Morrison: Amazing grace

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  • Morrison: Amazing grace
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“What’s So Amazing About Grace?”

This is the title of a book written by Philip Yancey, a brilliant writer and author of a number of books. Published in 1997, it resonates even more today in the height of angry political rhetoric and name-calling.

In one chapter entitled “The Lovesick Father,” Yancey describes a British conference on comparative religions. Experts from around the world gathered to debate what was unique about the Christian faith. After some discussion, C.S. Lewis wanders into the room and asked what they discussing. When told, he said, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”

After some discussion the group agreed. As Yancey said,” The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity.”

Every other religion in the world bears with it some effort on man’s part to earn God’s favor. The Christian faith is like receiving a gift which we never earned or deserved. It simply involves relinquishing control of our lives to allow his grace-filled Spirit to set up residence in our hearts. In that process, not as a separate act, we recognize our sin and by faith accept His death on the cross as full payment for our sins, past, present, and future.

Perhaps the best know hymn is Amazing Grace, written by a converted slave trader, John Newton. It is amazing in the 1970s it rose to the top of the music charts, even in the secular world. Everybody seems to feel we all are in need of grace.

Yancey tells a story which pictures grace in a way that few of us could demonstrate. He accompanied a group to Russia during a time when the Communist state was falling apart. The Russians had requested their presence to help them restore morality in their country.

Gen. Stolyarov, Vice-Chairman of the KGB begins; “We here in the USSR realize that too often we’ve been negligent in accepting those of the Christian faith. But political questions cannot be decided until there is sincere repentance, a return to faith by the people. That is the cross I must bear. In the study of scientific atheism, there was the idea that religion divides people. Now we see the opposite: love for God can only unite.”

Seated in the room was Alex Leonovich, a Christian evangelist. He responded, “General, you say you repent. Many members of my family suffered because of this organization. My dear Uncle went to a labor camp in Siberia and never returned. General, you say that you repent. Christ taught us how to respond. On behalf of my family, on behalf of my uncle who died in the Gulag, I forgive you.” He then reached over to the KGB Vice-Chairman and gave him a Russian bear hug. As a country and as a people, perhaps divided as never before, we desperately are in need of giving and receiving grace. We know little about disagreeing gracefully. We are prone to judgment, condemnation, and verbal abuse.

Sadly, we in the Christian community are not except from this sin. Andy Rooney is quoted as saying. “I am against abortion; I believe it is murder, but strangely I feel more comfortable in the midst of a secular pro-choice group then with right-wing conservatives.”

“Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

To comment, email jhm82@outlook or call (580) 772-2311.