“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
We observed his glory,
the glory as the one and only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.”
(John 1:14)

20 years ago, I read Randy Alcorn’s book, The Grace and Truth Paradox. I have quoted from this little book more times than I can count over the past two decades. At the heart of Global Training Network’s DNA is a commitment to both grace and truth.
 
Here are my Top 15 Quotes from Alcorn’s book:

In the first century, Christ’s followers were… recognized immediately.

What gave them away?
It wasn’t their buildings. They had none.
It wasn’t their programs. They had none.
It wasn’t their political power. They had none.
It wasn’t their slick publications, TV networks, bumper stickers, or celebrities. They had none.

What was it?
“With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33).

They testified to the truth about Christ and lived by His grace.
Truth was the food they ate and the message they spoke. 
Grace was the air they breathed and the life they lived. 
The world around them had never seen anything like it. It still hasn’t.

When God passed in front of Moses, he identified Himself as “abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). The words translated love and faithfulness are the Hebrew equivalents of grace and truth (p. 15).

Some churches today embrace truth but need a heavy dose of grace.
Other churches talk about grace but cry out for a heavy dose of truth (p. 15).

Birds need two wings to fly. With only one wing, they’re grounded. The gospel flies with the wings of grace and truth. Not one, but both (p. 16).

Truth-oriented Christians love studying Scripture and theology. But sometimes they’re quick to judge and slow to forgive. They’re strong on truth, weak on grace.

Grace-oriented Christians love forgiveness and freedom. But sometimes they neglect Bible study and see moral standards as “legalism.” They’re strong on grace, weak on truth (p. 17).

Truth without grace breeds a self-righteous legalism that poisons the church and pushes the world away from Christ.
Grace without truth breeds moral indifference and keeps people from seeing their need for Christ.
Attempts to “soften” the gospel by minimizing truth keep people from Jesus.
Attempts to “toughen” the gospel by minimizing grace keep people from Jesus. It’s not enough for us to offer grace or truth. We must offer both (p. 18).

Martin Luther said that the devil doesn’t care which side of the horse we fall off of—as long as we don’t stay in the saddle. We need to ride the horse with one foot in the stirrup of truth, the other in the stirrup of grace. (p. 21)

That’s how it is on this tightrope walk between truth and grace. When you stand for truth, you’re held in contempt by some non-Christians (and even some Christians). When you try to demonstrate grace, you’re held in contempt by some Christians (and even some non-Christians). When you try to live by grace and truth, in some eyes you’ll be too radical, in other eyes not radical enough. Some people hate truth. Others hate grace. Jesus loves both. We can’t undercut either without undercutting Him. (p. 26)

Grace isn’t about God lowering His standards. It’s about God fulfilling those standards through the substitutionary suffering of the standard-setter. Christ went to the cross because He would not ignore the truths of His holiness and our sin. Grace never ignores or violates truth. (p. 32)

Grace and Gratitude: “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” (Romans 11:35). The answer is nobody. Our culture is riddled with a poisonous spirit of entitlement. We always think we deserve more. We’re disappointed with family, neighbors, church, the waitress, the salesclerk, and the department of motor vehicles. Ultimately, we’re disappointed with God. He hasn’t given us everything we want. What madness! If only we could see our situation clearly—even for a moment. We deserved expulsion; He gives us a diploma. We deserved the electric chair; He gives us a parade. Anything less than overwhelming gratitude should be unthinkable. He owes us nothing. We owe Him everything. When you realize you deserve nothing better than hell, it puts a “bad day” in perspective, doesn’t it? Christians in Sudan—who’ve suffered unspeakably for their faith—are deeply grateful for God’s daily blessings. But us? We whine and pout. (p. 33)

Godly living centers not on what we avoid, but on whom we embrace. Anytime we talk more about dos and don’ts than about Jesus, something’s wrong. The Christian life is far more than sin management. Behavior modification that’s not empowered by God’s heart-changing grace is self-righteous, as repugnant to God as the worst sins people gossip about. (p. 37)

In fact, people who grow up in joyless religion learn that there’s no hope of living up to such daunting standards. “Why even try? It’s impossible!” But properly understood, biblical truths are guardrails that protect us from plunging off the cliff… The guardrails of truth are there not to punish, but to protect us. (p. 37-38)

A home full of grace is also full of truth because grace doesn’t make people less holy; it makes them more holy. Grace doesn’t make people despise or neglect truth; it makes them love and follow truth. Far from a free pass to sin, grace is a supernatural empowerment not to sin(Titus 2:11-12). (p. 66)

Jesus came down hardest on the very people whose doctrinal statement was the closest to His own. The Pharisees were the Bible-believing faithful of their day. (p. 67)

If we minimize grace, the world sees no hope for salvation. If we minimize truth, the world sees no need for salvation. To show the world Jesus, we must offer unabridged grace and truth, emphasizing both, apologizing for neither. The Colossian church “understood God’s grace in all its truth” (Colossians 1:6). (p. 87)

Truth without grace crushes people and ceases to be truth.
Grace without truth deceives people and ceases to be grace.
Truth without grace degenerates into judgmental legalism.
Grace without truth degenerates into deceitful tolerance.

Christ’s heart is equally grieved by grace-suppression and truth-suppression, by grace-twisting and truth-twisting. (p. 88)

[emphasis mine]