The High Cost of Free Grace

"These men without possession or power, these strangers on earth, these sinners, these followers of Jesus, have in their life with him renounced their own dignity, for they are merciful. As if their own needs and their own distress were not enough, they take upon themselves the distress and humiliation and sin of others. They have an irresistible love for the down-trodden, the sick, the wretched, the wronged, the outcast, and all who are tortured with anxiety. They go out and seek all who are enmeshed in the toils of sin and guilt. No distress is too great, no sin too appalling for their pity. If any man falls into disgrace, the merciful will sacrifice their own honor to shield him, and take his shame upon themselves. In order that they may be merciful they cast away the most priceless treasure of human life, their personal dignity and honour. For the only honour and dignity they know is their Lord’s own mercy, to which alone they owe their very lives."

When I first read these words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship I wept. I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps it was a combination of much of my life falling well short of this as well as noting the poetic beauty of a life lived in constant worship of Christ; a life thoroughly Christian.
No doubt many of us have come across inspiring messages from ministers, martyrs, and Mel Gibson movies that illustrate a radical Christian life. Something stirs in us for a while but the culture (even much church culture) gives us a "reality check" telling us to "bring our expectations back down to earth." But the truth is radical Christian living is the only type of call God commands of us.
In the gospel letters we see time and time again many people willing to follow Christ in some light sense of the word. As long as he passed out free loaves and fishes, performed miracle healings, or was going to shake up the political landscape people would pursue Him. But every time he acquired a crowd He put them to the test. He always challenged the would-be followers to die to everything in this world they clinged to and the overwhelming response He received ranged from the dispersing of crowds to people wanting to stone Him to death.
At the end of Luke 9, three men approach Jesus interested in following Him. The first said, "I will follow you wherever you go." Christ's answer, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head" showed that this volunteer had not considered the high cost of free grace. The next two men to approach Jesus spoke of their willingness to follow Him after taking care of some loose ends but Christ said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Through three years of ministry Christ proved very succesful at persuading men not to follow Him. Indeed the costly call of grace is offensive to the natural man.
To those of us who are new creatures in Christ we have a ministry and calling that is no less radical in divine nature than the calling of those who followed Christ during His time on earth. The call of discipleship is a gift of grace and is therefore inseperable from grace. Either a man is on fire for Christ or he is just blowing smoke.