Books
x dismiss this message

Did you know you can edit this page?

see page history

Description edit see section history

On the heels of Philip Yancey's bestselling 'The Jesus I Never Knew' comes his equally insightful exploration of grace, the most powerful force in the universe and our only hope for love and forgiveness. Now available in softcover. Winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award, the Christian Book of... read more

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Summary edit see section history

It's one thing to talk about grace; it s another to taste its power. This DVD & matching study guide takes you and your study group for interactive, gut-level encounters with radical, life-changing grace. Through candid video interviews, Philip Yancey integrates true-life faces and... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

It's one thing to talk about grace; it s another to taste its power. This DVD & matching study guide takes you and your study group for interactive, gut-level encounters with radical, life-changing grace. Through candid video interviews, Philip Yancey integrates true-life faces and experiences with 10 powerful sessions that will rock your preconceptions, get you thinking and talking, and help you discover together why grace is more amazing than you ve ever dreamed. (+2 Leader Guides)

Characters/People edit see section history

Show all 40 characters
Popular Covers

Loading covers…

Choose your book’s cover

Quotes edit see section history

  • “Grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us.”
  • “Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.”
  • “Grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it and I am one of those people.”
  • “There is perhaps no one of natural passions so hard to subdue as pride... Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility. (Benjamin Franklin)”
  • “Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude.”
  • “Some of us seem so anxious about avoiding hell that we forget to celebrate our journey toward heaven.”
  • “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more. And, grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.”
  • “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. (C.S. Lewis)”
  • “If everyone followed the "eye for an eye" principle of justice, eventually the whole world would go blind. (Mohandas Gandhi)”
  • “Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear. (MLK Jr.)”
  • “Law merely indicated the sickness; grace brought about the cure.”
  • “Our real challenge should not be to Christianize the United States but rather to strive to be Christ's church in an increasingly hostile world.”
  • “Moralism apart from grace solves little.”
  • “Of one hundred men, one will read the Bible; the ninety-nine will read the Christian. (D.L. Moody)”
  • “A grace-full Christian is one who looks at the world through "grace-tinted lenses".”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more—no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries and divinity schools, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes. And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less—no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder. Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love.
    Highlighted by 225 Kindle customers
  • grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us.
    Highlighted by 222 Kindle customers
  • We risk missing the story’s point: that God dispenses gifts, not wages. None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirements for a perfect life. If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell.
    Highlighted by 210 Kindle customers
  • At last I understood: in the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out. I leave in God’s hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy.
    Highlighted by 198 Kindle customers
  • “The first and often the only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiveness. . . . When we genuinely forgive, we set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was us.”
    Highlighted by 186 Kindle customers
  • The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and Muslim code of law—each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional.
    Highlighted by 167 Kindle customers
  •       Many years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people. . . . We read, we hear, we believe a good theology of grace. But that’s not the way we live. The good news of the Gospel of grace has not penetrated the level of our emotions.
    Highlighted by 166 Kindle customers
  • Obviously, Jesus did not give the parables to teach us how to live. He gave them, I believe, to correct our notions about who God is and who God loves.
    Highlighted by 162 Kindle customers
  • In other words, the proof of spiritual maturity is not how “pure” you are but awareness of your impurity. That very awareness opens the door to grace.
    Highlighted by 145 Kindle customers
  • The gospel of grace begins and ends with forgiveness. And people write songs with titles like “Amazing Grace” for one reason: grace is the only force in the universe powerful enough to break the chains that enslave generations. Grace alone melts ungrace.
    Highlighted by 139 Kindle customers
Show all 25 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

I told a story in my book The Jesus I Never Knew, a true story that long afterward continued to haunt me.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Acknowledgments
1. The Last Best Word

Part I: How Sweet the Sound
2. Babette's Feast: A Story
3. A World Without Grace
4. Lovesick Father
5. The New Math of Grace

Part II: Breaking the Cycle of Ungrace
6. Unbroken Chain: A Story
7. An Unnatural Act
8. Why Forgive?
9. Getting Even
10. The Arsenal of Grace

Part III: Scent of Scandal
11. A Home for Bastards: A Story
12. No Oddballs Allowed
13. Grace-Healed Eyes
14. Loopholes
15. Grace Avoidance

Part IV: Grace Notes for a Deaf World
16. Big Harold: A Story
17. Mixed Aroma
18. Serpent Wisdom
19. Patches of Green
20. Gravity and Grace

Sources
About the Author

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Philip Yancey (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Zondervan
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1997
ISBN: 0310213274
Page Count: 304

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: BT761.2 .Y35 1997
  • Dewey: 234

We’re hiding the errata, movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.