Welcome Bob Santos. I asked him to talk about the reason he wrote yet another book about Grace. His new book, The Divine Progression of Grace ““ Blazing a Trail to Fruitful Living will be free on Kindle this weekend, but you can buy it now.
___
Try doing a web search for books about grace and you will find dozens of titles””many of them by well-known authors. It makes a person wonder why anyone would consider writing yet another book about grace. Haven’t we already said all that needs to be said? In short, the answer is a definitive no.
I’ve been involved with various facets of Christian ministry for well over twenty years, and I still find a lot of people are confused about grace. Based on some recent trends, the problem is probably as bad now as it’s ever been.
“œBut,” a person might wonder, “œdoes our understanding of grace really matter all that much?” Absolutely!
While there is no single key to walking with God, no other issue impacts the vitality of our Christian lives the way that grace does. The person who misunderstands grace will be undermined by problematic issues even as he or she tries to walk with God.
Grace is like a multifaceted diamond, and we make a huge mistake when minimalizing it to the one-dimensional focus of God’s unmerited favor. As awesome as God’s favor is, grace is also so much more.
“œServe one another with the particular gifts God has given each of you, as faithful dispensers of the magnificently varied grace of God.” 1 Peter 4:10 (PHILLIPS)
Do you see it? God’s grace is “œmagnificently varied,” involving His unmerited favor and so much more! Consider the following bullet points about grace:
- Grace is unique to Christianity.
- Grace gives sin-ridden people the opportunity to draw near to our holy Creator.
- Grace does not provide us with a license to sin.
- Grace and human pride are archenemies.
- Grace is the answer to the human condition.
- Grace more fully influences our lives when we find our identity in Christ.
- Grace causes love and other fruits of the Spirit to grow in our hearts.
- Grace and Christian unity are virtually inseparable.
- Grace empowers us to do anything and everything that God calls us to do.
In essence, grace is transformational. This means that something about our understanding of grace is out of whack when professing Christians fail to bear spiritual fruit (Colossians 1:3-6). The fact that the Western church is declining in many ways provides enough evidence to indicate that our collective understanding of grace continues to be lacking.
Does this mean that all of our books about grace are off base? Not at all. We simply need to get a better handle on the big picture””specifically how grace fits into the Christian faith so that it fully impacts our daily lives. If we can learn to better connect the dots, so to speak, there’s no limit to what the Holy Spirit of grace can do in and through us!
Through SfMe Media (www.sfme.org), Bob Santos has recently released a new book titled, The Divine Progression of Grace ““ Blazing a Trail to Fruitful Living. Available through Amazon and the SfMe Media web store, this thought-provoking book will help the reader to better unearth a dynamic understanding of God’s multifaceted grace.