Book Review: What's So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancey

Evidently I have been on a Yancey extravaganza lately. I blazed through two of his books in the past two months or so. His writing style is just so addicting and clear that I do not want to stop reading. What's So Amazing About Grace breaks down most of the previous notions I had about grace. Yancey does an artful job of talking about grace without dissecting it and causing it to die in the process. Following the pattern of Romans, Yancey breaks grace down into what it is and what it is not. He discusses the "Atrocious Mathematics of the Gospel" and how they do not fall within the laws of the world. By definition grace is unfair. That's what makes it so amazing. The fact that a just and righteous God would declare ME clean is mind boggling. Without straying from the Gospel, this book made me laugh. It made me cry. It gave me a more accurate picture of the Gospel. In one story retold in the book, Will Campbell's faith and theology was being challenged. One persistent newspaper editor asked him to describe the Gospel in ten words or less. I agree whole-heartedly with Campbell's response: "We're all bastards, but God loves us anyway."

★★★★★