German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the most
powerful Christian martyrs of the 20th century. The son of
a noted physician, Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau, Prussia.
When Hitler assumed power in Germany, Bonhoeffer was
in the United States. Knowing that Hitler was bad news for
Germany, Bonhoeffer, at the risk of his own life, returned
home. An outspoken opponent of Adolf Hitler and his rise
to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer joined the Confessing Church,
which resisted Nazism. After World War II started,
Bonhoeffer joined in the political resistance to Hitler that
led to his imprisonment in April 1943 in Berlin and his
death by hanging at the Nazi concentration camp at
Flossenbüürg on April 9, 1945.
A passage from Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer:
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. The sacraments, 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 been paid, everything can be
had for nothing. . . . Cheap grace means grace as a
doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness
of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of
God taught as the Christian “conception” of God.
An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of
itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. . . . In
such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for
its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real
desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore
amounts to a denial of the living Word of God,
in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of
God. . . . Cheap grace means the justification of sin
without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone
does everything they say, and so everything can
remain as it was before. “All for sin could not atone.”
Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the
world, let him model himself on the world’s standards
in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously
aspire to live a different life under grace from his
old life under sin. . . . Costly grace is the gospel that
must be sought again and again and again, the gift
that must be asked for, the door at which a man
must knock. 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. It is costly because it condemns sin, and
grace because it justifies the 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. Costly grace
is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from
the world, and not thrown to the dogs. It is therefore
the living word, the Word of God, which he
speaks as it pleases him. Costly grace confronts us
as a gracious call to follow Jesus. It comes as a word
of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite
heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to
submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is
grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my
burden is light.”