Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Cheap Grace

.....means grace as a doctrine only" a principle, a system. It means forgivemenss of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian concept of God. An intellectual assent to that ideal is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. In such a church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from such sins....

....it is a grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs form sin and from whom sin departs....Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves...It is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confessions... it is grace without discipleship...

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 kingly rule of Christ over all of life, the call of Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him...It is costly b/c it must be sought again adn again, the gift to be asked for, the door at which we must knock....

Such grace is costly b/c it calls us to follow, and it is GRACE b/c it calls us to follow JESUS CHRIST...It is costly b/c it costs a man his life, and it is GRACE b/c it gives a man the only true life.

THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

1937

...we judge things this way, that Christ died for all, that those who life should no longer live for themselves, but for Christ, who died for them, and rose again.