"In spiritual matters there really is no 'Third World.' It's all Third World."
- Dallas Willard
Monday, November 24, 2008
The cost for the recipient of God’s grace is nothing—and no price could be higher for arrogant people to pay.As seen on The Spyglass
- Dan Allender
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Comments on "The Cost of Grace":
2. Les
- 11/24/2008 9:19 am CST
It's not what you cling to with your hands. It's what you cling to with your heart. The reason Grace costs nothing is that you have nothing to begin with. Everything you "own" belongs to God in reality, and you are simply a steward. To believe all that "stuff" is yours is a delusion that will bring you nothing but self-destructive stress.
When we understand a fraction of what Grace really is, nothing we have has any value by comparison. That's why Paul says, "It's all garbage to me."
The "arrogant" are so deluded by self-obsession that they really believe they are in control of things. Nothing could be more deceptive. Letting go of all that and receiving God's grace is the only path to True freedom.
3. The Ancient Mariner
- 11/24/2008 9:21 am CST
Ahh, but you haven't understood the story. The rich young ruler didn't come to Jesus asking for grace--he came to Jesus asking what he lacked in keeping the law.
I also think you haven't understood this in relation to our society. I don't think it's true that "modern society doesn't need to be convinced that they don't need to do anything to get into heaven"; rather, most folks today (at least in my experience believe they are doing what they need to do to get into heaven--they believe they're good enough on their own, and can take the credit for that. Which is where Allender's quote comes in.
4. Nathan (Bri.. etc.)
- 11/24/2008 10:22 am CST
Hiya. Les and AM, I reckon you've about hit it on the head. Heck, I don't like coming to God and admitting I've nothing I can really give him, and I belong to him!
Not sure about the Rich Young Ruler story just being about the Law, though. Here's a powerful retelling of the story that expresses better what I suspect was going on.
(By the way, if you go looking around his site, you'll notice reallivepreacher is genuinely and diametrically wrong about a whole bunch of stuff, some of it quite important. But I think in a lot of ways he "gets" Jesus better than me. Go figure.)
5. Joseph D. Walch
- 11/24/2008 3:58 pm CST
Ancient Mariner, I don't disagree with you. Both sides of the coin stem from ingratitude and the withholding of our will from God. What's the difference between the CEO who thinks his charitable work will get him into heaven vs. the person who asserts his salvation by free and cheap Grace, and by so doing follows every caprice of his heart, including depraved acts of sin (if there even exists such things in this twisted post-modern world); rationalizing such acts based on the fact that nothing he does will matter in the end since Grace is free. My caution was against the latter.
And I do believe there is one (and only one) thing that we can offer God that is truely our own: our will (as C.S. Lewis has so beautifully and repeatedly illustrated). Release man from indebtedness to God by saying we owe God nothing; and Man will find other gods 'worthy' of his time.
That was my only caution to the use of this kind of catchy aphorism that so often gets passed off as orthodoxy (although with the declining church attendance sometimes we need to shrink the substance of our sermons to billboard signs, don't we).
6. Les
- 11/24/2008 9:07 pm CST
Joseph
I see your point and agree I think. Jesus said, "If anyone will come after me let him DENY HIMSELF..." That's what the price is that I hear you talking about. It feels expensive because we are so mesmerized by sin and irresistibly drawn to our own destruction. Christ is asking us to give up our attachment to self-destruction. For the ruler, it was too high a price.
Reminds me of C.S. Lewis's story in "The Great Divorce" (I think) with the little creature on the guy's shoulder... Some Lewis aficionado please jump in here because the details elude me. It seems just too painful for him to let go.
Grace is not just free, it's freeing. But it doesn't feel like it because we are so blind to reality. The great discovery doesn't come until we throw caution to the winds and just let go. Then we are overwhelmed with the "cheapness" of the Grace.
The guy you're talking about who uses it as an excuse to live in debauchery has no real interest in Grace at all. He's deluded himself. He is, in fact, no different from your CEO. That's how I understand your comment if I'm not mistaken.
8. Eloquorius
- 11/25/2008 12:07 pm CST
Thanks, Bill, for posting that awesome quote. I'm engrossed in Tim Keller's new book, The Prodigal God, and it has a similar passage about grace and what it costs the grace-giver.
"...and no price could be higher for arrogant people to pay." Right to the heart that one!
Leave a Comment:
And yet the Rich Young Man went away very sorrowful. Here's the question: how can Grace cost nothing when the Rich Young Man couldn't have both his McMansion, power boat, his 'career' or any other idols, AND have God's grace.
I think that quote is a little misleading because it implies that we can retain all of the other modern god's of velvet and steel as well as the one true God. Can the arrogant rich young man work his way into heaven? No, but neither can the worshiper of x, y. or z (and there are a lot more of the latter than the former--witness the prosperity evangelizing).
Modern society doesn't need to be convinced that they don't need to do anything to get into heaven, and yet I don't think a people who cares more about scratching their Lexus in a Wal-Mart parking lot than about giving a buck to the salvation army is really following the injuction of Christ. Is Grace really free from all costs, or can I still hold on to my gods of twine and metal? Am I setting up a false dichotomy or is this quote inadequate.