The Cost of Discipleship

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

If we are conformed to his image in his Incarnation and crucifixion, we shall also share the glory of his resurrection. “We shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (I Cor. 15.49). “We shall be like him, for we shall see him even as he is” (I John 3.2). If we contemplate the image of the glorified Christ, we shall be made like unto it, just as by contemplating the image of Christ crucified we are conformed to his death. We shall be drawn into his image, and identified with his form, and become a reflection of him. That reflection of his glory will shine forth in us even in this life, even as we share his agony and bear his cross. Our life will then be a progress from knowledge to knowledge, from glory to glory, to an ever closer conformity with the image of the Son of God. “But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (II Cor. 3.18).