Grace and Faith

I love the rain. It’s refreshing and seems to cleanse the earth. I also like having good conversations with friends during rainstorms. Yesterday a dear friend and I were taking about life, and she responded to one of my stories with a statement I’ve heard many time before, but never really paid any attention to.

“The Christian life is hard. Wouldn’t it just be easier if God showed up, answered our prayers, and then we could honestly believe in Him knowing what the Bible claims is true? Why doesn’t God let us see, then let us believe?”

Yeah, this would be nice, but the more I thought about it, the more disgusted I became at my own desire for it to be true. You see, my relationship to God is the most important thing about me and it’s activated through faith, not laziness. Now Hebrews 11 tells us that faith is an assured hope for things that aren’t immediately tangible.

Paul had an encounter with God on the road to Damascus, so maybe God does answer our prayers and maybe He does let us see things before we truly believe Him as Savior; but I think when or if He does, a lot of the time we are too distracted and blinded by our sin to see them. But I digress.

In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonheoffer begins by talking about costly grace; this is the grace of God accomplished through Christ-which alone is worth living and dying for. He illustrates this saying, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

I think costly grace relates to costly faith, because when we begin to understand grace, we begin to understand faith as well. Our response to Christ’s grace gives our faith its value. Grace begets faith. We know Gods generous gift of grace is a restored relationship with Him, and a true knowledge of this leads to trust in God. We may have faith in God and His work in the future because the costly cross provides ample evidence that what He has in His heart for us is our good.

Bonhoeffer writes, “Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow upon ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal concession. 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 go and sell all he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciples leaves his nets and follows Him.

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. It is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it cost a man His life, and it’s 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 cost the Son of God his life, ‘ye were bought with a price.’ Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his son too dear a price to pay for our own life, but delivered him up for us.

Costly grace is the incarnation of God.”

If Christianity wasn’t hard, and if it didn’t demand our lives, souls, and all, it wouldn’t be worth anything to us. The more we pay for something, the more value it holds. As a female, I resonate with the idea that I’ll not care about what happens to the $1 pair of flip-flops I buy in the bargain section at Target, but I will make sure my $200 Tory Burch flip flops stay in pristine condition. The same goes for your car,-unless your have a ridiculous sentimental attachment to your vehicle-who really cares about a ’91 Honda worth a couple hundred bucks when it’s compared with a sleek black 2010 BMW 650? Which item would most likely be more valuable to you? Why? Because you’ve paid a higher price.

Our spiritual lives aren’t in the same league as a pair of shoes or a car, but you get the picture. The same idea resonates with us in our relationship with Christ.

See, Christ understood this; so did Paul, Peter, John, and the other disciples. The Disciples and other believers knew that their response to the gospel demanded everything they were and everything they had, because it was more than worthy of the price. The grace Christ extends to us is given its value because of its infinite cost. Our faith is valuable, because it’s not easy and doesn’t come naturally.