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Getting It Cheap




 We live in a country where consumers live for sales. In fact, it is very apparent that prices must be inflated from the start so that retailers can always have "sales" and entice us with deals we can't pass up. We need to think we are "getting it cheap."

So it is with faith. We want it. We are hungry for it. And we'd like it "cheap."

This Easter season brings out some thoughts about wanting a faith bargain. Many years ago, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book,The Cost of Discipleship, in which he taught about "cheap grace." This book detailed the "cheap grace" concept better than I ever could. It left a lasting impression on me, maybe even a dangerous impresson. The danger was two-sided. On one hand, I felt very unworthy and almost unable to accept grace as Christ provides--a thought dangerous to me. On the other hand, after reading the book, I could not feel comfortable with an "Aw, shucks, God loves us all no matter what" approach to grace which cheapens a message Hebrews describes as "a two-edged sword" that pierces to the "marrow" of our bones--a dangerous to Satan.

Grace is a word that horrifies Satan. It is God's miraculous way of restoring true human status to an individual without sacrificing His position as God of that individual. Satan offered false status at the price of rejection by God. God turned the tables and offered restoration at the price of His own son, but it cost man any idea of his own godhood. Satan sought for man to live eternally separated from God. God kicked man out of the Garden of Eden, away from the tree of Life, and began the plan of eternal life only through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Accepting that act of Jesus Christ exacts a price. As mentioned before, it is the loss of any idea of our own godhood. We become subjects to the God who saved us, and it can be no other way. This "grace" costs us our very lives. The "yolk is easy" and the "burden is light" but the price is set--it costs our lives. We must all get the idea--there are no sales, no other price, no negotiating, no bargains. All of me or none of me. That isn't cheap.



About the Author:


 Steve Graner is a Christian educator and familyman employed by the Minot, ND Public School District. A licensed laypastor, he is passionate about Christian writing and Christian drama. Along with family and friends, Steve has performed numerous self-written dramas and musicals for area church audiences.