One of the best things you can do for your walk in the faith of Christ is to go all-in. Go all or nothing. Do not take the road of 'for the most part." And there is good reason for this. It is simply this. If you leave yourself an "out," an option to step back, a "maybe later", or "another time", the step back to the start line becomes much harder to take. It may be one step back, but it takes almost two steps forward to get back to the place you were. Then comes along another step, another choice, a choice that might not have been so difficult to make if you had embraced the previous one and not sidestepped it. And now, being much harder to accept, you have to defer and turn away again. Do this yet again, and the next thing you know, you have walked yourself right out of the will and purposes of God, and only He can restore you.
If this happens to you, and we have all been there, there will be no amount of good works, efforts, or sacrifices that will bring you back to where you were. The only thing that will avail will be heartfelt repentance, and that, only as God gives you grace for.
"...if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil... - 2 Tim. 2:25-26
This is why "cheap grace" is so perilous. You might believe that because God loves us so greatly, He would never ask us do do this, that or the other, or having failed, He loves you all the same. To a point, you are correct. God does love you, and He will never leave you or forsake you. But you, by your own choices, will have shown a preference to step away from God, and it will often be necessary for you to suffer the consequences of that choice before you will be enabled to turn back.
The First World War was called the "trench war." Trenches were dug all across Europe, by both sides. Often, the distance between opposing trenches were only a few hundred feet. The ground that lay between the two sides was called "no man's land." Anyone caught in this area was liable to be fired upon by both sides. And so it is when you walk in a lukewarm, cherry-picking, cheap grace faith. You will suffer the Lord's corrections and efforts to draw you back into a faithful walk with Him. The devil will be doing all he can to lure you further away from God, and turn your thoughts and ways against Him. You will be caught in the middle, perennially trapped on the wrong side of a constantly revolving door. God is faithful to uphold His end of the covenant agreement you made with Him when you called on Him for salvation. He is purposed, through His love for you, to keep you and fulfill all His good will and purposes towards you. But if the devil has hold of you, woe to you, for he will be pulling in the opposite direction, with perhaps more strength than you can receive from God, the longer you side with him. Two against One, and even if that One is God, you risk being shredded unless you come to the place where you completely side with God.
Cheap grace has helped no one. The Gospel is farily straightforward, and those who choose to take God seriously will be the ones who will have the most victorious walk, and enjoy the fellowship and communion with the Lord while doing so.
So what is 'cheap grace?' Cheap grace is the lie that says that you don't have to lay it down for God. Cheap grace says you can have your cake and eat it too. Cheap grace has its eyes and focus on God's stuff, to live a happy life here and now, with hopes of eternity at the end. Cheap grace paints God as "sugar-daddy in the sky," the celestial Walmart where you can get everything you want. Cheap grace says that the road of discipleship is an "IF" and that makes discipleship an option (which it is, but woe to the one who decides not to bother). Cheap grace is a cross-less grace. It becomes impotent to save, to change, or to deliver, but it will give you the delusion that such has taken place.
Furthermore, those who pursue "cheap grace" are the very stones of stumbling the world uses as a defence, a justification, an excuse to not waste their time with God or church. You give them every reason and excuse to blow raspberries at God, because they see nothing in you of what God has promised. They see no hope of salvation, no change, nothing different in you than what they already have in the world. And the devil in them points to you and says, "See. Told you God can't do anything for you." The first century church made up of rough and unlearned disciples overturned the world of their day for one simple reason: they were sold out to God, and willing to pay whatever price was necessary to stand witness to the reality of God, His salvation and His promises. And even if none of these things seemed apparent to the world, it was with them, and they were willing to die if need be for the furtherance of His Gospel. Can anyone say that is true of the North American church today?
God's grace is His grace. You can't counterfeit it. You can't pretend with it. God's grace is given to enable you to live a victorious life in the faith of Christ, not to live your life out in a fur-lined grave. God's grace is not a hall-pass for your here and now, but the means by which you can embrace the glory that He has called you into.
You will often hear that "we are not under law, but under grace," usually as an excuse to not obey something written in the Word of God. But that is not what that verse means. To be under the law is to be dominated by the flesh, to be dominated by the old nature, unable to do anything about it but follow rules in the hopes that these will constrain your worst aspects and attributes. At best, it is a self-righteous coverup that denies God, denies Christ, and denies the power of the Holy Spirit to change you. God's grace, on the other hand, far from being a hall-pass that permits failure and lukewarness, is access to all He is, all He has, for the express purpose of overcoming the devil and his wiles, in your own life, so you can serve God in His labours to help others in theirs.
To be blunt, there is no such thing as "cheap" grace. All it will do is lead you down the broad way that leads to destruction, and it isn't grace at all. It is a rose-strewn highway to hell. It is for this reason, I would admonish you that from the very beginning, make up your mind that God will have the final word on every aspect of your life. Pray for Him to make this more than just a decision or commitment on your part, but the living reality of your life. You may not like it much in the beginning. There are a lot of grave clothes that need to be loosed from your old "Lazarus," but I can guarantee you, if you persevere, you will enter into a joy unspeakable, an unshakeable knowledge of the love of God that defies measurement and words, and an eternity beyond our present capacity to comprehend.
"But the God of all grace, who has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." - 1 Pet. 5:10
God's grace is freely given to all who ask, but it will cost you all you are to appropriate it. That doesn't make it "works." That doesn't make it "self-effort." And it isn't an issue of being saved and justified of life. But it IS an issue of showing forth the fruits of your repentance, and the working out of what it is that God worked into you through Jesus Christ. And to get even more to the point, if this is not what you want from God, then ask yourself, why did you call on Him in the first place? Do you really want His salvation, in the fullness of all that means, or do you just want a balm for your conscience, an easier life? A way to continue to 'have your cake and eat it too?"
If you want all God has to offer, if you want all God can do for you, done in you,if you want to know and enjoy God, and love Him as He knows and loves you, then there is only one way, and that is the way of all-in. Because if you are not all in, mark my word, you will end up all-out. The devil will see to it.