Costly Grace Vs. Cheap Grace

           Perhaps the two most popular works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer among evangelical Christians are Life Together and The Cost of Discipleship. In the coming days, I am going to take a look at The Cost of Discipleship. As always, I would greatly appreciate any feedback or comments. Thank you.

Bonhoeffer’s chief concern in the The Cost of Discipleship is that “grace…has become so watered down that it no longer resembles the grace of the New Testament, the costly grace of the Gospels.”[1] Bonhoeffer called this a “cheap grace”[2] and it had “been the ruin of more Christians than any other commandment of works.”[3] Bonhoeffer defined “cheap grace” as:

 

…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.[4]

 

“Cheap Grace” is in sharp contrast to “Costly grace”. Bonhoeffer defined this as:

…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 price 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 causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.[5]

 

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[1] http://www.probe.org/history/history/dietrich-bonhoeffer.html#text2

 

[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), 43.

 

[3] Ibid., 55.

 

[4] Ibid., 44-45.

 

[5] Ibid., 45.