Lesson 5: Cheap Grace

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is usually cited for drawing our attention to cheap grace. He defined it as “preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance… grace without discipleship.”

He was criticizing the Lutheran church for not opposing the Nazi regime. Most of its pastors argued that God called them to preach the Word and offer the Sacraments, but to leave politics to the state.

Bonhoeffer felt this was abandoning the prophetic role and wrote, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Some feel we are facing the same challenge today. Often, church leaders refuse to speak against cruelty, corruption, and warfare in our government. And as Bonhoeffer claimed, our silence enables it to continue.

Other leaders offer cheap grace when they justify their support of an immoral politician by publicly claiming Jesus uses imperfect people. They, too, enable evil actions to continue.

However, the term also applies to what all of us expect when we confess our sins with no intention of changing our behavior. Going to church should never be an excuse to continue doing what harms.

Cheap grace could also refer to evangelism rallies that reduce forgiveness to techniques such as coming forward and repeating a Jesus prayer. The focus inevitably is on escape from the last judgment after you die rather than amending your life now. If there is any intention to change, it usually vanishes quickly as the emotion cools.

Theologians sometimes cheapen grace in arguments about whether faith or works are the basis of salvation. Those who argue rightly that faith restores the relationship between people and God sometimes refuse to admit that works should inevitably follow.

Forgiveness is certainly a graceful action. However, it involves much more than simply overlooking past offenses. It corrects what is wrong and opens up a future in which people love and care for one another.

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