"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."
This cheap grace he explains as the idea that people have that grace covers all they do, and since we are sinners and will always be sinners, there is no need for us to change or attempt to be more like Christ, because we will always fail miserably, so everything can remain as it was before. Cheap grace is the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Basically, cheap grace is the idea that accepting Christ costs us nothing at all and requires no other action on our part--that we need not worry about aligning our lives to His will or pursuing a relationship with Him, and unfortunately, many people have fallen for this idea.
Bonhoeffer contrasts this with the idea of "costly grace" of which he writes the following:
"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, and it is grace 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. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His Son, [...] and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us. [...] 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. Grace 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.""
All of this greatly reinforced a thought that God had placed in my mind quite some time ago, that following Christ costs us "everything", but through following Christ, we gain the true everything, the everything that is truly something, and in comparison, the "everything" that it costs us is truly nothing in comparison. Maybe that is a bit crazy, but hopefully it makes at least a bit of sense. It reminds me of Paul in Philippians 3: 7-12 when he writes:
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."
Anyways, just a few of my thoughts. Hope they can be of some significance to someone. Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter to everyone!!!
