Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship – An Excerpt Loosely Reworded in Simple English
Rebekah Mui


"Cheap grace" is the deadly enemy of our church. What we must fight for today is to retain the true value of God's costly grace.


"Cheap grace" is a lousy discounted stuff sold for several cents at the flea market, (cut-rate, a real steal, practically sold for nothing or given away) which people throw away without thinking and take for granted. (It is a waste, a terrible disastrous waste.) It is simply presumed and assumed that the central meaning of grace is that the account for our sins has been paid for well in advance.


Cheap grace means the blood and body of Christ, the forgiveness of your sins, and the comforts of a "religion" practically thrown away at ridiculously low prices. The church portrays grace as its never-ending resource which she can just give away indiscriminately. "Grace can be had here, cheap!"


Cheap grace means grace held as belief system and generalized assumption by the church. "Everyone can have their sins forgiven freely!" The precious love of God is exploited as a selling point. "God loves you! As long as you believe this and pray a little prayer your sins will be forgiven. Won't you like that?" In this kind of “Church” the world can find a cheap covering for their sins - no repentance needed, you don't even need to feel sorrow for your sins or fear the wrath of God - you don't even need to really desire to be set free from sin. In the end, cheap grace is DENIAL of the living Word of God and a denial of the Word of God become flesh (Jesus).


Grace is "peddled" cheaply today, as if it were cheap and lousy trinkets sold by the streets, given without thought to people who would not treasure it, appreciate it, or value it, and would most likely end up throwing away (casting away beautiful, genuine pearls and freely feeding it to swine). We must fight today to retain the precious treasure, the costly grace of God which we can never achieve, buy, nor afford.


Cheap grace is just saying to the sinner "God has justified you - forgiven you - and is alright with your sin" - without emphasizing or even mentioning the face that you need to get right with God! "Grace, grace alone" they say, so that everything can just remain as it was before. "Let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world's standards in every area of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under under sin... (that would be striving, you see)"


Cheap grace is actually grace which we imagine, conjure up, and give ourselves. Cheap grace says you can be forgiven without even being repentant or the least bit sorry for the wrong you’ve done, you can be baptized into the church without having to submit yourself to church rules, disciplines, etc., you can enjoy communion as a body without the “unnecessary discomfort” of confessing your sins. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship; grace without the cross; grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.


Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; a man’ will gladly go and sell all that he has to buy the field. It is the genuine and luxurious pearl worth billions which a trader will sell all his goods to purchase (he would take great pains to care for it, insure it, and guard it, wouldn’t he?). God didn't give us a cheap little free gift.
Costly grace is about the kingly rule of Christ for which man will zealously even pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble!


Costly grace is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
We must strive today to maintain the costly value of God's grace and reverence it. It is no common thing to be doled out indiscriminately. It is given to those who ask it. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked (or begged) for, the door at which a man must keep knocking.


Costly grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.


Above all, costly grace is is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “you were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the manifestation and incarnation of God!


Costly grace is the holy, set-apart sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs. Costly grace is the living word, the Word of God, which he speaks as it pleases him. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus. Costly comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels and calls a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”


On two separate occasions Peter received the call, “Follow me.” It was the first and last word Jesus spoke to his disciple (Mark 1.17; John 21.22). A whole life lies between these two calls. The first occasion was by the lake of Gennesareth, when Peter left his nets and his craft and followed Jesus at his word.


The second occasion is when the Risen Lord finds him back again at his old trade. Once again it is by the lake of Gennesareth, and once again the call is: “Follow me.” Between the two calls lay a whole life of discipleship in the following of Christ. Half-way between them comes Peter's confession, when he acknowledged Jesus as the Christ of God....


This grace was certainly not self-bestowed. It was the grace of Christ himself that forced itself upon Peter and caused him leave all and follow Christ. It was the grace of Christ himself that worked in Peter that confession which to the world must sound like the ultimate blasphemy, and it was the grace of Christ himself that now invited Peter to the absolute highest fellowship of martyrdom for the Master he had denied. It was the grace of Christ that consequently forgave him all his sins. In the life of Peter, grace and discipleship cannot be separated. He had received the grace which costs.


As Christianity spread, and the Church became more secularized, the costliness of grace was gradually forgotten. The (Western) world was “Christianized”, and grace became just like any other common object. It was to be had cheaply.


Summary: Grace is not the license to do what we want – it is the power to do what God wills! Grace is not the forgiveness of sins doled out – it is infinitely more powerful and of greater value. Grace doesn’t just leave us as we are but compels us and leads us somewhere. It is easier and quicker to define cheap grace and to “use it”, but it takes the cross plus a lifetime to understand and come into a complete revelation of God’s costly grace