When women ask me if the Weight of Grace approach works, I know what they’re usually actually asking: “Will I lose weight if I attend this group?” And I have no way of knowing the answer to that question, because when I say that this approach “works,” I mean that understanding and applying the grace of God results in the freedom to live a godly life, and that may or may not involve being a different size than you currently are.
For one thing, God is not very interested in outward appearance—see 1 Samuel 16:7 and 1 Peter 3:3-4. He is very interested in character and sanctification—see Romans 8:29 and Hebrews 10:10. Therefore, one way in which the Weight of Grace approach “works” is by redirecting women’s attention from outward appearance to inward character.
God is also interested in a love relationship with his children, who depend on him for everything—see John 15:4-5, John 17:26, and Romans 8:38-39. So, another way in which the Weight of Grace approach “works” is by convincing women that dieting to fix themselves up to please God is not in line with God’s desire to live in them and through them as they lovingly depend upon him.
God is definitely interested in transforming those who have faith in him—see Romans 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 3:18, and Ephesians 4:22-24. A grace-oriented approach “works” when women learn to turn away from worldly standards of thinness and outward beauty and instead turn toward Jesus and his power to continually change them inwardly so that they are more and more Christlike. Then women experience how very well grace works to enable them to live “self-controlled, upright, and godly lives” (Titus 2:11-12) in the freedom that only Christ’s grace and truth can bring—see John 8:32 and Galatians 5:1.