Day 13:: Grace: Cheap or Costly?

"God's grace is an incredible thing. We sing about it. We hear sermons about it. We can never get enough of it. Yet too many of us misunderstand it."  -Nassar

Mercy is Not getting what we deserve. 

Grace is Getting what we don't deserve.

Grace is like an unlimited credit card with Jesus paying the bill.

Cheap grace is the sterile doctrine of forgiveness divorced from Jesus himself. It is the teaching of Christian freedom that is neat and clean, separated from the blood and agony of the cross. Cheap grace is grace without obedience, right doctrine without passion, the shell without the substance. In this teaching of the free gift of grace, forgiveness is taken for granted so we don't need to face Jesus with our sin. We feel no deep sorrow over our moral failures, and the deep desire to be delivered from sin is missing. You see, it's already paid for, so it's no big deal!

If we only signed on for a pleasure cruise, being a disciple of Jesus Christ will be a big disappointment.

The opposite of cheap grace is costly grace. ... It cost Jesus the anguish of Gethsemane and the agony of Calvary. The nails were not symbolic; they were made of iron. The whip and the crown of thorns were not theoretical. They cut his flesh and his blood flowed. His death was not just an example to us. It caused a tectonic earthquake in the history of the Universe and in the lives of every person who has ever lived. The grace of God is centered in, and cannot possibly be divorced from, a person. He is the treasure more worthy than anything we have. He is the one we worship and obey because he is worthy. He is the one whose love so overwhelmed the apostle John that it changed his identity. ... It changed his life.

GRACE IS NOT THE REAL THING UNLESS IT MAKES A REAL DIFFERENCE IN OUR LIVES. 

• What's the difference??
• CheapGrace: 
• Jesus died for my sins so I'm sure He'll forgive me for this...
• CostlyGrace:
• I don't want to hurt Jesus. He gave Himself so that I can be free from this sin.
• A while back, I used to go out at least twice a week...if not 3 times. I wouldn't always drink, but I sure did my fair share. Its like, I put Christ on the back burner. I knew I had a problem with the way I was spending my time when I would have this gut-wrenching knot in my heart every time I would even consider going out. I would say, "ok. this is what I'm gonna do. He'll forgive me." But that wasn't the case anymore. I wondered why I wasn't 'happy' anymore. I didn't really understand why I couldn't do things and then just expect Christ to forgive me. I would go and go and go and just expect Him to use his 'unlimited forgiveness' every single time for me.
• The one time I can remember being in shock over what Christ actually did for us was when I saw Passion of The Christ for the first time. The complete and utter pain and hurt in his eyes. Me seeing Him depicted as a good-for-nothing piece was all it took for me to comprehend, to the best of my human capability, that He really did die for me. My sin cost him his life. That's Grace.
• I think that costly grace is the grace that makes you thirsty. You're thirsty to know more. Thirsty to want Him.
• Which one is more attractive? Cheap grace is. It's easy. It's pretty. No blood, no sacrifice. Do what feels good, get forgiven later.

Romans 6:23
Titus 3:3-7
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
Titus 2:11-12