The Way to Discipleship

The Jesus way is not only a message for those considering Christ as the answer to the human crisis. It is an explanation of what he is calling every person to do. It is not ambiguous; it requires a faith that gets your legs moving, your mind and heart engaged in learning and obeying. The way of Christ is the way of the disciple (Luke 14:27, 33). Salvation by discipleship alone expects all those called to salvation to follow, learn from, and obey Jesus throughout their lives—no exceptions, no excuses.
 

The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. Such a man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace, and that the call is inseparable from the grace.

 - DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

Salvation is by discipleship alone. It is time to wrestle with what that means. That begins with a basic principle: The only way you will experience the fullness of your salvation is through your own discipleship to Christ. Salvation can only be lived through discipleship, and if you don’t live it, you don’t have it. 

 - Bill Hull & Brandon Cook, 

The Cost of Cheap Grace: Reclaiming the Value of Discipleship, 2020.

Discipleship is A State of Being

If we replace the word grace in “salvation by grace alone” with discipleship, we have an entirely different discussion. A disciple is a person who has chosen to position themselves as Jesus’ student or follower. Discipleship is a state of being created by the work of the Holy Spirit combined mysteriously with the human will.
 
Critics object to an emphasis on discipleship because it often functions as shorthand for an individual’s personal growth into Christlikeness. They worry about an inbred understanding of Christian maturity that functions at odds with the great commission. They prefer to emphasize “disciple making” over discipleship. We will set aside the question of whether you can be truly Christlike and not make disciples. But it’s highly doubtful that any significant movement of God has been inhibited by referring to discipleship rather than disciple making. Reasons for the great commission being diminished in the contemporary Christian imagination run much deeper than word choice. You can’t find a church that honors Christ’s words that would not agree that making disciples of all nations is crucial. They have had the language right, but they have used the right language wrongly. The church of cheap grace makes disciples, but the disciples they make are by and large practicing a watered-down, broadened-out discipleship, such that just about anything a church does hits the target.
 
Making new disciples is the starting point for multiplication and the fulfillment of Christ’s mandate to reach the world. In Matthew 28:18-20, the centerpiece of the great commission is the command to “make disciples.” The critics are right both about the priority given by Jesus to disciple making in his gospel, and about the failures of the contemporary church in making disciples. For our discussion, however, making disciples is inherent to discipleship: It is part of our ongoing interaction with Christ, learning from him and participating in his mission.
 
When we use the phrase “salvation by discipleship alone,” we mean that there is only one way to fully experience your salvation, and that is via a lifetime of discipleship to Christ. Everyone who is called to salvation is called to discipleship—no exceptions, no excuses.
 

- Bill Hull & Brandon Cook, 

The Cost of Cheap Grace: Reclaiming the Value of Discipleship, 2020.

The Threat of Discipleship

The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. Such a man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace, and that the call is inseparable from the grace.

- DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

 
Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes this assertion as a way of reconciling two seemingly incompatible ideas, at least according to the spirit of the age: grace and discipleship. It is the person who has given the most to his or her salvation, Bonhoeffer recognizes, who understands best that only by grace could they have lived it out. Here Bonhoeffer echoes a powerful call from the apostle Paul: “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear” (Philippians 2:12, NLT). The more you place yourself at risk, the more profound are your experiences of grace and mercy—you come to know, at a bone-deep level, that it is all by grace. This is a knowledge that is never gained by semiobedient people or by the majority of Christians.
 
Bonhoeffer was significantly influenced by Martin Luther. He agreed with Luther’s emphasis on “justification by faith alone” (a companion assertion to the clichéd “salvation by grace alone”) and defended it. In fact, Bonhoeffer lamented the damage that had been done to Luther’s teaching:
 

Nonetheless, what emerged victorious from Reformation history was not Luther’s recognition of pure, costly grace, but the alert religious instinct of human beings for the place where grace could be had the cheapest. Only a small, hardly noticeable distortion of the emphasis was needed, and that most dangerous and ruinous deed was done. . . . Luther knew that this grace had cost him one life and daily continued to cost him, for he was not excused by grace from discipleship, but instead was all the more thrust into it.

 

- Bill Hull & Brandon Cook, 

The Cost of Cheap Grace: Reclaiming the Value of Discipleship, 2020.

 

透过泪水织就的棱角，在宝石红的远方

当火车驶离文森特童年的草地和溪岸时，思乡、愧疚和愤懑一股脑儿全涌上了文森特的心头。当时，他恰巧发现了一首能够完美捕捉当时心情的诗歌。他把这首诗寄给了提奥，表示“它深深打动了我”：

一个受伤的魂灵跌撞在……

人生第一个逍遥谷，在那儿，年少无忧的你，

总爱聆听自己沉默中的歌唱。

我的心，你是怀着怎样苦痛的热忱迷醉在

给予你生命的家园……

但妄念，你总生生把我们欺骗！

在你斑斓的幻境中，一个五彩的未来

正生成一张滑轮织就的网，好似一个灿烂的夏日，

那震颤的耳朵不就是无数个太阳吗？

你撒了谎。但这样的魅力谁人能挡，

透过泪水织就的棱角，在宝石红的远方，

依稀可见闪耀着霓虹的鬼魅。

取自：《梵高传》

http://reader.epubee.com/books/mobile/c8/c89c4e987ce4d1091b2550bd4c81935e/text00007.html

阅读力

土耳其著名作家帕慕克对阅读文字的好处有过一番很有趣的理解，他在《白色城堡》一书里写道：“人生犹如单趟车旅，一旦结束，你就不能重来一次了。”“但是假如你能一卷在握，不管那本书多么复杂或艰涩，假如你愿意的话，当你读完它时，你可以回到开头处，再读一遍，如此一来就可以对艰涩处有进一步的了解，也会对生命有进一步的领悟。”阅读是一件多么美好的事情，它可以使得我们对生命有过很多次的体验和领悟。

对于识字的人，阅读很自然会成为自己生活的一部分。西班牙大文豪塞万提斯一直酷爱阅读，甚至连丢落在街道上的碎纸片他都会捡起来读。著名英国女作家弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙每年都要重读一次莎士比亚的《哈姆雷特》，而且都会将读后感记下来。“这实际上便是在记录自己的传记，因为我们对生命所知更多时，莎士比亚就会进一步评论我们对世界的理解。”

而识字的人一旦孤立独处，想到的第一件事情往往是阅读。我国著名诗人、翻译家绿原先生，在20世纪50年代遭遇冤案入狱七年，他竟然借此孤独的遭遇在监狱里自学德语，出狱后翻译了德国文学经典名著《浮士德》和不少德语文学作品。奥地利著名作家茨威格有一部著名的中篇小说《象棋的故事》，写的是一个银行职员落入德国纳粹的监狱，监禁使他孤独得几乎发疯，一个偶然的机会他偷到一本书，却是他从不感兴趣的棋谱书，是国际象棋著名对局，在百无聊赖、孤苦无援下他只好用阅读这部棋谱度过牢狱中的日日夜夜，岂料从此陷入独自对弈的魔怔。

瓦尔特·本雅明：火警报警器

有关阶级斗争的观念会具有误导性。它所指的并不是决定“孰胜孰负”的力量抗衡，也不是指凭决斗的结果来定胜者为王，败者为寇。如此去理会，也就是以浪漫化的方式掩盖了实际所指。
 
因为，无论资产阶级在这场斗争中是输还是赢，它内在固有的矛盾都会使它走下坡路，这个矛盾在其发展过程中对资产阶级来说将成为其致命的灭亡因素。问题的唯一所在是：它是自行灭亡还是经由无产阶级之手。三千年的文化发展会持续下去，还是走向终结，将取决于这个问题的答案。
 
有关这两位斗士将永远争斗下去的糟糕假设是不会与历史相一致的。真正的政客只是从日期上来估算。如果消灭资产阶级直到一个几乎可以估算出的经济和技术发展的特定时刻（通货膨胀和毒气战争就宣示了这一时刻的到来）还没有完成，那么，一切就都完了。
 
要阻止爆炸，就必须在火花碰到炸药之前将燃烧着的导火索切断。政客们的干涉，制造险情和控制速度是操作技巧——而不是侠义之举。
 
 

- 瓦尔特·本雅明，《单向街》，中信出版社：2021.

瓦尔特·本雅明：教学用具

写作鸿篇巨制的原则，或者炮制厚书的技巧：
 
Ⅰ 整个写作必须从没有间断、语词丰富的叙述中生发出来。
Ⅱ 对概念术语的使用必须恪守它的定义，不能脱离这一定义而在全书中对之随意乱用。
Ⅲ 正文里费尽心思阐明的概念间差异，在对相应地方的注释中应该重新抹去。
Ⅳ 对只是在其一般意义上提及的概念必须举例，比如在一般意义上提到机器的话，就应当列举出机器的所有种类。
Ⅴ 先验地具有某客观含义的一切东西都必须用大量例子来证实。
Ⅵ 能够用图形表示的关系一定要用词语去阐明，比如所有亲缘关系都必须加以陈述和阐释，而不是用诸如树状谱系图去展示。
Ⅶ 对持有相同论据的不同论敌，必须一个一个地驳倒。
 
当今学者们的平庸之作都愿意像目录索引那样被人阅读，但什么时候人们会像写目录索引那样去写书呢？假如糟糕的内容是这样挤渗到外面来的，那么，一部其观点无须阅读就会自己显露出价值的杰作就会以此方式诞生。
 
只有当规整形式准确地直接参与到了文人所写著作的内容构想中时，打字机才会使他们的手疏远笔。估计，那时将会需要一些字体造型具有可变性的新系统。在这样的系统里，给予指令的手指动作将取代迄今整个手的活动。
 
一个按诗韵学构想的、对韵律中唯一不协调的地方死死不放的时期，会造就出可以想见的最美篇章。穿越墙上裂缝的光束，就是这样射进了炼丹术士隐居的小屋，并使结晶体、球体和角形铁闪闪发光。
 
 

- 瓦尔特·本雅明，《单向街》，中信出版社：2021.