By: Evangelist Joseph Olorunnisola

Date: February 24, 2013

Cheap Grace versus Costly Grace A Sound Knowledge of the word of God is a sure liberation from ignorance, from human exploitation, from satanic deception and deliverance from the gates of hell. Perfect liberty, peace, enduring joy and salvation, however, remain only in strong fellowship with Christ resulting from total obedience to his word and command. The world is currently ravaged by famine and drought, not famine of food or drought of water, but of sound gospel of Jesus Christ and the righteousness of God. Like the blind, the world is moving from one church to the other to hear sound doctrine about salvation and the plan of God for mankind but only to be fed by preachers with personal opinions, conviction, and church dogmas while the real message of Jesus is trivialized. Every church is marketing the pettiness and poverty of its own doctrines rather than the Kingdom of God. Faith is no longer in Christ, but in the power of the government and sophistication of civilization. The gospel is modeled on entertainment and Christianity is now driven by wealth and convenience. The word is now preached with false hope, consolation, and indulgence even for sins. It is clearly evident that historic structure and standards of Christianity can no longer withstand the modern day ideological challenges. The early church's proclamation of the gospel with the blood of martyrs is currently portrayed by contemporary Christian standard as an unwarranted psychiatric venture. Cheap grace is now marketed like loaves of bread and cheese. Grace is now represented as church inexhaustible treasury from where forgiveness is dispensed to un-repenting hearts, while fraudulent accumulation and possessions are decorated as Gods blessing. To the contemporary churches, grace is defined as an account paid in advance. Since it has been paid it is now without any price, without any cost, without any limit. It can be had for nothing and spending it is infinite. In churches where cheap grace is preached, & practiced there is no dress code, no moral boundaries, and no self-restraint. There is no sermon against immorality and ungodliness. The world finds a cheap covering for sins, no contrition is required and there is no real desire to be delivered from sin because sin is considered a normal way of life already paid for.

Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living word of God, in fact a denial of incarnation of the word of God; it involves justification of sin and not the sinner. Christian under cheap grace live like the rest of the world, models himself on the world standards in every sphere of life and never aspires towards having any intimate personal relationship with Christ. Cheap grace offers forgiveness without repentance, redemption without keeping the command, it ignores discipleship, snubs the Cross and abhors adversity. It is certainly a grace into eternal lake of everlasting burning. The grace provided by Jesus sacrificial death on the contrary is costly it is the treasure hidden in the field for which a man sells all his possessions to acquire (Matt 13:44 ), it is a grace for which the disciples abandoned their fishing business, their tax collection business, their homes, and their parents to pursue. It is costly because it entails following Jesus through the high road to Calvary a road littered with adversity, humiliation, rejection, hatred, bitterness, sorrow, self-denial, complete surrender to God or even death. It is costly because it costs God the life of his son and what has cost God so much cannot be considered cheap. Costly grace is the sanctuary of God, it has to be protected from the world and not thrown to the dogs. Unlike cheap grace that leads to damnation into the lake of everlasting fire, costly grace is the key to the eternal kingdom of God. Christianity is indeed at a cross road where Satan is seated with his subtle gospel of lies, deception and conversion of the weak in faith. The concept of separation of the Church and the State, an evil ruse to remove the people from the influence of the church. The government is elected by the people for guidance of the people. The pronouncements of Governments are, therefore, either laws to be complied with or political expediency that are highly persuasive upon the undiscerning minds of the people. Thus all kinds of secular totalitarianism and political naive-ness which force man to cast aside his religious and moral obligation to God and submit to the laws of justice and morality designed by the state are to be seen as a reckless marketing of cheap grace derived not from Christ but from the state to fill the kingdom of hell fire. The churches have been muted, reduced to blind, deaf and dumb and unable to rise en masse against policies that are clearly questioning, challenging and rejecting the wisdom of GOD. "Not everyone that says unto Me, Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom of God; but he that does the will of my Father which is heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye workers of iniquities." Pastors & Preachers should watch out for this end-time rejection You are now challenged to examine yourselves: Are you preaching cheap grace simply to grow your church rather than the Kingdom of God? Are you feeding the sheep of Christ with personal opinions, personal conviction, vendetta and lies rather than the centrality of the gospel which is the salvation in Christ Jesus? Are you merchandizing the sacred word of God for personal financial benefit? Are you, by your words, and unbiblical doctrines placing greater loads and yoke on those seeking the Salvation in Christ to scare them away back into the world of wolves? Are you practicing things that are contrary to what you preach? Are you adding fetish power to attract and place your congregation in bondage? Today, repent and return to the path of righteousness. Stop parading darkness as light. Let every preacher now arise courageously to the current end of age challenge by pulling down the stronghold of Satan through uncompromising messages of Christ. Only those who refuse to bow to the popular opinions of the current pervasive generation and ready to raise their loyalty to God higher than that of the State, even at the expense of their freedom or lives, can claim to be the authentic disciples or martyrs of the new age.