CHEAP GRACE
Ephesians
2:8
For it is by grace
you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God.
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. Grace alone does everything, they say; and so
everything can remain as it was before. “all for sin could not atone.” The
world goes on in the same old way, and we are still sinners “even in the best
life” as Luther said. Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the
world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life,
and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old
life under sin…Let the Christian beware of rebelling against the free and
boundless grace of God and desecrating it. Let him not attempt to erect a new
religion of the letter by endeavoring to live a life of obedience to the
commandments of Jesus Christ! The world has been justified by grace. The
Christian knows…he must not strive against this indispensable grace. Therefore
– let him live like the rest of the world! Of course he would like to go and do
something extraordinary, and it does demand a good deal of self-restraint to
refrain from the attempt and content himself with living as the world lives… He
must let grace be grace indeed, otherwise he will destroy the world’s faith in
the free gift of grace…Let him be comforted and rest assured in his possession
of this grace – for grace alone does everything. Instead of following Christ,
let the Christian enjoy the consolations of his grace…Cheap grace…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.
The
Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pg. 46.
