Romans 6:1-2, Matthew 16:24, Luke 14:27-28
A Warning That Has Never Been More Relevant
In 1937, a young German pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer published a book called The Cost of Discipleship. He opened it with a warning that has echoed through the church ever since:
Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of the church. Bonhoeffer was writing in Nazi Germany, watching a church that had largely capitulated to the state, that had traded the costly gospel for a comfortable religion. His words carry the weight of a man who would eventually be executed for his convictions.
What Is Cheap Grace?
Cheap grace, as Bonhoeffer described it, is grace without discipleship, forgiveness without repentance, baptism without the church, the Lord's Supper without confession. It is the kind of grace that offers all the benefits of Christianity — forgiveness, heaven, God's favour — without any of the cost.
It is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance. It is assuring people they are saved without asking whether their lives show any evidence of transformation. It is offering Christ as Saviour while never mentioning that He is also Lord.
Paul's response to cheap grace is the same as Bonhoeffer's: "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!" (Romans 6:1-2).
What Is Costly Grace?
Costly grace, by contrast, is the grace that calls a person to follow Jesus — which means taking up a cross. It is grace that confronts sin rather than accommodating it. It is grace that demands everything precisely because it has already given everything.
The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ.
Costly grace is costly because it cost God His Son. It is grace because it is freely given to those who could never earn it. Both truths must be held together.
The Practical Test
The difference between cheap grace and costly grace shows up in practice:
Cheap grace produces Christians who want heaven but not holiness, forgiveness but not transformation, the comfort of religion without the demands of discipleship.
Costly grace produces people who have genuinely counted the cost, who follow Jesus not because it is convenient but because He is Lord, who find that the yoke He calls them to is easy and the burden light — not because it costs nothing, but because He carries it with them.
The warning of cheap grace is not a call to earn salvation — it is a call to take seriously what salvation is. Grace that does not change you has not truly reached you.