Timothy Keller Quotes

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

Accept Accepted Bible Different Every Gospel Page Religion Show Utterly
You can’t live the Christian life without a band of Christian friends, without a family of believers in which you find a place.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Band Believer Christian Family Friend
To discover the real you, look at what you spend time thinking about when no one is looking.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Discover Look One Real Spend Think Time You
Religion: ‘My identity is built on being a good person.’ Gospel: ‘My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on Christ’s.’
TIMOTHY KELLER

Christ Good Identity Performance Person Record Religion
Many times people think if God has called you to something, he’s promising you success. He might be calling you to fail to prepare you for something else through the failure.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Call People Promise Something Success Think Time
We have to be careful not to elevate our preferences to moral standards and judge others by them. We only do so to feel superior.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Careful Elevate Feel Judge Judging Moral Preference Standard Superior
If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning of life, and identity then it is an idol.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Anything Become Fundamental God Identity Idol Idols Life Meaning
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

Danger Free Grasp Jesus Light Regularly Sin View
Jesus Christ did not suffer so that you would not suffer. He suffered so that when you suffer, you’ll become more like him.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Become Christ Jesus Like More Suffer
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

Accept Acceptable God Gospel Obey Operate Principle Religion
Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Believe Bitterness God Right Worry Wrong
To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Comfort Fear Fully Greatest Know Love Superficial True Love
The basic premise of religion– that if you live a good life, things will go well for you– is wrong. Jesus was the most morally upright person who ever lived, yet He had a life filled with the experience of poverty, rejection, injustice, and even torture.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Basic Good Jesus Life Live Morality Most Person Premise Religion Upright Wrong
As long as we think we are not that bad, the idea of grace will never change us.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Change Grace Ideas Long never Think
Tolerance isn’t about not having beliefs. It’s about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Belief Disagree People Tolerance Treat
Trust is accepting what God sends into your life whether you understand it or not.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Accept Defensive God Life Most Now Send Trust
When I forget the gospel I become dependent on the smiles and evaluation of others.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Dependent Evaluation Forget Other Smile
The world values power, comfort, success, and recognition. Jesus frees us to value grief, sacrifice, weakness, and exclusion.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Comfort Grief Jesus Power Recognition Sacrifice Success Value World
No one is too bad for Jesus. A lot of people think they are too good for Jesus.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Bad Good Jesus Lot One People Think
God invites us to come as we are, not stay as we are.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Come God Invite Stay
God relentlessly offers his grace to people who do not deserve it, or seek it, or even appreciate it after they have been saved by it.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Appreciate Deserve God Grace Offer People Relentlessly Save Seek
The Bible says that our real problem is that every one of us is building our identity on something besides Jesus.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Besides Bible Building Every Identity Jesus One Problem Real Say Something
The Gospel is news of what God has done to reach us. It is not advice about what we must do to reach God.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Advice Done God Gospel News Reach Rech
Generosity is not only about money. There is more than one currency. Let your generosity be pervasive in life.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Currency Generosity Life Money One Only Perceive
You don’t fall in love. You commit to it.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Attach Comit Faith Faithful Love
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

Accept Doe God Grace Leave Love See
If you don’t feel like praying, pray to God to give you the desire.
TIMOTHY KELLER

Desire Feel God Pray

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