The cross is laid on every Christian

The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death – we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time – death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call. Jesus’ summons to the rich young man was calling him to die, because only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. In fact every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and his call are necessarily our death as well as our life.

Cheap Grace

Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle 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. It is said that the essence of grace is that the bill for it is paid in advance for all time. Everything can be had for free, courtesy of that paid bill. The price paid is infinitely great and, therefore, the possibilities of taking advantage of and wasting grace are also infinitely great. What would grace be, if it were not cheap grace?

Cheap grace means grace as doctrine, as principle, as system. It means forgiveness of sins as a general truth; it means God’s love as merely a Christian idea of God. Those who affirm it have already had their sins forgiven. The church that teaches this doctrine of grace thereby confers such grace upon itself. The world finds in this church a cheap cover-up for its sins, for which it shows no remorse and from which it has even less desire to be set free. Cheap grace is, thus, denial of God’s living word, denial of the incarnation of the word of God.

Cheap grace means justification of sin but not of the sinner. Because grace alone does everything, everything can stay in its old ways.

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So the Christian need not follow Christ, since the Christian is comforted by grace! That is cheap grace as justification of sin, but not justification of the contrite sinner who turns away from sin and repents. It is not forgiveness of sin which separates those who sinned from sin. Cheap grace is that grace which we bestow on ourselves.

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.

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We have just released a new Bible Study based on the theme: Disciplesship and Mission

These lessons are available on Amazon, as well as a part of my Good Questions Have Groups Talking Subscription Service. Like Netflix for Bible Lessons, one low subscription gives you access to all our lessons–thousands of them. For a medium-sized church, lessons are as little as $10 per teacher per year.

Lessons include:

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #1
Called to Serve
Luke 14.7 – 14

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #2
Called to Sacrifice
Mark 1:16–20; Luke 14:25–33

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #3
Called to Return
Luke 15:11–24

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #4
Called to Repent
Luke 19.1 – 10

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #5
Called to Follow
Matthew 4.12 – 22

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #6
Called to Mission
Matthew 10:1–15

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #7
Called to Remember
Matthew 26:1–13

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #8
Called to Believe the Resurrection
Matthew 28:1–15

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #9
Called to Make Disciples
Matthew 28:16–20; Acts 1:6–8 123

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #10
Called to Righteousness
Romans 3:21–31

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #11
Called to Life in the Spirit
Romans 8:1–14

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #12
Called to Mutual Acceptance
Romans 11:11–24; 10.5 – 13

Discipleship and Mission, Lesson #13
Called to Be Transformed
Romans 12:1 – 8

Each lesson consists of 20 or so ready-to-use questions that get groups talking. Answers are provided in the form of quotes from respected authors such as John Piper, Max Lucado and Beth Moore.

These lessons will save you time as well as provide deep insights from some of the great writers and thinkers from today and generations past. I also include quotes from the same commentaries that your pastor uses in sermon preparation.

Ultimately, the goal is to create conversations that change lives.