Cheap Grace–The Enemy of the Church

There is a heresy so rampant among the church today, so many being swept away by its tickling philosophy, that I shudder. It’s hard to define, to nail down a name for the new doctrine–almost like trying to nail Jello to the wall.

Which is why it’s so dangerous. Bits and pieces of it creep in…some subscribe to a smidgen of it, others fall in head-long.

There is something wonderful about staying where you are, where it’s comfortable. And since Jesus comes to us where we are, it’s seems logical that He doesn’t mind if we hang out there. But it’s not His teaching.

We were DEAD in our sins, and if He saved us, He brought us back to life! We are no longer sinners, but saints! We were once darkness, but now have been brought into light. We don’t want to hang out where we were.

The teachers of this “hang-out heresy” have one major problem: The Word of God. Some ignore it, some have re–written it, some only quote the easy parts, and wag a finger at those who dare to quote the rest.

Christians, we must understand the costliness of God’s grace. The irony of God’s overwhelming love simultaneously balanced with a His hatred of sin. His grace cost too much for us to refuse its redeeming power!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw this deadly teaching and wrote about what he called “cheap grace”:

“Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church…. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing….

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. ‘All for sin could not atone.’ Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin….

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.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man’ will gladly go and self all that 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 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.

God said: “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” Impossible for the one still wallowing in self-pity and false humility, claiming to be a mere “scraggly sheep”. But inseparable from the one who understands the redeeming cost of love for his life. The child of God, a new creature, a blood-bought saint.

He didn’t say, “You are holy because I am holy”…He said “be”…it’s a state of doing, being, sanctifying, growing.

HOLY–hagios

*most holy thing, a saint

(From the same root as the following definitions:)

*exciting reverence, venerable, sacred
* pure
a) pure from carnality, chaste, modest
b) pure from every fault, immaculate
c) clean

Humility, real humility, is knowing that His grace covers me, and knowing that grace makes me new.