Thanks for your comments.

This is the ultimate good news! Although we can never live up to God's expectation, we are justified by our faith in Christ. When God looks at us in our sinful state, he sees his sinless Son.
It's hard to understand how people accept other religions than Christianity when all of the others require the person to do something to impress God in order to be saved. How can a mere human do anything to impact their being saved?

While you are right, it is important to have a little perspective on this. Part of the teaching on original sin says that in our sin we are enemies of God and hostile toward him. In other words, we don't want God to save us, we can save ourselves thank you very much. This is important in order to understand why people would reject the goodness so freely offered by God in his son Jesus.

It is also important to point out, that in remembering this, we are moved to compassion and not self-righteousness. If we remember this and somehow see ourselves as better than "those people," we have not responded in a way that reflects God's love and grace and mercy.

It is true that God is to be taken seriously and that we are not to merely look the other way when it comes to sin, but our dealings with sin needs to be gracious. There is a fine line and a big difference between good judgment/discernment and being judgmental. We want to exercise the former while not getting caught up in the latter.

Question, please. Some reformed churches (e.g. Baptist, Church of Christ) believe "once saved, always saved." Most traditional denominations (e.g Lutheran, Roman Catholic) believe that one can lose ones salvation through intentional acts.
At first blush, it appears that the reformed doctrine is very similar to Cheap Grace. Is this correct or am I missing something?

No. The reformed teaching of "once saved, always saved, " I believe, is connected to double predestination. Therefore, if God has chosen you to be in the saved group, then no matter what you do or what happens you will be saved. Cheap Grace is grace that is offered whether it is wanted or not. It is grace that is used cheaply so that we do not have to have accountability or any difficult discussion with one another about the way that we live our lives. Cheap Grace says that sin is not really sin and so let's just not worry about it. Cheap grace is you not asking me about my life and I will not ask you about yours.

Do not get me wrong. Cheap grace is no laughing or joking matter. It is one of the most horrific evils that has ever fallen on the church. Because what it ultimately does is to make a mockery of Jesus and the death he died for the sake of the world.

The bottom line in all of this, is that our God loves us. God's love for us is so great that we can barely even begin to comprehend it. God does not love us because of how good or right we are. God loves us because of how good and awesome He is. God is faithful and wants all creation to be restored. That is the bottom line. It is wonderful news and I pray that this is a constant source of strength and comfort for you. God's peace and blessings.

Sincerely,

Pastor CJ