Day 7 of 10
Reconciliation Is Not Cheap
It cost the blood of Christ — and it will cost us too
Scripture Readings
Today's Reading
Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation."
Then read Ephesians 2:13-18: "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility."
Reflection
The word "reconciliation" has been cheapened by overuse. It appears in church mission statements and denominational resolutions and conference themes. But genuine reconciliation — the kind the Bible describes — is extraordinarily costly. It cost the blood of Christ.
Paul's vision in Ephesians 2 is breathtaking. The "dividing wall of hostility" he describes was both theological and ethnic — the wall in the Jerusalem temple that separated Jews from Gentiles, with an inscription warning that any Gentile who crossed it would be killed. Christ, Paul says, demolished that wall. He made the two groups one. He created "one new man in place of the two" (v. 15). But notice the cost: "in his flesh." Reconciliation was not accomplished by a conference or a resolution. It was accomplished by death.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's distinction between cheap grace and costly grace is one of the most important insights in modern theology. "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession." Applied to racial reconciliation, cheap grace looks like this: a church that says "we're sorry" without changing its practices, that posts about diversity without examining its leadership structures, that calls for unity without acknowledging the specific sins that created division.
Costly reconciliation looks different. It requires truth-telling — naming specific sins, not vaguely gesturing at "mistakes." It requires listening — not performative listening but the kind that actually changes what you do. It requires repentance — not just feeling bad but turning in a new direction. And it requires structural change — because if the systems that produced injustice remain intact, apologies are empty.
Tim Keller was characteristically sharp: "Reconciliation is not the absence of conflict but the presence of justice. Until there is justice, calls for reconciliation are premature and self-serving." This is an uncomfortable word for those who want to skip past justice and go straight to "can't we all just get along?" Genuine peace is not the absence of tension. It is the presence of righteousness.
But there is a danger on the other side too. Some voices suggest that reconciliation is impossible — that the divide is too deep, the harm too great, the power dynamics too entrenched. The gospel says otherwise. If Christ can reconcile God and humanity — bridging an infinite moral chasm — then no human divide is beyond his power. The question is not whether reconciliation is possible but whether we are willing to pay the cost.
Going Deeper
Second Corinthians 5 says that God gave the church "the ministry of reconciliation." This is not optional. It is the church's job. But genuine reconciliation follows the pattern of the cross: someone must bear a cost. For white Christians, this may mean giving up comfort, privilege, defensiveness, and the assumption that their experience is normative. For all Christians, it means trusting that the blood of Christ is sufficient to heal even the deepest wounds. What cost are you willing to bear?
Key Quotes
“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.”
“Reconciliation is not the absence of conflict but the presence of justice. Until there is justice, calls for reconciliation are premature and self-serving.”
Prayer Focus
Ask God to show you whether you have sought cheap reconciliation — papering over injustice with calls for unity — and to give you the courage for the costly kind.
Meditation
Ephesians 2 says Christ 'himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.' If the cross is the foundation of reconciliation, what does it mean that reconciliation always involves someone bearing a cost?
Question for Discussion
Bonhoeffer distinguished cheap grace from costly grace. Applied to racial reconciliation, what does 'cheap reconciliation' look like — and what would 'costly reconciliation' require of both white Christians and Christians of color?