If choosing to obey God and His commandments means life, then we might also learn something about the cost of that from Lutheran pastor and teacher, Dietrich Bonheoffer. Besides his books, and his dedication to the German underground church during the reign of Adolph Hitler, he was, among other things, known for his quotes. “One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.” His best known book, The Cost of Discipleship, explained the choices of life or death as “cheap grace” vs. “costly grace.”
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it, a man will gladly go and give all that he has…it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows Him. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again … costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.
Love all the above but this quote to me reminds me that we better be more than preaching / teaching.
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