-by Tim Bias
In worship recently we sang these words:
You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown, where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep, my faith will stand
And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours, and You are mine
Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You’ve never failed, and You won’t start now
Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior
– Hillsong United – Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)
I began to think about the grace of God and about when God calls God also provides what is needed to be faithful to the call. It seems to me that many of us have forgotten how awesome and powerful is the grace of a God. Instead of responding to God’s grace by trusting God’s action, we attempt to shape God’s grace to meet our own comfort or convenience.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book The Cost of Discipleship, makes the distinction between “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” Cheap grace is going to church to hear the comfortable words, the good news about God’s unconditional love. Then snuggling in it, as if it were a down comforter, leaving church with a warm, peaceful feeling, but not letting the one who brought that love into the world, who died for you because of that love, challenge the way you are now living or to make a difference in your living.
Bonhoeffer writes, “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a (person) man must knock. 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 one her/his life, and it is grace because it gives one 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 his Son: ‘Ye were bought at a price’, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior.
So let it be!
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Perhaps this is one of the greatest sins of the churchgoers: Instead of responding to God’s grace by trusting God’s action, we attempt to shape God’s grace to meet our own comfort or convenience.