The Cost of Discipleship | The Joy of Costly Grace

March 9, 2025

Matthew 13:44-46

Lent 1

Rev. Teer Hardy

I have said it before, and I will say it again:

“God loves you just as you are, but God loves you too much to leave you just as you are.”

The good news—the best news—is that this grace has already been bought and paid for. You did not earn it, and you cannot lose it. It’s already yours because Jesus gave everything to make it so. His life, His death, His resurrection—this is what costly grace looks like. Once you see it, once you get even a glimpse of it, you realize there is nothing in this world more valuable.

That’s what Lent is about. Not some gloomy self-denial, not a season of proving how much we can suffer, but a season of joy—joy in discovering that the grace of God is richer, deeper, and more powerful than we ever imagined. Cheap grace keeps us stuck. But costly grace calls us forward—into a new life, a better life, a life shaped by the love of Jesus Christ. In last Sunday’s Bible study, someone put it this way: “Cheap grace is about checking boxes. Costly grace means caring for the faith (through grace) we have received.” That’s the difference Bonhoeffer was getting at—cheap grace remains transactional, something we take for granted, while costly grace transforms us because we recognize the weight and worth of what Christ has done.

And here’s the promise: The cost is still His. The One who calls you is the One who carries you. The grace that transforms us is not our own doing—it is Christ, at work in us, conforming us to Himself. He does not call us to change by sheer willpower. He calls us to surrender—to trust that the same grace that saved us is the grace that will shape us. The cost of discipleship is real, but the burden is His, and the promise is sure: He will finish what He has begun in you.

So, as we enter Lent, we do not come with fear about what we’re giving up. We come with joy for what Christ has already given—and for what He is still doing in us. And for that, we say: Thanks be to God!

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