Bonhoeffer Journal 5

Chapter 5

In this week’s reading of Bonhoeffer, we learn in chapter five about confession and communion. Confession and communion earn necessary within the community and having a new life within Christ. Today I am going to focus on the shame of sin and feeling alone and the grace that God gave us when he died on the cross. Bonhoeffer starts off this chapter by explaining that as Christians we must understand that sinners something that is going to be consumed by everyone because we’re all broken sinners even if we’re Christians we still sin. Bonhoeffer states that “We dare not be sinners many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real center is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So, we remain alone in our stands living in lies and hypocrisy the fact is that we are sinners.” (Bonhoeffer). Here Bonhoeffer is explaining that Christians sometimes are horrified of being sinners and they still are living their lives and lies and hiding the fact that they’re sinners. I believe that being Christian and being a Sinner is something that once you become a Christian you need to understand the impact that Christ died for your sins and the impact that it has on your life. It is by the grace of the gospel a Christ died for our sins that we are able to be loved by God even though we are broken and we are sinners in Proverbs 23:26 explains this so I would encourage you to deepen your understanding of this topic by looking at scripture itself. Bonhoeffer explains this by saying “But it is the grace of the gospel, which is so hard for the voice to understand, that confronts us with the truth and says you are a Sinner, a great, desperate center; Now come, as the center that you are, to God who loves you. He wants you as you are; he does not want anything from you, a sacrifice, at work; He wants you alone” (Bonhoeffer) this court has a deeper understanding of the level that wherever we are God loves us there he understands that we are broken and he wants us as we are. I think this is so important because of the broken world that we are in and feeling just so alone we know that we have God. God is someone that will always love us where we are and that is so comforting within a society that is not accepting and not loving too many different types of people. you can feel very alone but knowing that God is with you will carry you through and knowing that he is always with you no matter what.

Bonhoeffer explains that even though we are broken sinners and we have a mask in front of others Christians or other people in the community we are called to not wear that mask in front of God because he knows who we truly are regardless. He states that “You can hide nothing from God. The mask you wear before men will do you no good before him. He wants to see you as you are, he wants to be gracious to you. He did not have to go online to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; You can dare to be a Sinner. Thank God for that; He loves a Sinner but hates sin. “ (Bonhoeffer). This quote brings out so much importance of the understanding that God is someone that we cannot hide things from he knows everything he knows everything in our hearts and what we say and what we do and what we think. God wants us to be ourselves around him because he does know our true selves meaning that we can’t wear a mask in front of him. He wants to love us where we’re at even though we are sinners because God loves us as we are sinners, he hates the sin that we are in. God is always there for us even though we are sinners.