On Cheap Grace (this is a bit long for this thread, but well worth considering).
Some people (a lot of people these days) are into a dangerous theology---what has been called “cheap grace.” They want to acknowledge that God is a loving, merciful God but do not want to accept that He is also a just and holy God who will not abide sin and imperfection forever.
I have written about this elsewhere but let me explain a bit on this thread using some famous quotes.
The love and grace of God in Christ for forgiveness and all the other spiritual blessings must continue to be a primary source of praise to God. However, both grace and love have been misinterpreted. "Instead of being an incentive for living a life of holiness, God's love has become an excuse for indulging every base human desire." (Miguel Grave de Peralta)
Cheap grace is that which liberal, nominal Christians espouse. Such people are glad to receive a free pass from condemnation and willingly accept a salvation that does not require repentance or a change in their lifestyles. They are not willing to truly give themselves to the Lord for transformation; they just want off the hook.
But if faith in Jesus Christ is real, it will change a person’s heart and he/she will want to change, will want to please God. However free salvation is, walking with Christ requires everything from us (see Luke 9:23-25 Matthew 10:38-3
According to Holy Writ, Judgment Day, separation of the wheat from the weeds, and the destruction of the weeds will indeed occur. Hell, perdition, the Lake of Fire and eternal separation from God are states of being which actually exist. (Matthew 5:22, 5:29, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15, 23:33).
To deny these truths is to deny and pervert the nature of God, who is not only gracious and loving but also just and holy-- perfect. His ultimate kingdom will be perfect. He will not tolerate sin forever and Satan and his human children will never repent and submit to Christ, indeed they cannot. It is the nature of reality.
Liberal theologians want no possibility that they will be so judged and punished, so they make God over in their own sin-tolerant image. As H. Richard Niebuhr wrote in “The Kingdom of God in America”: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”
From <i>“The Cost of Discipleship”</i> by the martyred Dietrich Bonhoeffer write this about the liberal idea of “cheap grace”:.
“In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God. (pages 45-46)... Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. 'All for sin could not atone.' Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world's standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin.... Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” (page 47) This kind of deceptive ‘cheap’ grace can send you to hell.
As Luther always insisted: conviction of sin and awareness of the reality of judgment must come first, and then salvation becomes possible through surrender to the Lordship of Christ. Any “cheap grace” short cut prevents true conversion.
