The Good News That We Forget Part 3 : What is cheap grace?

From Ed Stetzer's interview with Jon Walker :

Cheap grace is when we attempt to lower the standards of the gospel by ignoring the cost of the cross and down-playing the need for repentance. Cheap grace embraces an easy discipleship that requires little commitment. It assumes you can live in God's sanctuary, where Jesus fulfills the law, yet remain independent of the commands and desires of Jesus. Cheap grace justifies our sin. It is the thought that my sins are forgiven, so God will wink at me when I sin.

 Costly grace justifies the sinner. It demands that forgiveness be followed by obedience, that grace remain tethered to truth. When Jesus forgives the woman caught in adultery (John 8), he says, "Neither do I condemn you ... Go now and leave your life of sin." His grace, which is freely given, offers forgiveness for her sins, but it includes an expectation that her life will radically change.

Costly grace means we change our habits, thoughts, behaviors, attitudes, and relationships according to the will of Jesus. Nothing can remain the same because we are no longer the same: 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me' (Galatians 2:20). Bonhoeffer says grace is "costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."We are uniquely connected to the divine nature through Jesus and we no longer "live under law but under God's grace" (Romans 6:14 TEV; consider also Colossians 2:9-10).

Cheap grace, on the other hand, denies the incarnation and leaves the gospel abstract and impersonal. It allows us to give intellectual assent to the teachings of Jesus. Yet, the bloody death and resurrection of Christ is nothing but real and personal and it forces us to continually make the intimate choice of following the person, Jesus Christ, or following our own path.