gratitude
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By In Politics, Theology

Cheap grace and gratitude

Guest Post by Dr. Jordan Ballor

As we live in a time of crisis, isolation, and suffering, there’s perhaps no better time to consider anew all the goodness and grace in our lives that we so often take for granted. Amid the outbreak of plague, we should ponder the gifts we have been given and the gratitude we ought to have for them. As we deal with the loss of life and restrictions on our activities, we should also come to a greater recognition of the divine origin of all good gifts all the time.

Fallen (and perhaps particularly fallen and redeemed) human beings have a way of cheapening grace. The German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer opened his classic work on Christian discipleship with an incisive analysis of what he called “cheap grace,” the idea that God’s saving work could simply be assumed and that it required no substantive response from or transformation of human beings.

If Christ’s atoning work was infinitely sufficient to cover all of our sins, such thinking goes, why not go on sinning that grace may abound (Rom. 6:1)? Or at least, why worry so much about doing any good works, since they aren’t all that “good” in the first place, and aren’t the basis for our salvation in any case? As Bonhoeffer puts it, “Cheap grace means grace as bargain-basement goods, cut-rate forgiveness, cut-rate comfort, cut-rate sacrament; grace as the church’s inexhaustible pantry, from which it is doled out by careless hands without hesitation or limit. It is grace without a price, without costs.”

Bonhoeffer had in mind what is often called special or saving grace in his indictment of cheap grace, and he had in mind the costliness of Christ’s sacrifice and the call to follow Him. But there’s an analogous error when it comes to the gifts of common grace. If special grace involves the application of the atoning work of Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners, common grace involves the recognition of the gifts that are given to everyone regardless of righteousness or piety. In Matthew 5:45 we read that God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Natural goods like sun and rain are examples of common grace, but as the Reformed theologian Abraham Kuyper describes the idea, common grace also involves social and cultural realities, like the love of familial relationships, the goods and services provided by businesses, and justice and order protected and preserved by governments.

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By In Counseling/Piety, Theology

Forget Not All His Benefits

Remembering is an essential part of thanksgiving. A forgetful person is someone who most likely struggles with ingratitude as well. And while you cannot give thanks for what you do not remember, there is a deeper meaning to the act of remembering than simply storing and recalling bits of information. 

As we come through another Thanksgiving holiday, learning how to remember and forget rightly will cultivate the rich heart-soil where gratitude and the grace that accompanies it can grow in all the various weather conditions of life.

Remembering that Leads to Gratitude

In Psalm 25, we find King David asking Yahweh to remember, and what he asks him to remember first is striking. He asks God to remember Himself.

Remember your mercy, O YAHWEH, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.

Psalm 25:6

If we are to understand what it means for us to remember, we must first look at what it means for the Triune God Himself to remember. It is significant that David calls upon the name of Yahweh. This is God’s memorial name as revealed to Moses from the burning bush.

Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, “Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.

Exodus 3:13-15

Therefore, to call upon the name of Yahweh is to call upon the God who is. His name perfectly encompasses and reflects His character. And His character is perfectly expressed in His acts. David understood this. David believed this with his whole heart. He knew that God’s remembering is a commitment to act.  Yahweh sets before Himself the reality of who He is and responds in a way consistent with that reality. His name is a memorial name.

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