Cheap Grace, Costly Grace
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8,9
Is the grace you received cheap or costly?
I came across this note from Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
"cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."
Or, even more clearly, it is to hear the gospel preached as follows:
"Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness." The main defect of such a proclamation is that it contains no demand for discipleship.
In contrast to this is costly grace:
"costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Bonhoeffer’s argument is that Christianity and specifically the church has become more secularised. Accommodating itself to society.
In doing so the gospel was “cheapened” and obedience to Christ gradually lost under all the ritual and formulas.
While Bonhoffer wrote this prior to his death in a German concentration camp in 1945 he could have been writing about the church today. Especially the church in North America.
There are many preachers out there that have a “formula” for receiving blessings and salvation from God.
They say pray this prayer or that prayer and you’ll get this or that. Give and it will be given to you. The mantra of the name it claim it crowd.
One television station we receive here in Canada from across the U. S. border seems to have a Christian version of everything from health food to beauty products to elixirs and other potions.
Other groups have watered down the gospel to the point of no effect. For them going to church is a pleasant thing to do each Sunday. A time to socialize.
These people need to heed the words of 2 Chronicles that are as true to day as when written.
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:24.
When a woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus John records the following,
“When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:7-11.
Note here Jesus makes it clear that this woman who could have been stoned to death for her sin was told to go and leave her life of sin. She had been forgiven but Jesus said turn from what you are doing wrong.
Her forgiveness had to be accompanied by action.
This is what it should be like when we become a Christian. We have to leave our life of sin.
We cannot continue on. Paul writing to the Romans says
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Romans 6:1,2
When we accept Christ into our lives we must be willing to give up our way of life if necessary, in order to live a new life for Christ.
By new way of life, what I’m saying is that if we have to change jobs then we should be doing so. If we need to change whom we associate with we need to be doing so. If we need to change our lifestyle completely then we should be willing to do so.
When we accept Christ into our lives we cannot continue doing the bad things we were doing prior to accepting him.
This is what I believe Bonhoffer meant by costly grace.
We need to be asking our selves are the things we are doing truly acceptable to Christ?
Think about it.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8,9
Is the grace you received cheap or costly?
I came across this note from Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
"cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."
Or, even more clearly, it is to hear the gospel preached as follows:
"Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness." The main defect of such a proclamation is that it contains no demand for discipleship.
In contrast to this is costly grace:
"costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Bonhoeffer’s argument is that Christianity and specifically the church has become more secularised. Accommodating itself to society.
In doing so the gospel was “cheapened” and obedience to Christ gradually lost under all the ritual and formulas.
While Bonhoffer wrote this prior to his death in a German concentration camp in 1945 he could have been writing about the church today. Especially the church in North America.
There are many preachers out there that have a “formula” for receiving blessings and salvation from God.
They say pray this prayer or that prayer and you’ll get this or that. Give and it will be given to you. The mantra of the name it claim it crowd.
One television station we receive here in Canada from across the U. S. border seems to have a Christian version of everything from health food to beauty products to elixirs and other potions.
Other groups have watered down the gospel to the point of no effect. For them going to church is a pleasant thing to do each Sunday. A time to socialize.
These people need to heed the words of 2 Chronicles that are as true to day as when written.
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:24.
When a woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus John records the following,
“When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:7-11.
Note here Jesus makes it clear that this woman who could have been stoned to death for her sin was told to go and leave her life of sin. She had been forgiven but Jesus said turn from what you are doing wrong.
Her forgiveness had to be accompanied by action.
This is what it should be like when we become a Christian. We have to leave our life of sin.
We cannot continue on. Paul writing to the Romans says
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Romans 6:1,2
When we accept Christ into our lives we must be willing to give up our way of life if necessary, in order to live a new life for Christ.
By new way of life, what I’m saying is that if we have to change jobs then we should be doing so. If we need to change whom we associate with we need to be doing so. If we need to change our lifestyle completely then we should be willing to do so.
When we accept Christ into our lives we cannot continue doing the bad things we were doing prior to accepting him.
This is what I believe Bonhoffer meant by costly grace.
We need to be asking our selves are the things we are doing truly acceptable to Christ?
Think about it.
