God’s Grace Versus Cheap Grace

         In 2018, someone posted a question on Quora, an American social question and answer website, for subscribers to name a book they read halfway and never picked up again. They were also to state reasons for doing so. I reproduce my response to that post here with minor alterations, as the backdrop to the discourse on cheap grace, as opposed to God’s grace.

The book that I abandoned halfway is One Way Love: Inexhaustible
Grace for a Wicked World by Tullian Tchividjan, the grandson of
late Billy Graham. I bought the book because I once watched
the author on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The book
centres on his perception of God’s grace. He argues that grace
is free, audacious and inexhaustible. Furthermore, he asserts that
nothing anyone can do would make God love him or her more or less.
He based his assumption on the story of the Prodigal Son recorded in
Luke 15: 11-32.

  On the surface, these attributes of grace are valid but are not Scriptural.
  That is why I stopped reading the book. Jesus Christ the foundation of
  Christianity did not preach cheap and inexhaustible grace. Neither did
  Peter, John, James and Paul. God created man with a free will and
  with this comes the ability to choose what is right or wrong. I would
  have accepted Tullian’s version of grace if humans were created robots
  without the ability to choose. Then, there would be no justification
  for judgment because a robot cannot be held accountable for any 
  misdeed.

But man is a free moral agent that can be judged on earth if he failed
to obey human laws and by God if he refuses to accept His offer of mercy
through Jesus Christ. To declare that God would love a sinner forever
or dispense grace forever is to portray Him in a light that has no
basis in Scripture. It also invalidates the entire gamut of salvation which
is based on imputed righteousness through the merit of Christ,
God’s mercy, man’s repentance, justification by faith and
judgment for those who reject it.

It would appear that some Christians misconstrue the action of the
Father in the story of the Prodigal Son as an endorsement for the godless
lifestyle of his son. That is not reflected in the Scripture. The boy did
not receive the father’s mercy while he was feeding pigs in a strange
land. He did something. Verse 17 of Luke chapter 15 says, “When he
came to his senses” he decided to return home. That was repentance.
That is what God expects from all that have gone astray.

Tullian is not alone in his jaundiced portrayal of God’s grace. In fact, the cheap grace enabled gospel has become a major feature of the American church, and other countries influenced by its culture. Before we proceed further, it is essential that we explain what cheap grace means. According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian martyred by the Nazis in 1943, cheap grace is “the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross; grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate”.

         On the other hand Bonhoeffer defined ‘costly’ or God’s grace as that which calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it gives man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, (but) it justifies the (repentant) sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost 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”. (crosswalk.com).

          According to Heather Riggleman, Contributing Writer to Crosswalk.com, “Cheap grace is everywhere these days. Pastors preach it from the pulpit, individuals profess to be Christians but continue to live a life of sin. We see cheap grace encapsulated and flaunted on social media. Simply scroll for five minutes and you’ll find a perfectly filtered photo with a Bible verse and then a lengthy caption about a recent life experience where someone has taken God’s words and twisted them to fit their flawed point of view”. Welcome to the 21^st Century church!

        There is a song on the grace of God that I used to love with passion until I took time to listen to the lyrics. It is Your Grace Finds Me by Matt Redman. Here are the lyrics:

                   It’s there in the new born cry
                  There in the light of every sunrise
                  There in the shadows of this light
                  Your grace

                  It’s there on the mountain top
                  There in the everyday and the mundane
                  There in the sorrow and the dancing
                  Your great grace, oh, such grace

                  From the creation to the cross
                  There from the cross into eternity
                  Your grace finds me
                  Yes, Your grace finds me

                  It’s there on a wedding day
                  There in the weeping by the graveside
                  There in the very breath we breathe
                  Your great grace

                  The same for the rich and poor
                  The same for the saint and for the sinner
                  Enough for this whole wide world
                  Your great grace, oh, such grace

                 From the creation to the cross
                 There from the cross into eternity
                 Your grace finds me
                 Yes, Your grace finds me
                 There in the darkest night of the soul
                 There in the sweetest song of victory
                 Your grace finds me
               
  Yes, Your grace finds me

            The scriptural perspective on issues is let God be true and everyman a liar (Romans 3:4). James 4:6 declares that “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We are also told in John 1:17 that the “Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”. If we understand grace to mean divine enablement, is this available to everyone, including sinners? Is the Holy Spirit who dispenses God’s grace enabling sinners to continue with their debauchery?

Does God indeed give grace to the whole world, according to Matt Redman? The only Scripture in the New Testament that links God’s grace with the entire humanity is Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone”. Here, grace is presented as an enabler for salvation. It is not intended to make us happy, less stressful or strong enough to cope with life’s challenges. That is not the purpose of God’s grace.

 Sadly, grace has fallen into bad company in the modern church. We have so perverted it that it is now associated with licentiousness. We have even gone to the level of telling people that God’s grace covers them no matter what they do. We tell them that God is too gracious to punish anyone and that He is ready to open the door of His home to everyone no matter their level of pollution by satan. Where in the Bible does God jettison His holiness because of His ‘great love’ for humanity? John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”.

God knew that we could not save ourselves. That is why He had to come down in the Person of the Son to take our place on the cross. This is the only Scriptural basis for a relationship with humans. No man can access the Father outside of Christ (John 14:6). That is when grace is released by the Holy Spirit to enable us overcome the flesh and satan. The grace of God is tied to the atonement of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the only true grace. Anything else is falsehood and part of satan’s deception to keep the gullible perpetually under his control.

A piece written by Terry Virgo. Founder, New Frontiers of Great Britain as a Foreword to Grace by R. T. Kendall has some nuggets that are worth sharing. According to Virgo, “Grace certainly shone out in the coming of Christ, but grace does not come to lower that standard; it comes to motivate and enable us to live a totally new life. Paul told Titus that the grace of God appeared instructing us to say no to ungodliness (Titus 2:11-12)”. Elsewhere in the article, Virgo said that “grace tells you that Jesus wants you for His very own possession, his special treasure (Titus 2:4) and that God has a particular and personal delight in you. He chose you from before the foundation of the world. He foreknew you and predestined you to be His own”.

          Furthermore, he observed that “grace teaches us about the terrible price that was paid for our salvation”. He said grace teaches us not to get our roots down too deeply in this temporary scene, adding that “saying no to the world, the flesh, and the devil seems to make good sense when grace instructs (us) about all these things”. Finally, Virgo noted that while “the Law commanded “thou shalt not”, grace came not to lower the standard but to change us from the inside, motivating, empowering, and teaching us to say no” to the flesh, the world and satan.

           Thus the people who preach cheap grace are doing a great disservice to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are the people Jude spoke about in chapter 1, verse 4 of his book: “For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed – ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ”. Paul equally warned Timothy and Titus about such false brethren.

In 2 Timothy 3:6 Paul said, “They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions”. Titus 1:16 says, such people “profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good purposes”. Peter spoke of their impending judgment in 2 Peter 2:1, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction”.

            Child of God, His charge to you today is that you should “come out from among them and be separate. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17). Proverbs 21:16 says, “A man who wanders from the way of understanding (godly wisdom) will remain in the assembly of the dead”. This is re-echoed in Psalm 1:1-3, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruits in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does”.

              Anyone who feeds on the cheap grace Gospel will have no one to blame but himself. The false prophets and teachers will indeed get their judgment but those misled by them would not have any excuse to tender before God for their folly. In the final analysis, they were the architects of their own destinies because God created them with a free will. Also, the Scriptures are written in very simple language which they could have read for themselves. More importantly, the Holy Spirit was sent to lead us into all truth. God did not deny them access to His Spirit. They chose to feed on falsehoods because it suited their fancy. Paul spoke of such Christians in 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their desires”.

              In conclusion, “God’s grace is sufficient for those that believe and trust in Him until the end” (E’yen A. Gardener, wow4u.com). Grace teaches us that we are a visiting alien; our citizenship is elsewhere and we are not to become part of the world’s culture. Not only do we not belong here, we are anticipating the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour (Titus 2:11-13).