Chapter 42. Truly appreciating grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves? (Romans 6:15-16) In our natural state, we are entirely without any power. (William Law) The friend of God knows that the victory is not his own; it belongs to God.
(Hans Denk) With all we've discussed about obedience and producing fruit, a person might think that those who live the kingdom life have little appreciation for grace. However, just the opposite is true. Only the Christian who exerts himself in running the race of life, who strives to enter the narrow gate, who disciplines his body so as not to be disapproved, who daily examines himself and confesses his sins, only he can fully appreciate how wonderful and essential God's grace truly is.
For he knows only too well that even in our best human efforts, we are never deserving of eternal life. But those in the kingdom life know grace is a costly thing. Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains it this way: "Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and 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.
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. Grace is indeed costly.
We insult God when we take His grace for granted and treat it as something automatically owed to us because we once prayed the sinner's prayer. Hebrews tells us, "Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy, on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Of how much more worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10:28-29) Bonhoeffer writes, "Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks' wares.
The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut-rate prices. Grace is represented as the church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price, grace without cost.
The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance, and because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing." In the kingdom life, we don't imagine that we can earn our salvation or that we are so good and deserve heaven. Rather, we discipline ourselves and obey our Lord because we appreciate how much our salvation costs God. We treasure grace as a precious thing, and we reject cheap grace, which is often no more than a license to sin.
We refuse to treat the blood of our dear Savior as a common thing. Bonhoeffer continues, "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. The world goes on in the same old way, and we are still sinners even in the best life, as Luther said." Bonhoeffer adds sarcastically, "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. Let him not presumptuously aspire to live a life under grace that differs from his old life under sin. That was the heresy of the enthusiasts, the Anabaptists, and their kind. Let the Christian beware of rebelling against the free and boundless grace of God and desecrating it." We demonstrate our appreciation for God's costly grace by not treating Christ's blood as something cheap.
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, and communion without confession, as Bonhoeffer explains. Those in the kingdom life want nothing to do with grace without discipleship and without the cross. Bonhoeffer correctly observes, "Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the incarnation of the Word of God."