Somehow I made it through seminary without reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book Cost of Discipleship. My church remedied that oversight with a summer book club.
As I read this book—together with a group of brilliant and humble thinkers—I learned from Bonhoeffer that there’s a difference between cheap grace and costly grace.
Bonhoeffer explains—Cheap grace is justifying the sin while costly grace is justifying the sinner.
To break it down cheap grace says, “I can do whatever I want because I’m forgiven anyways.” Or the cheap grace pendulum might swing the other way towards legalism and I start following a spiritual checklist—to earn the grace of God.
Experiencing costly grace, however, comes when we recognize the great depths Christ went to rescue us and the great cost involved in redeeming us. When we understand this, we live our lives differently. We take up our cross—dying to ourselves daily in response to Christ’s actions.
Riffing off the Sermon on the Mount, Bonhoeffer writes, “They shall see God whose hearts have become a reflection of Jesus Christ.”
They shall see God whose hearts have become a reflection of Jesus Christ.
Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich bonhoeffer
Cost of Discipleship is not an easy read. I’m thankful I read it in community. At the end of our time together, we were encouraged to respond to the book in a thoughtful way. One of my friends wrote a poem. Another did illustrations of the sermon on the mount. One friend wrote a beautiful and honest reflection.
I wrote a song.
I Want to See God
Chorus
Strip away the pretense
Soften my hard heart
Show me the way to costly grace
I want to see God
Verse
When I steal a glance in the mirror
I don’t like what I see
A look in your word
says blessed are the pure
but my actions feel so cheap
If grace is the gift
then death is the price
You bid come follow me
I want to see God
You can listen here but don’t expect studio quality.
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