The Grace of God

In order to be a people of grace, we have to understand the story of grace...and how grace transforms us.

Grace is more story than doctrine. It's more than forgiveness or compassion. It's undeserved by definition, essential to salvation. And it turns out that God's grace—though it's the only thing we stand on and the only thing we should stand for—is the very thing that we consistently distort and hesitate to extend to others.

Why is that?

Even now, as we think about the simple and unconditional nature of grace, our instincts cling to complexity and conditions. We wonder: "What does grace have to do with justice or judgement?" "How does grace overcome repeated misbehavior or bad habits?"

To understand the story of grace—what it means and how it's misunderstood, why we need it and how it was given to us—we have to begin at the beginning...

Follow Andy Stanley as he traces the story of grace through the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, peering into the lives of biblical characters to discover how each story reveals grace to be God's preeminent characteristic from the very beginning.

See the narrative of Scripture in light of this grace as Pastor Andy reveals:

• Why creation itself was an act of grace.
• Why grace is inviting to the unrighteous and threatening to the self-righteous.
• Why grace is so predictably unpredictable.
• Why no effort of ours can add to God's grace.

Combining biblical study, personal story, and an urgent message to today's Christians and churches—The Grace of God is Andy Stanley's clearest, most powerful message on the thing that defines our relationship with our God and with one another.

Communicator, author, and pastor Andy Stanley founded Atlanta-based North Point Ministries (NPM) in 1995. Today, NPM consists of eight churches in the Atlanta area and a network of 180 churches around the globe that collectively serve over 200,000 people weekly. As host of Your Move with Andy Stanley, which delivers over 10.5 million messages each month through television, digital platforms, and podcasts, and author of more than 20 books, including Irresistible; Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets; and Deep & Wide, Andy is considered one of the most influential pastors in America.

"Grace. It's what we crave most when our guilt is exposed. It's the very thing we are hesitant to extend when we are confronted with the guilt of others--especially when their guilt has robbed us of something we consider valuable. Therein is the struggle, the struggle for grace. It's this struggle that makes grace more story than doctrine. It's the struggle that reminds us that grace is bigger than compassion or forgiveness. That struggle is the context for both. When we are on the receiving end, grace is refreshing. When it is required of us, it is often disturbing. But when correctly applied, it seems to solve just about everything. This struggle is not new; it has been going on since the beginning." --Andy Stanley We find in the pages of Scripture that the stories found there often mirror our own stories, and that we too need the very thing we do not deserve: the grace of God. From the beginning, the church has had an uneasy relationship with grace. The gravitational pull is always toward graceless religion. The odd thing is that when you read the New Testament, the only thing Jesus stood against consistently was graceless religion. The only group he attacked relentlessly was graceless religious leaders. Even now as you think about grace, there might be a little voice in your head whispering, "It can't be that easy!" "What about obedience?" "What about disobedience?" "What about repeated misbehavior?" "What about bad habits?" "What about justice?" "What about repentance?" It's this tension that makes grace so slippery. But that's the beauty and the truth of grace. We don't deserve it. We can't earn it. It can't be qualified. But God gives it to us anyway because he loves us unconditionally. The story of grace is your story. And as you are about to discover grace plays a larger role than you imagine.

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