What's
So Amazing About Grace?
By Philip Yancey
Zondevan Publishing
280 pages; $27.99
Book reviewed by Hon. David
Kilgour, MP Edmonton Southeast
For Spring 2000 Christian
Legal Journal
Virtually without exception,
every Christian I know who
has read this book thinks
it’s one of the most
important books on our faith
to come out in a long time.
Why? Grace, which to author
Yancey means God’s love
for the undeserving, i.e.
all of humankind, and ungrace
are possibly the two forces
in most active conflict with
each other daily across the
world. The author is one of
the most persuasive advocates
for Christianity writing in
English anywhere currently.
Grace for Yancey and many
others is the one thing the
world cannot provide; seeking
it is probably ultimately
why most people attend church.
In the author’s words,
"I rejected the church
for a time because I found
so little grace there. I returned
because I found grace nowhere
else."
Many active churchgoers could
say the same.
The genius of the book is
that it manages to convey,
rather than explain, grace
in numerous street level situations.
Once chapter, for example,
transpires the parable of
the Prodigal son into a modern
setting. A teenage girl leaves
her parents and ends up as
a prostitute in a large city
until she gets ill and in
desperation boards a bus for
her hometown. Her parents
and forty relatives await
her at the terminal with a
"welcome home" banner.
Grace at its best!
In South Africa, Nelson Mandela
broke a chain of ungrace when
he left 26 years of imprisonment
and called not for revenge
but forgiveness and reconciliation.
When Bishop Desmond Tutu insisted
on forgiveness to begin the
process of reconciliation, F.W. De Klerk finally did
apologize for apartheid. Only
victims can forgive and full
disclosure is required before
it can be granted. As Yancey
puts it, Christians can give
to the world a culture that
"upholds grace and forgiveness."
On grace avoidance, Yancey
notes that the community that
made Jesus angriest was the
one that he most resembled
on the surface: the Pharisees.
He obeyed the Torah and quoted
and supported leading Pharisees,
who were model citizens of
their day. Their legalisms
He found toxic: for example,
their expressions of love
for God had evolved into ways
of impressing others. Pray,
He said, privately without
show.
In short, this is a book
for Christians, including
lawyers, in all places and
seasons.
