What's So Amazing About Grace?

https://www.amazon.com/Whats-So-Amazing-About-Grace/dp/0310245656

I read the subject book by Phillip Yancy for the book club at our church. It opens with a shocking little story about a drug addicted prostitute in Chicago that had been renting out her 2 year old daughter for sex in order to make enough money to cover her drug habit. When asked if she had ever thought of going to church for help, she replied: "Church! Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse!".

The book is on the "scandal of Grace"-how Christ came for what we see as the "really sinful", and that the message is that WE are the "really sinful". Christ came for the prostitute renting her daughter and for the men paying for her. Hitler and even W (if you are a Democrat), and the difference between us and the worst sinner we can imagine isn't significant at all compared with the gulf between all of us and God.

Yancey was raised a fundamentalist in a racist white church. He seems to feel much worse about the racism than gays, prostitutes, adulterers, murderers or most anything else -- somewhat in conflict with his own message. The point that he makes about the fundamentalists is nearly identical to my background. "Spiritual" was how well one followed all the various rules of the church against drinking, smoking, dancing, movies, TV, rock music, evolution, etc. How "spiritual", or "likely to REALLY be saved" depended on how well you did relative to the rules.

In the Baptist Church, the prodigal son was "unsaved" -- his "return" was really "his birth", but in the Lutheran Church, the prodigal is a Christian gone astray--he was already a "real son", but he messed up bigtime. The "ungrace churches"--often called "fundamentalists" for some odd reason, make much more of the "conversion" and a lot less of the "journey" toward heaven. Since they are primarily "once saved, always saved", there isn't a lot of reason for the real presence of Christ in communion. You get forgiven once, and at least for the "big sins", that ought to be it. Yancey seems to be on the journey to figuring out that we need a lot more grace as humans than a one-time conversion.

When we DON'T get that, what we get are "fake conversions". Lots of smiles, handshakes and warmness at church, but in the recesses of the heart and the lives away from church, the "rules" at all levels of detail and spirit are being broken because just like the Scribes and Pharisees, "the rules" or "the law" has become supreme, and Christ came because it wasn't possible for humans to keep the law.

I'm not sure if Yancy ever really figures out where he ends up on a lot of issues though -- maybe just confused. On balance, it is a worthy Christian read, but at times there seems to be more "wondering" than "insight". There are certainly times where reflection vs insight is the best "answer" ... perhaps this is one of them.