“Cheap Grace is the preaching of forgiveness without repentance, baptism without church discipline, 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 of 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, 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 so 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.”
(Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995, p. 44-45)
1 comment:
Reading that book (and the sermon upon which it is based) will lead any honest person to question their handling of God's gift of grace: whether they have valued it as the pearl of great price or tossed that pearl before the swine.
And yet I love what Bonhoeffer points out so subtly: that grace is costly for both us *and* Christ. We all suffer to attain and maintain this grace. But our willingness to do so reveals our assessment of its value. Christ valued grace enough to die to provide it. Will we die to ourselves and this world to attain it?
"When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die." - D. Bonhoeffer
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