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Cheap or Costly Grace?

By Rev Albert Kang

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor, who was hanged by Hitler just before the end of the Second World War, was the one who coined the term, “Cheap Grace” in his book, “The Cost of Discipleship”. Cheap Grace is the kind of grace that we appropriate upon ourselves, and it has nothing to do with the “Costly Grace” that God has given. Pastor Bonhoeffer wrote, “Cheap grace is 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.”

Grace Is Free

God’s grace is free for all of us. That means we do not and cannot earn it by our own effort. God gives to us this grace - without us having to pay any price on our part. It is only through the redemptive act of His Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, that we receive this grace. To use another common term, grace is “unmerited favor”. 

Even though God’s grace is free, it does have a subsequent condition - it has to bear the fruits of grace. This “unmerited favor” is given so that we can live a life free from the bondage of Sin. Just after Jesus forgave the adulterous woman, He instructed her to “go and sin no more”. The “unmerited favor” of Christ was granted to her so that she would have the capacity to “sin no more.” She had not come to Christ as a sinless person. She did not even planned to be in the presence of Christ. She was dragged and thrown before Him by some evil men who planned to use her to trap Christ. She was an accused adulteress and there was nothing she could do to gain any sympathy or forgiveness. Christ did have pity on her and His “Agape” love went out to her. He told her that He did not condemn her even though she was an adulteress. This is not to say that He condoned her sins but that he accepted her present helpless condition. He was willing to make a way for her to recover.

Never once did Christ ask anyone to clean up his or her acts before He could save him or her. He realizes that no one has the ability to clean up his or her life by his or her own power. The Bible says that our righteousness is but filthy rags. Christ has to offer His forgiveness and redemption first before He can expect the recipients to live empowered lives. The ability to live a forgiven and redeemed life is therefore only possible through the redeeming work of Christ on the Cross.

The Abiding Life

The continued appropriation of God’s “unmerited favor” is only active when we live an abiding life - when we sincerely “go and sin no more.” For example, God brought the Children of Israel from Egypt into the Promised Land. As long as these God-chosen people abided with the Lord and worshipped Him, they remained in His zone of blessings. The day they moved out of that zone of blessings and started to worship other gods, they no longer came under the protective wing of God’s “unmerited favor”. Instead they had moved from the zone of obedience to the zone of rebellion. Instead of getting God’s blessings, they were receiving the wrath of God.

The abiding life speaks of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, who constantly points us to the abiding presence of Christ. This is to ensure that we might become more and more like Christ in our thought pattern, behavior, actions and spirituality. When we are faced with an issue, do we think like Christ? When we are being offended, do we behave like Christ? When we are being challenged, do we act like Christ? When we are being tempted, do we response with the disciplined spirituality of Christ? Our answers to all these questions will give us an indication on how abiding is the presence of Christ in our lives.

As we walk with the Lord, our hearts should become more sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Being empowered by the Holy Spirit, we now realize that we have the capacity to resist temptations. Temptation is not sin but it is the enticement to sin. Even God allowed Jesus to be tempted by the devil in the wilderness. It was not the evil spirit that led Jesus to be tempted but the Holy Spirit (Luke 4). The reason is because Jesus would never enter the zone of temptation on His own accord. He overcame the temptations as a Man so as to show us that we are able to do that too.

Slaves of Christ or Slaves of Sin

Being slaves of Christ does not mean that our freewill is dead. We are still in control of our freewill. When we allow our freewill to succumb to the pressure of Sin, we automatically become slaves to Sin. Paul the Apostle said, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:15–18).

No Christian has ever consciously desired to become slave of Sin again. Most Christians are caught unaware because sins always creep in gradually.  If the frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out immediately. However if it was placed in cold water and then the heat was applied gradually into a slow boil, it would stay inside the water and be boiled to death. With this illustration in mind, we should realize that many apparently innocent situations have danger lurking within. A sincere desire to help a colleague of the opposite sex, if not managed carefully, may develop later into an illicit affair. A short-cut response to meet a personal financial need might lead to misappropriation of company’s funds. A weary moment may trigger our mouths to say some angry words and that might cause someone to stumble and later reject Christ. A juicy piece of gossip might develop into a slanderous rumor that ultimately assassinates the character of the person concerned. An innocent but rash action in an unguarded instant might cause irreparable harm to other lives.

Three Areas Where The Devil Sets His Traps

Like a master poacher, the devil sets the traps with the appropriate baits. He sets traps in three distinct areas of our life – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. John the Elder was the one who made this observation: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever”. (1 John 2:15-17)

The lust of the flesh has to do with fulfilling the carnality of our baser instincts. The lust of the eyes has to do with our covetousness that is triggered by what we see. The pride of life is the enthronement of self on the throne of God. If we are not careful, we may fall into any of these traps easily. However, if we were to have an intense fear of Sin then our alarm bell would start ringing long before we reach the killing zone of these temptations. The Holy Spirit is the One who activates God’s built-in alarm system. He is with us to reveal the ugliness of sins and to use conviction to steer us away from the traps. Therefore, whenever we sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we should pause and consider what we are doing. It is then up to us to discipline our freewill and direct it to move us away from the traps.

Fearing Sins

As we have said, the best way to avoid being trapped is to have an intense fear of Sin. A rich man who lived on the mountain was interviewing some potential drivers. The first applicant said that he was so skilful in driving that he could drive an inch from the edge of the mountain road without causing the vehicle to fall down the cliff. The next applicant was even more skilful because he could drive backward up and down the mountain by looking at the rear-view mirror. The third applicant was not like the first two. He told the rich man that he was so afraid of height that he would drive as far away from the edge as possible. He was employed immediately as the new driver. In the same manner, we should adopt the same attitude of this last applicant when sins are concerned. We should move as far away from them as possible.

We are still living in a sinful world even though we are not of the world. Satan has no power over us if we do not give him the permission. The way to give him permission is to live in Sin. There is a distinction between occasional sinning and living in Sin. Occasional sinning has to do with our careless thoughts and actions, usually in unguarded moments, that are in violation of God’s Word. Living in Sin means that we have accepted the particular sin as being harmless and therefore have made a habit of doing it again and again. There is no remorse, regret or repentance. It has become an acceptable way of life.

It is easy to spot the major sins like adultery and stealing but what about the sins that we have lost the ability to recognize. There are many other sins that we would see no harm in pursuing because they look so innocent. To learn whether we are indulging and living in sin, we just need to sincerely observe our own behavior. Do the negative comments from others linger in our minds for a long time? Could that be the sin of unforgiveness? Are we constantly angry with somebody or something? If so, are we accepting the sin of anger or hatred as the way of life? Are we quick to criticize and judge others? By behaving like this, are we living out the Pharisaic sin? Do you like to repeat negative stories about others even though we have not verified their validity? Are we sinning as gossipers? Do we entertain lewd images and actions in our minds? Are we committing sexual sins in our minds? Are we taking things from the office for our children to use at home? Are we sinning as thieves? There are many more and only the Holy Spirit will reveal to us specifically.

We should fear Sin because it has a way of destroying our relationship with the Lord. Some of the subtle sins are more dangerous because they come through the backdoor. For example, when I became the target of some harsh criticisms, my natural self wanted to retaliate. My spirit inevitably became bitter and wanted to gather the flaws of my critics and hurl back at them. However, the Holy Spirit stopped me because He knew that it was not the criticisms of my critics that would destroy my relationship with God but my bitter reaction. Developing a hatred and bitterness is the sin that creeps through my backdoor. No matter how justified or unjustified, that wrong spirit becomes the ticket by which Satan can board my train. Therefore having been forewarned, I have to confess and repent for allowing this “back-door” sin to come into my life.

In conclusion, let us be thankful for the costly grace of God in our lives. We should never take it for granted as Jesus has paid a heavy price for it. We should treasure this costly grace by living a repented and gracious life. We should be loving, caring and forgiving as we live this redeemed life. Entertaining temptations and sins should not be included in our life-program. If we unwittingly made a mistake and sin against God, then we should quickly find our way back to Christ. No matter how terrible that sin might be, there is no other way for us to become justified before God. No amount of self-condemnation can achieve that. It is only through Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, not only ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)

If you are caught in one of Satan’s traps, please come quickly to the cleansing Blood of Jesus. It is better to recognize your sins and walk the path of recovery. The path of denial will lead to more sins. Let’s repent and live a righteous life again.

John the Elder wrote:

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9)

Got a question for Pastor Albert? Wish to comment on this E-Bulletin?

Just feel free to email Pastor Albert at livingwordsg@yahoo.com.sg

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Although this material is subject to copyright, please feel free to reprint this E-Bulletin, in whole or in part, in your church publication, use them in training, presentations, or wherever you feel they would be of benefit to the kingdom of God.

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 Reprinted with permission from Pastor Albert Kang’s E-Bulletin – Weekly Thought.

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