Cheap Grace

'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.'










To the best of my knowledge, it was Dietrich Bonhhoeffer and this quote in particular, from The Cost of Discipleship, which coined this phrase. It's now a well known phrase, but tends to be used without reference to the depth and breadth with which Bonhoeffer first used it. It's done me good for years and I am drawing upon its insights again now, so I simply pass it on.