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This visual edition takes the text of the Gold Medallion Award-winning original and illustrates its themes and message with provocative full-color photography and illustrations. You’ll "experience grace" as you interact with its engaging visual content. Learn more at http://zndr.vn/8ZE5UO.

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Page 1: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt
Page 2: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

Grace

By: Philip Yancey

This visual edition takes the text of the Gold Medallion Award-winning original What’s So Amazing about Grace, and illustrates its themes and message with provocative full-color photography and illustrations. You’ll "experience grace" as you interact with its engaging visual content.

Learn More | Zondervan on Scribd | Zondervan.com

Page 3: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

CO

VE

R: M

embe

rs o

f the

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rra

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Foot

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ract

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ackg

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ds, w

as a

ttem

ptin

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.

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Page 4: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

andArno ld books

v i s uA l ed i t i o n

Ph i l i p Ya n c e y

m a r k a r n o ldcreative direction by

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Page 5: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

ZONDERVAN

Grace

Copyright © 2003, 2010 by Philip D. Yancey and SCCT

Previously published as What’s So Amazing about Grace Visual Edition 2003

Text based on What’s So Amazing about Grace

Copyright © 1997 by Philip D. Yancey and SCCT

This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook. Visit www.zondervan.com/ebooks.

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

ISBN 978-0-310-29319-4

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Good News

Translation, Second Edition. Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by

permission. All rights reserved.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers printed in this

book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an

endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites

and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical,

photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews,

without the prior permission of the publisher.

Creative direction and design by Mark Arnold, andArnold Books.

Printed in the United States of America

10 11 12 13 14 /SBM/ 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

We would like to hear from you. Please send your comments about this

book to us in care of the address below. Thank you.

+

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Page 6: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

Introduction to Visual Edition

by philip yancey

I must admIt, it took me a while to warm up to the idea of someone messing

with my book! As I thought about it, though, I realized that people encounter grace

in ways other than words. As I have written, I experienced grace first through nature,

music, and romantic love, and only later found words to interpret and express what

I had felt. Why not let some very skilled designers select passages from my book and

interpret them visually? (Okay, I secretly hope that if you like this book you’ll look

up the full-text version of What’s So Amazing about Grace? It may seem boring in contrast

to this edition, but it may also fill in some gaps.)

Almost a million copies of my book have been sold, which says something about

our thirst for grace. I have received thousands of letters from readers, some grateful,

some desperate, some furious. One of my favorites thanks me profusely for my book

What’s So Annoying About Grace? I’m sure, from the tone of the letter, that the reader

meant to write “Amazing” and typed “Annoying” by mistake. Many other letters,

however, come from readers who truly do find grace annoying.

Must we forgive everyone? Shouldn’t people have to pay for their mistakes?

Would God forgive Saddam Hussein or Hitler? What about justice and fairness?

How can you keep people from taking advantage of grace? These are some of the

questions readers have tossed back at me. I imagine some readers will find this visual

edition even more annoying because it presents the scandal of grace more directly,

more “in your face.”

I cannot claim that grace is fair. By definition, it’s unfair: We get the opposite

of what we deserve. I wrote my book to make a simple point, the same point a slave

trader named John Newton made several centuries ago. Grace is amazing—the most

amazing, perplexing, powerful force in the universe, I believe, and the only hope

for our twisted, violent planet. If you catch a mere whiff of its scent, it could change

your life forever.

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Page 8: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

PHOTO: Rain on a windshield at n ight

7

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8

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9

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10

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Page 13: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

like me.

12

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Page 14: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

like me.

13

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Page 15: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

like me.

like me.like me.

like me.

like me.like me.

like me.like me.like me.

like me.like me.

like me.like me. like me.

like me.

like me.like me.like me.

like me.like me. like me.

like me.like me.

like me.like me.

14

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Page 16: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

like me.

like me.like me.

like me.

like me.

like me.

like me.like me.like me.

like me.like me.

like me. like me.

like me. like me.like me. like me.

like me.like me.

like me.like me.

15

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Page 17: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

like me.

like me.like me. like me.

like like me.like me.

like me.like me.

like me.

like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me.

16

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Page 18: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

like me.

me. like me.like me.like me.

like me.

like me.

like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me. like me.

like me.

17

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Page 19: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

“Jesus did not identify the person with his sin, but rather saw in this sin s o m e t h i n g a li en , something that really did not belong to him, something that merely chained and mastered him and from which he would free him and bring him back to his real self. Jesus was able to love men because he loved them right through the layer of mud.” –––H e l m u t t H i e l i c k e

18

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Page 20: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

SpAiN. GAiLiCA. Santiago Cathedral. A group of ex-drug addicts arrive at the Cathedral after fifteen days walking. On arrival they are given a letter from their parents and family; the letter is unexpected and most of them burst into prolonged crying. The group is part of Encorde 98, a charity based in Valencia who run a one-and-a-half-year program.

19

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Page 21: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

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Page 22: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

“A p

ro

st

itu

te

ca

me t

o m

e in

wret

ched

stra

its, h

omele

ss,

sick,

una

ble t

o bu

y foo

d fo

r her

tw

o-ye

ar-o

ld d

augh

ter.

Thr

ough

sobs

and

tear

s, sh

e tol

d m

e she

had

bee

n re

ntin

g out

her

da

ught

er–t

wo ye

ars o

ld!–

to m

en in

tere

sted

in k

inky

sex.

Sh

e mad

e mor

e ren

ting o

ut h

er d

augh

ter f

or a

n ho

ur th

an sh

e cou

ld ea

rn o

n he

r own

in a

nigh

t. Sh

e had

to d

o it,

she s

aid,

to su

ppor

t her

own

dru

g hab

it.

I cou

ld h

ardl

y bea

r hea

ring h

er so

rdid

stor

y. F

or o

ne th

ing,

it

mad

e me l

egal

ly lia

ble –

I’m

requ

ired

to re

port

case

s of c

hild

abu

se.

I had

no

idea

wha

t to

say t

o th

is wo

man

. At l

ast I

ask

ed if

she

had

ever

thou

ght o

f goi

ng to

a ch

urch

for h

elp. I

will

nev

er fo

rget

th

e loo

k of

pur

e, n

aïve

shoc

k th

at cr

osse

d he

r fac

e.

‘Chu

rch!

’ she

cried

. ‘W

hy w

ould

I ev

er go

ther

e? I

was a

lread

y fee

ling

terr

ible

abou

t mys

elf. T

hey’d

just

mak

e me f

eel w

orse

.’ ”

Wh

at s

tru

ck m

e ab

out

my

frie

nd’

s st

ory

is t

hat

wom

en

muc

h li

ke t

his

pros

titu

te f

led

tow

ard

Jesu

s,

not

aw

ay f

rom

him

.

t

he w

orse

a p

erso

n f

elt

abou

t he

rsel

f, t

he m

ore

like

ly

she

saw

Jes

us a

s a

refu

ge.

Has

the

chu

rch

lost

tha

t gi

ft?

evi

den

tly

the

dow

n-a

nd-

out,

who

flo

cked

to

Jesu

s w

hen

he

live

d on

ear

th,

no

lon

ger

feel

wel

com

e am

ong

his

foll

ower

s.

Wha

t ha

s ha

ppen

ed?

21

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Page 23: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

PART O N E , I N 1 8 9 8

D A I s y was born into a working-class

Chicago family, the eighth child of ten. The father barely

earned enough to feed them all, and after he took up drinking,

money got much scarcer. Daisy, closing in on her hundredth birthday

as I write this, shudders when she talks about those days. Her father was a

“mean drunk,” she says. Daisy used to cower in the corner, sobbing, as he kicked

her baby brother and sister across the linoleum floor. she hated him with all her heart.

One day the father declared that he wanted his wife out of the house by noon. All ten kids

crowded around their mother, clinging to her skirt and crying, “No, don’t go!” But their father

did not back down. Holding on to her brothers and sisters for support, Daisy watched through

the bay window as her mother walked down the sidewalk, shoulders adroop, a suitcase in each

hand, growing smaller and smaller until finally she disappeared from view. & some of the children

eventually rejoined their mother, and some went to live with other relatives. It fell to Daisy to stay

with her father. she grew up with a hard knot of bitterness inside her, a tumor of hatred over what

he had done to the family. All the kids dropped out of school early in order to take jobs or join the

Army, and then one by one they moved away to other towns. They got married, started families,

and tried to put the past behind them. The father vanished—no one knew where and no one

cared. ) Many years later, to everyone’s surprise, the father resurfaced. He had guttered

out, he said. Drunk and cold, he had wandered into a salvation Army rescue mission

one night. To earn a meal ticket he first had to attend a worship service. When the

speaker asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus, he thought it only polite to

go forward along with some of the other drunks. He was more surprised

than anybody when the “sinner’s prayer” actually worked. The

demons inside him quieted down. He sobered up. He

began studying the Bible and praying. For the

first time in his life he felt loved

22

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Page 24: Grace by Philip Yancey, Excerpt

a n d accepted. He felt clean. , And now, he told his children, he was looking them up

one by one to ask for forgiveness. He

couldn’t defend anything that had happened.

He couldn’t make it right. But he was sorry,

more sorry than they could possibly imagine.

The children, now middle-aged and with families

of their own, were initially skeptical. Some

doubted his sincerity, expecting him to

fall off the wagon at any moment. Others figured he would soon

ask for money. Neither

happened, and in time the father won them over, all except Daisy. ( Long ago Daisy had vowed never to speak to her father—“that man” she called him—again. Her father’s

reappearance rattled her badly, and old memories of his drunken rages came flooding back as she lay in bed at night.

“He can’t undo all that just by saying ‘I’m sorry,’ ” Daisy insisted. She wanted no part of him. * The father may have given up drinking, but

alcohol had damaged his liver beyond repair. He got very sick, and for the last five years of his life he lived with one of his daughters, Daisy’s sister. They lived, in fact, eight houses down the street from Daisy, on the very same row house block. Keeping her vow, Daisy never once stopped in to visit her dying father, even though she passed by his house whenever she went grocery shopping or caught a bus. + Daisy did consent to let her own children visit their grandfather. Nearing the end, the father saw a little

girl come to his door and step inside. “Oh, Daisy, Daisy, you’ve come to me at last,” he cried, gathering her in his arms. The

adults in the room didn’t have the heart to tell him the girl was not Daisy, but her daughter Margaret. He was hallucinating grace. continued on page 58

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