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Posted: 05 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT
By Jon WalkerThen neither do I condemn you … Go now and leave your life of sin. John 8:11
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“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.”—Dietrich Bonhoeffer— — —
By cheap grace, Bonhoeffer means the arrogant presumption that we can receive forgiveness for our sins, yet never abandon our lives to Jesus. We assume, since grace is free, there is no cost associated with the free gift.The gift is free, but Jesus paid a bloody price to offer us the gift. The gift is free, but that doesn’t mean there is no cost to following Jesus once we step into his grace.
Costly grace justifies the sinner—Go and sin no more. Cheap grace justifies the sin—Everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are.
To assume that God’s grace is nothing more than a way to “get out of jail free” undermines the kingly crown of thorns Jesus wore on the cross. We do not receive God’s grace to make us feel better about ourselves while we live in this world; rather, God gives it in order for us to enter into the kingdom of heaven even as we live in this world.
Jesus rescued the woman caught in adultery from certain death, but his expectation was that her life would change immediately. To return to her old life would have mocked the very grace that Jesus gave that day. His expectation of a changed life is no different for us: “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Just because we have been given God's grace does not mean that we can go and abuse it. "But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5 NIV. I'd like to expand on that just a little bit more. We have been granted grace, and there is nothing we can do to repay it. We as human beings try so hard to repay His love when we simply cannot. There is no number of prayers, nor confessions, or drops of tears or blood in His name that will ever repay His grace. We need to understand that what we do for Him is out of sheer love for who He is.
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