The High Cost of the Devaluation of Grace
Dec
13
Written by:
Sunday, December 13, 2009 4:01 PM
Christians don’t tell lies – but they do sing them –
Costly Grace
Jude 1:1-4 (kjv) Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. (2) Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. (3) Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (4) For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
We live in an era of Cafeteria Christianity – picking and choosing what rules they like –
what scripture they can live with … They lack the resurrection life of a transformed heart.
THIS IS NOT A NEW Phenomenon
In the 1930s, the evangelical movement in Germany was very strong. Although there was gross idolatry and sin present, most of the German people of that day were simple folks – like their counterparts in the United States — whose lives revolved around church and family.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the Christian leaders of Germany in that era, warned of the beginnings of a movement that greatly concerned him.
It's foundational beliefs rested upon a faulty concept of grace: It was being taught that once a person became a Christian, no amount of sin can change his spiritual standing with God.
Bonhoeffer desperately tried to oppose this ungodly movement before it could gain any further ground.
Before losing his life at the hands of the Nazis he penned these immortal words in his classic,
The Cost of Discipleship;
Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks' wares.
(ie…the guy at the fair that will keep lowering prices till you finally agree to buy what he is selling)
Communion, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits.
Grace without price; grace without cost!
The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and because it has paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite.
What would grace be if it were not cheap?
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without (obedience).
Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.. .
What this world needs – what this Milwaukee / Greenfield NEEDS is …
Is a CHURCH … a neighbor / a friend somebody that will… Preach / Teach / example, GRACE that is connected to the PRICE of the CROSS –
What is missing in the American Church today is COSTLY GRACE -
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; (that Jesus spoke of) for the sake of which a man will gladly go and sell all that he has.It is the pearl of great price to buy – which the merchant will sell all his goods...
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.
It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.
Unfortunately, by and large, the German people rejected his teachings.
As the German economy prospered under the “dynamic leadership” of Adolph Hitler, spiritual life in Germany grew increasingly cold.
Mark 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it (the Word) becometh unfruitful.
Life was getting better in the Reichland (Germany) under the “able leadership” of the Fuhrer.
National pride was restored.
The "Christian nation" of Germany put Adolph Hider into power because he gave them what they wanted.
Not only did they install him as their chancellor, but also they adored him!
And before the “good church going people” of Germany knew what had happened, he was gassing Jews by the millions in the death camps of Europe.
When they elected Hitler they never dreamed he would perpetrate such atrocities!
The absence of total surrender to Christ and the resulting lack of discernment made them vulnerable to the “powerful personality” of the Fuhrer.
We have so vilified the German people that it is easy to cast them all in the mold of Hitler.
We forget that most of these were simple people who, like us, just wanted to have a better life for themselves and their families.
Once Hitler was in power, many of them became agents of butchery because their Christianity had no hold on their consciences and the moral climate of their day overpowered them.
There was nothing to stop their descent into the cruelties of hell.
We, of course, say “ we would never do what they did,".
But church, our culture is much more influenced by the spirit of this present world – this “kosmos” than theirs was!
We're in terrible danger of rolling out the welcome mat, not for a NAZI dictator, but for the man the Bible calls the “Anti-Christ” who will lead the world into a violent collision course with God Himself!
Our WORLD is … just as the people of America are …ready for such a leader.
The only real opposition that remains comes from the Christian Church. Unfortunately, much of this resistance is collapsing because of churches that are offering up a message of CHEAP GRACE –when the only thing that will really work – IS COSTLY GRACE – connected with the Cost of the CROSS – GRACE is not FREE – it cost Christ HIS LIFE -
Jude 1:4 GNB For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.
Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received.
You can visit Christian Churches all over our GREAT nation today…
Churches that have quit preaching against SIN…
Having a FORM of GODLENESS but denying the Power thereof… from such TURN AWAY… 2 Timothy 3:5 –
Romans 6:14-16 KJVR For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
(15) What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
(16) Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Other scriptures:
Hebrews 12:1 KJVR Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Romans 12:1-2 KJVR I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
2 Timothy 2:4 KJVR No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
2 Peter 1:3 KJVR According as his divine power hath given unto us ALL THINGS that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Colossians 2:10 KJVR And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Jude 1:1-4 KJVR Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. (2) Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. (3) Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (4) For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:4 GNB For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received.