Titus 2:11 (CSB)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.
Cheap grace is like having a friend who owns a restaurant. Suppose this friend told you that you could come by and have a hamburger anytime you wanted to and to let him know when because he wanted to sit down with you and spend time with you. Then he informs his staff to let you eat at no cost. You take him up on his offer, but rather than connecting with him, you just come by every day and get a free burger to go, never spending time with him or demonstrating appreciation for his ongoing kindness.
That illustrates a cheap perspective on grace. This happens when we accept God's free gift of forgiveness but don't ever stop to consider what it costs Him or, in turn, invest in the relationship from our standpoint. Cheap grace is not life-transforming grace; rather, it is the kind of grace that feeds our self-entitlement and our selfishness. We just keep sinning, asking for forgiveness, and then falling right back into sin again. We're satisfied with the free burgers, but we don't care anything about the value of the friendship that comes with them.
We need to stop and consider today that grace is not free but that it costs God His only son, Jesus Christ. Consider what the Bible says in Romans 6:1–2 (NLT), “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?”
When we feel the impact of costly grace, the power of the Holy Spirit will stir in our hearts a repulsiveness toward sin. We will be filled with a desire to die to our old ways and to allow the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit to change us from the inside out. We’ll have no desire to keep on living in sin, doing the same old things that hurt our relationship with God and others.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that following Jesus is easy. But rather, Jesus makes it very clear that following Him comes at a cost. Consider carefully what Jesus says in Matthew 16:24 (CSB). "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.'" Following Jesus isn't about only enjoying the benefits of the blessed life; it's about picking up our cross, dying to our selfish desires, and surrendering to His Kingship over our lives.
Clearly, this doesn't sound like an attractive offer to most people. I think that's exactly what Jesus wanted us to understand when He said that we would have to take up our cross and deny ourselves. So why would anyone ever want to do this? The truth is, most people don't. Look at the people who followed Jesus in the gospels. Most of them were people who had made a wreck of their lives and lost all hope in themselves and in this world. When they met Jesus, He offered them something no one or anything in this world could ever give them: forgiveness, grace, freedom, and Kingdom living.
Think about it this way: anything that is cheap is not valuable. On the other hand, the things that are costly are the things that we hold in high regard. So we must understand today that God's grace is freely offered to us, but it is not cheap; rather, it is the most valuable thing you will ever receive in this life. By embracing the cost of grace, you're taking on the cost of discipleship, and in doing so, you truly understand the incredible worth of God's grace. Because grace—real grace—is much more than a free ticket to heaven. It is a call to a new life, to Kingdom living, a life of loving and following King Jesus.