We Lutherans... have paid the doctrine of pure grace divine
honours unparalleled in Christendom; in fact, we have exalted
the doctrine to the position of God Himself. Everywhere
Luther's formula has been repeated, but its truth perverted
into self-deception. So long as our Church holds the correct
doctrine of justification, there is no doubt whatever that she
is a justified Church! So they said, thinking that we must
vindicate our Lutheran heritage by making this grace available
on the cheapest and easiest terms. To be "Lutheran" must mean
that we leave the following of Christ to the Nomians, the
Calvinists, and the Anabaptists--and all this for the sake of
grace! We justified the world, and condemned as heretics those
who tried to follow Christ. The result was that a nation became
Christian and Lutheran, but at the cost of true discipleship...
We poured forth unending streams of grace. But the call to
follow Jesus was hardly ever heard.
... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of
Discipleship, London: SCM Press, 1964, p. 12-13
