Thoughts on Bonhoeffer. After reading half of Eric Metaxas' 500 page book on Bonhoeffer, I'm putting Bonhoeffer on the top of my hero list.
Bonhoeffer was seeing and understanding the zeitgeist of his culture in such a way that most people even his closest friends at times did not understand what he was saying and looked at him as an oddity. However, Bonhoeffer was acting as one who was following the voice of God in his life.
It seems that we as individuals and the Church at large are truly an oddity when we become hard followers of Messiah. We are certainly a peculiar people---which really means we are the unique possession of God (cf. 1 Peter 2:9).
Bonhoeffer increasingly was feeling that he was God's captive. There was a feeling that Bonhoeffer had that he was going to be used of God in a unique and particular way. God had indeed called this young German Christian to reform the church of Germany and to stand-up to a brutal dictator that would eventually lead to his execution.
Through His prophet God called the church to "be the Church" to "act like the Church" and become in essence and in reality true disciples of the Son of God. This message was delivered in a church culture that was just the church in name only, but not the true Church of Jesus Christ. The German Lutheran Church of Martin Luther had turned into brick and mortar. The Holy Spirit had long since departed, and the Church in Germany was de facto apostate.
Bonhoeffer's legacy was that he was a man of action. Metaxas notes on (p. 240) :
This was likely Bonhoeffer's most important contributions a Fano, [a conference] and in many other circumstances, rousing others to action, away from mere theologizing. His thoughts on this would be expressed in his book Discipleship, in which anything short of obedience to God smacked of "cheap grace." Actions must follow what one believed, else one could not claim to believe it.
"Be ye therefore followers followers of God, as dear children (Ephesians. 5:1).
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