“Enter through the narrow gate.” These words of Jesus warn us against “cheap grace,” in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s lapidary phrase. Pastor Bonhoeffer wrote: “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” The “you do your thing and I do mine” philosophy of the modern era is not a recipe to get through the narrow gate for “my thing” is, all to often, the path that doesn’t cost me anything. To enter through the narrow gate requires forgiving those who have hurt us, loving our enemies, finding our values from the gospel and not politics, recognizing Christ in the poor and needy.
JUNE252019
By Church Staff
