Are We Counting the Cost?
By: Chelsey DeMatteis But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishments that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 In the book "In His Image" by Jen Wilkin, there is a chapter all about grace and the cost for us to receive this ultimate gift. Since becoming a Christian, I have wrestled with the words to describe how passionately I feel about God's grace and why we must look at it as something sacred. It shouldn't be something we just pull out of a deck of cards to lay on the table, it's not a word we should throw around or allow to be watered down by the world. God's grace, which came from Jesus dying on the cross is what gave us the gift of eternal life. By His grace, we are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9). By His wounds, we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). 
I want you to sit prayerfully with this quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which was quoted by Jen Wilkin in her book. It gave me the clarity I've always had from God's Word but finally put it in a way I could explain it to someone else. "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. | 
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