Expensive Grace
Grace is free, but it is not cheap. The grace that we freely receive cost the Father and Jesus everything.
One of the hardest parts of being a parent is teaching our children to steward and care for things they didn’t buy themselves. This is an ongoing challenge, and I’m sure any parent of almost any age can testify to that truth.
The same can be said for us when it comes to the grace we have been freely given. Churches today are often filled with messages of cheap grace, messages that take for granted the high cost of the grace we’ve all been offered.
One of my favorite older songs says:
Oh, the wonderful cross, oh, the wonderful cross!
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live.
— The Wonderful Cross by Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman
While grace is free, it also demands a response.
Later in the same song we hear:
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
The crucified life is the demand. Grace is free, unmerited, and undeserved, but when we truly encounter it, we realize the invitation isn’t only to salvation but to transformation. Grace doesn’t simply allow us to keep going the same direction or to add Jesus as a supplement to our routine.
No, the invitation has always been to follow Jesus.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”
Matthew 16:24–26 (NLT)
So the next time someone talks about free grace, remember, just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s cheap. It was incredibly expensive. Someone paid a price you and I could never afford, and then lovingly chose to offer it to us anyway.
Prayer | Jesus, thank You for Your grace, freely given yet infinitely costly. Help us never to take for granted the sacrifice that made it possible. Teach us to live in gratitude, to follow You fully, and to walk each day in the awareness of Your love. May our lives be a reflection of the grace that changed everything. Amen.
One of the hardest parts of being a parent is teaching our children to steward and care for things they didn’t buy themselves. This is an ongoing challenge, and I’m sure any parent of almost any age can testify to that truth.
The same can be said for us when it comes to the grace we have been freely given. Churches today are often filled with messages of cheap grace, messages that take for granted the high cost of the grace we’ve all been offered.
One of my favorite older songs says:
Oh, the wonderful cross, oh, the wonderful cross!
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live.
— The Wonderful Cross by Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman
While grace is free, it also demands a response.
Later in the same song we hear:
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
The crucified life is the demand. Grace is free, unmerited, and undeserved, but when we truly encounter it, we realize the invitation isn’t only to salvation but to transformation. Grace doesn’t simply allow us to keep going the same direction or to add Jesus as a supplement to our routine.
No, the invitation has always been to follow Jesus.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”
Matthew 16:24–26 (NLT)
So the next time someone talks about free grace, remember, just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s cheap. It was incredibly expensive. Someone paid a price you and I could never afford, and then lovingly chose to offer it to us anyway.
Prayer | Jesus, thank You for Your grace, freely given yet infinitely costly. Help us never to take for granted the sacrifice that made it possible. Teach us to live in gratitude, to follow You fully, and to walk each day in the awareness of Your love. May our lives be a reflection of the grace that changed everything. Amen.
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