Finished Yancey's
What's So Amazing About Grace last week. I really liked it. I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars. This book was amazing! (Pun intended.) I really would suggest that any Christian read it, especially those in ministry. My only critique is that he only talked about one aspect of grace, and that is unmerited favor. i.e., God's love and mercy outpoured to undeserving people. (Eph. 2:8-9) He makes no mention or implication of passages such as I Corinthians 15:10 or Titus 2:11-13. What I'm saying is, grace also includes enabling power. i.e., God giving us the power and desire to do His will.
I would re-read this book as well. It's that good. Yancey does an excellent job of pulling illustrations, quotes, and stories from all cultures and time to illustrate his points. He's got a chapter on forgiveness, a chapter on homosexuality, and so much more. Let me just quote extensively. I think that'll suffice:
"We're all bastards and God loves us anyway."
"I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least"
"Romantic love is the closest experience of pure grace."
"The world starves for grace."
"I learn grace by being graced."
"Grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us."
"God reserves the right to alter the rules of retribution."
"Paul harped on grace because he knew what could happen if we believe we have earned God's love. In the dark times, if perhaps we badly fail God, or if for no good reason we simply feel unloved, we would stand on shaky ground. We would fear that God might stop loving us when he discovers the real truth about us."
"Yes, he's very fond of me."
"Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God loves us more and nothing we can do to make God loves us less."
"Grace alone melts ungrace."
"Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear."
"We're all oddballs but God loves us anyhow."
"I began to understand that every gay person has heard the message of judgment from the church - again and again, nothing but judgment."
"Grace dies when it becomes us versus them."
"Grace has about it a scent of scandal."
"It is the saints who have a sense of sin."
"Christ accepts us as we are, but when he accepts us, we cannot remain as we are...Every call to
conversion, includes a call to discipleship, to Christ-likeness."
"What God wants is not a good performance, but my heart."
"Blue jeans made a person spiritually suspect."
"The solution to sin is not to impose an ever-strict code of behavior. It is to know God."
"Dispensing God's grace is the Christian's main contribution."
"Every word we say or action we take should reflect God's grace."
"The United Nations reports that over ten thousand people starve to death each day, and most of you don't give a sh--. However, what is even more tragic is that most of you are more concerned about the fact that I just said a bad word than you are about the fact that ten thousand people are going to die today." -quoting Tony Campolo
And there's so much more...So just read the book. You'll be a better Christian for it.
