Extravagant Grace Is Extravagantly Good

Last updated on: March 18, 2015 at 5:22 am by Coyle Neal

Extravagant Grace Is Extravagantly Good 2015-03-18T05:22:34-06:00 Coyle Neal

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Review of Extravagant Grace by Barbara Duguid

We’ve all heard the testimonies at church:

I was a terrible sinner headed straight for hell until someone shared the Gospel with me, and now I’m a Christian!

One problem with many modern Christians is that we hear this narrative and assume that “now I’m a Christian” means that the “I was a terrible sinner” part no longer applies. We assume that once we come to the faith, the “sin” business is over and done with and all we have to worry about is whether we’re as fully happy as we should be. Which in turn means that when we sin as Christians—and we will sin as Christians, let there be absolutely no doubt about that—we can be devastated. To help Christians think well about their post-conversion sin, Barbra Duguid has written the excellent little book Extravagant Grace.

There are three reasons (at least) you ought to read this book. First, Duguid does an excellent job of helping us think about just how sinful we are. Sin is not a thing we do occasionally. It is not something that we stumble into from time to time. Sin is rooted in human nature itself and touches everything we do. The fact that we don’t want to hear this just proves how sinful we are—we’d prefer to hear pleasing fictions about our inner morality and how much God loves us because we are inherently awesome rather than the truth about our wretched moral standing before a perfect God. Extravagant Grace encourages us to be honest about ourselves and so be better able to properly confess, repent, and grow in faith.

Image Source: P&R Publishing

Second, Duguid points us towards the solution to the problem of our sin. Our sin will never be resolved by our own effort, intense emotions, or proper theology. While each of these have their place in the Christian life, at the end of the day if we try to build our hopes on any of them we are going to be perpetually disappointed. Instead we must turn to Christ, through whose life, death, and resurrection alone our sin is dealt with. As we mature as Christians, we should see both how deep our sin truly runs through our natures, and how much has been done by Christ to pay for that sin on the cross. Extravagant Grace reminds us to rest on this action outside of ourselves through confession, repentance, and faith rather than looking within ourselves for sinlessness.

Third, and the major merit of this book, Duguid offers much needed encouragement for those of us who will never not sin in this life—which of course is absolutely every Christian. You, me, our brothers and sisters in Christ both now and in the past, the Apostles, absolutely every single Christian is not just a former sinner—every Christian is an ongoing sinner. And although we have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and called to live holy lives, these lives will never be perfectly holy but will be shot through with sin. The Bible is so emphatic about this that it says if we deny the truth of sin in believers, we are liars and not truly believers at all. (I John 1:8) The more we mature as Christians the more we should see how deep our sin runs. As I’ve already mentioned, this fact can be devastating to believers who think that, in terms of morality, life will be smooth sailing once we have embraced the faith. Extravagant Grace offers counsel on how to continue as believers in the face of this ongoing cycle of sin-confess-repeat.

There’s probably an aside to be made about Duguid’s source material. Much of what she has to say is drawn from the letters of John Newton. The problem is that lazy, ignorant Americans (my words, not hers) simply refuse to take up and read old books. And I’m happy to include myself in that number to some extent. While I do try read the books of faithful men of the past from time to time, it’s always with a certain grudging wishfulness that I were reading something easier to read. But that’s a different rant for a different day…

The rant for today is that if you are a Christian who keeps sinning, and you are, you should read Extravagant Grace.

Dr. Coyle Neal lives as a chronic—but forgiven—sinner in Bolivar, Missouri.

Books

Christian

Barbara Duguid

Previous Post

March 16, 2015

Trueman on Luther on the Christian Life

Next Post

April 23, 2015 Underdogs and the power of faith: director Alejandro Monteverde on Little Boy

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

John Paul Peter James