I have been contemplating a lot on grace in the last few days, and especially in the context of universal salvation. A part of my thought has been around Bonhoeffer’s notion of cheap grace.
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.
My problem here is that I feel strongly that Bonhoeffer is simply wrong when he mixes together two fundamentally different things. There can never be such a thing as a cheap grace based on preaching, whether the church/Church has a discipline, or if whether some person is a good/bad/or almost non-existing disciple. It is not even relevant if we confess properly. The nature of God grace does not change or takes on a new form based on my behavior, attitudes, faith or thoughts.
God’s grace was and is costly because of the cross, because of who Jesus is and was and will be. It is completely irrelevant how we respond. It is possible to claim that I am misrepresenting Bonhoeffer based on the fact we should never doubt a hero (that dies for his/her faith), but anyhow what he wrote at least sounds wrong to me.
Trying to limit God’s grace to our individual responses and will, is an attempt to diminish the grace God has for us all, and in limiting God’s grace to our abilities to respond we end up doing exactly what Bonhoeffer claims to be fighting against. We cheapen God’s grace, behave like God’s grace needs something more so we might be saved.
And now some might shout out, BUT what about good works…