Dietrich Bonhoeffer was often shocked how the clergy around him in Germany compromised their faith. It was a “cheap grace”. Costly grace was in sharp contrast…

For Bonhoeffer, the spirituality of “costly grace” is to be found only along the obedient ways of following Jesus Christ. This spirituality, he insists, offers no set program, no set of principles, no elitist ideals, and certainly no new set of laws to preserve purity of doctrine. Christian discipleship means simply Jesus Christ alone (The Cost of Moral Leadership: The Spirituality of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 132).

When life is lived just for Jesus, then it is a costly grace.