GRACE

I have chosen to put grace immediately after God’s Love. Grace is God forgiving you for all your sins. Your past sins, your present sins, and your future sins. God has already forgiven them all. Grace is God’s love in action.

Now we must be careful not to make God’s grace cheap.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. . . . Grace is costly because it calls us to follow, . . . It is costly because it cost God the life of his Son. . . . Above all it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, . . .

Only he who believes is obedient, only he who is obedient believes.

This goes back to what Confucius said about a Good man.

This goes back to what Jesus said about knowing them by their fruits.

When we consider the value of God’s relationship with us, we must also consider the value of our relationship with God.

The gracious call of Jesus now becomes a stern command: Do this! Give up that! Leave the ship and come to me! When a man says he cannot obey the call of Jesus because he believes, or because he does not believe, Jesus says: “First obey, perform the external work, renounce your attachments, give up the obstacles which separate you from the will of God. Do not say you have not got faith. You will not have it so long as you persist in disobedience and refuse to take the first step. Neither must you say that you have faith, and therefore there is no need for you to take the first step. You have not got faith so long as and because you will not take the first step but become hardened in your unbelief under the guise of humble faith.”

If you wish to accept the grace of God, then accept it. If you accept it then your actions, your life, your world will reflect it.

Do not try to lie to me about your faith. You are only lying to yourself. You might think you are lying to God, but He knows better.

Footnotes:
1. Dietrich Bonhöffer - The Cost of Discipleship - I:1,2
2. Dietrich Bonhöffer - The Cost of Discipleship - I:2

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