The Cost

The Cost

In an earlier post I mentioned that I am teaching a series on “Spiritual Gifts” as an alternative Sunday school curriculum for adults in our local congregation, the Licking Pentecostal Holiness Church. I confess that the preparation has not been easy; teaching a class on “Spiritual Gifts” is somewhat like being hired on as a consultant to assist a group of employees who will soon receive a final evaluation by the owner.

Maybe it is a bit of a stretch to compare spiritual gifts to money but the spiritual principle in Jesus’ “parable of the talents”, in Matthew 25, is that the servant is faithful if they have put what they have been given into action. Hiding the talent(s) is considered to be wicked. As a teacher/consultant, it is then of great importance that I convey to the class how important it is that they determine what gift(s) they have received and put them into practice. After all, Chapters 12 of both Romans and 1 Corinthians make it obvious that all believers have been given spiritual gifts, especially those "body ministry gifts" that are to lead to unity in the Church.

What concerns me deeply is the thought that most believers' lack in respect to spiritual gifts has less to do with determining what gifts they have been given than with having the courage and faith to put them into practice. It could also be that they simply do not have a sense of how to practice their gift within the structures of the church and the lifestyle they are currently leading.

I have been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book "The Cost of Discipleship" and it seems to me that we are too apt to give in to comfort, to the wickedness of not developing the gifts that we have been given, to be satisfied with what he would have called "cheap grace".

Bonhoeffer describes it this way: "Cheap grace means justification of the sin and not the sinner . . . the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance . . . grace without discipleship . . . without the cross . . . without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."

In contrast he describes costly grace which is "costly because it calls us to follow, and is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and is grace because it justifies the sinner. 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. Above all it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God."

It is true that Bonhoeffer was speaking to an audience of his countrymen who were in a struggle against the evils of Nazism. I don't want to overstate it, but in some ways I believe the Church's current struggles are against threats that are every bit as evil and probably more cunning and subtly malevolent. They are certainly more seductive to the Church.

More than ever we need to step out in faith, take up our posts, and exercise the gifts that we have been given, regardless of the cost. I keep thinking of the rich young ruler that went away sorrowful because he could not give up the riches that in eternal terms were not his to keep anyway. When we hold on to whatever it is that holds us back, we are trading our spiritual birthright for a bowl of pottage.