What’s So Amazing About Grace?

What’s So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey is a great rendition of what grace is. He talks about the number of ways in which we can see grace, and challenges us as Christians to offer more grace to those around us. He talks about how a prostitute was at her lowest point and she was asked “why haven’t you gone to the church for help”, as she was homeless and hungry. She then turned to Philip and said, “I feel bad enough about myself, I don’t need to feel worse.”

I often think about how Christ was blameless and offered grace to even the “lowest” of people, but, people ran to Him without feeling judged and knowing that they wouldn’t feel worse about themselves. They knew that they would be forgiven even though they felt forsaken. They would be accepted by the Savior and King of the whole earth, even though they felt condemned by the rest of the world. Even while on earth, Christ forgave and gave the gift of love and mercy and grace to anyone that accepted Him as the King!

So what happened? Thousands of years later, Christ’s ministry is still alive, but it is dead to what it should stand for, where judgment rather than grace is offered. Why?

What about you? Have you forgiven people that have hurt you? Have you forgiven yourself for things that you have done in your past? I would venture to say that one of the simplest concepts of forgiveness (grace) is so often misconstrued that we as Christians cannot fully accept or understand it, because we don’t have to work for it. We are only called to be in a relationship with God through the Holy Spirit and Christ!

So, what is it that you need to give up so that you can accept God’s grace?