PSA: A gospel of cheap grace and false faith has infiltrated the Western Church. For years now, a deceptive message has been taught in our churches, spread from generation to generation, engrained in our memories, and impressed on our hearts. That message is this: We have sinned. We need a savior. We ask Him to come into our hearts, but now that everything is forgiven, we can stay as we are, enjoying the consolations of forgiveness without changing a thing about our lives.
Sound familiar?
In his book The Cost of Discipleship, pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke on the topic: “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”
The truth behind this distortion of the gospel is that He does not wait for us to become pure before He will enter into a saving relationship with us, “for while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” But, as R.C. Sproul says, “Let us not so overstate the gospel as to tell people that they don’t have to do anything. We have to repent, and if we do not repent, God will never receive us into His kingdom. He requires that we put our faith in His son, trusting in Him and in Him alone, so that we may have the forgiveness of Him.”
This truth does not strip God of His unconditional love, as He shows us unconditional love in the sense that there are no conditions we must meet for Him to impart upon us His common grace; however, to receive the redeeming love of Christ, we must submit to the yoke of Christ and follow Him.
This is the part of the gospel that we decide to leave out: that when we accept His free gift of salvation, we have to repent. Following Christ is to, through His grace, do a 180 from our sinful ways and turn to fix our eyes upon Jesus.
Living out our lives like we believe in the costly grace that is the gospel begins with a heart change. It begins with us realizing that we are literally garbage-not in a “Ugh I got a C- on my test I am literal garbage” or “Omg look at my hair today it looks like trash” kind of way, but a “Holy cow I am, as Isaiah says, dirty rags in comparison to the Holiness of the Lord” kind of way. We have to humble ourselves enough to the point where we come to terms with the fact that we, in and of ourselves, are inadequate, incompetent, and unworthy of receiving or doing anything good in this world apart from our Savior. It is not until we realize that we have a desperate need for a grace that is all-covering and all-sufficient that we can be greatly saved, greatly healed, and greatly changed.
As our hearts begin to change to see our deep need for a savior, all of our sins, shortcomings, and messes come out into the open. For Isaiah, it was that he, though quite possibly the most holy man in all of Israel at the time of his appointment, was a man of unclean lips. Isaiah, the prophet of God, whom would become the mouthpiece of the Lord, had unclean lips and it took Him seeing the holiness of God to fall on His face and cry “Woe is me! For I am undone!” In light of his realization and subsequent declaration, the seraphim came down and touched a burning coal to His lips, essentially cauterizing all of the rancid wound that comprised his unclean lips, making him new.
This burning away of Isaiah’s sinful lips is an impeccable example of both true repentance and costly grace. Isaiah received this love of redemption when he received the forgiveness for His sin. The grace that redeemed this man is a grace that comes at a weighty price and in the context of extreme pain. We learn from Isaiah’s commission that true repentance, while painful, is freeing, sweet, and liberating.
These aren’t easy words to say or hear, but these words are truth. And the truth must be spoken. When did the church decide we were only going to talk about the things that made us feel good about ourselves? When did we decide we were only going to preach the things that are culturally comfortable? When did we come to the conclusion that some parts of the Bible were too harsh or controversial to discuss? When did we decide to start teaching cheap grace, and more importantly, when are we going to decide to stop?
When are we going to decide that as Christians, we are called to preach God’s word and that the Word and the Word alone is sufficient? We are called to be God’s messengers, not His editors. We don’t need eloquent speakers, funny illustrations, or culturally relevant opinions; we need the Living Word of God. Nothing more, nothing less. If the half-truth is a lie, then we are liars and heretics when we preach and practice anything less than what the Bible teaches. I’m not sure about you, but I’d prefer to not be a liar or a heretic, for the Bible says this of those who do not teach truth:
“Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.” (2 Peter 2:3)
Preaching and living out the true gospel is a sacrifice, but in light of the great forgiveness we have been given, it is not a burden, but rather an honor. Before Isaiah could react to the pain of his lips being burned, he heard the Lord call out, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Immediately, Isaiah replied, “Here am I! Send me.”
Those who have been greatly changed desire great change in the name of the One who greatly changed them. Cheap grace has us begging the question “Should we keep sinning that grace may abound?” Costly grace answers “No! We are those who have died to sin! How can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2) People!! If we have received new life in Him, we are those who have died to sin!!! Let’s start living like it! Let’s be different! Cultural Christianity is running rampant, and it feeds off of cheap grace. If we, as the church, want to change anything in our world, let us start with ourselves; let us change the way we view God’s glorious grace, and live differently in light of it.
