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]
Cheap grace surely has also been unmerciful with most of us personally. It did not open the way to Christ for us, but rather closed it. It did not call us into discipleship, but hardened us in disobedience.[3]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer started out like many liberal German theologians of his day, looking at the intellectual aspects of Christianity. But as the mood of his government changed, with them actively changing the church, the perspective of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, he resorted back to Scriptures, back to the basics of being a true disciple of Jesus. For Bonhoeffer, the grace of God that changed His life, and to that life without compromise, that grace was truly costly. And that grace led him into martyr-hood.
Today I very much believe that cheap grace is destroying the church. I do believe this is what the Apostle Paul was warning the church about, cheap grace. We are quick to quote the verse:
Ephesians 2:8–9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Yes it is the grace of God that saved us. That God would even provide a way for us, by giving us Jesus, was grace. Let us not undermined that grace that God so freely gives.
Romans 5:18–19 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
In several places in Scripture, Paul explained that through Adam, we all have been made sinners. As I had mentioned last week, we are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners, it is our nature to sin. By one transgression, by one man’s disobedience all are condemned, all are sinners.
Likewise, through one righteous act, by the obedience of One, that is by Jesus, we are able to be made right with God. Herein is the grace of God, herein is the very Gospel. By what Jesus had done for us, we can be made right with God. This is not universal salvation. This is salvation for all who will except it.
Romans 5:20–21 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Law, the Tora, was never intended to save anyone. It was clear that no one could obey the whole law, “for all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). The purpose of the Law was to convince people of their need for salvation. And here is the beauty of grace, it matters little how big a sinner you are, God ‘s grace covers you! The greater and more of the sin, grace abounded all the more. There is no one who is beyond the grace of God.
But here is where many get it all wrong. So many believe that all I have to do is walk the aisle, shake the preacher’s hand, say the sinner’s prayer, get dunked in the Baptismal pool and I got my “Get out of Hell” Free Card and I can go on and live just has I have before. This is forgiveness without repentance.
Many will say, “I repented.” There are those who think they can do as they please because come Sunday morning, I’ll just rush to the alter and confess my sins and all is forgiven. Is that true repentance? Paul squashes that thought immediately.
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
In so many words, that is exactly what many believe. They do not say it as much as they live it. Their life shouts out, “I have no need for discipleship, I have my ‘get out of hell free card’ and I have continued forgiveness. In fact, I’m doing God a favor in that my sin makes God’s grace all the greater.” Earlier Paul said:
Romans 3:8 And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just.
And now to this Paul exclaims:
Romans 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
When we came to Christ, when we claimed His grace, His forgiveness, relying on His great mercy, we renounced sin, we were freed from the penalties of sin, we should not live in sin any longer. Paul uses baptism as the picture of the transformation we underwent in our conversion.
Romans 6:3–4 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
By baptism, we identify ourselves with Jesus. Our being immersed under that water (that is why we as Baptist practice baptism by immersion because the very word “baptism” means immersion) symbolized our death with Christ, all that we once were, as a slave to sin, we put to death our sinful self. Our being raised from the water identifies and symbolizes our raising from the dead. We are a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
As a new creation, we live for the Lord, not the world. Cheap grace preaches forgiveness without repentance. True repentance means turning our back on the former things and moving towards godly holiness. The theological word for that is "sanctification." Another church word for that is "discipleship." We learn through our everyday life what it means to live a holy life. Repentance is a key ingredient to being a disciple. The NT is full of calls to repentance.
Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew 11:20 Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent.
Acts 3:19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
These verses are but a few of the many verses that proclaim repentance. It is clear from Scripture that repentance is part of salvation. Otherwise we have cheap grave which is a false teaching.
Make no mistake. Our Bible study is important. But if we leave what we have learned in the classroom or buried in our notes and books, and not take it and live it out, all that study is worthless. Without repentance and evidence of truly changed life, I believe it is very fair to ask if such a person is truly saved. Or do they have the false delusion of cheap grace.
You cannot be a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Him, if all you have is cheap grace. Grace was costly to God, and to live a live worthy of that cost, it will be costly to us.
Next week we will continue to explore that grace by which we are saved and our lives in relationship to our former sinful life which we have left behind.
But to give you an little insight of where we are going, read the rest of the focal passage, through the end of Romans 6. That fact is we all are a slave to something, is it to righteousness, or to sin?
When we come to the cross of Jesus, we come, not on our merits, but on our brokenness. Not on what we deserve for we deserve death, but to plead forgiveness. It is the costly grace of Jesus sacrifice that has bought us our salvation. Grace was costly, “for you were bought with a price.”
1 Peter 1:18–19 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Victoria J. Barnett, trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, Reader’s Edition., Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), 5.
[2] Ibid., 3–5.
[3] Ibid., 14.
