CHEAP GRACE

"COSTLY GRACE TURNS INTO CHEAP GRACE WITHOUT DISCIPLESHIP."


I have recently started to read the Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and I would like to share some of the rich and deep spiritual truths from a man who gave his life for Christ. Here is a brief summary of  Dietrich Bonhoeffer taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and anti-fascist. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. This led to his arrest in April 1943 and execution by hanging in April 1945, 23 days before the Nazis' surrender. His view of Christianity's role in the secular world has become very influential. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer

Let me share a few thoughts from chapter one of the book, Costly Grace:

1. Bonhoeffer starts out in chapter one with this powerful observation: "CHEAP GRACE is the deadly enemy of our Church."  The definition of cheap grace takes up most of chapter one, but one thought by Bonhoeffer encapsulates the whole of the chapter; when cheap grace is said to be a grace that requires no contrition of sin, and no desire to be delivered from sin.Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, it is grace without the cross, it is grace without embracing a living risen savior.

2. Bonhoeffer then offers for us some insights on Costly Grace--- Costly grace is a grace that confronts us with a call to follow Jesus, it calls us to submit to the authority of Christ. Later in chapter one there is a quote from Luther showing that even man at his best carries with him a "sin nature" that is at war with God. "Luther had taught that man cannot stand before God, however religious his works and ways may be, because at bottom he is always seeking his own interests."


Father give us the understanding to know the difference between costly grace and cheap grace-help us to know the great cost for our salvation-help us to know that while you forgive the sinner, your never justify the sin.


For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).