“CHEAP GRACE”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian (1906-1945), was asked in 1943 how it was possible for the church to sit back and let Hitler seize absolute power. His firm answer: “It was the teaching of cheap grace.” He wrote in THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP:

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow upon ourselves. 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.”

It’s like receiving forgiveness without truly turning away from wrongdoing or following Christ wholeheartedly. Bonhoeffer emphasized the need for costly grace, which involves genuine repentance, discipleship, and a willingness to take up one’s cross in following Jesus. We live in a time and culture that not only teaches cheap grace but praises it.

The apostle Peter described costly grace as follows: “For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world…” (Titus 2:11-12).