Crushed Grapes

If you want a good time in this world, do not become a disciple of Jesus.

~Oswald Chambers

More and more Christians seem to aim to make the gospel attractive or at least make their church attractive to unbelievers. Entertainment increases while deep study of the Bible is minimized.

I do not mean to judge a church's motives by their programs, but I am concerned that we are passing on a new gospel and not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

One pastor I heard recently said he believes the reason so many youth leave the church after graduation is that what they are taught in church does not match with the reality of life. We have promised them happy lives. Then why aren't they happy? Why did someone betray them? Why did they lose someone they loved? Why are they experiencing doubts?

By offering our hearers a sweetness-and-light gospel and promising every taker a place on the sunny side of the brae, we not only cruelly deceive them, we guarantee also a high casualty rate among the converts on such terms.

We tell them that if they will accept Christ He will give them peace of mind, solve their problems, protect their families and keep them happy all day long. They believe us and come, and the first cold wind sends them shivering to some counselor to find out what has gone wrong; and that is the last we hear of many of them! ~A. W. Tozer

Because suffering is such a negative topic, we tend to weed it out of our teaching. Maybe we believe if we ignore it, it truly will go away. But it doesn't. Not only is suffering a part of life, Jesus warned his disciples there would be an even a greater portion for any who follow Him.

We are apt to think that Jesus Christ took all the bitterness and we get all the blessing. It is true that we get the blessing, but we must never forget that the wine of life is made out of crushed grapes; to follow Jesus will involve bruising in the lives of the disciples as the purpose of God did in His own life. ~Oswald Chambers

In the 1930s and 40s, Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw this cheapening of grace amongst the Christians he knew in Germany and other parts of the world. In The Cost of Discipleship, he warned us what was at stake. "Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."

Then what is the grace of which the biblical writers told us? What is the grace earned by Jesus and too costly for us to earn by our good efforts? Bonhoeffer goes on to explain this costly grace:

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs us our life, and it is grace because it gives us the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of God's Son: "you were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.

As the apostle Paul explains repeatedly, we have not been saved by works: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

But this is where many Christians stop. Yet Paul goes on—"For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (v 10; cf James 2:14-26).

Suffering and pain, doubts and uncertainty will come. Yet as we draw close to the heart of Jesus, as we live out our faith through works He has prepared for us to do, as we remain faithful even to death, we will begin to grasp true life, both here and in the life to come.

As those who have died to the flesh and been made alive in Christ, Jesus calls us to pick up our cross daily and follow Him. Obedience is the fruit of salvation.