Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. - Romans 5

Monday, January 8, 2018

Cheap Grace

Cheap grace. Many christians don't understand the magnitude of God’s wrath and justice but only focus on the grace part. Our view is missing half the picture. Imagine that the Independence Day spaceship was about to blast you with a 1/4 mile^2 energy beam, and then Jesus comes right before it hits you and takes the entirety of the blast in front of you. How would you respond to Jesus who saved you? (After your ears and eyes and body have recovered from the intensity of the light, boom, and heat). Yet we treat Him like the guy who, when we are about to get hit by a balled up piece of paper, happened to step in the way of the trajectory (almost by accident), and get bonked on the head, and we just look up and say “thanks bro” and walk away. Cheap grace is when we talk about being saved but never talk about the weight of the Glory and punishment behind why we need to be saved. If we don't do that, we will never be filled with the awe and wonder of God's mercy for us.

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and 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.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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