So we find messages of self-salvation extremely attractive, whether they are religious (Keep these rules and you earn eternal blessing) or secular (Grab hold of these things and you’ll experience blessing now).
TIMOTHY KELLERReligion is ‘if you obey, then you will be accepted’. But the Gospel is, ‘if you are absolutely accepted, and sure you’re accepted, only then will you ever begin to obey’. Those are two utterly different things. Every page of the Bible shows the difference.
More Timothy Keller Quotes
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It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.
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Think like a prophet, serve like a priest, and plan like a king.
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When we grasp that we are unworthy sinners saved by an infinitely costly grace, it destroys both our self-righteousn ess and our need to ridicule others.
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If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.
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God looks at the anxious and says, I tore my Son to shreds for you, and you’re afraid I will not give you what you need?
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We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like. Jesus will have none of that.
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Suffering is unbearable if you aren’t certain that God is for you and with you.
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The Gospel is good news not good advice. Advice = what we should do. News = report of what was done for us.
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…Singles, too, must see the penultimate status of marriage. If single Christians don’t develop a deeply fulfilling love relationship with Jesus, they will put too much pressure on their DREAM of marriage, and that will create pathology in their lives as well.
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Christ’s resurrection not only gives you hope for the future; it gives you hope to handle your scars right now.
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Religion says earn your life. Secular society says create your life. Jesus says, ‘My life for your life.
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If we have not seen our sin and sought radical forgiveness from God, we will be unable to forgive and to seek the good of those who have wronged us.
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There is a joy available that the deepest grief cannot put out. No circumstance or person can take away the joy God gives.
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The Gospel is that Jesus Christ came to earth, lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.
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When we worry we are saying, ‘I know the way my life is supposed to go, and God’s not getting it right’.
TIMOTHY KELLER