Jojo Agot

Cheap Grace is the Mortal Enemy of the Church

Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Discipleship. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003.

Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle for today is for costly grace… Cheap grace means grace as bargain-basement goods, cut-rate forgiveness, cut-rate comfort, cut-rate sacrament; grace as the church’s inexhaustible pantry, from which it is doled out by careless hands without hesitation or limit. It is grace without a price, without costs.

Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord’s Supper without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ.

Costly grace is the hidden treasure in the field, for the sake of which people go and sell with joy everything they have. It is the costly pearl, for whose price the merchant sells all that he has; it is Christ’s sovereignty, for the sale of which you tear out an eye if it causes you to stumble. It is the call of Jesus Christ which causes a disciple to leave his nets and follow him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which has to be asked for, the door at which one has to knock.

It is costly, because it calls to discipleship; it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly, because it costs people their lives; it is grace because it thereby makes them live. It is costly, because it condemns sin; it is grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, grace is costly, because it was costly to God, because it costs God the life of God’s Son—”you were bought with a price”—and because nothing can be cheap to us which is costly to God. Above all, it is grace because the life of God’s Son was not too costly for God to give in order to make us live. God did, indeed, give him up for us. Costly grace is the incarnation of God.

Finding Dory and the Gospel for the Lost Fish

Like Dory we have wandered away from home. Like Dory we have forgotten who we were. Like Dory we were separated from the Father. And like Dory we don’t know how to get back home.

For sure Disney did not intend for Finding Dory to bear some religious undertones but the language and imagery of the movie unwittingly deliver poignant pictures of the gospel story. They resonate with us because we recognize that we really are the real Dorys (and Nemos) of the world. Like Dory we have wandered away and have forgotten our home. Like Nemo we were lost and we needed rescuing.

This is exactly our redemption story. The Father sent Jesus to seek and save the lost. No wonder the story feels so familiar and at home with us.

Accidental World Changer

October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed a document on the door of the church in Wittenberg to protest the excesses of the church. His immediate concern at that time was the selling of indulgences to finance St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Michelangelo’s genius didn’t come cheap.

He simply wanted a theological discussion; what he got was the rocking of the political and ecclesiastical structures of Europe, the splitting of the church, and history’s epic moving forward from medieval times to modern times.

The story of the Reformation shows us the power of God’s providence in the history of the world. While we go about our everyday lives doing business as usual, making decisions for the day, God could be swinging the hinges of history forward. Who would have thought that posting church-related concerns on a church door would go on to shake the seats of power in Europe? Who would have thought that the agenda intended for discussion among priests would propel the world out of the Dark Ages?

Our ordinary days matter. In the hands of the Almighty God, our seemingly boring jobs could be world-changing.

Love is a Double-Sided Coin

“Love is not only expressed by words of affirmation and appreciation, it can also come in the form of a rebuke. Love is a double-sided coin.

“Love is looking in your spouse’s eyes and saying, “You mean the world to me. I wouldn’t want to go on without you.” But, love could also be a protective warning. When a friend is about to engage in adultery, the loving thing to do would be to say, “STOP! Don’t do it!”— even if it means losing your friendship over it.”

Micah Fries and Robby Gallaty, Exalting Jesus in Zephaniah, Haggai, and Malachi Commentary

Malachi on Modern Preachers

Malachi’s words for Old Testament priests could very well be a warning for modern preachers who talk more about pop psychology and prosperity gospel more than the Word of God:

“For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

You, on the other hand, have turned from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts. “So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people because you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in your instruction.” (Malachi 2:7-9)

Fire in the Bones

Charles Spurgeon on preaching the gospel:

If a man be truly called of God to the ministry, I will defy him to withhold himself from it. A man who has really within him the inspiration of the Holy Ghost calling him to preach cannot help it. He must preach. As fire within the bones, so will that influence be until it blazes forth. Friends may check him, foes criticise him, despisers sneer at him, the man is indomitable; he must preach if he has the call of heaven. All earth might forsake him; but he would preach to the barren mountain-tops. If he has the call of heaven, if he has no congregation, he would preach to the rippling waterfalls, and let the brooks hear his voice. He could not be silent.

Charles H. Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit (Spurgeon Sermon Collection; Accordance electronic ed. 2 vols.; Altamonte Springs: OakTree Software, 2004), n.p.