Grace is the church's great distinctive. It's the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world.
In What's So Amazing About Grace?, award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. What is grace? If grace is God's love for the undeserving, then what does it look like in action? If Christians are its sole dispensers, how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? In his most personal and provocative book ever, Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace's life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know What's So Amazing About Grace?
Winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award, the Christian Book of the Year Award, and the Retailers Choice Award.
On the heels of Philip Yancey’s best-selling The Jesus I Never Knew comes this equally insightful exploration of grace, the most powerful force in the universe and our only hope for love and forgiveness. Winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award, the Christian Book of the Year Award, and the Retailers Choice Award.
Popular writer and speaker Yancey, who wrote the bestselling The Jesus I Never
Knew, has never shied away from tackling tough issues. Here he takes on the
idea of grace, which, according to C.S. Lewis, is the mark that distinguishes
Christianity from other religions. According to Yancey, grace is amazing
because it need not be earned: it is bestowed unconditionally by God.
Contemporary society, on the other hand, requires people to gain approval for
their actions by following certain moral precepts and rules. Yancey combines
personal anecdotes, historical events and biblical stories to illustrate the
power of grace in what he calls a "world of ungrace." For example, a chapter
titled "The Lovesick Father" recounts the story of a young girl who runs away
from home and, through a variety of circumstances, goes from living a life of
luxury to a life in the streets not knowing when she might eat next or where
she might sleep for the night. When she decides to return home, she is fearful
that her father will scold her, but the "lovesick father" meets her at the bus
station with open and forgiving arms to take her home. This is one of the many
stories Yancey tells to illustrate the amazing and powerful quality of divine
grace. The book's anecdotal style is often frustrating, but Yancey's measured
prose and his insights into the stories make the book worth reading. (Sept.)
Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars(4.5 out of 5 stars)
8 of 15 Reviews Showing:(View All Reviews)
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by L W Warfel (Southern Illinois), April 15, 2004
Author Philip Yancey offers a refreshing viewpoint of grace in his spiritually challenging book What’s So Amazing About Grace? He effectively uses the scriptures as a lens to focus on the life we lead today. His illustrations help the reader to turn that lens on himself or herself – not in a critical way, but in a soul-opening way. He has chosen some of the most startling and effective illustrations I have ever encountered. This book, already being used in our Christian colleges, needs to be required reading for anyone who takes his or her Christian life seriously.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Sue (Flushing, NY), December 03, 2002
Philip Yancey is the most amazing writer I've ever encountered. He writes beautifully but yet to the point where we are struggling.
This book has changed me from legalist to a person who thanks God for Grace. I wish I could write as well as he does. I thank God for using him as an amazing Christian writer. He writes books that touch people and I am one of those who've been touched by the Holy Spirit working through his books. If you haven't read it yet.. I strongly urge you to read it with an open mind.
I don't remember on which book he wrote this.. but he wrote that he is not trying to change other people's view but he's only asking people to be open-minded so people can see things from his perspective.
And I saw many things that I've never noticed through his eyes.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by David R. Bess (Charleston, West Virginia), June 04, 2002
Philip Yancey strikes a chord here that resounds in the heart of every true believer. He speaks of the unique nature of grace, and how it is desperately needed in the Church today. Yancey confronts modern Christians with the problem of "ungrace," the striking absence of the grace that so characterized Jesus Christ.
While targeted primarily towards conservative Christians, this work also applies to those persons who have more liberal views. Believers on both ends of the spectrum can be sorely lacking in grace, a quality that can only be shown by the Church.
Up to this point, the best modern book I have read on grace is "Grace Awakening" by Charles Swindoll. Yancey's work surpasses Swindoll's volume by virtue of its contemporary applications and illustrations. There are few recent books on grace available today, and this one is the best of which I am aware.
I recommend this book HIGHLY to all conservative Christians, especially persons who would identify themselves with the "Religious Right." Yancey truly emphasizes the fundamentals here. One note of caution: if you DON'T want your heart to be warmed by God's grace and compassion, then avoid this book!
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Sue (Morgantown, WV), December 27, 2001
When I was reading this book, God taught me alot about grace. I hope everyone who reads this book comes away with a new way of seeing things like I did. Learn to see things through grace colored glasses.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Steve Weatherl (Midland, Texas), August 20, 2001
This book leads you out of a self-focused way of thinking and into a Christ-centered perspective that compells you towards grace & forgiveness. I loved it. We will use it as the center of a homegroup study this fall.
4.5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Dean McNamara (Knoxville TN), May 05, 2001
Mr. Yancey writes a challenging book. However, I would like to question his research. He claims that "New Zealanders eat kangaroo" (p. 149 footnote). Considering that there are no kangaroos in New Zealand, I was surprised to read that we are known for eating them.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Albert Gerena (FL), April 04, 2001
WARNING! If you're not ready to have your life transformed, stay away from this book. Through stories and paradoxical biblical passages, Philip Yancey brilliantly demonstrates "What's So Amazing About Grace"! It's a life-Transformer(did I mention that already?).
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Denia Lopez-Fields (Pittsburg, Kansas), March 13, 2001
Yancey answers the question What's So Amazing About Grace? by exploring the subject of grace- God's, the worlds and ours- through insightful stories and illustrations. My expectation was to read a proliferation of scripture texts related to the subject, but I was in no way disappointed to find instead "life examples" that cut to the chase and identified graceful and ungraceful attitudes and actions. Our weekly Bible study has been viewing the video and using the Participant's guide and several of us are reading the book. I was feeling pretty good with my personal "grace-quotient" until I came across one area in my that I identified as ungraceful. I'm working on it!
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