Pretended Piety
Two weeks ago, I mentioned watching a movie about the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was born in Poland in 1906 and died in one of Nazi Germany’s concentration camps in 1945. Prior to World War II, he resisted the rise of Naziism both in their genocidal atrocities against the Jews and others and their efforts to control churches even to the point of proclaiming Hitler a Messiah and rewriting the word of God. In 1937, he wrote his most well-known book, The Cost of Discipleship. If I could reduce his book to one overarching theme, the cost of discipleship is obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Bonhoeffer argued that in Christ call of discipleship, He synonymously activates both faith and obedience so that one cannot obey Christ without faith, and one cannot have faith in Christ without obedience. He used Peter’s walking on water and Levi’s call from the receipt of custom to follow Him. In neither instance did Christ call for an act of faith and yet they could not obey Christ’s command without it. Peter walked and Levi followed—both acts of obedience but neither activated without faith. Bonhoeffer wrote: “…when once Christ has called him, Peter has no alternative—he must leave the ship and come to him. In the end, the first step of obedience proves to be an act of faith in the word of Christ.” The one who calls enables the faith to do.
These were convincing examples, but the one that captivated my attention is the rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking what he must do to have eternal life. In my sojourn of grief these past weeks, I have not concentrated on writing sermons or preparing for the pulpit through sermons I have already written. Imagine my surprise when I returned to start preparing again that I had written a sermon from Mark 10 on the rich young ruler. This escaped me until it was necessary to get back into the gospel of Mark. Bonhoeffer titled the first part of his book, Grace and Discipleship. The second and third chapters in this section are The Call to Discipleship and Single-Minded Obedience. Both chapters lean heavily on Jesus’ answering the young ruler’s question.
I found Bonhoeffer’s exposition of this passage exceptional. Today and next week, we will study this event. While I will not specifically deal with Bonhoeffer’s angle, I found it helpful and thought provoking. In my thoughts, I discovered the rich young ruler’s problem is not peculiar to rich people. It fits anyone who tries self-justification of sin especially when they say, “I have tried but I cannot obey.” The young man’s refusal to give up riches to obey is the same as anyone’s refusal to give up their vice, their supposed orientation, or whatever they hold onto that is against the word (the command) of Christ. Here is the crux of the matter. Faith and obedience are present together. Christ grants both. Bonhoeffer’s now famous line is, “Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.” The consequences of this doctrine are enormous. The rich young ruler did not obey because he did not believe. The scriptures are clear as crystal on this point. How do you call Christ “Lord” if you do not obey Him? In short, how do you claim salvation in protracted deliberate disobedience? Christianity has gone completely off the rails with oxymoronic terms like “homosexual Christian.” Explain how this is possible and what Jesus would say. By faith in the word of God, I know how He would react. Take heed, this is as impossible as a camel going through the eye of a needle.
Stay tuned. The world hates obedience to Christ. Sadly, the world is full of pie-in-the sky pious Christians who neither care too much for it. Shakespeare’s Hamlet said, “To thine own self be true.” I found this definition of Shakespeare’s line: “It suggests that one should remain honest and loyal to their own values, beliefs, and identity above all else.” Here is a much better saying that fits Christianity: “Yet not I but Christ in me.”
Pastor V. Mark Smith