Visible Grace (Paperback) by

Transform your view of your church family in under an hour!

When Jesus looks for grace in your church, it’s like spotting the sunrise in the dark sky. The smallest rays of grace eclipse sin, each sunbeam from the Spirit stirring the heart of the Son.

Unfortunately, apart from the Spirit, we don’t naturally see the church as Jesus does. We know grace is there – somewhere – but as hot tempers, cold relationships, bitterness, unremarkable sermons, lacklustre programs, and unmet expectations fill the page, grace seems invisible. We must confront sin. We must disagree. But as we learn to see the church the way Jesus does, we’ll become less focused on other people’s failings and more alive to God’s remarkable grace in their lives.

Use these free discussion questions with your church

Selected Commendations:

“Read and ask God to help you see others the way you hope they’ll see you.” Matt Smethurst, Pastor & author of Before You Share Your Faith

“It's a valuable resource that will undoubtedly benefit those seeking to deepen their understanding of grace and foster godly, grace-filled relationships within the church.” Greg Gilbert, Senior Pastor, Third Avenue Baptist Church

“Read this wonderful book to recall the grace of God in your own life and how you can be an agent of grace to others.” Dr. Tom Schreiner, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at the SBTS

“When you think of your church, do you briefly glance at grace but stare at the sin? Then this book is for you. Batchelor prescribes lenses to give us a God-like view of Christ's beloved community – the church.” J. Mack Stiles, author of The Truth About Lies

"An impatient generation is slow to perceive sanctification in others. A cynical generation loves to find fault. A hopeless generation will forget that glory is coming. We often dwell upon our fellow church members’ shortcomings and not their status in Christ. Batchelor’s alternative encouragement to marvel God’s handiwork - His grace in His people even amid disagreement - is an apt message for Christians today." Jonathan Worsley, pastor, Edgefield Church, Nashville

In this book, Caleb Batchelor helps Christians love the local church by looking at the church through the lens of Jesus. When Jesus looks at His bride, He sees her beauty, her obedience, her service, her love for Him, even if imperfect. And yet, the reality is we often look out at our churches and focus on flaws and faults. Visible Grace comes in, then, and provides something of a spiritual LASIK surgery, correcting our view of Christ’s people by pointing us to God’s Word and the heart of Jesus. Omar Johnson, pastor, Temple Hills Baptist Church

A great read for:

Churches to read together
Pastoral teams
Discouraged church leaders

Title

Visible Grace
Author(s)

Caleb Batchelor
ISBN

9781915705471
Format

Paperback
Publisher

10Publishing
Topic

Church
Audience

Adults
Pages

48
Published

05/02/2024

Download a sample

Overall rating

4.8 based on 4 reviews

Visible Grace

Many Christians, when they look at the church, their own included, see little apart from faults and failings. These may indeed be present, but, as Caleb Batchelor points out, God’s perspective is strikingly different. Of course he sees the failings, but ‘Our heavenly Father celebrates every flicker of grace in his sons and daughters, and he invites the watching world to marvel with him (Matt. 5:16).’ This is the case, he argues, because ‘God’s grace is a reflection of himself.' If we are seeing the church as Jesus sees it, we will find the presence of God’s grace more remarkable than the remaining sin.’ In six short but challenging chapters Batchelor considers the nature of ‘visible grace’ and then examines it in your church, in other churches, in disagreements, in action, and, in conclusion, in heaven. This is not a recipe for blandness and pretence in the church – along with ‘disagree infrequently’, Batchelor also notes the need to ‘disagree occasionally’. In a day when the manner in which Christians speak to and about one another, especially online, is too often a disgrace to the Saviour, we need to hear Batchelor’s gentle but firm and biblical counsel.

David McKay, The Covenanter Witness

A call to love

It is really easy to focus on the things we disagree about. We all know that. We also know that we should love one another. A very big help on that mission would be this very short book. You will look at people through a different lens. It is like a pair of gospel glasses giving us a Godly perspective of others. I read this and really have noticed myself seeing others in a different light, and also becoming more aware of my negative tendencies to wrongly judge others. If our churches all read and applied this short book, I'm convinced the watching world would be drawn to very different fruit.

Andy

I loved this book so much I gave a copy to everyone in my church for Christmas. It packed a lot into it for being so short and it just lifts our eyes again to the wonderful gift Jesus has given to us in the church.

Hazel

How to love your brothers and sisters in the church.

It is so easy to slip into self-righteous judgmentalism, especially when thinking about our own or other churches. Just as individual Christians are recipients of God’s grace, so is the Church as a collective, which is obvious when you think about it, but perhaps we don’t. Caleb Batchelor brings out some implications. When we think about our own church, we can rejoice that the Gospel applies to all her members, rather than focus on the negative. As for other Gospel churches, yes, we may disagree with them on minor points, but far better to be encouraged by how they reflect Jesus. There is a helpful chapter on how to disagree in a godly way and another on how to be an encouragement in a local church. Sin must be confronted, but in grace. One quote I particularly liked “Idealized visions of the church destroy Christian community because they extract mercy from the bloodstream of Jesus’ body and replace it with morality”. Christian: Love your brothers and sisters in the church.