The Grace and Truth Paradox: Responding with Christlike Balance [Hardcover]

Randy Alcorn (Author)

Book Description

Series: LifeChange Books | Publication Date: January 9, 2003

Christians trying to model their lives after Jesus may find that He gets buried under lists, rules, and formulas. Now bestselling author Randy Alcorn offers a simple two-point checklist for Christlikeness based on John 1:14. The test consists of balancing grace and truth, equally and unapologetically. Grace without truth deceives people, and ceases to be grace. Truth without grace crushes people, and ceases to be truth. Alcorn shows the reader how to show the world Jesus -- offering grace instead of the world's apathy and tolerance, offering truth instead of the world's relativism and deception.

Grace or Truth…or Both?

Truth without grace breeds self-righteousness and crushing legalism.

Grace without truth breeds deception and moral compromise.

Is it possible to embrace both in balance?

Jesus did.

Randy Alcorn offers a simple yet profound two-point checklist of Christlikeness. “In the end,” says Alcorn, “we don’t need grace or truth. We need grace and truth. And for people to see Jesus in us, they must see both.”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hate the sin but love the sinner is the gist of the paradox explored in this slender point-of-purchase book by minister Alcorn. The author of Deadline draws on his experiences of getting "proabortion" activists, unbelieving academics and his "resistant" father to see the light to argue that Christians must display grace-a spirit of humility, love and inclusion-while also insisting on the truth of Christian doctrine. Truth without grace, he asserts, yields a self-righteous Pharisaism, while grace without truth leads to "moral indifference" and a dilution of Christ's message. Alcorn writes in a contemporary idiom, likening grace and truth to a binary star system or the twin strands of the DNA double helix. But his is a traditional evangelical outlook that combines Biblical literalism, hell-fire and a deep acknowledgment of personal sin. Alcorn registers his fundamentalist views on such topics as relativism on campus, the fallacy of Darwinism and Oprah Winfrey's "have-it-your-way designer religion." But he also chides Christians for their holier-than-thou attitudes ("Jesus," he warrants, "would preach five sermons against self-righteous churches for every one against taverns") and compares himself with evil-doers ("I am Dahmer. I am Mao") in attesting to the fallen state of all humanity and their dependence on God's unmerited grace for salvation. Firm but forbearing, Alcorn's tract is a dose of old-time religion in a smooth modern formulation.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. His books include the bestsellers The Treasure Principle, Deadline, Dominion, Lord Foulgrin's Letters, and The Ishbane Conspiracy. He has written seven other nonfiction books. Randy and his wife, Nanci, live in Gresham, Oregon, and have two grown daughters, Karina and Angela.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Books (January 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590520653
• ISBN-13: 978-1590520659
• Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 0.4 x 6.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Randy Alcorn is an author and the founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries (EPM), a nonprofit ministry dedicated to teaching principles of God's Word and assisting the church in ministering to the unreached, unfed, unborn, uneducated, unreconciled, and unsupported people around the world. His ministry focus is communicating the strategic importance of using our earthly time, money, possessions and opportunities to invest in need-meeting ministries that count for eternity. He accomplishes this by analyzing, teaching, and applying the biblical truth.

Before starting EPM in 1990, Randy served as a pastor for fourteen years. He holds degrees in theology and biblical studies and has taught on the adjunct faculties of Multnomah University and Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon.

Randy has written more than forty books, including the bestsellers Heaven, The Treasure Principle, and the Gold Medallion winner Safely Home. His books in print exceed five million and have been translated into over thirty languages. Randy has written for many magazines including EPM's quarterly issues-oriented magazine Eternal Perspectives. He is active daily on Facebook and Twitter, has been a guest on more than 700 radio, television and online programs including Focus on the Family, FamilyLife Today, Revive Our Hearts, The Bible Answer Man, and The Resurgence.

Randy resides in Gresham, Oregon, with his wife, Nanci. They have two married daughters and are the proud grandparents of five grandchildren. Randy enjoys hanging out with his family, biking, tennis, research, and reading.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super Book, September 9, 2003

By 

Rod Kelly (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Grace and Truth Paradox: Responding with Christlike Balance (Hardcover)

Randy Alcorn really gives you a great understanding of what it's like to be a "balanced" Christian. Not just full of Grace at the expense of Truth or vice versa but that it takes dependence on the Holy Spirit to provide discernment at that moment of decision to dispense truth and/or grace as required.
Mr. Alcorn really cut to the heart of the matter in letting us know that being a Christian means dispensing Truth and Grace in the relativistic society that we live in.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful but Brief!!!, January 26, 2005

By 

Gregory Nyman (Winchendon, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Grace and Truth Paradox: Responding with Christlike Balance (Hardcover)

Randy Alcorn has written a small treatise on grace and truth, and while using Scripture and personal examples, he appeals to Christians to pursue balance between the both. In one chapter after another, he focuses first on grace and then truth, and contends that the balanced Christian life must have both, and with a truth-centered Christianity, one runs the risk of being legalistic, but in a grace-centered Christianity, one also runs the risk of being overly nice, with the truth taking a back seat.

It is a nicely woven theme, and can be read in one sitting, although the reader might want to chew on one chapter at a time. A powerful treatise, though, and it's right to the point!!

Highly recommended!!!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well balanced book that should be read by every Christian, August 10, 2003

By 

M. Edwards "mom of 4" (Smithton, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Grace and Truth Paradox: Responding with Christlike Balance (Hardcover)

This book does a good job of discussing the balance between Grace and Truth. As another reviewer pointed out, Truth can appear to be "Law" in this book, or maybe Grace is Truth. The fact is that Jesus repeatedly pleaded with His apostles to keep His commandments (Matt 28:20, MK 12:30, John 15:12) and He also said:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34)

"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet,"and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself. "Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Rom 13:8)

Jesus said "If you love Me you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). (A good summary of love is 1 Cor 13:1-13)
This cannot be overlooked. Grace is never an excuse to sin. That is why this book really useful. It helps show the line between grace and truth. Jesus didn't come to Jerusalem and preach only grace. If it were that simple, He wouldn't have condemned the scribes and Pharisees. They had no love in them. We are still commanded to love:

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. (Gal 5:13)

This book gives various circumstances were people (some christians and some non-christians) have needed to be reached in gentleness and love. Sometimes this is explaining the Truth about the law, so that grace can be preached:

What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. (Romans 7:7)

Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. (Romans 3)

The law does not save us. We are saved by the Grace of God and not by works, but this fact does not negate Christian responsibility.

Again, this is a fine line that has been well thought out and covered in various ways by the author Randy Alcorn. I think this book should be a must read for every Christian. I only wish it were a bit longer. But I do like it as it is, (since you can read it in an afternoon if you want) it makes a great gift to pass around to fellow Christians and non-Christians alike.