…cheap grace — “the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.” Cheap grace wrongly separates absolution of sin from acknowledgment of that sin.
-Katelyn Beaty, “The Mistake Christians Made in Defending Bill O’Reilly
Cheaters and “cheap grace”
Beaty’s article takes aim at some prominent conservatives and evangelical leaders. In particular, her article exposes the hypocrisy of claiming the Christian faith while handing out passes to favorite [male] leaders who violate the basic tenets of said faith–like not committing adultery (see Exodus 20:14).
She does this by invoking a darling saint of evangelical-land–namely, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The famous German pastor who resisted Hitler and paid for such resistance with his life.
In particular, Beaty hones in on Bonhoeffer’s teaching regarding grace. She talks about one concept Boenhoeffer is credited with identifying as “cheap grace” in his 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship.
And this brings me to my point in quoting from the above op-ed.
To be clear, I am NOT interested in a political discussion here but rather a moral and theological one.
I quote the op-ed to point out how this dangerous idea–“cheap grace”–is very active when it comes to dealing with cheaters in general among evangelicals.
“Cheap Grace” is alive and well in the conversation regarding cheaters.
It is so prevalent among Christians that the godly advice to require repentance from the cheater before talking marriage restoration is wrongly considered as coming from a hard-heart.
“Forgive” and “grace” are words invoked by pastors and cheater apologists like magic fairy dust to allegedly absolve all cheaters from their actions with no reference to repentance.
Yet such a perspective is counter productive to healing for the adultery victims as well as for the godly restoration of the cheater. By not requiring repentance before restoration, one is effectively teaching cheaters that consequences do not follow their sins.
Such a teaching fits neither the real or the moral world (see 2 Cor. 5:10).
Beaty rightfully accuses public Christian leaders of trading in “cheap grace” when they absolve abusers without requiring–sometimes–even a hint of remorse or repentance.
Yet, Beaty does not end the article with just a conversation about how “cheap grace” is all too common today. She also identifies another Bonhoeffer concept: “costly grace.”
She writes,
An application of costly grace would mean showing perpetrators that their actions have real consequences. It would also ensure that victims are heard and given tools for healing long before there is any talk of restoring their abusers.
-Katelyn Beaty, “The Mistake Christians Made in Defending Bill O’Reilly
I agree wholeheartedly with encouraging people to engaging in a response of “costly grace” as it comes to adultery and infidelity situations.
After all, adultery victims, too, are abuse victims as I believe it is impossible to commit adultery–which is soul rape–without abusing one’s spouse.
May “cheap grace” become less common among God’s people than acts of “costly grace.” Amen.
Forgiveness without repentance is one of many common misconceptions in the Christian community. But it is shameful that it is the church that perpetuate this sort of half-truths because they are effectively doing the enemy’s work. What is worse is that it gives people outside of the church the wrong ideas about Christianity like we’re not suppose to judge others and divorce is sin, etc, then those things are held against us.
I feel like there is a tendency in the evangelical circles to piece-meal together verses, out of context, to form some kind of self-help program or to support some kind of human agenda. If you listen carefully to most Christians talk about God, most of the time they are talking about what God can and has done for them, not how they can be a better servant. And it’s more about belonging to the club that is church rather than getting to know Him and His word. Quite unfortunate what this does to our collective reputation. More unfortunate is that it drives people away from Christ.