A Cheap Christianity?

This quote recently came across as a tweet:


A cheap Christianity that offends nobody, requires no sacrifice, and costs nothing—is worth nothing. JC Ryle

For your information J.C. Ryle was  the first Anglican Bishop of Liverpool (1816-1900). Ryle served in the ministry for thirty-eight years, retiring  in 1900 at age 83 and he died later the same year.



It was said of Ryle: "The man of granite, with the heart of a child."

 Take a moment to think on several key thoughts from Ryle's quote:

• Do YOU have a CHEAP Christianity?

• Does YOUR Christianity OFFEND anybody?

• Does YOUR Christianity require you to SACRIFICE?

• What does YOUR Christianity COST?

 I came across a sermon by J.C. Ryle where he laid out the challenge that all Christians must consider:

"But if you really are in earnest about your soul,
if your religion is something more than a mere fashionable Sunday cloak,
if you are determined to live by the Bible,
if you are resolved to be a New Testament Christian--
then you will soon find that you must carry a cross. You must endure hard things; you must suffer in behalf of your soul, as Moses did--or you cannot be saved."

 Christian friend, I'm not going to sermonize here, but I'd encourage you to take the time and ask yourself these hard questions that deal with the core of what it means to be a Christian. 

Now, just to make it clear there is no works righteousness being taught here, but just some hard questions that ask "what kind of Christianity you have?"

Let me close with a clarifying quote from J.C. Ryle:

 "Is there any cross in your Christianity?

There is a common worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have--a cheap Christianity . . .
which offends nobody,
which requires no sacrifice,
which costs nothing--and is worth nothing! "

 Father help us to go the way of the cross, help us to daily die to ourselves, so that Christ may increase and we may decrease.