30 August 2006

Before we can talk of costly grace Bonhoeffer continues to spell out what "cheap grace" looks like.

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before.
...That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs. Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.

Cheap grace sounds like an incomplete job. There is no new life...just life made to feel good for now...for this moment...the way we want to feel good. It sounds like cheap grace never helps us move on and face life from a new perspective because we have really never moved into a new space. Cheap grace is so me centered, it has no power to change me. It may have a sweetness to it like a scene in a movie that can move me to tears, but it cannot transform those tears into abundant new life. Cheap grace seems to do a good job at keeping people just where there are. Maybe that is why it is so wonderful to see people with some years behind them find themselves tackled by God's grace as though it was never a power in their lives. When we are fed by cheap grace, it appears as though we are not really fed and satisfied. When someone is satisfied - fed -by new life, there is a deep sense of peace that passes all understanding. This cheap grace does not bring that gift to our lives.

Connection: Sometimes it is good to reflect on what it is that really brings us peace and helps us to turn around into a new life just waiting for us.

We long for your love to hold us and change us and bring about a new reality that we cannot bring about on our own, O God. Often we think we can do this...but we really never move into something new. Lead us into that newness and bid us to follow your way. Amen.