition of the Church in 2019! Grace is a foundational doctrine for Christians, yet it is one of the most misunderstood. Bonhoeffer watched as many used the doctrine of grace as an excuse to do whatever they wanted, and in response, he wrote his classic work on what it truly means to follow Jesus. We cheapen grace, he declared, when we use it to compromise our behavior or to lower the standards of God's Word. In this examination of Bonhoeffer's doctrine of grace, Lantz explains what Bonhoeffer meant when he taught that grace is free but will cost us everything. Therefore, grace is not cheap.