I love books. I love reading. I believe Charlie “Tremendous” Jones was right to say, “You will be the same person five years from now you are today except for two things: the people you meet, and the books you read.” However (if I may be honest with you) I have found the best books, the books that I read over and over, the books that have challenged and changed me the most, the books I can’t help but give away, are usually old books. By old I mean the author is long dead!
Every once in a while however, I am pleasantly surprised. Charis: God’s Scandalous Grace for Us by Preston Sprinkle is one of these surprises. I highly recommend this book to you.
Grace is the heart of the Gospel, the thing that makes Christianity unique among all the religions of the world. Yet Christians are not often accused of being overtly gracious, or of being stunned by grace. The sad fact is that I think we in the church—especially us pastors, teachers, and theologians—often focus so much on the importance of truth (right doctrine) that we inadvertently put grace on the back burner. Sprinkle’s book is a one-burner stove, and the one thing cooking on it is grace.
What is grace? Sprinkle defines grace this way,
Grace is more than just leniency and unconditional acceptance. Divine grace is God’s relentless and loving pursuit of His enemies, who are unthankful, unworthy, and unlovable. Grace is not just God’s ability to save sinners, but God’s stubborn delight in His enemies— yes, even the creepy ones. Grace means that despite our filth, despite the sewage running through our veins, despite our odd addiction to food, drink, sex, porn, pride, self, money, comfort, and success, God desires to transform us into real ingredients of divine happiness.
Grace is God’s aggressive pursuit of, and stubborn delight in, freakishly foul people (pages 23-24).
He starts at the beginning (creation…”a very good place to start”) and works his way through the Old Testament showing that this grace is the main spice that flavors those 39 books. Anyone who thinks that the Old Testament is primarily about judgment and that grace is not really seen until the New Testament is in for a shock. He then continues on through the New, showing how grace is a central theme woven so deep throughout the whole of Scripture that to remove it would be its undoing and missing it means your taste-buds don’t work!
The truth of grace is this:
God is not like you and me. God is transcendent. And His love is fundamentally different from ours. Even though our love is fueled by conditions—I’ll love you as long as you make me laugh and don’t gain weight—God’s love flows from His transcendent and intimate character. He loves you because of who He is and because of what He has done, not because of what you do or don’t do (page 58).
Sprinkle is a Vice President and professor of Old Testament at Eternity Bible College. One would expect a heavy dry read from such person with such credentials. But Charis is a quick and compelling read and falls short of 200 pages. I read this in two nights, and have not been able to stop thinking about it since. The Forward by Tullian Tchividjian is worth the price of the book in and of itself.
Do yourself a favor and get this book. You will be glad you did. You can get it from my store (which is fulfilled by Amazon) here.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 