Forty Days of Grace: What's So Amazing About Grace?

I have been studying Phillip Yancey's book, "What's So Amazing About Grace?" for about 8 months now.  I highly recommend it to anyone.

One of the many things I have learned through this study of grace (that I am about to present to my church over the next 7 weeks) is that grace MUST take place in a relational context.  What I mean is that grace, outside of a relationship with God, makes no sense.  If you try to practice or understand grace without Jesus, for example, all you get is empty forgiveness and/or permissiveness.  Neither works.  Neither is real.  And yet, that is where so many Christians and churches are in their understanding of grace. 

As much as I like the song "Amazing Grace," I wish that at least once in that song they would have mentioned Jesus.  All the emphasis in that song, as wonderful as it is, is on ME.  Count the number of times you sing the word "I," "me" and "we."  I once was lost but now I'm found.  Was blind but now I see. 

However, if our understanding of grace revolves around Jesus, we have to look at grace differently.  In the amazing story of the prodigal son, the son has run away to a distant land, spent all his money, lost all his friends, and is now starving and lost.  He comes back home to the open arms of his father.  There is no pretense of goodness.  The son knows he can't fake it.  He only returned for one purpose- the hope of restored relationship with his father.  It was a realization that his actions had deeply hurt the people he cared about.  It was the realization that his actions had not been good for him.  It was the realization that his actions had caused harm, both to him and the people he loved, and he needed to change. 

In other words, he experienced brokenness.  That is the starting point for grace.  Until we reach those same realizations, we will never be able to accept the amazing gift of God's grace.  The only reason we reach out for grace is the impossible hope of a restored relationship with our Father.  We don't reach out for grace because we have proved we deserve it.  No, we reach out for grace because we are at a point of hopeless brokenness, and we realize our desperate need for our Lord and Savior Jesus.