'God is teaching us that we must live as men who can get along very well without him.'
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
This startling quote was brought to my attention by my son, Toby, and it has prompted a lot of thinking on my part. I have to say, I haven't chased up Bonhoeffer's context, and so my reflections are more on the simple idea of the statement, not on the wider argument that Bonhoeffer follows wherever it is he makes this statement: my thoughts in no way claim to mirror those of the great Dietrich.
In our contemporary evangelical culture, the idea of dependence upon God is stressed. Bonhoeffer's statement seems to say that in fact the opposite is the will of God, that, as we grow in Him, we become less dependent and reliant upon him, and more dependent and reliant upon ourselves. This progress is virtuous. This is a shocking idea to evangelical people! Try saying it in a Bible study group and see what reaction follows!
It would be fairly obvious that there are many people who, at the level of day to day life, get along very well without God. The thoughts of God, of heaven, of hell, would not pass through their minds in many, if any, days. They are like those Jesus spoke of: "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark.... It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building (Luke 17:26ff)." Jesus points out the foolishness of such an approach: the end of the age is coming, and account must be given to God of our relation to Him.
But Bonhoeffer is speaking of something other than this practical atheism. His statement encourages us to see ourselves in a very responsible light.
Geoffrey Bingham used to speak of the intention of God in creation as being that we become a peer community with Him in His action in history and into eternity. The intention of God at the creation of the man and the woman in Genesis 1 is that they be fruitful, fill the earth, subdue it, and to rule over all the living creatures. Humanity has a given co-regency with God. The broad parameters of humanity's serving of God are given in the commission but not the day to day nitty-gritty of it. All of the gifts and talents given to humanity are with a view to our responsibly taking up this commission and making something of it.
Life in the fulfilling of this commission involves the making of a multitude of decisions every day. Humanity must make these decisions. We must weigh the options, consider the possibilities and then finally we must act. The person unable to make decisions is a crippled person. Such a person cannot be entrusted with responsibility.
In many decisions—most in fact—we are faced with the fact that God Himself does not tell us what to do. We have to act on what we know of God, what we know of His will for creation, and what we know of our partnership with Him in the outworking of that will. In this way we have to get along very well without God. We don't have Him looking over our shoulder telling us what to do next. It is a truth that ennobles us enormously. We are truly peers alongside Him.
Of course it is true that all the gifts and abilities and resources we bring to this task are gift to us from Him. There is a deep and fundamental dependence. But it is not a dependence which results in a perpetual infancy or adolescence before Him, but which grows into a maturity, in which finally we stand in equal stature with Him as His son.
Perhaps it is the favour and kindness of God our Father that in our first days and early years as Christians He leads us with a greater immediacy than is so later. And it is the same favour and kindness that the immediacy of that direction is lessened and removed as we grow in maturity. We become men and women grown up.
It would be fairly obvious that there are many people who, at the level of day to day life, get along very well without God. The thoughts of God, of heaven, of hell, would not pass through their minds in many, if any, days. They are like those Jesus spoke of: "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark.... It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building (Luke 17:26ff)." Jesus points out the foolishness of such an approach: the end of the age is coming, and account must be given to God of our relation to Him.
But Bonhoeffer is speaking of something other than this practical atheism. His statement encourages us to see ourselves in a very responsible light.
Geoffrey Bingham used to speak of the intention of God in creation as being that we become a peer community with Him in His action in history and into eternity. The intention of God at the creation of the man and the woman in Genesis 1 is that they be fruitful, fill the earth, subdue it, and to rule over all the living creatures. Humanity has a given co-regency with God. The broad parameters of humanity's serving of God are given in the commission but not the day to day nitty-gritty of it. All of the gifts and talents given to humanity are with a view to our responsibly taking up this commission and making something of it.
Life in the fulfilling of this commission involves the making of a multitude of decisions every day. Humanity must make these decisions. We must weigh the options, consider the possibilities and then finally we must act. The person unable to make decisions is a crippled person. Such a person cannot be entrusted with responsibility.
In many decisions—most in fact—we are faced with the fact that God Himself does not tell us what to do. We have to act on what we know of God, what we know of His will for creation, and what we know of our partnership with Him in the outworking of that will. In this way we have to get along very well without God. We don't have Him looking over our shoulder telling us what to do next. It is a truth that ennobles us enormously. We are truly peers alongside Him.
Of course it is true that all the gifts and abilities and resources we bring to this task are gift to us from Him. There is a deep and fundamental dependence. But it is not a dependence which results in a perpetual infancy or adolescence before Him, but which grows into a maturity, in which finally we stand in equal stature with Him as His son.
Perhaps it is the favour and kindness of God our Father that in our first days and early years as Christians He leads us with a greater immediacy than is so later. And it is the same favour and kindness that the immediacy of that direction is lessened and removed as we grow in maturity. We become men and women grown up.
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