"Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace is that one considered as a merchandise to be sold, is the cheap forgiveness ... it is the grace as the warehouse of the Church, from where is taken by unscrupulous hands to be distribuited careless and unlimited;
it is the priceless grace free for all. Because somesay that - according to the nature of the grace itself - the receipt has been already paid for all the ages. Because this receipt has been already paid we can get everything for free.
Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian "conception" of God.
Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. "All for sin could not atone." Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin. That was the heresy of the enthusiasts, the Anabaptists and their kind….
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, living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field for which a man sell everything he has ... It is costly because it cost God the life of his Son ... and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us".
