Saturday 28 September 2013

Cheap Grace Vs Costly Grace

Dietrich Bonoeffer was a German pastor and theologian in the early 20th century. When the Nazis tried to get the national church "on message" Bonhoeffer stood against them. He would later be sent to a concentration camp and hanged by piano wire not long before the end of WW2 for being part of a plot to assasinate Hitler.

In his book "The Cost of Discipleship" he makes a distinction between cheap grace and costly grace. Something to chew on:

Cheap grace...
"...means grace sold on the market like a cheapjack's wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut-rate 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! And 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. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be, if it were not cheap?
. . . 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 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, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate." 
(True) Costly Grace...
"...is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell 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 of one 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 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. . .
. . . 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 light." { p. 45}

2 comments:

Roy the Beard said...

Great stuff, Richard. I believe in costly grace with my head, but find it cheapened by the time it gets to my heart (or perhaps the other way around). Either way, my commitment to live a life based on His costly grace is more often than not subsumed by my culture-driven post-enlightenment rationality. Who can rescue me...?

Richard Walker said...

I agree with you Roy. I once heard that the longest distance in the universe is the one between the head and the heart!

Enjoyed that little Romans 7 ref at the end of your comment. I think that's the point.

We must be driven to the end of ourselves and through death to a completely new kind of life.