Cheap grace

     I saw an article recently that tried to redefine grace as de-merited favor.  The argument is that grace comes not just to the neutral, undeserving, but to those whose actions demerit it.  While this seems like an effort to exalt grace it actually removes the freeness of grace.  For grace now can only be shown when someone’s action oppose it.  That means that sin is necessary for grace.  That means that God was not gracious until the fall.  That means creation was not gracious.  That means the greater my sin the more I earn grace.  That means grace justifies sin—as that which earns grace—instead of the sinner.  Bonhoeffer rightly called that “cheap grace.”