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Cheap Grace and Costly Grace

Cheap grace is when we want God’s forgiveness without allowing God to change our lives. It is talking about forgiveness without talking about repentance. It is wanting Jesus as our Savior, but not necessarily as our Lord. It is receiving grace without being willing to follow Jesus.

It is a faith that wants the blessing but not the discipleship. It wants the presence of Christ but doesn’t want to change the things in our lives that keep pulling us away from him.

Costly grace, on the other hand, is like the treasure hidden in a field; the kind of treasure someone is willing to give up everything to find. It is like the pearl of great value for which a merchant sells everything he has. It is the call of Jesus that causes the disciples to leave their nets and follow him.

Costly grace is what happens when the Kingdom of God becomes so precious to us that we begin to rearrange our entire lives around it.

Costly grace is not simply something we receive. It is an invitation we respond to.

It calls us to discipleship.

It calls us to repentance.

It calls us to a different way of living.

It calls us to follow Jesus.

And here is the paradox of grace: it is costly, but it is still grace.

It costs us something, but we could never earn it.

Grace is not cheap because God is not indifferent to our sin. God takes sin seriously. But God also takes the sinner seriously. Grace confronts the things that are destroying us while, at the same time, offering forgiveness and new life to anyone who turns toward God.

And that is why we all need grace.

It doesn’t matter how good our lives have been. It doesn’t matter how many good things we have done. It doesn’t matter how long we have been in church, how many hymns we have sung, how many prayers we have prayed, or how many people we have helped.

We all need grace.

And here is the good news: God’s grace is available to all.

But when we truly receive grace, we don’t remain the same.

Grace meets us where we are, but it doesn’t leave us there. Grace begins to lead us toward the person God is calling us to become.

Costly grace is the Gospel we keep coming back to. It is the gift we keep seeking. It is the door we keep knocking on.

Because grace is not just the beginning of our journey with Jesus.

Grace is the journey.

It is by grace that we are forgiven.

It is by grace that we are transformed.

It is by grace that we learn to love.

It is by grace that we follow Jesus.

And it is by grace that, one day, we will reach the end of this journey.

Grace is precious because it calls us to discipleship. And it is grace because Jesus is the one who calls us.

It is precious because it asks us to surrender our lives. And it is grace because when we surrender our lives to Christ, we discover what true life really is.

This is the grace we all need.


Written by Rev. Marvel Souza, based on the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.


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