NO CHEAP GRACE
1 Chronicles 21:18-22:1
But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.” (21:24)
chapter 21
18. Then the angel of the LORD ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
19. So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the LORD.
20. While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves.
21. Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.
22. David said to him, "Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price."
23. Araunah said to David, "Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this."
24. But King David replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing."
25. So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site.
26. David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27. Then the LORD spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
28. At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.
29. The tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon.
30. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
chapter 22
1. Then David said, "The house of the LORD God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel."
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
1. After his repentance, David was told by the angel of the Lord to build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah (or Ornan) the Jebusite (19), who would have been happy to offer him his property free of charge (23). But David insisted on paying the full price, saying, “I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing” (24).
2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian and pastor, defined cheap grace as the idea that people can receive the benefits of Christianity without the cost. We can see that David refused to receive the benefits of forgiveness of sin without the cost. It is true that we are saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8). But proponents of cheap grace deny, maybe not in words but in practice, that the grace of salvation should accompany discipleship and taking up the cross as well (Lk 14:27).
3. David paid the full price for the site and built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. And he called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven (25-26a). Later, this site would become the place where Solomon built the temple of the Lord (22:1).
Prayer: Father, thank you for sacrificing your one and only Son for my salvation. I accept this unfathomable grace by faith and receive your call to discipleship. Amen.
One Word: Jesus is my Savior and my Lord TESTIMONY