CHEAP GRACE
- Nov 18, 2025
- 2 min read
By Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.
Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjack's wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost!
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.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods...
Costly grace 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 costs God the life of His Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
Costly grace is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs...
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer (February 4, 1906-April 9, 1945)
This really hit home for me. The part about "grace without discipleship" stings because it's so easy to want the comfort of forgiveness without the uncomfortable call to actually change how we live. I think a lot of us are guilty of wanting that bargain-bin version of faith rather than the costly one Bonhoeffer describes. Speaking of things that look one way but are actually another, this reminds me of how people use a bad quality image tool to make photos look intentionally degraded for jokes — it's all about presentation versus reality, I guess. Anyway, thanks for sharing this; it's a needed wake-up call.
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