Cheap Or Costly Grace? Part 1 Series

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? Does our salvation, our belief in the saving atonement of the death of Jesus and our eternal hope based in His resurrection, a call to discipleship? We give lip service to discipleship. “Yes,” we will say, “I am a disciple because I attend Sunday School, I do Bible study on Wednesday night. I listen and even make notes to the sermon on Sunday.”

When we consider the NT description of discipleship and we look at Jesus in His instruction to the His disciples, Jesus did not call His disciples to do classwork, but to do life with Him. Discipleship is not so much a call to the classroom to study abstract truth as it is to study truth embodied in actual life, in our living every day, in our living out the truth.

A disciple in NT times was more than a mere student, it was one who followed the very steps of the Master, the Rabbi, imitating everything the Master did and repeating everything the Master said. It was a constant striving to be just like the Master. Look at the some of the first words and last words Jesus said to Peter:

Mark 1:17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

This was not a call to the class room, but call to do as the Master did. The call was to follow and in doing so, to learn from His example. Jesus last earthly words to Peter was the same:

John 21:19 Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!”

The command is clear, to follow Jesus. This is why I often refer to myself as a “follower of Jesus” because that is more descriptive this our misunderstood term of being a disciple. “Follow me” is the command giving often by Jesus. Look at the story of the rich young ruler. What was Jesus’ bottom line word to Him?

Luke 18:22 When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Jesus said he was “the way. the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). We learn the truth, the way and the true life by obedience and following Jesus. This begs the question, can we be saved and not a follower of Jesus? That is really a contradiction. Yet, our churches are full of people who claim the free and saving grace of Jesus, yet make no sacrifice to live the life as Jesus lived. We have many so-called “Christians” who claim salvation yet look no different from the rest of the world.

This bring us the question: Is the grace of Jesus cheap or is it costly? First let me say, quoting from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Above all, grace is costly, because it was costly to God, because it costs God the life of God’s Son—“you were bought with a price”—and because nothing can be cheap to us which is costly to God.” [1]

When we consider whether or not we are true disciples, true followers of Jesus, we must first consider His grace. Is it “cheap or costly grace?”

Romans 5:18–6:4

I have been reading a book entitled “The Cost of Discipleship” by the noted German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer wrote this book in 1937, after most of the churches in Germany were supporting the politically correct propaganda of the Nazi party which saw Hitler as a savior to the Germans. Bonhoeffer was instrumental in forming what was called the Confessing Church whose loyalties were first and foremost to Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned by the German SS in April 1943. In prison he won the favor of the prisoners and many of the guards who would smuggled his writings out. He was later implicated in the plot to take our Hitler, so Bonhoeffer was executed April 9, 1945, just days before the prison camp was liberated by Allied forces. Bonhoeffer was 39. I’m only giving you a small piece of his story.

In his book, “The Cost of Discipleship,” Bonhoeffer wrote about costly grace. He wrote the following (translated from the German), let me read some excerpts:

"Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace as bargain-basement goods, cut-rate forgiveness, cut-rate comfort, cut-rate sacrament; grace as the church’s inexhaustible pantry, from which it is doled out by careless hands without hesitation or limit. It is grace without a price, without costs. Cheap grace is that grace which we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord’s Supper without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ. [2]