The article Costly Grace by Dietrich Bonhoeffer can be compared to the animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. The article applies to the series because Bonhoeffer talks about how cheap grace is “the deadly enemy of our Church”. In the finale of Avatar, Aang is faced with a complicated decision of what to do with the villain of the series, Emperor Ozai. Aang must stop him from destroying the world but does not want to kill him. This applies to Bonhoeffer’s article in that Aang is fighting for costly grace instead of cheap grace which would be the killing of Emperor Ozai. According to Bonhoeffer, “cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.” Aang realizes that his duty is to put an end the evil actions of Ozai but not to put an end to the Emperor’s life. In the end, aang decides to take away the Emperor’s abilities which have enabled him to sin and destroy the world. This brings about an end to the evil without an end to the being responsible for it. Aang chooses a noble path in which he takes no lives but still fulfills his duty in protecting the world.
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