| The "Cost" of Grace |
| by David A. DePra |
| The title of this article is a contradiction of terms. Grace, by |
| definition, incurs NO cost. It wouldn't be "grace" if it did. Yet if you |
| walk with Jesus Christ you are going to find that His grace exacts |
| an incredible cost. The grace of God, will, in fact, cost you |
| everything you are. |
| How can this be? Isn't grace free? Are we to earn the things of |
| God? No. Never. God's grace is totally free. That is the root of |
| the gospel. There isn't a thing you can do to earn, maintain, or |
| qualify for salvation, or for anything else in Jesus Christ. God has |
| said it. He has said that He gives us all things freely in Jesus |
| Christ. |
| So what is this "cost of grace?" Well, it isn't a price I have to |
| pay FOR grace. It is a price I will pay BECAUSE OF grace. |
| Get that distinction. I can't pay anything FOR grace. There is |
| nothing I can do to earn it or merit it or maintain it. God gives |
| me EVERYTHING freely in His Son. But once God does that -- |
| gives me His unconditionally free gift -- my possession of His |
| free gift is going to cost me everything. |
| How so? Well, I can't do anything to obtain the grace of God. |
| But once I receive the grace of God, it will do plenty to ME! It will |
| strip me of all that I am and bring me into total dependence upon |
| Jesus Christ. |
| Of course, the "ME" that will pay this great price is my old man |
| in Adam. My flesh -- the natural life -- is going to have to pay |
| a tremendous cost because I have received the free gift of God. |
| Once I receive the free gift of God, a process will begin that will |
| put to death everything in me of that old life, and set me free to the |
| new. |
| What this tells us is that the "cost of grace" is to let go of that |
| which separated me from God. The "cost" is my prison, my sin, my |
| right to possess myself. Consequently, the "cost of grace" is |
| really no cost at all. Rather than pay a cost for grace, I am actually |
| the recipient of a great inheritance in Jesus Christ. |
| The Perspective of the Old Man |
| As mentioned, the grace of God is "costly" only from the |
| perspective of the old creation. There is a reason for this. First of |
| all, we are all born INTO the old creation. This means that rather |
| than find us standing on neutral ground, God finds us in a place |
| we don't belong. He must then call us out of that. This means we |
| must leave behind everything which the natural man finds |
| comfortable and profitable. We must be depleted and reduced of |
| that, and made completely dependent upon God. To the old man |
| in Adam, that is a great price to pay. |
| This "cost" to our flesh cannot be understated. In Adam, we |
| have no point of reference of operating other than self-will. It is |
| natural and normal for us to possess ourselves; to be our own |
| God. It is so natural, that we can scarcely grasp an alternative. So |
| when God, by His grace, begins to set us free from this, it will be |
| very traumatic. We will be taken out of where we were |
| comfortable, and be brought into a realm where we have never |
| lived -- with a different mode of operation: Total dependence |
| upon God. No righteousness of our own. A walk by faith alone. |
| This will cost our natural man everything. |
| In the final analysis, the "cost of grace" is that we must DIE. All |
| that belongs to the old realm must go down to death. But again, |
| this isn't a "cost" we must pay in order to receive grace. No. It is |
| the price we will pay if we HAVE received it! Grace will begin a |
| work in us which will set us free from everything not of God! And |
| incredibly, because we are blind, we may think that we are losing |
| what is valuable! |
| Reactions in Trials |
| If you have ever been through a great trial, you know that it |
| uproots all kinds of terrible reactions within you. Trials can make |
| you irritable, tense, and even angry. You may get depressed or |
| discouraged. You may even feel hopeless at times. |
| Now, the temptation is to think that a REAL Christian, with |
| REAL faith, would never react in such ways. But that is utter |
| nonsense. The Truth is, it is quite possible to have all of those |
| unpleasant reactions, yet still believe God! It is possible to react in |
| those ways, yet to be standing by faith! My emotional reactions |
| and faith in God are not one and the same. My flesh isn't |
| necessarily going to behave -- even if I want it to. But I can |
| nevertheless refuse to be moved by my emotions and flesh, and |
| choose to believe! |
| There are many times in our spiritual walk when we will react |
| badly, yet renounce our reactions. We will refuse to defend our |
| flesh, and refuse to align our wills with it. This is good. It is what |
| we must do in order to stand by faith. Our flesh isn't going to |
| behave! It is flesh! But we can still choose to stand by faith in |
| Jesus Christ. |
| Now, what we are talking about here is a particular stage of |
| growth. Certainly, it is hoped that over the course of time, I will |
| grow to react less and less in the flesh, and more and more in the |
| Spirit. But even then, there are always deeper regions God will |
| plow. And when He plows, He will uncover deeper areas of the |
| flesh. It will be natural for my flesh to react on those levels as |
| well. |
| The point is, no matter what stage I am at in my spiritual |
| growth, I'm not going to like being crucified. To me, it will be as if I |
| am losing something valuable. It will be like I am paying a terrible |
| price to walk with Jesus Christ. But again, that is only from the |
| perspective of where I am -- rather than from where God wants |
| to take me. If I could only see it, I'd see that I'm not paying any |
| price at all. I'm being set free from the things of death. |
| Imagine being in prison all your life. Then, one day, you are |
| given an unconditional pardon. You have no concept of what that |
| really means. In fact, once you walk out of the prison cell, you are |
| completely out of your element. You don't know how to live. You |
| may even resent the fact that you were evicted from the prison! It |
| is only as you proceed forth into life that you learn to appreciate |
| your freedom, and realize just how much you were missing. |
| It is like this spiritually. Most of us, when we are in a trial, feel |
| like we are paying a great price "for God." "I have given up so |
| much for God," we subtlely infer. "I have paid the price. I am a |
| martyr for Jesus Christ." And then we accumulate our spiritual |
| trophies and mount them on the wall. We become spiritually |
| proud. But we are blind. We have paid no price for our freedom. |
| Jesus Christ paid the price. We were merely being set free from |
| that which held us, and from that which, quite frankly, pleased us |
| to a degree. Otherwise why the fuss? Why lament over what we |
| have LOST, if it did not please us? |
| When Paul, in Philippians 3, said that he counted all things as |
| dung for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ, he was not lying to |
| himself -- to sort of make his loss easier to take. No. Paul had |
| seen something. He had seen that all of it WAS as dung. It was |
| worth no more. Paul had seen that everything he lost of himself |
| for the sake of Christ was no price to pay at all. When he lost |
| those things he lost little more than that which was hindering him. |
| A great victory comes to anyone who sees what Paul sees. No |
| longer do they focus upon what THEY have given up for CHRIST. |
| Rather, then focus upon what HE has given up for THEM. They |
| realize that the cost of grace is something Jesus paid, not them. |
| We are merely recipients of all things. God gives them to us free |
| of charge in His Son. * |