Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheap wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut 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! 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.... 45
Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. 47
The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)
I have had my heart broken lately with the abundance of cheap grace that is being masqueraded as authentic spirituality and corrupting the mission of the church. Because it has the form of grace without all the messiness of discipleship, it blinds those who love it so to the reality of what Christ call us to do, "take up our cross." Cheap Grace is the "whitewashed sepulcher" of new Testament Christians pretending to be saints on the outside while being dead and decaying on the inside.
I've read recently of several recent spiritual experiences that leave me wondering what the future holds. After a recent week of Christian music, worship, and devotion, I read with dismay the holier-than-thou attitude of Christians who want to reject those who don't embrace the "new spirituality" while at the same time refusing to get their hands messy. "Let's build a tent on the mountain" Peter once asked Jesus so they could stay forever in this pure light without the problems in the valley below. But it was not to be; Jerusalem had answers we desperately want and need, and together we must face Calvary, together.
All of the disciples of Jesus, except John, gave their lives for what they believed and experienced. Today we refuse to get up by 9 am to thank God for letting his Son die that we might live. Today many of our new converts we will see again only when there is a new party in town, a new thrill ride, or a new band to follow. Discipleship is found on the narrow path and few choose to take it.
In the mid-1700's John Wesley encountered this same cheap grace disease, and here's what he said about it. How eerily similar!
I was more convinced than ever that the preaching like an Apostle, without joining together those that are awakened and training them up in the ways of God, is only begetting children for the murderer. How much preaching has there been for these twenty years all over Pembrokeshire! But no regular societies, no discipline, no order or connection; and the consequence is, that nine in ten of the once-awakened are now faster asleep than ever.
John Wesley
