Religion makes us proud of what we have done. The Gospel makes us proud of what Jesus has done.
TIMOTHY KELLERFear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin.
More Timothy Keller Quotes
-
-
Religion operates on the principle ‘I obey-therefore I am accepted by God.’ But the operating principle of the gospel is ‘I am accepted by God through what Christ has done-therefore I obey.’
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Faith is not primarily a function of how you feel.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Christians tend to motivate others with guilt. We tend to say: You would do this if you were really committed Christians, indicating that we are committed and all that is needed is for others to become as good as we are!
TIMOTHY KELLER -
God became someone we could hurt. Why? To get us back… No other religion-whethe r secularism, Greco-Roman paganism, Eastern religion, Judaism, or Islam-believes God became breakable or suffered or had a body.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting the forgiveness. To not retaliate is to absorb the cost.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
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 KELLER -
If I have the smile of God, all other frowns are inconsequential.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
God sees us as we are, loves us as we are, and accepts us as we are. But by His grace, He does not leave us as we are.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him or her.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
We are regularly in danger of having too light a view of our sin and also too light a grasp of what Jesus has done to free us from our sin.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
You are more sinful than you could dare imagine and you are more loved and accepted than you could ever dare hope.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Jesus warns people far more often about greed than about sex, yet almost no one thinks they are guilty of it.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Prayer should be done regularly, persistently, resolutely, and tenaciously at least daily, whether we feel like it or not.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
The cross is the place where the Judge takes the Judgment.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Nothing is more important than to learn how to maintain a life of purpose in the midst of painful adversity.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
In religion, you obey because God is useful. In Christianity, you obey because God is beautiful.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Where you find your significance is where you find your salvation.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Only on the cross do you have a totally holy God and a totally loving God.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
A life of gratitude to God for being saved is far more pleasing than a life based on self-righteousness over being good.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
No, he was in agony, and he looked down at us – denying him, abandoning him, and betraying him – and in the greatest act of love in history, he STAYED. He said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” He loved us, not because we were lovely to him, but to make us lovely.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Money isn’t an idol. It just shows you where your idols are.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Are you living to justify yourself, or are you living because you are justified?
TIMOTHY KELLER -
The more you understand how your salvation isn’t about your behavior, the more radically your behavior will change.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
Religion 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.
TIMOTHY KELLER -
This is the humbling truth that lies at the heart of Christianity. We love to be our own saviors. Our hearts love to manufacture glory for themselves.
TIMOTHY KELLER