Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

• Ephesians 2:8-9

With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all

• Acts 4:33

When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.

• Acts 11:23

through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

• Romans 5:2

“But do we also realize that this cheap grace has turned back upon us like a boomerang? The price we are having to pay to-day in the shape of the collapse of the organized Church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available to all at too low a cost. We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale, we baptized, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition. Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving. We poured forth unending streams of grace. But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way was hardly ever heard. Where were those truths which impelled the early Church to institute the catechumenate, which enabled a strict watch to be kept over the frontier between the Church and the world, and afforded adequate protection for costly grace? What had happened to all those warnings of Luther’s against preaching the gospel in such a manner as to make men rest secure in their ungodly living? Was there ever a more terrible or disastrous instance of the Christianizing of the world than this? What are those three thousands Saxons put to death by Charlemagne compared with the millions of spiritual corpses in our country to-day? With us it has been abundantly proved that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generations. Cheap grace has turned out to be utterly merciless to our Evangelical Church.
“This cheap grace has been no less disastrous to our own spiritual lives. Instead of opening up the way to Christ it has closed it. Instead of calling us to follow Christ, it has hardened us in our disobedience. Perhaps we had once heard the gracious call to follow him, and had at this command even taken the first few steps along the path of discipleship in the discipline of obedience, only to find ourselves confronted by the word of cheap grace. Was that not merciless and hard? The only effect that such a word could have on us was to bar our way to progress, and seduce us to the mediocre level of the world, quenching the joy of discipleship by telling us that we were following a way of our own choosing, that we were spending our strength and disciplining ourselves in vain—all of which was not merely useless, but extremely dangerous. After all, we were told, our salvation had already been accomplished by the grace of God. The smoking flax was mercilessly extinguished. It was unkind to speak to men like this, for such a cheap offer could only leave them bewildered and tempt them from the way to which they had been called by Christ. Having laid hold on cheap grace, they were barred for ever from the knowledge of costly grace. Deceived and weakened, men felt that they were strong now that they were in possession of this cheap grace—whereas they had in fact lost the power to live the life of discipleship and obedience. The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works.”

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (Costly Grace)

Bonhoeffer summarizes the damage cheap grace is to the church and then to the individual.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus asks people to leave everything and follow Him.  Jesus requires us to take up our cross and follow Him, and He does not mean the tiny wooden cross that I have in my coin pouch or the gold one you might have on a chain around your neck.  He means the one where you give everything, even your life in order to follow Him.

Salvation is free from any works.  Salvation is by faith alone, but Jesus promises us that we will become new.  Paul says a new creation.  That new creation is that Jesus is in control.  Would Jesus lead us back into sin?  No.  Would Jesus lead us in complacency, sitting on a stool of “do nothing”?  No.  The Holy Spirit is part of this new creation.  Would the Holy Spirit guide us down wrong paths?  No.  So, if your new creation does not change you into something more like Jesus, then who is the imposter who sits on the throne in your heart, the control center of your life?

Grace provides salvation, but then Jesus commands us to spread the gospel.  He commands us to love our neighbors.  And those are action verbs.  They are costly.  We must lay aside our sinful lives and become more like Jesus.  There is nothing other than our love that we can take to the next world.  We must use what God gives us here on earth to further His kingdom.

“Happy are they who have reached the end of the road we seek to tread, who are astonished to discover the by no means self-evident truth that grace is costly just because it is the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Happy are the simple followers of Jesus Christ who have been overcome by his grace, and are able to sing the praises of the all-sufficient grace of Christ with humbleness of heart. Happy are they who, knowing that grace, can live in the world without being of it, who, by following Jesus Christ, are so assured of their heavenly citizenship that they are truly free to live their lives in this world. Happy are they who know that discipleship simply means the life which springs from grace, and that grace simply means discipleship. Happy are they who have become Christians in this sense of the word. For them the word of grace has proved a fount of mercy.”

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (Costly Grace)

This concludes the first chapter of Bonhoeffer’s book and my introduction to Costly Grace.  With cheap grace, I would continue on as if nothing had changed, and indeed, my desires would still be of this world, a world that is crumbling beneath our feet.  I think his final sentence says volumes about Costly Grace.  I am free.  I can do as I desire, but my desire is Jesus.  But as I stumble and fall along the way, I see God’s mercy every day.  His mercy brings me back to my prayers where I confess sins that He has already forgiven, but then I know that I must refocus and desire even more of Him.

Lord, guide me. I am a sinner who has been saved by Your Grace.  I have been made one of Your elect, an elect person with purpose, to glorify Your Name forever.  Thank You, Lord, for guiding me toward that purpose, no matter the cost.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.