Beloved in the Lord,
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We are in the shadow of Holy Week as we approach the final stretch of the Lenten season. This week we will have our last Midweek Lenten Soup, Salad and Service before we mark Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Then it is the events of Holy Week: Maundy Thursday, the night in which our Savior was betrayed, and Good Friday, when He takes upon Himself the Cross, for us and our salvation, as the mercy of God meets the wrath of God, the love of God meets the justice of God, and, of course, the triumph of Resurrection Sunday.
As we reflect on the last days of this journey of through the Wilderness, we recognize that Lent has always called us to look deeply. It calls us to look deeply into the mirror of God’s law, and it calls us to do so not simply as some exercise in guilt and shame, dwelling on our sins, failures and faults, but as an honest assessment of our desperate need for the saving grace found only in Jesus Christ.
Yet, in a world that is so often saturated with convenient comforts and easy solutions, the temptation is always there to seek a grace that is equally cheap and comfortable. But the cross of Christ proclaims a different message entirely, one of costly grace.
And there is a difference. There is a fundamental and basic difference between cheap grace and costly grace.
Cheap grace is something that whispers to us that “God is love, so sin? Sin is no longer a serious matter.” Cheap grace suggests to us that we can have forgiveness without repentance, we can have salvation without transformation, and we can live in communion without confession. And the thing about it is that this type of grace is alluring. It is dangerously alluring precisely because it demands nothing of us. Instead, what it does is it leaves us comfortably unchanged and unchallenged. But such grace is not grace at all. No. It’s deception.
Costly grace, on the other hand, acknowledges the severity of our sin because it fully embraces the depth of God’s mercy poured out on the cross.
Costly grace isn’t a grace that can somehow be earned by our efforts or deserved by our good intentions. Rather, it’s costly because it required something precious, something more precious than we could have imagined or deserved: the blood of Christ Himself. The life of God’s very on, dearly beloved, only begotten Son, that Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Scripture declares plainly: “You were bought with a price.” (1 Cor. 6:20) Just consider for a moment what it cost the Father to offer up His beloved Son. Consider what it cost Jesus, who for our sake “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:8) Consider it and ask yourself, is this something cheap or is it costly beyond all measure?
The cross does not permit us, it doesn’t allow us to treat sin lightly, nor does it permit us to trivialize forgiveness. It demands that we see the cost rightly as we see who bears the awful load. It should drive us to our knees, humbling our pride, and leading us to cling desperately to the Savior whose wounds testify to the true price of grace. This is what the prophet Isaiah reminds us of so vividly as he declares, “He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed” (Is. 53:5)
And so, as Lent draws to its natural end, and we conclude our journey into the wilderness with our Savior, let’s not just acknowledge this costly grace intellectually or philosophically. It needs to radically reshape our hearts, our minds and our lives.
This grace, purchased by Christ’s encompassing sacrifice, needs to bring about sincere repentance and genuine renewal. As the Apostle Paul teaches, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Rom. 12:2) Costly grace calls us to die daily to ourselves, to turn away from comfortable sins, and easy temptations, from the desires of this world, and to faithfully follow Christ, surrendering ourselves fully, knowing the weight and glory of His sacrifice.
Costly grace calls us to walk intentionally in humility and repentance each day. This means rejecting the world’s easy, yet ultimately hollow excuses, and boldly embrace a life that honors Christ’s sacrifice. It calls us examine our hearts this week, and every day of our lives, rooting out those sins we’ve quietly justified, forgiving the wrongs we’ve stubbornly clung to, and stepping boldly into acts of love and reconciliation we’ve delayed or avoided.
The final steps of Lent are not meant to crush us but to awaken us. It is meant to awaken within us a renewed appreciation for the profound, life-giving, costly grace of Jesus Christ. As we journey toward the cross, I pray we fully grasp and cherish the sacrifice made on our behalf, allowing this costly grace to transform us completely.
Now may the peace of the Lord that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus even unto life everlasting.
In Him,
Pastor Wyatt
