Costly Grace

In contrast to cheap grace, Bonhoeffer defines costly grace:

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: "ye were bought at a price," 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 is the Incarnation of God....

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." [Matthew 11:30]

Remember, all you have, all the goodness in your life, every breath you have...came at a great cost. Appreciate what has been given to you and let it make a difference in this life, not just the one to come.

Cheap Grace

Continuing a bit with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we will look at one of his best known themes or principles - cheap grace/costly grace. From The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer writes the following:

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace....Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian "conception" of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. The church which holds the correct doctrine of grace has, it is supposed, ipso facto a part in that grace. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before.

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 [and suffering], grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

If this is "cheap grace" what is the anti-thesis? Costly grace. More on that tomorrow.