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More Random
Thoughts From This Disciple |
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A
Reflection on The Cost of Grace Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian and
martyr for the faith during World War II, once wrote an indictment of sorts
against the Church. Fearing that the
church had become too accommodating to culture he wrote, “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 price, without costs” (Bonhoeffer, 43). Bonhoeffer was not the kind of man who
just let people off easy. Could it be
that he was right? Could it be that
we often desire to receive cheap grace rather than real grace? Cheap grace is the kind of feel good grace
that you find in the baskets near the checkout counter in a discount
store. When unwrapped it provides a
quick feel good pick-me-up so that we can continue to rely on ourselves
throughout the week. It is a store
brand grace that imitates real, quality grace without the cost. Cheap grace gives a wink and a nod to sin
and says, “Oh, that’s O.K., you are forgiven” without the costly quality of
actually turning a person’s life away from sin. It lacks the sort of formulated
power
required to turn people around. It
merely allows people to feel good while they continue in their sin. “Cheap grace means justification of sin
but not of the sinner,” Bonhoeffer wrote (43). Cheap grace allows everything to stay the same. It is cheap art found in the discount
store. It fills a space in our soul
but it lacks the power to truly captivate with its brilliance and color. It makes the faithful look the same as the
rest of the world who can purchase the same bland wall filler. Cheap grace means that the Christian can
be comforted and secure every Sunday without actually ever following Jesus
the Christ. Cheap grace gives a wink and a nod to
those who find their highest safety and comfort in things lesser than God,
such as family. The wink and the nod
allows domineering and abusive father’s and mothers to rule over the children
of God. It says, “that’s O.K.” to
parents who refuse to take their children out of dangerous situations because
it may threaten their own sense of security or threaten the all-important
concept of family. It can do this
because, in the end, cheap discount grace is not God’s grace. Rather, it our own grace. Coming from ourselves, it justifies every
ill action and proud possession and refuses to allow change. Costly grace, on the other hand, is
described by Bonhoeffer as “the hidden treasure in the field, for the sake of
which people go and sell with joy everything they have. It is the costly pearl, for whose price
the merchant sells all that he has; it is Christ’s sovereignty [in your
life], for the sake of which you tear out an eye if it causes you to
stumble. It is the call of Jesus
[the] Christ which causes a disciple to leave his nets and follow him” (44
& 45). Bonhoeffer is right; costly grace is
the quality grace that we seek again and again, “the gift which has to be
asked for, the door at which one has to knock” (45). One must ask for it because it is not the
kind of grace that can be found within ourselves.
What makes it costly? What make it grace? He answers, “it is costly, because it
calls to discipleship; it is grace, because it calls us to follow Jesus the
Christ. It is costly, because it
costs people their lives; it is grace, because it thereby makes them
live. It is costly, because it
condemns sin; it is grace, because it justifies the sinner. 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. Above all, it is grace because
the life of God’s son was not too costly for God to give in order to make us
live. God did, indeed, give him up
for us,” Bonhoeffer reminds us (45).
“Costly grace is the incarnation of God” (45). God’s grace is not cheap. It is the fine art that does more than
decorate a wall. Staring at its
colors and lines moves the soul to be more than it is. It moves the soul to true repentance and
forgiveness. It makes the soul yearn
to become like the image being stared at: Christ himself. Costly grace moves the soul to pick up the
cross and follow Jesus the Christ.
Costly grace is found in the woman who
is shown the truth of her abusive family and risks her life to save her
children. Costly grace is found in my
friend from Liberia who ran in front of a rebel’s gun in order to spare the
life of an unknown young woman who was being harassed and threatened with
death. Costly grace, the grace that
allows you to take up the cross, continued to be in her eyes as she stared
into the eyes of the rebel (and the barrel of his gun). It allowed her to say, “friend, why would
you want to hurt your sister.” Costly
grace saved two people that day. That kind of grace is not cheap. It is a real grace with real costs. Costly grace could truly cost you your
life. But, in costing you your life,
your life is found - in the quality grace that is the source of all
existence. It is a quality grace that
leaves one’s own contentment and comfort for the sake of saving another. It is the quality grace that can only be
received from God. We desire top quality, costly
grace. Ask, and it will be offered to
you. Open your mouth and God will
feed you the quality grace that causes you to jump up and let loose of the
things that possess you. It is a
quality, costly grace. In the end it
is the only true grace that exists.
“Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace”
(43). - Pastor Jira Albers Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 4, Discipleship. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001. |
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