One of the biggest challenges young adults face is transitioning to financial independence.
I don’t know about you, but I sure miss the safety and security of the days when my parent’s paid for me to live and all my babysitting money went to putting gas in my car and fast food in my stomach.
But, of course, the responsibility of paying for everything is only the beginning of financial independence. Once you make the transition from dependence to self-reliance, there are new challenges. Like: which brand of fruit do I buy? The imported types from the big store are cheaper and more convenient, but the organic from the independent grocer supports local business. And what brand of jeans should I get? Jeans from the mall typically carry a smaller price tag than buying Canadian-made pants from a small shop…but is it a responsible purchase?
Just because something costs you less doesn’t mean someone else isn’t paying the price for your savings. This is the difference between “cheap,” and “costly” living. Living cheap is easy and inexpensive yet may lack integrity. Living costly asks more of you but forces responsible and careful spending and helps you avoid excess.
This same distinction can be applied to the Christian life.
In the New Testament, Romans 5 describes salvation as God’s free gift to us, given while we were still sinners deserving death. That is grace. However, sometimes we become confused and focus on the “free” part of salvation and begin to believe we deserve it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls this attitude “cheap grace.”
In his book The Cost of Discipleship1 he says: “cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ” (43-4). Cheap grace means ritual, not obedience. And compromise instead of conviction.
In direct contrast to cheap grace, Bonhoeffer challenges us to embrace costly grace. He says it “confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light’” (45).
There’s a difference between living costly and living cheap. Are you up to the challenge?
1Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship, 1959 SCM Press, London
By Robyn Roste
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