God’s Grace
Romans
5:6-8 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ
died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though
for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own
love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Cheap grace
is the deadly enemy of our Church.... Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a
principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general
truth, the love of God taught as the Christian “conception” of God. An
intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure
remission of sins.
Cheap grace
means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner....
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, 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 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 proce 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 cause 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
be 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.... Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his
Son...and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.viii
Prayer: In
this life I will never fully understand the value of your love for me. Thank
you for giving of yourself to save me from the penalty of my sins. Help me to
live each day in the richness of your loving gift of Jesus, my Savior. Amen.
