Bonhoeffer’s definition of costly grace includes repeated seeking, asking, and knocking; what does that picture imply about God’s intentions for how grace is received and lived in, compared with the assumption that grace is mainly something you “got” at conversion?
Another way to ask: Bonhoeffer says costly grace means keep seeking, asking, and knocking. What does that say about how God wants us to receive and live in grace compared to thinking grace is something you only “got” at conversion?
Direct Answer
The picture implies grace is meant to be pursued and lived out continually—sought, asked for, and entered—rather than treated as a one-time transaction that guarantees everything regardless of discipleship.
Support from Transcript:
Bonhoeffer: “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.”
Bercot contrasts costly grace with the idea grace is “automatically owed…because we once prayed the sinner’s prayer.”
Costly grace “calls us to follow,” and “it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ,” tying grace to ongoing discipleship.
It is “costly because it costs a man his life,” and “grace because it gives a man the only true life,” suggesting a continuing life-change.
Kingdom-life Christians reject “grace without discipleship and without the cross,” implying grace is meant to shape the whole life.
Discussion Follow-ups
What would it look like to “seek…ask…knock” for grace in ordinary temptations? How does that challenge the idea of grace as mainly a past event?
