Cheap Grace

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in "The Cost of Discipleship," ................


Cheap Grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.


Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field, for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows Him.

Costly grace is the Gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ, it is costly because it costs a man his life and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

When my oldest son was 2 years old, he was scolded by a full kettle of boiling water. He was burned over 60% of his body with 3rd degree burns. He survived the critical first few days. Every day they would bandage him, and every day the bandages from the previous day had to be removed. If his burns got infected, he would die. As Pastor Dave talked about salt this morning, it brought back memories of my sons treatment and what it took to remove the bandages every day. A nurse would take Christopher, with my help, to a prepared bath. The bath was full of salt water. I literally had to hold him down as he screamed, his eyes burning into mine with confusion, not understanding the process, only knowing that his father was part of this cruel torture.

I would have given my life to have taken his place. I would have given my life to spare him the agony, but, I was powerless. I know all you parents out there can identify with those feelings.

Our heavenly Father, watched His Son being mocked, being spat on, tortured and ridiculed and finally nailed to the cross. He listened to His Son cry out from the depths of His being "My God, My God, why have thou forsaken me." Oh the Fathers agony as He turned His head. How many know that our heavenly Father could have stopped it at any time? He was not powerless. What could have driven Him to allow this to unfold? John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever shall believe in Him, will not perish...................."

This love of the Father for the lost is beyond what our earthly minds can even come close to grasping. What we can take from it this, the grace that flows to and from Calvary is no cheap grace. We will not be judged on how good or bad we are, but what we did with the sacrifice of Calvary.

Yes, Salvation is a finished and complete work, we can neither add to it, nor take anything from it, it was purchased for us at a terrible cost, but, to accept it fully and walk in the newness of life, it will cost us everything. For the sake of the kingly rule of Christ are we ready to sell everything we have for this treasure in the field? Will we pluck out our eye or cut of the hand that offends? To walk in the Spirit, are we ready to pick up our cross? Are we ready to die daily?