One day when CS Lewis was at the University of Oxford, while walking down a hall he overheard some professors in a scholarly discussion about religion. One of them asked, “What separates Christianity from all other religions of the world?” The professors began discussing the answer to this question when Lewis poked in his head, said, “The answer is grace!” and continued walking down the hall.
Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” We are saved by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus Christ. We cannot earn our salvation or God’s grace; it is a gift. Christianity is the only religion in the world that does not have a works-based righteousness. It is the only religion in the world in which salvation, a higher state of consciousness, eternal enlightenment, etc. is not earned by works. God gives us grace through faith as a free gift to cover our sin so we will be with him for eternity.
In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul tells the Corinthians what Jesus said to him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” No matter what we have done, or what weaknesses we believe we have, God’s grace is sufficient for us. Because Christ lived a perfect, sinless life, died on the cross, and resurrected, we can have an eternal relationship with Him.
Cheap Grace vs. Costly Grace
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor, anti-Nazi spy who was involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler, wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship. In it, he explores two types of grace: cheap grace and costly grace. Cheap grace, he says, is “grace without price, grace without cost.”[1] It is the kind of grace Paul mentions in Romans 5:20-6:1 – sinning so that grace may increase:
“Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”
Cheap Grace
Cheap grace does not require repentance or “any real desire to be delivered from sin.”[2] Within the bounds of cheap grace, there is justification of the sin without justification of the sinner. We ask for forgiveness but don’t change our behavior. Cheap grace says, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” Cheap grace is fire insurance.
Bonhoeffer explains,
“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 is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”[3]
Many of us can identify with cheap grace. This type of grace makes us feel better about sinning, but we don’t learn anything from it. We don’t grow spiritually, personally, or relationally. We don’t even feel bad about it. We don’t change. We justify our sin instead of humbling ourselves, asking for forgiveness, and making a concerted effort to change our behavior (with God’s help).
Costly Grace
You might be wondering, what, then, is costly grace? Costly grace, Bonhoeffer says, is
“the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such 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, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son.”[4]
Following Christ isn’t optional. Bonhoeffer explains: “Following Christ is a command given to all Christians without distinction.”[5] The commandments God gives are intended for our benefit, and none are impossible with God’s help. God does not command us to do anything He will not enable us to complete. Bonhoeffer expands on this idea when he says, “The commandment of Jesus is not a sort of spiritual shock treatment. Jesus asks nothing of us without giving us the strength to perform it. His commandment never seeks to destroy life, but to foster, strengthen and heal it.”[6]
From the moment we become Christians, we are to follow Christ as his disciples. We are to abandon other activities and follow Jesus first, just as the first disciples did. This is the point of discipleship. To give a modern definition or image of this, discipleship can be likened to an apprenticeship in which the apprentice follows behind the master of the trade with the intent to learn how to be like the master.[7]
Give Costly Grace
What does costly grace look like? Costly grace is Corrie Ten Boom, a German woman arrested for hiding Jews in her home during the Holocaust, meeting one of her former prison guards. When she met him face-to-face in 1947, three years after her release, he asked for her forgiveness and she forgave him. She said, “I forgive you, brother! With all my heart!”[8]
Costly grace is something God gives us even though we do not deserve it. There is no limit to God’s grace.
It certainly is not easy to give costly grace to others, but it sure is wonderful to receive it!
If you have not already done so, I encourage you to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. While it is a difficult read, it is well worth it.
For more on the subject of grace, read my other posts on the subject:
Grace: Experiential and Applicable (Ephesians 2:1-10)
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, Revised Edition (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1976), 45.
[2] Ibid., 46.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid., 47-48.
[5] Ibid., 50.
[6] Ibid., 40.
[7] John Mark Comer & Practicing the Way Ministries, “The Practicing the Way Course Companion Guide: An Eight-Session Primer on Spiritual Formation” (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook, 2024), 13.
[8] “The Question of God: Other Voices – Corrie Ten Boom,” PBS, accessed April 29, 2025, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/voices/boom.html#:~:text=%22I%20forgive%20you%2C%20brother!,intensely%20as%20I%20did%20then
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