Cheap Grace
Written sometime around Jan 14th, 2009 by Justin Brock. Category: SongsOne day during college a friend of mine – Tim Hagen, who also happens to be one of my favorite songwriters – popped into my room discouraged and half-confessed a sin he was struggling with. I say half-confessed because he followed it up with, “Oh well, I guess God will forgive me.”
To which I quipped, “Cheap grace, get me off the hook again.”
“Cheap grace, I’m an antinomian,” he said.1
“Cheap grace. Got no worries ’bout my sin,” I said.
“Cheap grace, Jesus loves me he’s my friend,” he concluded.
It was an instant, shake-and-bake song. We wrote the verses2 in about 30 minutes of fevered inspiration. I pulled the antinomians’ ditty from something I learned in one of Dr. Kenyon’s Comparative Religious Philosophies classes, and we had a sure-nuf’ song.
My reticence to sing it stems more from the difficulty most audiences have with satire than from the few gutteral phrases. It is, of course, satirical. It is also, unfortunately, one of the lenses through which many of us – including myself – view the sins we’d rather not part with. Let the satire and humor disarm you into hearing it – or reading it for now. Then maybe there’s the chance it’ll be a mirror to show you the idiocy of downplaying your sin. That’s what it is for me, anyhow.
Cheap Grace
If you’ve got a problem with conviction of sin
and the Devil’s pointing his finger again
just deny the truth and it will set you free
pray, “Jesus, pour some leniency on me!”Cheap Grace! Get me off the hook again!
Cheap Grace! I’m an antinomian!
Cheap Grace! Got no worries ’bout my sin!
Cheap Grace! Jesus loves me – He’s my friend!If that preacher’s making you squirm in your pew
and you get offended, well, here’s what you do:
Acting judgmental just ain’t no way to be!
You tell him, “Boy, you ain’t no better than me!”Cheap Grace! Get me off the hook again!
Cheap Grace! I’m an antinomian!
Cheap Grace! Got no worries ’bout my sin!
Cheap Grace! Jesus loves me – He’s my friend!Free from the Law -
Oh, blessed condition -
sin as I want and still have remission!
If obedience just ain’t your cup-o tea,
ask for, “the truth and some water, please”David and Bathsheeba, Rahab was a whore,
Noah proved a drunkard when his ship arrived ashore,
Abraham was known to tell a little lie -
If God’s people in the Bible did it why the hell can’t I?Cheap Grace! Get me off the hook again!
Cheap Grace! I’m an antinomian!
Cheap Grace! Got no worries ’bout my sin!
Cheap Grace! Jesus loves me – He’s my friend!
- An Antinomian is opposed to or denies the fixed meaning or universal applicability of moral law. Dr. Kenyon told us this little antinomian rhyme: Free from the Law – Oh, blessed condition – sin as I want and still have remission! [↩]
- One verse we wrote is not included whenever I play the song. I like satire, but this one just goes too far for me:
Jesus died upon the cross, I know this to be true,
so why not take advantage of all He’s done for you?
Why refrain from sinning, from rolling in the mud
when all it takes is one more drop of Jesus’ blood? [↩]