CHRIST - THE REESESOURCE - JANUARY 2010 EDITION

Late last Fall, I was sitting in the stands at my grandson Reese’s football game. I was sitting next to my oldest granddaughter, Audrey, who was, at the time, a fifteen-year-old sophomore in high school. She turned to me and asked “Granddaddy” do you trust me?” I was somewhat taken aback by the question, but I immediately replied, “Of course I do, sweetheart!” “Good”, she said .”May I use your car to take my drivers license test?” Like any good grandfather, I said “yes”. At the moment she asked to use my car, I had to make a decision. “Do I really trust her to take care of my car?” It was one thing to glibly say I trusted her, but to commit myself to a promise was quite another thing. I had to count the cost of my commitment.

Scripture speaks of counting the cost of commitment:

Luke 14:28-33 says,

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of my heroes of the Christian faith. His great work of Christian literature is “The Cost of Discipleship” In this book; he speaks of the cost of Christian commitment. Please allow me to quote from his book.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Cheap Grace
“Let the Christian rest content with his worldliness and with this renunciation of any higher standard than the world. He is living for the sake of the world rather than for the sake of grace. Let him be comforted and rest assured in his possession of this grace - for grace alone does everything. Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolations of his grace!

That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sins departs.

Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. 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 gladly 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 the 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. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.

Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

The question stands before us….you and me. Are we willing to count the cost of true commitment to following Christ?

Oh, by the way, last Friday Audrey passed the drivers test with flying colors and returned the car intact as I knew she would.

MINISTRY NEWS:
• Men’s Retreat held Jan.21-24 at Isle of Palms, South Carolina.

• Friday Morning Group going well, finishing study of “Mere Christianity”

• Tuesday Night Neighborhood Group studying “Man In The Mirror”

• Individual meetings with men fruitful