A friend of mine says, “I always thought grace meant you could do stuff.” As in, “It was hard to make it through, but God gave me grace.”
Cheap grace, on the other hand, means you can’t do stuff, but that it’s okay. It also means God can’t do stuff. It means that God can’t really change people, but He pretends that He has, and we call it grace because we don’t want to hurt His feelings.
That’s cheap grace. There is also such a thing as expensive grace, deluxe grace, top-of-the-line grace. That when you sin, you can be forgiven, and that when you are forgiven, you will no longer be guilty. That there is a difference between the life of a Christian and the life of a non-Christian.
Expensive grace means you can call someone a sinner without condemning them. Because if it’s sin, something can be done about it. If it’s just the way they are… ooh, that’s hard to change.
So, is there such a thing as expensive grace? Or should you spend your Sunday mornings fishing?
Interesting thought. I have been thinking about this, especially after a series of my posts of late about God’s grace and mercy, and about the way we ought to treat sin and sinners. Grace is God’s gift to us in spite of the fact that we don’t deserve it. Whether that grace is cheap or expensive, I suppose, is how we respond to, and appropriate it. Thought-provoking indeed!
I’ve become so dissatisfied with cheap and powerless grace which has the ability to pardon and no more.
Surely God’s grace actually has the power to transform us also? To forgive our sin and empower us to fight Sin?