Bonhoeffer: On Scripture

A few days of vacation in the Palm Springs sun has afforded me the luxury of powering through a book I have wanted to read for a while- Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. While it is a pretty thick read, this book has really hit me at several different levels all at the same time: as a follower of Christ, as a lover of history, as a pastor, and as a husband.

Over the next few days, I want to share some of the quotes that captured me the most. Here are a few thoughts on the Bible that rekindled a passion to pursue Christ through His Word with deeper devotion.

First of all I will confess quite simply- I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we need only to ask repeatedly and a little humbly, in order to receive this answer. One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. ... Only if we will venture to enter into the words of the Bible, as though in them this God were speaking to us who loves us and does to will to leave us with our questions, only so shall we learn to rejoice in the Bible (136).

The Psalter filled the life of early Christianity. But more important than all of this is that Jesus died on the cross with words from the Psalms on his lips. Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure is lost to the Christian church. With its recovery will come unexpected power (368-369).

It always seems to me that we are trying anxiously in this way to reserve some space for God; I should like to speak of God not on the boundaries but at the centre, not in weakness but in strength, and therefore not in death and guilt but in man's life and goodness.... The church stands not at the boundaries where human powers give out, but in the middle of the village. That is how it is in the Old Testament, and in this sense we still read the New Testament far too little in the light of the Old (467-468).

All throughout his life, Bonhoeffer daily saturated himself in the Word of God and it produced in him a heart that was submissive to the will of God. I admire his devotion to Scripture as the actual Word of God. I admire his discipline to find room for the Bible in his daily schedule. And I admire his obedience to live it out with fierce determination in the midst of a chaotic world of evil. May we all come to know God's Word in this way.