Here’s a small book ablaze with powerful images, text that literally spirals and runs off the page, compelling graphic design, and an abundance of font styles; And yet it manages to grab and focus your attention on a singular theme that is riveting enough–the scandalous grace of God. Based on his complete book by the same name (although that one uses only one font style), Philip Yancey weaves stories and poems and quotes and newspaper accounts into this wonderful primer on the nature of God’s grace. None of us is deserving of God’s love, but this book will test how deeply you really believe that central, Biblical truth.
I guarantee you will not be bored. In fact, I’m pretty sure you will be offended by at least a few of the pages. It reads like a deovtional guide, and I’d recommend stewing over each short selection instead of moving on too quickly to finish it in one reading (though it’s short enough to do that in about half an hour). I found my own self-righteousness revealed on more than one occasion. The very design of this book adds to the message and creates visual memories that will stick with you long after you finish it.
Here are just a few tidbits from this little book of treasures:
“Grace is not fair”
“The murdered. The murderer. Which does God love the most? He loves them both, equally.”
“The Bible’s many fierce passages on sin appear in a new light once I understand God’s desire to press me toward repentance, the doorway to grace…In other words, he awakes guilt for my own benefit. God seeks not to crush me but to liberate me.”
“Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more–no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries and divinity schools, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes. And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less–no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder.”
“God dispenses gifts, not wages.”
“Grace has about it the scent of scandal. When someone asked theologian Karl Barth what he would say to Adolf Hitler, he replied, ‘Jesus Christ died for your sins.’ Hitler’s sins? Has grace no limit? Grace has no limit.”
