What's So Amazing About Grace?

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Twenty or 30 years ago, Christians weren’t as aligned politically as they are now. We have an entirely new set of questions to ask ourselves, and to seek biblical guidance on. How can Christians hold to their values in a society that is becoming more pluralistic and more secular? And can we do that in a grace-filled way? But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, 4:4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:3-4). C. S. Lewis, a strong defender of Christianity, came in late, sat down, and asked, “What’s the rumpus about?” When he learned that it was a debate about the uniqueness of Christianity, he immediately commented, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.” For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error. 2:19 Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality. For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved (2 Pet. 2:18-19).

Philip Yancey Quotes About Grace | A-Z Quotes Philip Yancey Quotes About Grace | A-Z Quotes

I almost stopped reading What’s So Amazing About Grace? shortly after I started. I was initially hoping for a book that was more of a theological primer on grace. Yet right in the introduction, Philip Yancey explained that his book is most certainly not a theological primer. Despite the split in expectations, Yancey’s book was excellent. There are many anecdotes from his life and a number of varied stories all connecting to grace. The result was not only an enjoyable read but also an insightful one. The apostle Paul makes this fact clear in the book of Romans. Having concluded his discussion of three types of people, the immoral (1:18-32), the moralist (2:1-16), and the religious (2:17-3:18), he then gives his conclusion regarding man’s condition—all the world is under condemnation and stands guilty before God (Rom. 3:9-20, 23).

Grace, then, is the free and undeserved provision and love received from another; it especially epitomizes the characteristic attitude of God in providing salvation for a sinful world. For believers in Christ, the term grace is virtually synonymous with the gospel message of God’s gift of unmerited salvation in Jesus Christ and includes everything associated with our life in Christ from beginning to end. Grace Governs and Empowers the Christian Life In Galatians chapter 5, Paul lists love and kindness as two of the fruits that should be seen in a believer’s life through the influence of the Holy Spirit. Kindness, mercy, and love are part of what it means to be a Christian; they are part of the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in a person’s life. This is Yancey’s indictment of the Christian church—that it too little embodies these kinds of virtues. The church needs to be less judgmental, less negative, more loving. We should pause here to admit that it is exceedingly dangerous to say anything in opposition to an argument like that. One cross word about it, and the reviewer unwittingly condemns himself as a judgmental, unloving negativist, and legitimizes the complaint of the book. So I suppose we must begin with the premise that pointing out error, and that even with some gusto, is not necessarily a bad thing. Jesus, the Apostle Paul, and even Philip Yancey all do it quite frequently. For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith (Rom. 12:3; see also Rom. 12:6; 15:15; 1 Cor. 3:10; Gal. 2:9; Eph. 3:2, 7, 8).

What’s So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey (Review What’s So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey (Review

In What’s So Amazing About Grace? I retell that story, setting it in Traverse City, Michigan with a young woman featured as the prodigal. I’ve tried writing parables, and it’s hard work! Yet Jesus spun off parable after parable, seemingly off-the-cuff, and they speak poignantly to us some two thousand years later. Yancey used the story of Babette’s Feast to demonstrate the example of grace by the giver. Babette gave all she had—10,000 francs—to bestow a feast upon the tiny community. Grace always costs its giver something, and this element is too easily overlooked and taken for granted. To do so treats poorly the grace that God offers through Jesus. Yancey discussed a weekend event he helped facilitate to build community between a group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. A Jewish representative commented: “I believe we Jews have a lot to learn from you Christians about forgiveness. I see no other way around some of the logjams [between reconciling our groups]. And yet it seems so unfair, to forgive injustice. I am caught between forgiveness and justice.”In other words, without God’s grace and mercy we have no hope of obtaining a relationship with God. In terms of our own works or effort or when left to our own abilities, we are like the dead in some horror movie who walk about in the night. The gospel message is the story of the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the present session of the Lord Jesus Christ at God’s right hand. As the personification of God’s grace, it is little wonder that in the book of Acts, this message about the Lord Jesus Christ is called “the gospel of grace” and “a message of grace” (see Acts 14:3; 20:24; 32). Grace Is the Means of Salvation He is the one who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not based on our works but on his own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began, (1 Tim. 1:9). Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure (literally, “the good deposit”) which has been entrusted to you.(2 Tim. 1:13-14, NASB, emphasis mine). But most often, those who have never gone to the depths of sin like Newton think they do not need as much of the grace of God as did Newton or some notorious criminal. If we fail to see ourselves as wretched sinners, grace will not be so amazing and awesome. As Lutzer so appropriately put it regarding people who do not see their need of grace,

Grace: An Interview with The Shock and Scandal of God’s Grace: An Interview with

Our message is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the message of salvation through His person and work. That sounds simple enough, but it is not nearly as simple as it sounds. The simple message, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved,” has been assaulted from early on. Since the message is crucial to salvation and since anathema is pronounced on those who misrepresent it or change it (Gal. 1:6-9), we need to know the message and guard it carefully. If we are to be true to the Bible and to the grace of our Lord, we need to be able to share the gospel clearly and avoid the distortions.A beautiful illustration of the amazing aspect of God’s gra The definition of grace, implicit though it may be, as “pleasantness” and “niceness” is unchanged through the book. It is interesting to look through it and pinpoint whom exactly Yancey saddles with the label “ungrace,” and whom he praises and defends as a model of grace. The pattern emerges that everyone whom Yancey would define as kind or nice is gracious, and everyone who is mean and unkind is “ungrace.” Sometimes he gets it right. Nazis and murderers are condemned, while those who forgive Nazis and murderers are praised. Racists are condemned; Martin Luther King, Jr. and those who minister to racists are praised. There are some profound reasons for saying thanks to a man like Martin Luther King, Jr. and for condemning the likes of Adolf Hitler. Those reasons have to do with sin and righteousness. Yancey’s judgments at first seem to have that depth of insight, at least until one realizes the pattern of those he praises and condemns. Yancey’s criticisms turn out to pivot not at all on sin, but on pleasantness and niceness—abortion protestors, people who would call homosexuality a sin, and anyone who writes a negative review of a Yancey book are all “angry,” “vicious,” and “vituperative.” (p.227-228) By contrast, Bill Clinton, homosexuals, and even divorcees are lauded and pitied as people who have been the targets of Christian “hatred” (p.226) and “judgment.” (p.11 and 31). Perhaps the closest thing to a succinct definition Yancey gives is on p.231 when he defines his word “ungrace” as, quite simply, “meanness and inflexibility.” It may sound less than profound, but that is precisely the dividing line between the good and evil in Yancey’s world, between the “grace” and the “ungrace” in his mind. Certainly he praises and criticizes the right people at various times in the book, but it is hardly worth much if that judgment is little more than a summary pronouncement of “nice” or “mean.”

Grace: Why It’s So Amazing and Awesome | Bible.org Grace: Why It’s So Amazing and Awesome | Bible.org

But we have seen that with God’s grace there are no strings attached. What He gives us comes to us free and clear and this is hard for people to accept. The fundamental reason people have difficulty with this concept is that we are born spiritually blind. Indeed, before salvation we face a double blindness. Because we are born spiritually dead and with that there is a natural blindness or darkened understanding. However, we also face the added blindness caused by Satan’s deception and this especially applies to understanding our own condition and our need of the redemptive work of Christ (see Eph. 2:1f; 4:17-19; 2 Cor. 4:3-4).If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1:9 But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. 1:10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us (1 John 1:8-10). One of the reasons people fail to realize their true spiritual condition and need of grace is because they make comparisons (themselves or others) with the wrong object or standard. The issue is not how we compare to another or how they compare to us or to someone else, but how we all measure up when compared to God and His incomparable holiness. Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. Of course it is better to be a decent citizen than to be John Wayne Gacy. Of course it is better to be honest than to be embezzling funds at work. From our point of view these distinctions are very significant, and they are also important to God. But spiritually speaking, even the best of us is still an infinite distance from God. If we forget this, it is because we have overestimated our goodness and underestimated God’s holiness. 14 What’s So Amazing About Grace? is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway. But such ideas are contrary to the revelation of God in Scripture. According to the Bible, we all fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Thus, in view of God’s perfect holiness and what sinful people deserve from God (His wrath and eternal judgment) and in view of the futility of our works, grace becomes absolutely amazing. The word amazing means “to effect great wonder, to astonish.” Some synonyms are “mind-boggling, mind-staggering, surprising.” It is no wonder that mankind has trouble with grace because it is simply not something that we expect. It boggles the mind and catches us totally off guard because we naturally think we must do something or have some part in our salvation that will make us worthy. This may take a number of forms—salvation by religious good works, some form of mysticism, some form of religious ritual, or simply by trying to be a good moral person. But Jesus said,