CHEAP RELIGION

The German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, once spoke very sharply about “billige Gnade,” that is, cheap grace. He meant that in many sermons the grace of God is preached without mentioning the Law. That is a preaching that does not alarm and does not offend. In the beginning of the Fifties, Dr. H. Berkhof uttered the same complaint in his important though little book on the crisis of middle-orthodoxy. And now in 1967 there is much more reason to be alarmed about the fact that today a cheap religion is presented and desired.

Exactly what do we mean by cheap religion? We cannot say that religion does not cost anything and that no money is given for religious purposes. Indeed, there is a gratifying willingness to give, although we realize that in the lives of many church members the church is the last item on their budget.

But the word “cheap” is not meant to be understood literally, but rather figuratively. Cheap religion is a religion that costs men as little as possible spiritually. That is the popular religion today. People are not against religion. They think religion is a good thing. The pastor has a necessary function. When people are faced by death, the church must speak a good word. People would gladly go to heaven and it is expected of the church and the minister that this shall be said. May one not expect that if he is a church member and is considered a Christian? I always remember what a rabbi once said to me, “In the final analysis we all do the same work. People expect a priest, a minister, or a rabbi, to talk them into heaven. That is the main thing. I have watched people of various churches, but they are all the same.”

Alas, there is a large element of truth in this remark.

That is where cheap religion fits in. That is a religion without conversion, without a true change of life, without a true change of heart, without sacrifice, without conflict, without a hatred of sin and a fleeing from it, and without a pursuing of all righteousness.

That is becoming typical of the christendom of our day. I am not thinking of any certain church, although it may be more prevalent in one church than in another. But in the final analysis, these same symptoms are observable in our own church. It is a process that penetrates the whole of Christendom. When we speak of the decay, the backsliding, the spiritual slackening, it is caused by this cheap religion which hollows out the true life of faith. Therefore, there is so much conformity to the world in the life of many. That conformity does not in the first place consist in outward things, but rather in the way we view and experience the world.

When church members view the world in the same manner as non-church members, there is conformity to the world. Cheap religion, then, is a form of conformity to the world. Men want to be religious, and want to be called Christian, but are unwilling to do or leave anything for it. They want to live their own lives, and would surely not want to be considered backward. They insist upon their own pleasures, and upon their rest. The church must not take away certain pleasures, nor in any way rob them of their rest. If that is done they protest openly or secretly, and their interest slackens.

We can recognize this cheap religion in the bringing up of the children where they get their way in all things and nothing is withheld from them, even in matters that were formerly forbidden.

We see it also in the attitude toward the church. They take the easy way with their church membership. They want to be free, and to go to church when they please. They think catechism is hardly necessary any more, and readily give permission to neglect it. They make no real attempt to exercise fellowship with each other. They cannot give up their fellowship with an unchurched colleague. They may not withhold from the children anything that might be good for them culturally; they must go along in these dynamic times.

The background is the cheaper religion in their personal life. If religion is only a varnish, and not a personal ownership, they have only a cheap opinion of it. They do not sacrifice much for it. There is no warring against sin, against love of ease, against pride and self-righteousness. They maintain themselves and would cover it with grace, if that were possible. But that our old man is crucified with Christ, yea, dead, and that we must offer ourselves to Him as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. That is a beautiful sentence in an old creed, but for many it is no reality, not the practice of godliness.

A professor at the Free University stated lately, “I think the second service a corruption of the Sunday as a day of rest, and then you must not come with the argument of the doorkeeper in the house of God.”

I think such an utterance is a sample of the cheap religion that is becoming general.

People do not care to go to church anymore. They want to decide what the day of rest shall be. They try to be a Christian in the cheapest possible manner.

When this becomes the common practice, and in all churches many are doing it, and when it is officially approved, then church life slowly vanishes and at last comes to nothing.

“Grace has become cheap, sacrifices are not asked of us. But what has become cheap has no value either anymore.” (Berkhof)

Just before this the Reformed professor wrote, “Another symptom of our shying away from the Law is the fact that we call the last remnants of a Christian style of life in our churches (in matters of Sabbath-keeping, family customs, recreation, etc.) legalistic, without being able to put new and better forms in their place.”

That was aptly written, and I think that the statement of the professor quoted above also falls under this judgment.

In all churches we need in these times a positive practice of faith. Cheap religion will not stand the test.

“The children of this generation will ask their parents in surprise what they actually expected of the gospel, and they will feel sure that they will not lose anything of real value if they pay no more heed to this article of family tradition.”

That is sharply, but truly, spoken.

Therefore let everyone, personally and as a family, search themselves in what way they are making religion cheap.

J. H. Velema — Translated from “Be Wekker”

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