Page 9 - CC Life 14 2015 Fall

ACADEMIC SECTION

Costly Grace:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Sung’s
Apocalypse of the Cross

Dr. Mae Chiang
Dean of Academic Affairs

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906~1945), a German pastor and Dr. John Sung (1901~1944), a Chinese
evangelist, both lived short lives, but had great influence in the world.

Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was sentenced to death at the age of 39 because he joined
a conspiracy against Hitler. Even though he died young, he wrote quite a few books which have
benefited many Christians in their faith (Tang 2009). Some of his books have been translated into
Chinese, such as Life Together, The Cost of Discipleship, and Letters and Papers from Prison. One
of the themes he stressed is the difference between costly grace and cheap grace. German churches
were teaching a Liberal Christianity which, Bonhoeffer said, offered “cheap grace.” By that, he
meant grace that costs little, grace with no demands of repentance or holy living. Instead, Bonhoeffer
eagerly encouraged Christians to follow Jesus. Bonhoeffer then was called “the conscience” of the
German church.

At the same time, Dr. John Sung was working on bringing revival to the Chinese churches. Like
Bonhoeffer, Sung also urged Chinese Christians and church leaders to repent. Sung asked them
to know sin, to hate sin, and to seek to live a holy life. He wanted to establish churches with five
foundations: repentance, the new birth, holiness, victorious Christian living and evangelism (Sung,
2013). Between 1920 to 1930, Sung traveled between China, Taiwan, and places in South Asia and
brought more than 10 thousand Chinese to Christ (Wikipedia, 2015). Why did both Bonhoeffer and
John Sung place such emphasis on grace and the need for repentance? Let’s look at their ideas.

First, Bonhoeffer ‘s costly grace: Bonhoeffer discusses the concept of cheap grace and costly
grace in his book The Cost of Discipleship. “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are
fighting today for costly grace.” He contrasts the two as follows:

“Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of
sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian ‘conception’ of
God. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. 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.” (Bonhoeffer, 1966 p.45-46).

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