Cheap grace

“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4)

The 20th century German pastor and writer Dietrich Bonhoeffer is known for, among other things, his classic book The Cost of Discipleship, a challenging book that can be summed up in Bonhoeffer’s powerful line, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” The Cost of Discipleship is perhaps best known for a phrase he coined, a phrase which serves as his foil to true, costly, discipleship: cheap grace. Here is some of what Bonhoeffer has to say about cheap grace:

“The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing… Cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs… 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.”

The Christian message is the gospel of grace, that because of Jesus’ perfect life, sacrificial death, and resurrection from the dead, forgiveness of sins and eternal life – grace – is offered to all who turn from their sins – repent – and trust in Jesus. The danger of preaching the gospel of grace, as Bonhoeffer points out, is that confession and repentance can sometimes be casually forgotten, and forgiveness falsely proclaimed over the one who does not desire to turn from their sins towards faith in Christ. There are undoubtedly many who believe they are Christians because some well-meaning evangelist proclaimed them forgiven, when in reality they never repented of their sins, and are not living a life of discipleship.

Let me give a couple of examples. In our walk with Christ, we may choose to continue in a sinful pattern of living, justifying it by saying, “Well, God will just forgive me anyways because that is what He does.” That, Bonhoeffer points out, is cheap grace – “the grace we bestow upon ourselves.” We proclaim ourselves forgiven, but forget that forgiveness is only given to those who repent of their sins. If we refuse to repent, we are not under grace, but under God’s law, and we therefore continue in our guilt.

In the same way, in our relationships with others, we may be guilty of forgiving and extending grace too easily, without waiting for repentance. My understanding is that because God has forgiven us, we must always be ready and willing to extend forgiveness and grace to others. However, the other person is not actually forgiven until they repent and turn from their sins. If they refuse to repent but instead continue in their sinful behavior, then they are not forgiven. They are not under grace, but under the law, and they continue in their guilt.

It may make us feel better to emphasize the grace and forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ, and to show that kind of grace towards others, but we are in error if we conveniently leave out the part about repentance. Cheap grace – the grace we bestow upon ourselves – is not grace at all. But God gives grace abundantly to everyone who repents, and calls us to do the same to those in our lives.