THIS SALVATION THING IS NOT ANTISEPTIC. CHRIST on the Cross was sticky with blood oozing out of his hands, his feet, thorns crushed down on his brow. He was almost to the point of abject despondency when he said, “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” But when he said, “It is finished,” eternal salvation took place!
Oswald Chambers wrote (My Utmost for His Highest, November 20), “Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony of the cross.”
“In Christ we are set free by the blood of his death, and so we have forgiveness of sins. How rich is God’s grace, ….”Ephesians 1:7 (ncv)
God hates the evil in us and the gruesome estimate of his hatred is Calvary – the Cross! Anything less, Bonhoeffer calls “cheap grace.” ERIC METAXAS, Author of BONHOEFFER, Timothy J. Keller describes in his foreword to the book how Bonhoeffer describes the decline of Germany, and what part the church, or Churches, played in Hitler coming to power.
He writes: “How could the ‘church of Luther’, that great teacher of the gospel, have ever come to such a place?”
The Churches in Germany had become formalistic, lame, having become so broad minded as to lose “costly grace.” They wound up possessing very little, something Bonhoeffer calls “cheap grace.” Keller writes: “That meant going to church and hearing that God just loves and forgives everyone, so it doesn’t really matter much how you live.” (xv)
This is not too different from what we see in today’s American Churches. Our Churches of today are running headlong into that cheap grace of which Bonhoeffer speaks. When was the last time you heard a sermon about the Blood of Christ, or rugged salvation, or the old rugged cross, or heaven, Hell or Satan? Or about holiness? No, today’s Church services are more like a Rock concert or a speech by your public college professor, with one hand in his left pants pocket, speeching how God (maybe) is so loving that all you need do is smile, think positive thoughts and you’ll be healthy, wealthy & wise.
Write It On My Heart 