toils of sin. 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.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man
will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to
buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of
Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to
stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his
nets and follows him...Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again
and again, the gift which must the asked for, the door at which a man 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 man 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 much 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."
from "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
