Cheap Grace?

"And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto Him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto Him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head. And He said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
Luke 9:57-62.

Is grace cheap? By that I suppose I mean should we view the grace of God as something of minimal value, the same as an item we may purchase at a store, say, like the Dollar Tree? I had some time to think that matter through, and the only conclusion I feel I could come to was that if the grace which God showed us was not cheap, how could I have the attitude by the way I live from day to day, that it was cheap? A perfect Man (Jesus), who went to a cross, to suffer beyond what human words could describe, in order that I might be made one of God's children, and have access to His heaven, does not sound like a cheap act of grace at all to me.

Yet, I am confessing here that there have been times when I thought about God's grace much the same way the persons mentioned in the above passage from Luke did. They really did not want Christ in the way He had hoped they would want Him. They wanted all His benefits, but they did not really want Him. They wanted all He promised if they would follow Him, but they did not want to pay the cost involved along the way.

I am not a Facebook person, and I make no apology for not being so. But a friend who uses it often, noticed that a certain person out there in Blog Land did write an inquiry into why I have not written anything lately on my Faith Walk. This person further added that the previous entries I had posted, blessed her and others who desire to grow from infancy to adulthood spiritually. I responded by saying that when I had begun this blog a couple of years ago, I did so in the belief that the Lord wanted me to, and that it might well be a blessing to others. However, since I had found no comments, I began to wonder if perhaps the idea was not from Him, but from me. It's not that I wanted to begin and continue this work so I would get responses. This would not be the right motive, as that would only prove I was more interested in man's approval, instead of my Lord's approval. And my Lord surely has much to say about that. If you care to read one example, I refer you to His teaching found in Matthew 6:1-6.

But just what is grace? The word in the Greek New Testament is "charis." It means favor and goodwill shown to someone undeserving of it. In this case, it is from God. I entitled this current posting as "Cheap Grace?" But just what is grace? Better still, what is God's grace? It is hard for me to say one without the other. God and His grace are like His love. He IS love! And it is the same as Jesus the Son being One with His Father. He said, "I and my Father are one."

And He IS grace! I trust God will forgive me for giving a simple definition. But what it means to me is a show of goodness and mercy to someone who does not deserve it. And that easily applies to me: I do not deserve His grace, and I never will.

One cold December afternoon during one of my long walks, this thought came to me: "If I received from a righteous, holy God what I truly deserve, I surely would not get from Him what I do not deserve." He gave me what I don't deserve, instead of what I do deserve. In other words, He gave to me His forgiveness, salvation, and the promise of heaven one day with Him, instead of letting me continue on in a life that really was not life at all, (1), lost, unforgiven, and on my way to hell, where I would be separated from Him forever and ever. And If you trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior, truly repented of your sins, the same applies to you as well.

That is grace, at least in the best possible way I can ever hope to define it. And that grace was not, and still is not, cheap! And if I cheapen it, then that grace has failed to achieve for me its intended work.

I will not write about him in this post, but in my next one, I would like to mention a man I feel both understood, and lived, by a grace that was not cheap. His name is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and while he was in a Nazi prison, he wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship. I want to share with you some of the excerpts from this prized gift my wife gave to me for Christmas two years ago.

(1)...Ref. Ephesians 2:1.