Embracing Grace

Here’s my promised “review” of Scot McKnight’s Embracing Grace.

The first thing I want to say is that Scot is an excellent writer. He writes in a style that reminds me of C. S. Lewis. He says some rather profound things in very simple language.

I also like what he says. This book has much to say to the church. I wish more pastors and church leaders would read it.

Here are a few of my favorite quotations with a few of my comments.

The gospel is the work of God to restore humans to union with God and communion with others, in the context of community, for the good of others and the world.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. xiii

This is a good summary of the gospel which Scot expands upon in the book.

A come-as-you-are culture is not indiscriminate, but it creates a church where grace is the ruling paradigm.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 7
This come-as-you-are generation wants to see if the Church really does love them.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 8

This is a good analysis of the challenge the church faces in reaching the post-modern culture. This is something humans have a hard time getting right. Grace is often misunderstood as moral relativism.

Love carries a lot of pain in its chest.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 30

Yes. Grace is never cheap.

Sin is a relational issue and as such transcends the legal issue.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 49

This is one of the reasons so many people get off track when they think about sin. They treat it as a legal issue. But the primary component of sin is relational. When we think of sin this way, it protects us from many ugly mistakes.

The thickest barrier to the gospel is Individualism...
Individualism is an intentional march away from Eden, away from God and away from others...
The gospel is designed to create community out of individualists.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 66

Scot nails it. What more can I add?

You tear the heart out of God’s work on earth if you skip from the Fall to the Cross.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 71

This is a striking part of God’s work of redemption that is often overlooked. God took thousands of years to unfold the story of deliverance from mankind's slavery to sin. Just the part from Abraham to Jesus took 2000 years. The details between Eden and Gethsemane appear to be important to God. They should be important to us. God was not just “clearing his throat” before he told the “really important part” of the story.

The so-called “theories of the Atonement” are actually “stories of the Atonement.”
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 93

I found this perspective especially helpful. I have never been able to find an atonement theory that I could embrace without reservation. Scot’s suggestion makes a lot of sense.

This is a must buy.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”