CHEAP GRACE

Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian ‘conception’ of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be itself sufficient to secure remission of sins… In such a church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace, therefore, amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the incarnation of the Word of God...

Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolations of His grace! That is what we mean by ‘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 grave is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace which we bestow upon ourselves…

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in “The Cost of Discipleship”

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