Costly Grace

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace…

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance,

baptism without church discipline,

communion without confession,

absolution without personal confession.

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship,

grace without the cross,

grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate…

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again,

the gift which must be asked for,

the door at which a person must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow,

and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.

It is costly because it costs a man his life,

and it is grace because it gives a person the only true life.

It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.

Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son:

‘Ye were bought at a price’, and what has cost God, cannot be cheap for us.

Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son

too dear a price to pay for our life,

but delivered him up for us.

Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

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Excerpts from “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer