I believe it was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German theologian who opposed Hitler in WWII, who coined the term “cheap grace.” Bonhoeffer wrote that true grace is costly. When I first heard this idea, I didn’t like it. I thought grace is free. How could it be costly? Yet, as I studied the scriptures, I began to realize that the grace of God contains a paradox. It is free, yet to truly live in the grace of God we must pay a price.

In Philippians chapter three we see what the grace of God cost the apostle Paul. Grace says that our worth is a gift from God. Yet, Paul spent his whole life trying to make his worth before God something he earned. He was the right thing, a Hebrew of Hebrews, and he did the right thing. He kept the Law. What did grace cost Paul? It cost him his self-righteousness. He had to give up his trust in who he was and what he did for trust in Christ. This was a sacrifice so great that Paul called it “the loss of all things.”

Whether we consider ourselves a good person or a bad person, grace will cost us our trust in self. A good person like Paul had to lose his own good for the Good of Christ. A person that has little or no good must suffer the same loss. They must give up the idea that their deeds make them unacceptable for the truth that Christ’s deeds make them acceptable and beloved.

Grace has a second demand it makes of us. We see this demand throughout the teachings of Jesus. The grace of God demands that we show grace, and the forgiveness of God demands that we forgive.

Consider the parable Jesus told about the unmerciful servant (Matthew 28:23-35). A certain servant owed his master 10,000 talents. A talent in that day was equal to 6,000 denarii. A denarius was a day’s wage. So, the servant owed more money that he could make in a thousand lifetimes. When the master demanded payment, the servant could not pay. However, the master had mercy and forgave the debt.

Another servant owed the first servant 100 denarii. Yet, the first servant showed no mercy when the second servant could not pay. When the master heard of the first servant’s lack of mercy, he had the unmerciful servant thrown into debtors prison.

In this parable we see God’s desire that we treat others the way He treats us. If we have been given infinite grace, we must give finite grace to our neighbor. We cannot pay for grace, but we can give what has been given to us. This is the great demand grace makes upon our lives.

Therefore, the next time you look at yourself in the mirror, ask yourself this question: “What does grace demand that I see?” Likewise, the next time you see someone the world deems unworthy of love or the next time you see someone who has wronged you, ask this question: “What does grace demand of me?”