As followers of Christ and members of his church, we must affirm that there is, in fact, a real and present enemy at work souring God\u2019s beautiful song of salvation. This enemy, though restrained, runs rampant in pulpits across America and beyond \u2013 singing a song of its own, threatening all who lend an ear to its sweet and savory tune. This cover song of sorts is what Bonhoeffer calls \u201ccheap grace\u201d.\u00a0 Cheap grace he (Bonhoeffer) says is grace without price; It is grace without cost. To him, this is a putrid and death ushering song.<\/p>\n
The believers and carriers of this deadly message say (like we) that our account has been wiped clean, that our debt has been paid in full, courtesy of the glorious cross. The problem according to Bonhoeffer lies not with this life-giving assertion itself but rather its implications when misunderstood. He claims that if we take the truth of this declaration to be the \u201cdata\u201d rather than the \u201csum\u201d it injects poison into our hearts, rendering us spiritually ill-fated. \u201cGrace as the data for our calculations means grace at the cheapest price\u201d (51).<\/p>\n
Cheap grace as data, as a doctrine, a principle, or system, according to Bonhoeffer is grace without repentance (turning away from sin). It is madness sold \u201con the market like cheapjacks\u2019 wares\u201d (43). Cheap grace is an intellectual assent to the idea that there is remission of sins found in the cross of Christ. But It is justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves, it is not a gift of God. Cheap grace is baptism without church discipline, it is communion without confession, it is \u201cgrace\u201d without the cross. In short, cheap grace to Bonhoeffer is simply grace without Jesus \u2013 and grace without Jesus is no grace at all.<\/p>\n
If left unchecked, the believer and practitioner of cheap grace will miss the call to follow Jesus for he has placed cheap grace in place of God himself. He will live as a worldling and obey Jesus\u2019 commands not. For cheap grace is an enabler of sinful debauchery. Cheap grace is a given. It forgives and blesses sin before it is committed. After all, it was nailed to the cross two thousand years ago.<\/p>\n
To combat this cacophony, Bonhoeffer offers a biblical solution and lens to view the rest of his work in an attempt to recover a \u201ctrue understanding of the mutual relation between grace and discipleship\u201d. That solution is\u00a0costly grace<\/em>.<\/p>\n Costly grace is pure and real grace. It is beautiful, it is sweet, and it is hard. Costly grace is also\u00a0discipleship<\/em>, for grace and discipleship are inseparable. Discipleship in this context means a complete attachment to the person of Christ himself. It means radically obeying him. And this call to be a disciple, to obey, is for all Christians everywhere without distinction (unlike the monastic movements\u2019 thought). Costly grace is not data but rather the answer to the sum \u2013 and this changes everything!<\/p>\n Bonhoeffer eloquently presents and compares these two kinds of grace to reveal the beauty of the real and authentic song of salvation:<\/p>\n \u201cSuch grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.\u00a0 It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.\u00a0 It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner\u2026\u2026Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart.\u00a0 Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: \u2018My yoke is easy and my burden is light.\u2019\u201d (45)<\/p>\n But how are we to grab ahold of these truths? How can we radically follow and obey Jesus? And how might we grow in costly grace?<\/p>\n Bonhoeffer makes it undeniably clear that it is Jesus alone who calls a man to follow him, but He doesn\u2019t just call him to follow and listen as if he were a scribe or a teacher, \u201che bids him come and die\u201d as if he was God, as if he had complete and utter claim on the disciples\u2019 very life. Once called, the disciple must throw off his previous existence and by faith, yes by believing in Jesus\u2019s Christ-ness, obey him. totally.<\/p>\n Though we are not saved by our works (obeying), Bonhoeffer believes that there is a great peril in ascribing \u201cchronological distinctions\u201d between belief (faith) and obedience as some often do. He believes that if we divorce the two (faith\/obedience) we will inevitably overlook their essential unity to our detriment. You cannot have one without the other. Bonhoeffer says it like this,\u00a0\u201cOnly he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0This mantra, with both parts intact, becomes incredibly important when we think about pastoral care. For he who is having a hard time obeying must believe, and he who is having a hard time believing must obey. Both and. The reason for this is that a man cannot have faith, cannot obey, cannot even hear or see Christ if he is willingly disobeying. Somewhere in his heart of hearts, he is refusing to listen to Jesus\u2019 call to true discipleship, to life in Jesus. It also means man cannot obey unless he trusts in the object of his faith because somewhere in his heart of hearts he is refusing to believe in Jesus call.<\/p>\n Bonhoeffer doesn\u2019t continue on without offering his heart. He has a colossal concern for theological speculation involving these truths. Though important at times, he claims speculation has the potential to blind us from the call of Christ. It has the potential to enable excuses. It can and will conceive lethal distractions that cause us to question God and bring to him fake and phony problems. The effects of this nonsense keep us from life-giving obedience, crushing any hope we have to live a life of discipleship. What shall we do you ask? Jesus\u2019s answer is simple; \u201cobey\u201d. So, we can either live by the word given by God, or do as the devil wishes, we can \u201ckeep posing problems, and escape the necessity of obedience\u201d (73).<\/p>\n Bonhoeffer ends the book calling the reader to do the same. He asks us to drop our nets like Peter. He shows us the way to the living God and what it looks like to live in community with other called men. And no man escapes the call to discipleship. We are either walking with Jesus or walking away from Him. We are not indifferent. We do not escape a decision. To \u201cforfeit\u201d our decision is to make the wrong decision. Jesus is God and he is alive \u2013 both in heaven and as the church (241). \u00a0He is calling men to be apart of his body. He Is calling them away from the law, away from their fleshly desires, away from his position in Adam, and calling them to himself \u2013 which is discipleship (240).<\/p>\n So where do we adhere to cheap grace? Where do our churches preach it from the pulpit? And where do we grip it tightly in the dark nights, when we ought to throw it to the ground \u2013 and grab Jesus\u2019 broken, war-torn, and bloody body at the foot of the old rugged cross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As followers of Christ and members of his church, we must affirm that there is, in fact, a real and present enemy at work souring God\u2019s beautiful song of salvation. This enemy, though restrained, runs rampant in pulpits across America and beyond \u2013 singing a song of its own, threatening all who lend an ear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":677,"featured_media":846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,29,23,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gospel","8":"category-grace","9":"category-holiness","10":"category-wisdom","11":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/belief.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":815,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/the-church-needs-an-abrasive-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":845,"position":0},"title":"The Church Needs an Abrasive Gospel","author":"Brandon Scalf","date":"September 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"For certain persons have crept in unnoticed\u2026 ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.\u201d - Jude 1:4 The Gospel of Jesus Christ is being trampled violently underfoot in pulpits all across America. It is being spat on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gospel"","block_context":{"text":"Gospel","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/category\/gospel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/09\/church1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1360,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/the-holy-spirit-is-not-just-muscle\/","url_meta":{"origin":845,"position":1},"title":"The Holy Spirit Is Not Just Muscle","author":"Brandon Scalf","date":"January 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, is not an impersonal force. He is God, and He is very personal. He cannot be controlled by special spells, charms, or actions. He comes with a presence and a power undeniably unique to himself, but his attributes and qualities, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God"","block_context":{"text":"God","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/category\/god\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"black barbell on tile flooring","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/yuv-iwbyvrq.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/yuv-iwbyvrq.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/yuv-iwbyvrq.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/yuv-iwbyvrq.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/yuv-iwbyvrq.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/01\/yuv-iwbyvrq.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1052,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/brandonscalf\/the-day-that-changed-everything-a-testimony-of-sorts\/","url_meta":{"origin":845,"position":2},"title":"The Day that Changed Everything ( A “Testimony” of Sorts)","author":"Brandon Scalf","date":"March 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"There once was a guitar. This guitar was brand new; it had a maple neck, a spruce top, and no imperfections. It had one purpose, one reason for existing. That reason was to hit me dead in the center of my chest. 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