Is Grace Cheap or Costly?

One thing that Christians disagree on is whether grace is cheap or costly. First, what does this mean.
What is cheap grace?

• Commonly viewed as the grace of the gospel
• No strings attached
• No repentance is necessary 

What is costly grace?

• The grace of the gospel
• The bible say that we bought at a price. (1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Cor. 7:22-23)
• We have to repent to become a Christian.

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:25-27

This is what Jesus says we must do to become a Christian. This is the cost of becoming Jesus' disciple. Hat is strong wording for "you must love your family a lot less than you love God." Here is how Mathew wrote down Jesus' statement:

"Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Mathew 10:37-39

The two very condition for become a disciple are this:
1. Hate
2. Die
Hate is a strong way to say you must love yourself much less than you love Jesus and Take up your cross is a strong way to say that you must die to yourself.

"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.' "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won't he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
Luke 14:28-33

The cross ought to be a living reminder of Jesus' suffering.
True disciple count the costs and consider Jesus worthy of their complete surrender
Count the cost before you call yourself Christs disciple.
1. Put Jesus above all other relationships
2. Bear your cross daily
3. Renounce your possessions  and repent of selfishness
To lose your life to Christ is to gain

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:7-11

Grace is not cheap. It's costly. Jesus paid for grace to be obtainable and if we understand what Grace really is, we will serve God. Not because we have to, but because we want to. Understand Grace means understanding that you can't repay God and because you can't repay God, you willing become his servant.

Mercy and Grace

One thing that took me a while to tell the difference between is mercy and grace. I always thought that they where synonyms, but they sure are not.
So first, I'll start with mercy. If you show mercy, then you're NOT doing what someone deserves.
Now I'll do grace. If you show grace, then your're doing MORE what someone deserves.

God saved us by grace and through mercy.

For it is by grace you have been saved
Ephesians 2:8a

He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
Titus 3:5a

Here is one of the only verses that is about both grace and mercy.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

In the case of salvation, God has to show us both mercy AND grace. Mercy because, as Christians, we are not going to hell. And grace because, as Christians, we are going to heaven.
And, even after that, God shows grace by blessing us and mercy by forgiving us

But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.
Nehemiah 9:31

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
Psalms 103:8

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
Romans 9:14-21

God made us. God is free to be gracious and merciful.

"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'?
Isaiah 45:9

Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?" You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?
Isaiah 29:15-16

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
James 2:12-13

Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
Jude 1:21