The Cost of Goods
If you turn on the news within the last few years you have probably heard about the rising cost of things and how the economy is not in the best shape. The only thing these days which does not seem to be going up is the stock market. Usually when people begin talking about the economy and the cost of things people expect a political rant, but worry not! Today is not that! Rather today is about examine why good things have a cost to them.
When people talk about eating healthy they often cite that one of the big impediments is the cost of healthy food. When we want something to be good we end up having to pay more for it, to accrue a cost for the perceived good. If this is true about material goods having a cost associated with them, then we might expect spiritual goods to have a cost to them as well. In his book The Cost of Discipleship Lutheran theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks about the cost of following Jesus. He proposes that we as modern Christians have been sold a theology of “cheap grace” whereby we believe that following Jesus and recieving the gift of eternal life will not come at a cost. This theology of cheap grace ignores Jesus’ commands to take up our cross, or Paul’s exhortation to put to death the old man. Cheap grace keeps us from really being transformed as we walk with the Lord.
The theology of costly grace reminds us of the great call to holiness that Jesus calls us to. Jesus is ultimately the one name under which men are saved, but if we do not love Him and surrender to Him in this life, how can we expect to do it in the next? The cost of following Jesus and receiving eternal life is our whole earthly life. If we want to gain eternal life we must be willing to lose our lives now. Bonhoeffer knew this when he freely chose to stand up to a tyrannical regime. A regime which denigrated the human person and sought to undermine the values of Christian Morality. Today we might not be called to physically die, but we might risk social death but affirming what Christians have always taught.
We have to take up our cross. We have to give up our sinful habits. We must fast, pray, love our neighbor and be converted so that we might receive the gift of eternal life with God.
