philpot@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Andrew G. Philpot) (08/12/90)
I would like to know who came up with the following quotes/ideas and what they mean. Thanks. 1. "Sin boldly" 2. "Cheap grace" (vs. costly grace?) -- *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* * Andrew Philpot * Stanford Univ. * philpot@cs.stanford.edu * *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* [1 is from Luther, though it omits the context and so may lead to misinterpretation. I'm sure one of our Lutheran friends will give the whole thing. As I understand it, Luther was not proposing that people should choose sin rather than following God, but rather that we should be able to live our lives boldly, in the confidence that when we sin -- as we surely will -- God will still accept us. At times religion has a tendency to create a morbid fascination with sin, leading people to set up large numbers of rules to try to avoid it, and generally to avoid living a life that reflects the joyful presence of the Spirit. Ideally Christians should focus their attention on Christ, not themselves. An exaggerated concern with sin leads us to spend too much time worrying about our own spiritual condition. 2 is most likely intended as a quotation from Bonhoeffer's book "The Cost of Discipleship". He felt that Luther's concepts (including "sin boldly") had been misused, leading to a "cheap grace" that proclaims grace as something automatic, that need not involve any change in us. The book emphasizes that grace is a call to die. I recommend the book strongly. Note that 2 does not contradict 1, when both are properly understood. Bonhoeffer was in fact a Lutheran. --clh]