Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes – and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Freedom Hope Oneself Photograph Prison Wait
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.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Alone Grace Man Religion Right
If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Direction Run Wrong Yourself
Political action means taking on responsibility. This cannot happen without power. Power is to serve responsibility.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Politics Power Responsibility
Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Evil Grace Judgement Love Spiritual
In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Deal Gratitude Greatness Hard Life Ordinary Receive Rich
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Death Simplicity Wound
I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Hate Himself Myself Prayer
Strict exercise of self-control is an essential feature of the Christian’s life.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Control Exercise Life
God loves human beings. God loves the world. Not an ideal human, but human beings as they are; not an ideal world, but the real world. What we find repulsive in their opposition to God, what we shrink back from with pain and hostility, namely, real human beings, the real world, this is for God the ground of unfathomable love.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Human Ideal Love Pain Reality World
There is a wrong way of staying in the world and a wrong way of fleeing from it. In both cases we are fashioning ourselves according to the world.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Fashion Ourselves Stay World Wrong
It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Love Marriage Yourself
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. We must not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Ourselves Surrender
God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Emotional God Truth
In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Achievement Easy Gratitude Hard Help Important Life Rich
Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Believe Character Himself
Not until one person desires to keep his own bread for himself does hunger ensue.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Desire Himself Oneself Person
Who can really be faithful in great things if he has not learned to be faithful in the things of daily life?
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Faith Greatness Learning Life Loyalty
The limitation of the ethical phenomenon to its place and time does not imply its rejection but, on the contrary, its validation. One does not use canons to shoot sparrows.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Limitation Place Rejection Time
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

God Ourselves
The task of pastoral ministry, above all else, is to arrange contingencies for an encounter with the divine.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Divine Job
The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise godfearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Beginning End Happiness Life Ourselves Religious Unity
There can be no real attachment to the given creation, no genuine responsibility in the world, unless we recognize the breach which already separates us from it.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Attachment Creation Reality Responsibility World
The Church is the Church only when it exists for others, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Existence Help Live Man
While it is good that we seek to know the Holy One, it is probably not so good to presume that we ever complete the task.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Goodness Job Seek
Jesus is the only significance. Beside Jesus nothing has any significance. He alone matters.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Alone Himself Religion Worth
Things do exist that are worth standing up for without compromise. To me it seems that peace and social justice are such things, as is Christ himself.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Existence Himself Justice Myself Peace Worth

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

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Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

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