During my early years in China, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s concept of discipleship and “costly grace” had a solid impact on the way I thought and ministered. His example of giving up comfort and recognition and paying the ultimate price as a “traitor” under the Hitler regime was something worth following. He lived out what it looks like to truly follow Jesus, even if it meant experiencing the full measure of the cross. He was a true hero.
Bonhoeffer’s book, “Cost of Discipleship” is a call to seriously follow Jesus. No space for playing church or being wishy-washy. I like that. I especially like the way he pointed out that grace is costly and not cheap the way some would approach it.
I still appreciate Bonhoeffer’s spirit and legacy. But as I picked up a summary of his book to look it over again, I was looking for a term that has been adopted by many believers. I have heard it repeated many times. I’ve probably used it myself. A term I am starting to find less helpful and slightly misleading. Bonhoeffer called it “cheap grace”. The story goes that when Jesus gives us grace, it must lead us to a serious and costly life of discipleship, or it is simply cheap grace. It is cheap for the reasons that it doesn’t lead to a life of surrender or commitment to the Lord in everything. It’s taking the positives and disregarding the negatives in following the Lord. The church is filled with half-hearted ones like this, Bonhoeffer reckoned.
While I agree the state of the church today likely resembles the way he portrays it, I find the term “cheap grace” something of an oxymoron. Grace can’t be cheap, and never has been. Jesus paid everything for it on the cross – Grace will always be very expensive. If someone is said to receive the grace of the Lord, but then go on to live a life of sin and selfishness, I would suggest they hardly understood Grace and they never fully received it, either. You cannot truly receive the Grace of God and remain unchanged!
Consider this scripture:
“They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 4)
Grace as license for living in sin and immorality is no grace at all – it is a perversion! It is not cheap grace, as Bonhoeffer calls it. It’s something else altogether. Grace cost Jesus a whole lot, but when it is not understood nor truly received it can become a facade while continuing to live our own way. People think they are OK because they agreed to pray a prayer or make some kind of decision, but they never met Grace Himself.
I watched “Les Miserables” the other day. It was first time for me (can you believe it?), mainly because I always thought the movie was a musical (which it also is in another version), and I can’t handle musicals. Call me a boring art-hater, but all I want to do when watching musicals is to tell them to stop singing and doing pirouettes and get on with the show! Back to the movie…
The whole story is based on one extravagant act of Grace. The throw-away criminal Jean Valjean steals the fortune at a clergyman’s home where they have taken him in and fed him, only to get caught by the police. But instead of condemning him, the clergyman gets the rest of the silver Jean Valjean had not stolen, and gives it to him. It is a shocking act of love that went against rhyme and reason. He says to Jean, “With this silver, I have bought your soul!” The clergyman refuses to see him as a man deserving punishment, and instead gives him what he doesn’t deserve so he can become what he is yet to be.
Jean Valjean becomes one of the most humble and servant-hearted people around, and soon finds himself as a wealthy business-owner and a mayor of a town in France. His former labor camp guard, Javert, recognizes Jean as a convict, and spends the rest of his days chasing him and seeking his misfortune. But not once does Jean respond in kind, but rather treats his enemy with kindness. He was truly a changed man. Think of where he came from – a wild brute of a man, who hated and was hated. That one act of Grace was the spark and fuel for the rest of Jean’s life.
Grace cannot but change us – and it certainly leads to a life of surrender and commitment. Bonhoeffer was right. We need to wake up in the church and understand what it means to truly follow Jesus. But it doesn’t come from trying to be better people, or sacrificing more. It doesn’t come from meditating on Jesus’ full frontal commands to carry our crosses. It comes from looking at Grace more, and more fully recognize what Jesus has already done for each of us who do not deserve an ounce of it. Grace is not costly for us, it was costly for Him.
People were changed when they met Jesus. The prostitute, the immoral woman, the thieving tax collector, the cripple, the terrorist. Changed, because Jesus treated them differently to what they deserved. They didn’t become loyal followers because Jesus told them they must sacrifice everything and become better people. No, they were happy to lay down their lives for Him because they had met Grace Himself.
