Cheap Grace Vs. Costly Grace

Following are a couple quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer on what he saw as one of the biggest problems facing Christianity during his time in the 1940's. He stood up for Christian love and returned to a Nazi occupied Germany, his homeland, to minister to his fellow neighbors. He did this knowing it could mean his death in a country where opposing Hitler was certain death. He did in fact become martyred for Christ's sake. He was executed at the hands of the Nazi's, all the while loving those imprisoned unjustly. It seems that much of what he points out is still relevant today. Read it and see what you think....

Christian life comes to mean nothing more than living in the world and as the world, in being no different from the world for the sake of grace. The upshot of it all is that my only duty as a Christian is to leave the world for an hour or so on a Sunday morning and go to church to be assured that my sins are forgiven. I need no longer try to follow Christ, for cheap grace, the bitterest foe of discipleship, which true discipleship must loathe and detest, has freed me from that. Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Cost of Discipleship

By cheap grace, Bonhoeffer illustrates: Preaching forgiveness without repentence, grace without embracing the cross, communion without confession, baptism without discipline, and so on . . .

I believe Bonhoeffer calls us back to the true meaning of Christianity. Learning from a Risen Savior and following Him to the Cross! Not on our own power, but in fellowship with Him, He leads us to our cross and helps us find it and enables us to embrace it with Him. Who is preaching like this today (See post on the Janitor for February 16th)? Is grace still cheap or are there preachers of costly grace? Grace that costs the life of a disciple and asks him to leave behind his old life. Christ doesn't allow Peter to remain a fisherman, or the young rich man to remain a rich man, the circumstance of who they used to be must change. The one quickly obeys and follows leaving behind his fishing trade, but the second example refuses to obey and refuses to follow. Both must embrace following Christ no matter the cost to their life, because Jesus says, that "whoever looses his life for Christ's sake will find it" (Matt. 10:39).

What is more important? Belief or Action?

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I hear this verse quoted often. The usual context is in regard to the intellectual assent that Jesus is the Gate, by which we enter into heaven and there is no other way to enter. I acknowledge this as true, BUT I find myself going one step further and asking:

What is more important, the intellectual agreement that Jesus indeed is the Way to salvation OR to actually walk in the Way?

Let me put it this way. If I acknowledge that Meridian Street runs directly to my house which is the third on the left, I can agree this is true. If I acknowldge that I indeed want to go to my house, I have to drive along "the Way," which in this case is Meridian Street. All too often it seems evangelical Christians want to stand and build intellectual agreement that indeed Meridian Street runs to my house, BUT we spend all our time here.

Instead of walking together or driving together down Meridian street and talking about the landmarks and how we can know we are actually heading the right way on Meridian Street, we spend all our time acknowledging Meridian Street runs to my house.

Yes, Jesus is the Way. Let us move on past this elementary teaching and get on to maturity. Lets talk about living in the Way together. Let's talk about spiritual struggle and dicernment of the spiritual warfare going on around us. Let's talk about working out our salvation with fear and trembling before an Almighty God! Let's talk about a Holy Nation. Let's talk about a people under Christ that are all supposed to be part of a Royal Priesthood. . . . Yes, every believer a Priest! The old order of having a priest do all the God work is done, it was crucified. All have access to God through Christ, the mediator and Perfect Sacrifice. This sacrifice paid in FULL all of our sins and grants us access to the Holy of Holies, heaven itself.

When do we move on to walking the Way together and get past a mere intellectual agreement?

Sometimes I wonder, if some who may not even have this intellectual agreement may be closer to Christ than those who profess His name.

Christian Perfection

John Wesley:
To explain myself a little further on this head (Chrisitan perfection): (1) Not only sin, properly so called, (that is, a voluntary transgression of a known law,) but sin, improperly so called, (that is, an involuntary transgression of a divine law, known or unknown,) needs the atoning blood. (2) I believe there is no such perfection in this life as excludes these involuntary transgressions which I apprehend to be naturally consequent on the ignorance and mistakes inseperable from mortality. (3) Therefore sinless perfection is a phrase I never use, lest I should seem to contradict myself. (4) I believe, a person filled with the love of God is still liable to these involuntary transgressions. (5) Such transgressions you may call sins, if you please: I do not, for the reasons above-mentioned.
From "A Plain Account of Christian Perfection"

Lord help me to be a man, a Christian, that loves to do your will. Your will in leading me into such a love as to keep me pure and holy in your presence. Give me a fear of you that kepts me from willful sin. Let me walk in your ways. Guide me in your truth. Show me what you want of me, of this life. It is yours anyway. Let me bend my will to yours. Have your way. Give me the strength and wisdom to know when to run from temptation and when to fight. Lord burn away my desires that are not of you.......

Any thoughts on the Wesley passage are welcome....what has God shown you about "sinless perfection" or "christian perfection" As when Jesus said, Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. As Jesus bids us to go and sin no more.

Set Me Free

Following is a poem I wrote...I wrote in the throng of fighting against sin in my life. I am coming to understand that the Holy Spirit is convicting and gradually changing my fallen nature into something different. I encourage you all to fight sin in your life and let the Holy Spirit purge you of what it seeks. One day we may just find the Spirit has made ready a spotless bride ready for Jesus.

Set me free, Set me free
From the chains of misery
Oh please, set me free!

My soul longs and even yearns, to be Free
Please set me free

Struggle in darkness, looking for light
I fall in the dark, looking for the Light

Oh please Saviour set me free
from the bondage to this earth, that worries me
no more fear and no more distress

Set me free, Set me free
Oh Lord, my God, my Rock, set me Free!

This place holds for me, struggle and fight, to do whats right
though I strain and cry out in pain
nothing I can do to attain, freedom from sin
I'm shackled to the dark
Oh merciful God, set me free
Your Son came to earth to be
The Key to set me Free

Oh how I love you Lord, My God
You came to take my place on high to the cross
My Lord, My God
you took my place, My Saviour, my God!
Oh how I love your shining face
You are my strength and my song
You have come To set me Free
Will I walk? and believe
You have come to set me free
Your Son, came to be, the key to set me free!

Beware of False Prophets...

1John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Luke 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

Matthew 24:24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible.

Revelation 13:11 Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.

A warning of deception, disguising itself as a "prophet" of God...Talking like a lamb, but if examined giving a false gospel.....Jesus said His followers and prophets would preach two things:

This is what is written: The Christ will suffer, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations…Luke 24:46-47

Jesus declared a two part message, repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached. I wonder today if the repentance part is being left out by false prophets. It seems you can hear many gospels of "Gain is Godliness" or the "Gospel of Prosperity." Many gospels which appeal to the selfishness of man by offering salvation and heaven with no cost on their part. Even Jesus declared we should count the cost of being a disciple. If a man goes to build a house and doesn't count the cost of materials and only ends up with enough money for a basement, that is rather foolish. Rather we are told to count the cost of picking up our cross and following Jesus. The cost is our selfish life.

Jesus never held back the truth of what was expected of His followers. Have we been so deceived that we can not tell the church of Christ from the world anymore? Is that Satan's plan to infiltrate and muddy up Christianity from the inside? When we walk out of the doors on Sunday are we sanctified or separated at all from the rest of the world, or do our lives look just like the worlds?

I think most of you would agree. It looks to me like the church today is very good at preaching the positive part of the Gospel. But it also looks like the gospel has been compromised by remitting the preaching of repentance. Of which, repentance is our part, that is what we are to do on our side of the deal. Sure there are thousands being saved by the preaching of forgiveness with no change in our current life...who wouldn't take that deal. I am going to heaven and all I have to do is walk down the isle and pray a prayer and I am done? They don't even know why they need to be "saved." No! Repent from your wicked ways and walk with the merciful Savior. Yes, there was an act that righted all wrongs 2000 years ago, BUT you choose Him every day, not just one day....and Yes you must fight and put yourself to death walking it out with Him every day. The Holy Spirit will convict you and expect you to yield. We are expected to daily submit and surrender to God's will.

Pick up your cross and follow me....notice he did not say you are forgiven go do whatever you want....NO....repent and put yourself to death daily.

Jesus told the woman at the well.....Go and Sin no More!
Jesus told us, be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect.....which means-repent and be like Him!

We are aliens and strangers here in temporal tents...If one is never told and understands their sin and their need for Jesus, why would they pick up their cross? If we think we are just good little people, why do we need a Savior? If we haven't seen our wretchedness, why do we need grace? I tell you the truth, if we don't start getting convicted to preach on the sinfulness of men and give understanding to the people in the church buildings, we will never see a revival that roots deep in the heart of God. We are all sinners and deserve the wrath of hell...there is not one who can stand under the righteousness of God....

I can't say I have ever sat in a church building where the pastor told the congregation that they were wretches and deserved hell...Well, WHY NOT??? Is it not the truth? Who are we serving, man or God? Why would we compromise God's Word and truth? Are we afraid of offending people with the truth? Again I ask, who is the church serving, God or man's pride?

If we have more people coming in the door of our buildings, because we are compromising the truth, do we really think God will honor that? Shouldn't we be more concerned with what God wants preached rather than what man wants preached?

Man's sin and fallen state is a basic foundational truth that without that understanding the whole rest of Christianity is not able to live. Jesus commanded a two part gospel, death and resurrection...we have to see the need for our own death, the need for Jesus' death, before we can be resurrected. This is the message throughout the Bible...man's need for repentance, man's need to humble himself before God, man's inherent flaw that he continues to sin and sin and sin...If anyone is offended by this, examine your own heart, is it not your story and mine just as much as any???? Can we be that honest with others?

A gospel preached without repentance that only focuses on the selfish things we get out of the cross and out of Jesus IS a false gospel. There is a cost, and it needs to be told.

I know I need a Savior. My faith is weak and does not stand up to trials and temptations. I lose self control in front of my dinner plate and find myself suffering after a meal from gorging myself. I buy that extra Starbucks when I know I don't need it. I catch myself looking too long at things I should not. These things are what drive me to Jesus, my desperate need for Him and the realization of how bad that state that I am in without His love, patience, understanding, and resurrection! So great the grace of Jesus! What a Savior that opens His arms and delights every time I turn away from me and look to Him! What greater love is there than this love?

I urge you all to test the spirits of what you are hearing, make sure you are not buying into a false gospel...one that leads you into the ways of the world, into selfish gain. If it is just puffing you up into a false sense of security that everyone is good and only good things happen to good people. That God just wants you to be good, that you are ok, that you deserve prosperity and blessings. Be afraid of those who believe too much in the power of man without God. Man's ways are foolishness to God's ways. Test it to see if it is Scriptural, test it to see if Jesus would have said it, test it to see if the Holy Spirit inside you finds it true...

I invite you all, please let me know if any of this sounds untrue or unscriptural...I have been known to make mistakes...but I really have felt God speaking this to me for the last few months now...

The Cross

The following excerpt from Tozer, God has used in my life to tear down probably my biggest strong hold of sin in my life. I hope God can use it for you as He did for me:

The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good bye to his friends. He was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more. A.W. Tozer "The Radical Cross"

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

May God open our hearts and minds to fully embrace what Jesus Christ has asked us to do. May we understand the grace of Jesus who willingly laid down His life for us, so that we may have new life in Him. So glorious what Jesus has done. God inside us. BUT, will we deny ourselves and have our own life ended on the cross?

Everyone wants to go to heaven. That sounds so great. But who wants to have their life dismantled and torn apart by the cross? How many come to hear the good news and never give up the old way of life? How much does the church today cater to only entertaining this individual? When do we tell them what is involved? How many run right back to sin again and again? Who has been made a new creation by Jesus? Who is striving to be put to death like their Savior? I do not have the answers nor claim to. I do know that the truth of Chrisitanity is, carrying a cross and A.W. Tozer paints us a vivid image of what that looks like.

Jesus who Himself was meek, humble, and riding into town on a donkey comes to us as friends to show us the only way. He lived it and displayed how it is to be done. He has not forced this on us, he has not tricked us. He was plain and shared with us, if we would come, he never commanded we come. We have the option. We must stand at the foot of the cross and decide, is what Jesus did for me, worthy enough for me to decide to follow Him, knowing where that takes me, to my own cross? Is a right standing before God Almighty the Perfect and Holy One important to me, to have my sins remembered no more? Or do I chose to simply make my life a means to self-pleasure?

When a man left Rome with a cross, he did not go back. God bring us to our knees with a new revelation of your Face, that we will not go back to our old ways. Reveal yourself to us, that we may have enough to do what You have commanded. The life we leave behind reckon it dead. The old man we used to be was full of pride, let us walk away with cross in hand. As you walked. Let's leave it all behind and press on to the cross.

Oh Lord, that you would make us humble and meek, and set us on our way to death to self. I give you all permission and offer myself of my own free will to be put to death, because the love you have shown me offers me no other way but to trust you through this thing.

That we may enjoy You forever and ever, that we may see beyond calvary!