Introductory Note:

In Life Together Bonhoeffer makes crystal clear the fundamental difference between radical Christian fellowship and the community of natural desire. With sadness I have had to recognize that the very way we arrange our lives in America effectively excludes us from life together. To take Bonhoeffer seriously would mean such a total rethinking of the life of faith that the entire socioeconomic structures of our lives would be revolutionized.

Life Together is a salty book to dig into if you are tired of "sweetness and light for God's little flock" and are prepared for "costly grace."

Richard J. Foster
Renovaré Founder

Excerpt from Devotional Classics

1. In and Through Jesus Christ

Chris­tian­i­ty means com­mu­ni­ty through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, sin­gle encounter or the dai­ly fel­low­ship of years, Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty is only this. We belong to one anoth­er only through and in Jesus Christ.

What does this mean? It means, first, that a Chris­t­ian needs oth­ers because of Jesus Christ. It means, sec­ond, that a Chris­t­ian comes to oth­ers only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been cho­sen from eter­ni­ty, accept­ed in time, and unit­ed for eternity.

First, the Chris­t­ian is the man who no longer seeks his own sal­va­tion, his deliv­er­ance, his jus­ti­fi­ca­tion in him­self, but in Jesus Christ alone. He knows that

God's Word in Jesus Christ pro­nounces him guilty, even when he does not feel his guilt, and God's Word pro­nounces him right­eous, even when he does not feel that he is right­eous at all. The Chris­t­ian no longer lives of him­self by his own claims and of his own jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, but by God's claims and God's jus­ti­fi­ca­tion. He lives whol­ly by God's Word pro­nounced upon him whether that Word declares him guilty or innocent.

2. Alien Righteousness

The death and the life of the Chris­t­ian is not deter­mined by his own resources; rather he finds both only in the Word that comes to him from the out­side, in God's Word to him. The Reform­ers expressed it this way: Our right­eous­ness is an ​"alien right­eous­ness," a right­eous­ness that comes from out­side of us (extra nos). They were say­ing that the Chris­t­ian is depen­dent on the Word of God spo­ken to him. He is point­ed out­ward, to the Word that comes to him.

The Chris­t­ian lives whol­ly by the truth of God's Word in Jesus Christ. If some­body asks him, Where is your sal­va­tion, your right­eous­ness? he can nev­er point to him­self. He points to the Word of God in Jesus Christ which assures him sal­va­tion and right­eous­ness. He is as alert as pos­si­ble to this Word. Because he dai­ly hungers and thirsts for right­eous­ness, he dai­ly desires the redeem­ing Word.

And it can come only from the out­side. In him­self he is des­ti­tute and dead. Help must come from the out­side, and it has come and comes dai­ly and anew in the Word of Jesus Christ, bring­ing redemp­tion, right­eous­ness, inno­cence, and blessedness.

3. Christ in the Word of Another

But God has put this Word into the mouth of oth­ers in order that it may be com­mu­ni­cat­ed to us. When one per­son is struck by the Word, he speaks it to oth­ers. God has willed that we should seek and find his liv­ing Word in the wit­ness of a broth­er, in the mouth of a man. There­fore, the Chris­t­ian needs anoth­er Chris­t­ian who speaks God's Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncer­tain and dis­cour­aged, for by him­self he can­not help him­self with­out bely­ing the truth.

He needs his broth­er as a bear­er and pro­claimer of the divine word of sal­va­tion. He needs his broth­er sole­ly because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weak­er than the Christ in the word of his broth­er; his own heart is uncer­tain, his brother's is sure.

And that also clar­i­fies the goal of all Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty: they meet one anoth­er as bringers of the mes­sage of sal­va­tion. As such, God per­mits them to meet togeth­er and gives them com­mu­ni­ty. Their fel­low­ship is found­ed sole­ly upon Jesus

Christ and this ​"alien right­eous­ness." All we can say, there­fore, is: the com­mu­ni­ty of Chris­tians springs sole­ly from the Bib­li­cal and Ref­or­ma­tion mes­sage of the jus­ti­fi­ca­tion of man through grace alone; this alone is the basis of the long­ing of Chris­tians for one another.

4. Christ Opened the Way

Sec­ond, a Chris­t­ian comes to oth­ers only through Jesus Christ. Among peo­ple there is strife. ​"He is our peace," says Paul of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:14). With­out Christ there is dis­cord between God and man and between man and man. Christ became the Medi­a­tor and made peace with God and among men.

With­out Christ we should not know God, we could not call upon him, nor come to him. But with­out Christ we also could not know our broth­er, nor could we come to him. The way is blocked by our own ego. Christ opened the way to God and to our broth­er. Now Chris­tians can live with one anoth­er in peace; they can love and serve one anoth­er; they can become one. But they can con­tin­ue to do so only by way of Jesus Christ are we one, only through him are we bound togeth­er. To eter­ni­ty he remains the one Mediator.

5. We Are in Him

Third, when God's Son took on flesh, he tru­ly and bod­i­ly took on, out of pure grace, our being, our nature, our­selves. This was the eter­nal coun­sel of the tri­une God. Now we are in him. Where he is, there we are too, in the incar­na­tion, on the Cross, and in his res­ur­rec­tion. We belong to him because we are in him. That is why the Scrip­tures call us the Body of Christ.

But if, before we could know and wish it, we have been cho­sen and accept­ed with the whole Church in Jesus Christ, then we also belong to him in eter­ni­ty with one anoth­er. We who live here in fel­low­ship with him will one day be with him in eter­nal fellowship.

He who looks upon his broth­er should know that he will be eter­nal­ly unit­ed with him in Jesus Christ. Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty means com­mu­ni­ty in and through Jesus Christ. On this pre­sup­po­si­tion rests every­thing that the Scrip­tures pro­vide in the way of direc­tions and pre­cepts for the com­mu­nal life of Christians.

6. Made Ready to Forgive

"But as touch­ing broth­er­ly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye your­selves are taught of God to love one anoth­er.… but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more" (1 Thess. 4:9, 10, KJV). God him­self has under­tak­en to teach broth­er­ly love; all that men can do to add to it is to remem­ber this

divine instruc­tion and the admo­ni­tion to excel in it more and more. When God was mer­ci­ful, when he revealed Jesus Christ to us as our Broth­er, when he won our hearts by his love, this was the begin­ning of our instruc­tion in divine love.

When God was mer­ci­ful to us, we learned to be mer­ci­ful with our brethren. When we received for­give­ness instead of judg­ment, we, too, were made ready to for­give our brethren. What God did to us, we then owed to oth­ers. The more we received, the more we were able to give; and the more mea­ger our broth­er­ly love, the less were we liv­ing by God's mer­cy and love. Thus God him­self taught us to meet one anoth­er as God has met us in Christ. ​"Where­fore receive ye one anoth­er, as Christ also received us to the glo­ry of God" (Rom. 15:7,KJV).

7. The Basis of Our Community

In this wise does one, whom God has placed in com­mon life with oth­er Chris­tians, learn what it means to have broth­ers. ​"Brethren in the Lord," Paul calls his con­gre­ga­tion (Phil. 1:14). One is a broth­er to anoth­er only through Jesus Christ. I am a broth­er to anoth­er per­son through what Jesus Christ did for me and to me; the oth­er per­son has become a broth­er to me through what Jesus Christ did for him.

The fact that we are brethren only through Jesus Christ is of immea­sur­able sig­nif­i­cance. Not only the oth­er per­son who is earnest and devout, who comes to me seek­ing broth­er­hood, must I deal with in fel­low­ship. My broth­er is rather that oth­er per­son who has been redeemed by Christ, deliv­ered from sin, and called to faith and eter­nal life.

Not what a man is in him­self as a Chris­t­ian, his spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and piety, con­sti­tutes the basis of our com­mu­ni­ty. What deter­mines our broth­er­hood is what that man is by rea­son of Christ. Our com­mu­ni­ty with one anoth­er con­sists sole­ly in what Christ has done to both of us. This is true not mere­ly at the begin­ning, and though in the course of time some­thing else were to be added to our com­mu­ni­ty; it remains so for all the future and to all eternity.

I have com­mu­ni­ty with oth­ers and I shall con­tin­ue to have it only through Jesus Christ. The more gen­uine and the deep­er our com­mu­ni­ty becomes, the more will every­thing else between us recede, the more clear­ly and pure­ly will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. We have one anoth­er only through Christ, but through Christ we do have one anoth­er, whol­ly, and for all eternity.

That dis­miss­es once and for all every clam­orous desire for some­thing more. One who wants more than what Christ has estab­lished does not want Chris­t­ian broth­er­hood. He is look­ing for some extra­or­di­nary social expe­ri­ence which he has not found else­where; he is bring­ing mud­dled and impure desires into Chris­t­ian broth­er­hood. Chris­t­ian broth­er­hood is not an ide­al which we must real­ize; it is rather a real­i­ty cre­at­ed by God in Christ in which we may participate.

Excerpts tak­en from Devo­tion­al Clas­sics: Select­ed Read­ings for Indi­vid­u­als and Groups (Richard J. Fos­ter & James Bryan Smith, Edi­tors. Harper­Collins, 1993.) Orig­in­tal­ly from Life Togeth­er, first pub­lished in Ger­man in 1939 and in Eng­lish in1954.

Text First Published December 1938 · Last Featured on Renovare.org July 2021

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