Top 12 quotes on grace
What is the one thing that separates Christianity from every other religion in the world? It is grace – that divine and undeserved favor of God that elevates the lowly and loves the unlovely.
Grace is the good news that a sick and dying world needs to hear.
Grace is what God’s love looks like from our side. Grace is love come down.
I am addicted to grace. I can honestly say I would rather not live if I can’t have it and I would be dead without it. It is God’s grace that has brought me (and you) safe thus far and grace will lead us all the way home.
I collect quotes on grace. Here are 12 of my favorites. Enjoy!
1. “Grace is not a theology. It is not a subject matter. It is not a doctrine. It is a person, and his name is Jesus. That’s the reason the Lord wants you to receive the abundance of grace, for to have the abundance of grace is to have the abundance of Jesus.” ~ Joseph Prince, Destined to Reign, p.24
2. “Grace means that God does something for me; law means that I do something for God. God has certain holy and righteous demands which he places upon me: that is law. Now if law means that God requires something of me for their fulfillment, then deliverance from law means he no longer requires that from me, but himself provides it.” ~ Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life, p.155-6.
3. “Grace is the voice that calls us to change and gives us the power to pull it off.” ~ Max Lucado, Grace, p.8
4. “The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches. For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is a gift. All that is good is ours not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there is much we may have earned – our degree and our salary, our home and garden, a Miller Lite and a good night’s sleep – all this is possible only because we have been given so much: life itself, eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt. This and so much more is sheer gift; it is not reward for our faithfulness, our generous disposition, or our heroic life of prayer. Even our fidelity is a gift.”~ Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, pp.26-7.
5. “Grace is a system of living whereby God blesses us because we are in Jesus Christ, and for no other reason at all.” ~Steve McVey, Grace Rules, p.147.
6. “If heaven were by merit, it would never be heaven to me, for if I were in it I should say, ‘I am sure I am here by mistake; I am sure this is not my place; I have no claim to it.’ But if it be of grace and not of works, then we may walk into heaven with boldness.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
7. “The ministry of the law, which rightly condemned me, brought out my failures, but the ministry of the Spirit brings out His success.” ~ Ralph Harris, God’s Astounding Opinion of You, p.77.
8. “If a drunk comes to a service… (it’s) ‘Brother, God loves you.’… But woe to that drunk if he comes back drunk after being saved. God loved him when he was a sinner and drunk, but if he’s born again and he’s still drunk – God forbid! Most Christians would not offer the same kind of unconditional love. Doesn’t something seem inconsistent about that? Grace is not just for the lost. Christians must live by grace too.” ~Andrew Wommack, The True Nature of God, p.78
9. “Grace is a message of unconditional love from the Father of the universe. It’s the free offer of the eternal life. And we can experience it all in the gritty now as well as in the sweet by and by.” – Dudley Hall, Grace Works, p.11.
10. “It is grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our death beds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the Grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace wondrous grace. By the grace of God I am what I am. Yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me.”~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)
11. “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see… Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”~ John Newton (1725-1807)
12. “By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us – set us right with him, make us fit for him – we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand – out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.” ~ Paul of Tarsus, Romans 5:1-2, MSG
I promised you 12 quotes on grace and I gave you 12. But since grace is about getting what we don’t deserve, here’s a bonus quote. I saved the best for last. This is my all-time favorite quote on the subject of grace:
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” ~ Jesus Christ, Matthew 11:28-30, MSG
Whew! That is awesome. When Jesus preaches on grace and you receive it, it’s the sweetest thing.
If you have a favorite quote on the subject of grace, let us know below.
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Escape to Reality 
To me grace is like the six blind men who touch an elephant–each comes away with a different concept of the elephant–but each blind man is correct, yet lacking the big picture. My goal is “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Eph 3:18).
If someone has a different view of grace, we should carefully study their view before accepting or rejecting it. (Acts 17:11)
Thanks Paul, always look forward to your posts and share them with all my friends. I particularly like the one that says Grace is a Person. If you’re as in love with Jesus as me and my friends grace is your natural place to live. And love is your natural way to give too. Regards, Jan.
Tqvm Paul Ellis for a great writing. Appreciate it very much and such a timely message to all of us that need rest in our spirit.
Love, love, love GraceQuotes.com!!!
Paul you did again! #13 & #1 is my favorite! Thank God for you!
“He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me….
We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way:
He loves us…”
– David Crowder Band
Paul, always blessed by your web site. Also follow J. Prince and Tullian T. All three of you have so much in common when it comes to the gospel of grace. The one problem I have with reformed people like _____ is the Law and Gospel teaching. They teach that the Christian still needs the law to keep them straight. If you don’t believe this you are a antinomian. I do not believe this but do you have any articles to give me insight when disscussing this with my reformed brothers. God Bless
I am not opposed to the law. I honor the law for the purpose for which it was given, namely, to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by grace. But now that we are in Christ, we are to have no relationship to the law. As Paul explains in Romans 7, a Christian who tries to live by the law is committing spiritual adultery. They are dishonoring their new husband Mr. Grace. The best thing to read on this subject is Romans 7, Colossians 1-3, and Galatians.
I have also written a few posts to help you understand if you are living under law – start with this one. I have also explained why Jesus preached the law – in fact, Jesus was the greatest law preacher ever. But he was preaching to people born under the law, not you.
Law thunders loudly…”You’re guilty!”
Grace whispers sweetly….”You’re free!!”
To me, grace is God treating me just as He treats Jesus, with the same acceptance, love, delight, intimate fellowship, joy, blessing and celebration that He has toward His own Son! Grace has made me as righteous, acceptable, empowered, strong, full, free, included, wanted, fresh and new, pure, holy, good, faith-full, true, complete, healed, whole, well, rich, joyful, peaceful, permanently His child, cared for, provided for, noticed, important, significant, cherished, and beloved by God as Jesus is!
Beautiful!!! This summarizes the amazing, wonderful, no-words-to-describe-how-tasty Truth about us and everyone. GOOD NEWS!! GOOD NEWS!! GOOD NEWS!!! No need to be modest or polite about living anymore when we have God aching for us to get wildly drunk on Grace and bring along anyone who wants to come to the party! Bottoms up 🙂
Excellent Paul, great words of Grace. I will ponder them deeply. God Bless
Hey, I look at law and grace like a credit score.God said in the Old Testament that if I do all he said He would would bless me and if I disobeyed he would curse me.In other words If I asked him’WHY DIDN’T WE WIN THE BATTLE IN AI?God would say I checked your credit score and I wasn’t paid what I asked for,so that dropped your score and you couldn’t get the victory you were asking for.If you ask Achan to make a payment that would put your score where it needs to be and I will give you what you’re asking for.
But it’s no longer about my score.Its about the grace shown to me by Jesus Christ.God no longer looks at me for my score he looks at Jesus and his credit is always perfect by all the credit unions.And as we all know anyone who has good credit can get whatever he wants,which is why Jesus said when you go to God don’t go in your name(your credit is like filthy rags),go in my name.John 14:14-If you ask whatever you want in my name ,you will get it.
Hi Paul, I’ve enjoyed a number of your posts and had two quick questions about this post.
Can you explain quote number 8 in more detail please? I guess this quote confused me a bit…
Also, can explain the photo of the woman sitting on the picture frame smoking a cigarette above?
Thank you
(1) Wommack is pointing out the hypocrisy of graceless religion. There’s a double standard when we show love to sinners despite their faults but not Christians. It’s like grace ends with salvation. “Now that you’re in the kingdom, you have to keep the rules.” (This is not the same as saying grace is a license to sin.)
(2) The woman in the picture is resting from her labors, just as we should if we are to embrace grace (Heb 4:10-11, Rom 11:6). I love this picture!
Many thanks for the quick reply. Exactly – “It’s like Grace ends with entrance to the Kingdom or with redemption” (I added some words to that quote), that makes sense to me now and reflects the attitude of many “religious” people to me… I think this verse makes the quote make sense – Mat 18:21-22 to infinity, yet that is under law so maybe Eph 4:32 is much more appropriate (we are ALREADY forgiven)! I’m not sure how the antinomians who use law to establish what they lack can say those who understand Grace have a liscense to sin. How can we who HAVE died to sin live in it any longer! Thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ we have died to sin, and the law, and HAVE crucified the flesh (Gal 5:24 – it’s finished) and death no longer has any power over us 1 Cor 15:56. All thanks to Him who is our faithfulness!
The picture makes perfect sense to me, just wanted to be sure I was seeing it for what it is – a picture of Heb 4!
Thanks for the reply 🙂 Blessings, Rob
GRACE – (G)od’s (R)iches (A)t (C)hrist’s (E)xpense.
Grace is the abiding presence of God upon a man.
Clark Whitten has an excellent book, “Pure Grace”, which echoes pretty much everything I’ve read on your site (which has been such a blessing). Here’s one of my favorite quotes from Clark, “My bad works don’t move God any more than my good works move Him. He simply isn’t moved by “works” of any kind.” – Clark Whitten
Paul,
Just want say that I am thankful for the work you are doing. The Lord opened my eyes up, in the last few months, to the same message Paul taught: pure Grace, no mixture of the law.
I started seeing this after I stumbled on your website, & engaged conversation with you, & others, awhile back.
Not going back the law again !!
PEACE & BLESSINGS!
That’s awesome mvs123! The irony of it is, now that you are fully under grace you are better able to honor the law and the purpose for which God gave it than before. As Paul said, the law is a tutor – a wise, strict, holy tutor – to lead us to Christ – who is wiser and better by far. Those united with the Lord are to have no relationship with the law, but we sure thank God for it nonetheless.
Paul,
The message of pure grace has become very clear to me; no mixture of the law!
Not going back to the law again! Started seeing this after our dialogue awhile back.
Thank you, & keep up your good work.
PEACE & BLESSINGS!
A noteworthy man died and stood at heavens door, an angel on the door told him you need 100 points to get in.
The man said, I’ve been faithful to my wife, the angel replied, then I’ll give you 4 points; and I attended church the whole of my life, that’ll be worth another 2 points: the man continued, — I prayed and fasted, and regularly read my bible, OK I’ll give you another 2 points for them;
He continued, I tithed and worked tirelessly for my church and donated to many charities, the angel said, alright I’ll even give you another 3 points also for those.
In despair the man cried out to the angel, ‘I’m getting no where with my points,’ I need the “Grace of God,” the angel shouted! you’ve just hit the jackpot and scored the 100 points, ‘come on in.’
—–Chosen by grace. And if by grace , then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace. (Romans 11:5-6 niv).
Good story! Thanks Haydn.
Thank God for grace!
Grace is reality in a world of pretense and unreality. Religion is just like Hollywood; it just promotes a different set of rules and idols. Grace is the only way to have a relationship with a real God. Man always creates rules and ladders to climb up to God; grace is the reality that God comes down, unearned, to us. Grace is an angry Jesus throwing out the money changers from the Temple- today God would throw out our churchianity, cds, nine steps to receive our blessings from God, prophets, apostles, conferences, and churches which enrich a few (phony) specialists and which have nothing to do with the real God, in fact, they lead us away from God and keep us preoccupied with ourselves and our own religious rules and promises. Grace reveals to us that there is no real love in this world and that includes our churches. Only God is love and life; without Him we have nothing.
Sin, no matter how big or large it is, have the value of zero when it comes before GRACE. But when sin comes after Grace it has the value to decreasing Grace.
At that point what can increase GRACE to its original value is REPENTANCE through the blood of Jesus.
@Jacobsfemi you are still thinking performance-based, so your thinking is still in bondage to law.
Grace is Jesus coming to Earth 2000 years ago to pay for & redeem us from sin. All of it. So how are any of your sins before this grace? Jesus doesn’t die again when you get saved, or each time you “repent”, His work is long finished. That’s just when you apply it to yourself.
Sin never takes away from grace- grace is greater than sin! How can you elevate sin to greater than the work of God? (Apostle) Paul said where sin abounds, grace GREATLY abounds (and then some more). Sin never decreases grace. Grace is the only remedy for sin!
Repentance isn’t a performance act we do to earn points (or to bring grace “up”). The literal translation of repentance is simply “changing your mind”. We change our minds to agree with God- our sins are already wiped out by His grace. We do not fall from grace (or lower grace!) by sinning as your post states; instead the Apostle taught by the Holy Spirit that a “fall from grace” meant a return to law – that is, a performance mentality that says we must do something to earn grace (or restore it, as you consider).
By definition there is nothing we can do to earn grace, and it doesn’t need restoring as we cannot break it, or lower it’s value. We need not “do”, we only need to believe. We believe he is finished with the work of bearing our sin, we believe he is good enough and loving enough to be our savior. We believe in HIM. That’s the “work” we labor to enter.
People will not know Grace as a person if he or she doesn’t understand what Grace has accomplished on the cross, Amazing Grace has provided everything that u would possably require to live this christian life . the Appostle Paul taught and preached Grace the Person in Rome and Galacia ,making them to understand the two covenants Law and Grace (being in bondage and being made free under Grace) therefore if we are taught right we would believe right and if we believe right we live right ,the key is to ask The Holy Spirit to lead u to understand Grace ,He will love to do that,that’s the reason God sent The Holy Spirit to u ,He is on a mission to teach and lead u into all Truth
His utmost for my highest.
We do grace a disservice by setting it out there in quotes like something on its own. When God talks on grace He blends it together with many amazing things. So many grace ministries are in reaction mode to the law and are perpetually in a state of freak out mode over the free fact. They never full function in the actual amazing things that are free. Undeserved and unearned become the primary messages in a freakish way.
I would add this quote by Robert Farrar Capon to the list:
“Grace is the celebration of life, relentlessly hounding all the non-celebrants in the world. It is a floating, cosmic bash shouting its way through the streets of the universe, flinging the sweetness of its cassations to every window, pounding at every door in a hilarity beyond all liking and happening, until the prodigals come out at last and dance, and the elder brothers finally take their fingers out of their ears.”
(Actually any of RFC’s quotes are kind of brilliant… but especially the ones about grace. 🙂