But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Romans 10:8-10
This afternoon, the keynote speaker at a meeting I am attending described the disconnect we sometimes experience between our brain and our heart. He said, “knowledge without heart connection is hollow.” It reminded me of this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer I’ve shared several times over the years.
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
As Paul continues his description of salvation he includes that conviction that represents belief. Notice that believing in our heart is essential.
I’ve known many people who seem to be satisfied with a hollowed-out kind of faith. How many churches today encourage people to say a simple prayer and neglect the importance of true belief from the heart? Could we be offering cheap grace to those in need of a true change of heart?
0 Comments