Book Synopsis:
In The Case for Grace Student Edition, Lee Strobel and Jane Vogel present a compelling and highly personal experiential case for God, focusing on God’s transforming work in the lives of people today.
Writing with unusual candor, Lee draws upon his own journey from atheism to Christianity to explore the depth and breadth of God’s redeeming love, including those whose lives have been radically changed after discovering the “how” and “why” behind God’s amazing grace. You’ll encounter racists, addicts, and even murderers who have found new hope and purpose. You’ll meet once-bitter people who have learned to forgive those who have harmed them—and, equally amazing, people mired in guilt who have discovered that they can even forgive themselves.
Through it all, you will see how God’s grace can change your eternity and relationships…starting today.
My Review:
5/5 stars. The message of this book is great. It was kind of different to a lot of apologetics books, including some others that Lee Strobel has written. Most apologetics books are more about the scientific and historical evidence for God, but this shows the personal side of Him. It shows that there’s proof of God’s existence through the way He works in people’s lives.
There are plenty of apologetics books out there that have a more intellectual focus - Creationism vs the Big Bang, the historical records of Biblical events, disprooving evolution, etc. Those books are great and I still love them, but I really liked this book's different angle. It's true that a lot of evidence for God comes from the lives of people who know Him. This book told multiple different stories of people who had a lot of terrible things happening to them, either through their own actions or the actions of people around them, but had their lives turned around by the grace of God.
The first story was about a woman who was an orphan and was basically abandoned and had to fend for herself for most of her early childhood. That story made me emotional and misty-eyed, which doesn't usually happen when reading or watching things. It was such a beautiful example of the power of love and grace.
A couple of the stories were kind of similar, both sharing the stories of drug addicts who changed for the better and became pastors, but they still had their own unique elements. The stories of people who caused their own life struggles, though, were especially good examples of God's grace. No matter how many terrible things we do, if we confess our sins and actively pursue God instead, those things will be forgotten in the eyes of God.
At the beginning and end of the book, Lee Strobel shared a little bit about his own life story. He didn't have a good relationship with his dad, and so he had to learn a lot about giving people grace even when they don't deserve it. I liked reading his story, too, rather than just other people's. It gave him some more credibility on the topic, since he had firsthand experience with it.
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