What's
So Amazing About Grace?
by Philip Yancey. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House,
1997. 292 pp.
Reviewed by Dave Schwier
Before publication of “What’s
So Amazing About Grace?”, Philip Yancey told good friend
Larry Crabb, “this is the one book God put me on this earth
to write”.
Soon after, Yancey admitted it contained
chapters so controversial it could damage his reputation as a
Christian author beyond repair.
Now isn’t that enough to get
you chomping at the bit?
The subject of grace, and the seeming
lack of it in the modern American church, has been the focus of
more than a few Christian books this decade, the catalyst being
Chuck Swindoll’s “Grace Awakening.”
Similar to Swindoll, Yancey, editor
at large for Christianity Today, argues he tends to find
more “ungrace” in the church today than grace. However,
this book contains neither a theological study of grace, nor a
hard-nose critique of graceless American churches.
An anonymous reviewer from Atlanta
on the Amazon.com web page has this comment, “This book ought
to be called, ‘What’s so Graceful about Forgiveness.’
Yancey does not get into the truly freeing aspect of God’s
grace that transforms people’s lives and heal the broken
hearted: that we are new creations in Christ, that the indwelling
spirit of Christ is what makes our forgiving other possible and
that it is only by abiding in Christ that we can live a type of
life that was formerly impossible (the Christian life).”
But hold on a minute. That has never
been Yancey’s style. Instead of a nutrient filled nugget
to guide us in our everyday growth with God, this book offers
the standard Yancey fare of food for thought.
It’s as if Yancey were giving
an unassuming nudge, saying, “Hey, how about this? Just a
thought I had.”
Twenty chapters of anecdotes (some
quite odd), travel stories, rewrites of old Christianity Today
columns, and a much needed critique of Christian involvment in
politics, are all loosely held together under the thread of grace.
Two of my favorite chapters make
this book well worth picking up. The first, a chapter called "Lovesick
Father", is the retelling of Jesus’ grace parables in
modern dress. You may find yourself reaching for the tissues.
The second is a brief look at how Christians through history have
been perpetrators of grace, even under incredible persecution.
Yancey’s career jeopardizing
subject matter comes in the form of a story about a former Christian
leader, once in the seat of religious power, later turned homosexual
activist. Yancey does not let this fact deter him from his friendship
with the man, and even follows him to a gay rally in Washington
D.C., purely as an observer.
Though I do not know the cause of
the controversy, I suppose Yancey’s concern did not lie with
the story itself, but that he fails to condemn the man for his
actions.
Ultimately, the book can be summed
up in two sentences. When Jesus was on earth, he hung out with
and risked his reputation to love and have compassion on unloved,
dejected and rejected people in need of God’s grace. Why
should we do anything less, not forgetting where we came from
before God saved us?
This point is made in a hardest hitting,
and maybe inadvertently prophetic, story called “A Home for
Bastards.”
It’s the true story of a young
man involved in the Civil Rights struggle. His best friend is
gunned down by a policeman, and a friend challenges him whether
he believes God loves the killer as much as the victim.
Concluding that the Bible does indeed
affirm that God’s grace applies as much to the racist as
his dead friend, the man begins a life-work of ministering to
racist “red-necks”.
The fallout from today’s PC
culture is the creation of more labels for people to be shunned
by society. Untouchables just out of the reach of God’s grace,
if you will.
In Jesus' day, it was the tax-gatherers
and lepers. In our day, this could mean the white supremacists,
the gay-bashers and other perpetrators of so-called “hate-crimes”,
even televangelist con-men and women.
Once again, the Bible states it more
clearly than anyone else: what’s so amazing about grace is
that it's the great equalizer. "For all have sinned, and
fall short of the glory of God."
All of us need it, none of us deserve
it.
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