Interview With Author of New Booklet on Grace

Our mission at Life, Hope & Truth is to help people better understand the Bible. But understanding goes beyond comprehension; it also includes living and applying it. 

One tool we use to accomplish that purpose is booklets. These publications allow us to explore a subject more deeply than we can in our blog posts and articles. Early this year, we were excited to publish our 24th booklet: God’s Gift of Grace. 

As its title suggests, this booklet explores the topic of grace. 

Kendrick Diaz, a staff writer at our offices in McKinney, Texas, wrote the booklet. We interviewed him to help our readers better understand it.

Q: What motivated you to want to write a booklet on grace?

A: What motivated me was the fact that grace pops up everywhere in the New Testament—it’s obviously a huge part of the gospel message. That and how I saw a lot of mainstream Christians twist it—a problem that goes back as far as the apostles’ day.

Just like back then, grace has been misinterpreted by some to mean that sinful lifestyles aren’t that bad—that grace is so powerful it can cover anything people decide to do, even if they don’t desire to change.

Another reason I wanted to write the booklet was that some of the explanations for grace I found were just too vague. Grace was very abstract, something you just supposedly felt. 

So, I wanted to help make grace clear and concrete in this booklet. My goal was to write something understandable and consistent with how the term was used biblically and historically. That way, when our readers come across it in their Bible study, it won’t be just a question mark in their head or something they only halfway understand. 

My hope is that the booklet will help readers have a simple and impactful definition that gives meaning to the passages that mention grace in the Bible. 

Q: Can you give us a brief rundown of how you organized and approached this topic?

A: I tried to start from the ground up, beginning with how grace was used in ancient times outside of any religious context. That gave me a basis for understanding how the term began to be used in a Christian context—spiritual favors and gifts.

That naturally led into my discussion on the different gifts God offers us through His grace.

Then I talked about what our responsibility is to God after He shows us His grace: obedience.

Finally, I ended with some commentary on difficult scriptures in Paul’s writings—passages people often use to distort grace into something that it isn’t.

Q: Can you share anything you learned from your research that you didn’t know going into this project?

A: It really surprised me to learn that grace wasn’t always used in a religious way. Take Ruth, for example. 

Imagine you’re Ruth and you get to glean from Boaz’s fields. What does that mean? Ruth recognized it as grace (Ruth 2:10, King James Version).

Let’s be clear, that doesn’t mean Boaz forgave her sins. All it means is that he gave her favor—that’s the word used in the New King James Version—completely motivated by his compassion. 

She didn’t earn gleaning privileges, but got them anyway. That’s a basic illustration of grace.

So when we talk about God’s grace, it’s the same principle except on a much bigger scale. The most important gifts and privileges He offers are spiritual. For example, He sent His Son to die in our place so we wouldn’t have to suffer eternal death. That’s a huge extension of grace—but that’s just one aspect of it. 

Q: Did you find anything that surprised you as you studied this topic?

A: Yes, what really surprised me was how often grace appears in the Old Testament. It proved to me that the claims about the God of the Old Testament being harsh and unreasonable are really just misinformed. 

God’s grace is written all over His patient dealings with Israel. So many times the Israelites did not deserve to be restored or blessed, and what did God do? Restore and bless them. God’s grace is written all over His patient dealings with Israel. So many times the Israelites did not deserve to be restored or blessed, and what did God do? Restore and bless them.

He didn’t have to be merciful to them throughout the period of the Judges when they repeatedly disobeyed Him, but He was. He didn’t have to bring the Jews back from Babylon after they had profaned His holy covenant, but He did.

Grace is woven into God’s very character. Does He have limits on how much grace He will show before cutting it off? Yes—but He is always eager to continue showing grace when we honor and respect it.

Q: What was the most interesting section of the booklet to study and write about? 

A: All of it was interesting to write about, but one nugget I found was in the story of Noah. Many people know the scripture “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8). But how often do we stop to think about what exactly that symbolizes? 

Noah’s story foreshadows much of the gospel message. The world today, just like in Noah’s time, stands condemned for its sins. And God does promise to mete out divine judgment one day. But the good news is that God offers us a way out through His grace—the same mechanism that saved Noah.

So when we think about it, Noah represents all those God will have mercy on and save from utter destruction.

So, as early as Genesis 6, we have a small representation of the grace God will show humanity. 

Amazing.

Q: What do you think is the main benefit this booklet can bring to a reader’s life? Why should people read it?

A: This is a booklet that will deepen your relationship with God. It unpacks grace to show you just how many (and there are more) undeserved favors God has done on our behalf. The depth of His mercy and kindness is unfathomable. 

Of course, there’s nothing we can do to repay God for His grace, but there is a response we should have—and this booklet gets into that too. I’ll leave that for our readers to discover on their own. 

Overall, this resource is a tool to help you understand God’s kindness better and the terms of the relationship He wants to have with us.

Click here to download your free copy of this booklet: God’s Gift of Grace.

Date Posted: February 26, 2025