And so, after a lovely day of lunching, then surprise afternoon tea, then surprise dinner... I arrived home to find in my letter box this promise in big, bold lettering: 'Salvation Savings'...Marvellous, I thought, wondering if there might be a BOGOF offer: get one salvation, get another free. Sort of like a get out of jail free card but with an eternal context?
Well, given my student status, I thought this a potentially viable idea and yet the words of good old Dietrich Bonhoeffer did keep popping up in my head and worrying away at the stupendous deal on offer: '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.'
'Costly grace 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.'
I looked more closely at the piece of paper in my hand, offering me deals on salvation... Pizza Hut special offer in conjuntion with the new Terminator movie, apparently. Not sure if the 'moral' of the story is to avoid cheap pizza, but... like lunch, afternoon tea and dinner today, salvation's free: Now there's a special offer! :)
2 comments:
Salvation may come freely, but is it really free?
it's a gift... it's accepting the gift that's the hard work.
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