In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer discusses the difference between costly grace and cheap grace. Our natural inclination is to seek the latter. We want a grace that demands nothing of us. A grace that tells us that there is nothing destructive about our sin and that proper doctrine does not matter. A grace that tells us that Jesus looks a lot like our post-enlightenment selves and requires nothing of us. A grace that lets us define what is true for us and which justifies our recoil at the suggestion that we're actually way off the mark. A grace that says that our forgiveness can be half-hearted while we continue to hold resentment and bitterness in our hearts. A grace that says faith is something we only express for a couple hours on a Sunday morning. This grace leads to self-righteousness and lukewarmness.
The truth is that the grace that Jesus and Paul talk about is much, much better than that. It's a grace that does not leave us where it found us. It's a grace that manifests itself in the unfathomable love that sent Christ to the cross for a broken and selfish humanity. It's a grace that calls us to a deeper commitment and more robust understanding of the God of the universe. It's a grace that cannot be contained and overflows until it characterizes every aspect of our lives. It's a grace that allows us to forgive in supernatural ways and to love those whom we think we have every reason not to. It's a grace that mines the darkest depths of our hearts and shines the light of love there. It's a grace that gently comes alongside us in our doubts and questioning and comforts us in our fears.
Yet we run from this grace because it is costly. It demands everything of us. It's the grace that affords us life yet calls us to die to ourselves (Galatians 2), to carry our crosses daily (Luke 9), and to be marked by the sufferings of Jesus (1 Peter 4). It calls us to a deeper discipleship that will cost us everything we have including our right to ourselves. This is why it is so difficult to accept the grace that cost Christ everything on the cross. We prefer something easy, something that is just good news with no difficulty. Yet that's what makes grace and the Gospel so good. God's love for us is so great that He was willing to go through unimaginable suffering and pain to redeem us and reunite us with Him. Our devotion to Him mirrors His sacrifice.
Let's be clear. The traditional orthodox doctrine of salvation by faith alone is very much the cornerstone of an understanding of costly grace. We do not earn grace or merit God's favor at our personal expense. Jesus paid it all. Paul makes it abundantly clear in Ephesians 2 that our salvation is purely through the grace that Jesus paid for. However, out of a loving response to our gracious and glorious Father, comes the commitment of our entire lives to Him in obedience. Thus, our response to His grace is not one driven by guilt, shame, or obligation but out of our profound thankfulness and love for Him. The heart truly changed by costly grace is the one that sees the depth of its sin and the unspeakable goodness of its Savior. The outpouring of this is the desire to bless the heart of Christ at all costs. May we be a people marked by this costly grace.
