C. S. Lewis, a strong defender of Christianity, came in late, sat down, and asked, “What’s the rumpus about?” When he learned that it was a debate about the uniqueness of Christianity, he immediately commented, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.” After discussing the meaning and use of both the Old and New Testament words for grace, Ryrie concludes with the following excellent summary: From a history of great religious pride and self-trust, cruel brutality, and unbelief, Paul was brought to faith in Christ and transformed into a servant and teacher of the gospel of grace. Two of the most profound statements are found in verses 15 and 16, the first of which Paul says is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance, Someone said to me, “When I become older, I will come to God because then I will be less prone to failure.” Whenever you meet a person who talks like that, you know that he has not yet understood grace. He is still thinking that he cannot come to God just as he is. 29 But “when the kindness of God our Savior appeared and his love for mankind, 3:5 He saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, 3:6 whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior. 3:7 And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.” (Tit. 3:4-7). Grace Can Be Received

Grace: Why It’s So Amazing and Awesome | Bible.org Grace: Why It’s So Amazing and Awesome | Bible.org

Interestingly, in this same passage in Matthew, 7:21-23, Christ refers to those who may have many good deeds, but they are also those who do not truly know Him by grace through faith. Philip Yancey: The themes are timeless. How can I relate to a holy God? How can I get along with family members on the one hand and enemies on the other hand? What in my life needs forgiving, and whom do I need to forgive? Is there a way through the mess we tend to make of our lives? Circumstances change, but the underlying dilemmas don’t. For this is the way God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16, emphasis mine).Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. Of course it is better to be a decent citizen than to be John Wayne Gacy. Of course it is better to be honest than to be embezzling funds at work. From our point of view these distinctions are very significant, and they are also important to God. But spiritually speaking, even the best of us is still an infinite distance from God. If we forget this, it is because we have overestimated our goodness and underestimated God’s holiness. 14 In What’s So Amazing About Grace? I retell that story, setting it in Traverse City, Michigan with a young woman featured as the prodigal. I’ve tried writing parables, and it’s hard work! Yet Jesus spun off parable after parable, seemingly off-the-cuff, and they speak poignantly to us some two thousand years later.

What’s So Amazing About Grace - Genius What’s So Amazing About Grace - Genius

You’ve said that your role as an author is to be a storyteller. Why do you think stories are such a powerful way to communicate truth? For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 it is not of works, so that no one can boast. 2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them (Eph. 2:8-10). (emphasis mine)Sometimes preachers who should know better speak of receiving God’s grace as if we were expected to make a bargain with Him. I have a friend (bless him!) who in his witness for Christ used to tell people to “pledge their allegiance to Jesus Christ.” An evangelist gave an invitation and told the people coming forward that they were making a “promise to follow Christ.” I shake my head in dismay! The figure of Jesus Christ, as portrayed in the gospel history and shown forth in the rest of the New Testament, is unique. A Man who acted, as Jesus did, like God come in the flesh; who spoke of Himself as the Son of God; who identified Himself as future judge of the world and arbiter of everyone’s destiny; who, after being crucified, came alive from the dead, leaving His tomb and grave clothes empty, and met His disciples again; who, having entered the world by a miraculous conception and birth, and fulfilled in it a miraculous ministry, even to raising the dead, was seen to leave it by a miraculous ascension; and whose disciples for two thousand years have been sure that He actually shares their life, as they share His; why, no other religious leader, and no other religious experience, has ever been remotely like this! As a faith founded on unique supernatural facts, and as a unique, life-changing relationship with its unique divine Founder, Christianity is truly a unique religion. This fact ought to be beyond dispute. 23 It only takes a minute to create your own Bible Gateway free personal account and you’ll immediately upgrade your Bible Gateway experience. Do it right now!

Philip Yancey Quotes About Grace | A-Z Quotes Philip Yancey Quotes About Grace | A-Z Quotes

As the band played, the words of the hymn immediately came to mind, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see.” Most people, including born again believers, do not think of themselves as wretches, but the author of “Amazing Grace” did. Though I have found some disagreement as to exactly when John Newton wrote the hymn (1748 or 1779), it was written after a close encounter with death on the high seas. As a result, accusations are regularly leveled against faith alone in Christ alone. It is sometimes called “cheap grace” or “easy believism.” But this is nonsense. The claim of “easy believism,” so often aimed at those who preach “faith alone in Christ alone,” is a misnomer. Simple faith—because it is so contrary to the way people think—is not easy for people who think they must add something to the work of God. Furthermore, salvation in Christ is free, but it’s not cheap. It cost God the death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Bible Gateway interviewed Philip Yancey ( @philipyancey) about his award-winning book and video curriculum, What’s So Amazing About Grace? Participant’s Guide with DVD, Updated Edition (Zondervan, 2021).The governing factor for Christian freedom is the principle or the law of love as those under the law of Christ, but free from the requirements of the Law for either salvation or for holy living (sanctification). Second, let’s again look at Paul’s argument in Romans 5:12-21. Here Paul contrasts the universality of sin and the reign of death in the human race with the gift of righteousness through the one act of Christ, i.e., His death on the cross (5:12-17). God’s righteousness or salvation is based on the record of one, the Lord Jesus Christ and not our record. But the point that needs to be made here is on the great problem all people face regardless of the depth of their personal sin, namely, the reign of death in all of mankind. “So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned” (5:12); “For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one…” (5:17). Philip Yancey: I recently came across a quote from the philosopher James K.A. Smith that answers your question better than I could. Here’s what he said in The Christian Century magazine: “As a young Christian philosopher, I wanted to be the confident, heresy-hunting Augustine, vanquishing the pagans with brilliance, fending off the Manichaeans and Pelagians with ironclad arguments. As a middle-aged man, I dream of being Mr. Rogers. When you’re young, it’s easy to confuse strength with dominance; when you’re older, you realize the feat of character it takes to be meek. I used to imagine my calling was to defend the Truth. Now I’m just trying to figure out how to love.” I became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the exercise of his power (Eph. 3:7). For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. 5:2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all! 5:3 And I testify again to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 5:4 You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5:5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness. 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision carries any weight—the only thing that matters is faith working through love.

Review: What’s So Amazing About Grace?, by - 9Marks Book Review: What’s So Amazing About Grace?, by - 9Marks

Now this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment. (1 John 3:23) Paul’s declaration, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people” (Titus 2:11) is a clear reference to the coming of Christ and shows us again that Christ is the grace of God personified; He is the epitome of God’s grace. Philip Yancey: First, they’re engaging. I do a lot of public speaking, and when I begin a story, people quiet down, stop moving around, and pay attention. We’re beings of time, and when action starts we want to know what happens next. I’ve listened to hundreds of sermons with three-point outlines, and I can’t remember any of them. I do, however, remember stories told during those sermons. Having given clear proof from Scripture of man’s basic sinfulness, the next step is to demonstrate to whom this applies. The question is simply, is anyone exempt? Is the moral man or the religious man? Absolutely not and verses 19-20 plainly indicts all the world as accountable or liable for judgment. But why does Paul call himself the foremost or chief of sinners? Remember, Paul was an extremely religious man, yet he calls himself the chief of sinners. Perhaps he wanted to make a point about self-righteous religious people. The point is that being religious does not exempt us from being terribly sinful with the ability to commit horrible crimes. The religious bigotry and murderous purges in history bear testimony to the atrocities carried out in the name of religion.I am grateful to the one who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful in putting me into ministry, 1:13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I was treated with mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief, 1:14 and our Lord’s grace was abundant, bringing faith and love in Christ Jesus. 1:15 This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and I am the worst of them. 1:16 But here is why I was treated with mercy: so that in me as the worst, Christ Jesus could demonstrate his utmost patience, as an example for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life. 1:17 Now to the eternal king, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen (1 Tim. 1:12-17). Let’s again allow the apostle Paul to speak to this matter first through his argument in Romans 5 and then from his own testimony regarding his pre-salvation condition. One dictionary defines legalism as “strict, literal adherence to the law or to a particular code, as of religion or morality.” 35 As just stressed, liberty is not the absence of restrictions or of law. Under liberty, Christians are under the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2) or as Paul defines it elsewhere, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2). Just so, legalism does not simply mean the presence of law. Swindoll defines legalism as an attitude. He writes: