Inspirational Quotes by Philip Yancey
“Over time Christians learned that the faith grows best from the bottom up rather than being imposed from the top down.”
“for the resulting chasms of ungrace there is only one remedy: the frail rope-bridge of forgiveness”
“by embracing grief and standing beside the hurting person, we can indeed aid another’s search for meaning.”
― Philip Yancey ,
“Why is Brennan Manning lovable in the eyes of God? Because on February 8th of 1956, in a shattering, life-changing experience, I committed my life to Jesus. Does God love me because ever since I was ordained a priest in 1963, I roamed the country and lately all over the world proclaiming the Good News of the gospel of grace? Does God love me because I tithe to the poor? Does he love me because back in New Orleans I work on skid row with alcoholics, addicts, and those who suffer with AIDS? Does God love me because I spend two hours every day in prayer? If I believe that stuff I’m a Pharisee! Then I feel I’m entitled to be comfortably close to Christ because of my good works. The gospel of grace says, “Brennan, you’re lovable for one reason only — because God loves you. Period.”
“Breaking the cycle of ungrace means taking the initiative.”
topics: grace
“Sadly, Jesus’ followers tend to take the reverse approach. Some churches gradually lower the ideals, accommodating moral standards to a changing culture. Others raise the bar of grace so that needy people feel unwelcome: “We don’t want that kind of person in our church.” Either way we fail to communicate the spectacular good news that everyone fails and yet a gracious God offers forgiveness to all.”
“That this world spoiled by evil and suffering still exists at all is an example of God’s mercy, not his cruelty.”
― Philip Yancey ,
“Forgiveness has its own extraordinary power which reaches beyond law and beyond justice.”
“God does some of God’s best work with people who are truly, seriously lost.”
“Forgiveness is achingly difficult, and long after you’ve forgiven, the wound—my dastardly deeds—lives on in memory.”
“It makes a huge difference whether I treat a nonbeliever as someone who is wrong rather than as someone who is on the way but lost.”
“grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us.”
“Realistic hope permits a dying person to confront reality, but at the same time gives strength to go on living.”
― Philip Yancey ,
“Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest, decided to leave her clergy position in part because of the church’s failure to administer that grace: One thing that had always troubled me was the way people disappeared from church when their lives were breaking down. Separation and divorce were the most common explanations for long absences, but so were depression, alcoholism, job loss, and mortal illness. One new widow told me that she could not come to church because she started crying the moment she sat down in a pew. A young man freshly diagnosed with AIDS said that he stayed away because he was too frightened to answer questions and too angry to sing hymns. I understood their reasoning, but I was sorry that church did not strike these wounded souls as a place they could bring the dark fruits of their equally dark nights.”
“Then the question becomes, “How do we treat sinners?”
“Perhaps the greatest way to give suffering people time is being patient with them — giving them room to doubt, cry, question and work out strong and often extreme emotions.”
― Philip Yancey ,
“Justice has a good and righteous and rational kind of power. The power of grace is different: unworldly, transforming, supernatural.”
“In the Christian scheme of things, this world and the time spent here are not all there is. Earth is a proving ground, a dot in eternity — albeit an important dot, for Jesus said our destiny depends on our obedience here.”
― Philip Yancey ,
“the parents of a severely disabled child have no end in sight.”
― Philip Yancey ,
Group of Brands
© 2026 Bibleportal.com All rights reserved.
Philip Yancey is an American Christian author. Fourteen million of his books have been sold worldwide, making him one of the best-selling evangelical Christian authors. Two of his books have won the ECPA's Christian Book of the Year Award: The Jesus I Never Knew in 1996, What's So Amazing About Grace in 1998. He is published by Zondervan Publishing.
Yancey was born in Atlanta, Georgia. When Yancey was one year old, his father, stricken with polio, died after his church elders suggested he go off life support in faith that God would heal him. This was one of the reasons he had lost his faith at one point of time. Yancey earned his MA with highest honors from the graduate school of Wheaton College. His two graduate degrees in Communications and English were earned from Wheaton College Graduate School and the University of Chicago.
Yancey moved to Chicago, Illinois, and in 1971 joined the staff of Campus Life magazine--a sister publication of Christianity Today directed towards high school and college students--where he served as editor for eight years. Yancey was for many years an editor for Christianity Today and wrote articles for Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post, Publishers Weekly, Chicago Tribune Magazine, Eternity, Moody Monthly, and National Wildlife, among others. He now lives in Colorado, working as a columnist and editor-at-large for Christianity Today. He is a member of the editorial board of Books and Culture, another magazine affiliated with Christianity Today, and travels around the world for speaking engagements.