The Heist: How Grace Robs Us Of Our Shame by Chris Durso (author bio here) is a brand new release.  Since grace has been a huge factor of my spiritual growth lately, I looked forward to reading it.

Unfortunately, I was left rather disappointed.

The book was so full of anecdotes and illustrations that I frequently lost sight of the main points he was trying to make.  In addition, he frequently added artistic flair to Bible passages and came to applications that best case are not accepted by mainstream Christianity, and worst case are actually adding to Scripture’s words.  As a writer, I am all for trying to get into the reality of Scripture by imagining myself in the story, but it can be taken too far.

While the author did reference hell, there were also several points where I was wondering if he was alluding to a belief in universalism.

His main analogy was that of a heist…how Jesus stole our guilt, shame, and sin, paid our price, and now can receive all the glory that He deserves.  The author was so committed to this analogy, and referred to it so frequently, that it often felt as if he was trying to force his points to fit the analogy, rather than using the analogy to occasionally amplify a point.

While overall I had mostly critiques, there were definitely some parts that were encouraging and my heart needed to hear.  I appreciated the quote on page 132, “God isn’t waiting for you to finish punishing yourself before He restores you.”

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.