Bonhoeffer identifies cheap grace as grace without a price/cost. By choosing cheap grace, we are choosing grace without (shallow) discipleship; a divine commandment to all christians; and we are lowering the standards of the word of God, ignoring the cost of the cross and downplaying the need for repentance. Cheap grace is grace as a pre-supposition because it assumes that the bill is paid in advance for all time. Following this ideology, grace which is meant to justify the sinner is instead used to justify our sins. “I am a sinner saved by grace” is turned into “I can sin because of grace.” Grace as a pre-supposition makes Jesus appear insignificant because he does not really have the power to change our lives and it neither helps or liberates us.
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Costly grace means we radically change our lives according to the will of Jesus. Nothing can remain the same because we are no longer the same: 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me' (Galatians 2:20). Bonhoeffer says costly grace is "costly because it costs people their lives, and it is grace because it thereby makes them live"(p 5). Costly grace is pure grace which forgives sins and liberates the sinner. With the expansion of Christianity and the increasing secularization, the world was christianized and grace became common property of a christian world. People became christian, became lutheran, but at the cost of discipleship, at an all-too-cheap price. One of Luther’s central theological principles was justification alone and some say that his true legacy should be recognizable in making grace as cheap as possible. What Bonhoeffer believes Luther’s followers often leave out is that he always included discipleship as a matter of course. This essay shows that Bonhoeffer deeply believed in discipleship and it can be evidenced by his actions and writings during WWII whereby he joined the German resistance
Costly grace means we radically change our lives according to the will of Jesus. Nothing can remain the same because we are no longer the same: 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me' (Galatians 2:20). Bonhoeffer says costly grace is "costly because it costs people their lives, and it is grace because it thereby makes them live"(p 5). Costly grace is pure grace which forgives sins and liberates the sinner. With the expansion of Christianity and the increasing secularization, the world was christianized and grace became common property of a christian world. People became christian, became lutheran, but at the cost of discipleship, at an all-too-cheap price. One of Luther’s central theological principles was justification alone and some say that his true legacy should be recognizable in making grace as cheap as possible. What Bonhoeffer believes Luther’s followers often leave out is that he always included discipleship as a matter of course. This essay shows that Bonhoeffer deeply believed in discipleship and it can be evidenced by his actions and writings during WWII whereby he joined the German resistance