When a preacher gets accused of teaching “cheap grace,” he will try to cure it in one of two ways.

The first “remedy” is to take back what he said and then try to make grace a little more expensive:

“When we get nervous about ‘cheap grace’ the remedy seems to be to make it at least a little expensive—bargain basement, maybe, but at least not cheap” (Gerhard Forde, The Preached God, p. 110).

Doing that—adding works to the gospel to make it seem harder than it is to be saved—is a disaster:

“If it is cheapened to coddle the old Adam, that is indeed bad enough. But if one tries subsequently to remedy the cheapness by making it expensive, that is absolute disaster” (Ibid.)

Why is that an “absolute disaster”? Because selling grace at a price means perverting the gospel into a false and cursed message. “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!” (Galatians 1:8).

That “cure” is just another dose of poison!

The second option, which is the correct one, is to dig in your heels, get even more radical, and preach grace more clearly:

The only cure for cheap grace is radical grace. And this can be done only in the preaching of it, doing the text to the hearers” (Ibid.).

You have to go on to preach radical grace because if someone thinks you believe that grace comes cheap, it is still too expensive:

“When confronted by the perpetual crisis of God’s liberality we must simply forge right ahead and become even more radical about the sola. Grace is indeed not cheap. It is free!” (Ibid.)

Grace is free. If it could be bought by works, even a little, it would no longer be grace (Romans 11:6).

Preaching grace is not about making salvation seem easier or more palatable to the old Adam. It’s about faithfully communicating the true nature of God’s gift in Christ. Jesus paid for salvation with His life. He died on the cross as a sacrifice for your sin and rose again from the dead to make salvation available to you for free. The price has been paid, so stop haggling and accept His gift!

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Send your questions or comments to shawn@freegrace.in.

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