Top 581 Quotes & Sayings by Timothy Keller - Page 2

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.

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.'

No one is too bad for Jesus. A lot of people think they are too good for Jesus.

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. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need - regardless of race, politics, class, and religion - is your neighbour. Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbour, and you must love your neighbour.

If you don't feel like praying, pray to God to give you the desire.

The main human problems often are that we misidentify what will make us happy; and we ask people and things to save us beyond their ability.

...the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.

When we worry we are saying, 'I know the way my life is supposed to go, and God's not getting it right'.

Truth without love is imperious self-righteousn ess. Love without truth is cowardly self-indulgence .

The gospel humbles us into the dust and at the very same time exalts us to the heavens.

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.

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! This is why so many churches quench the motivation of people for ministry. In our shoes, Paul would say: Remember the grace God has showered on you—what does living out and enjoying that grace look like in this situation?

There is no way to have a real relationship without becoming vulnerable to hurt. Christmas tells us that God became breakable and fragile. 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.

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.

Unless you believe the gospel, everything you do will be driven by either pride or fear.

Christians need the gospel as much as non-Christians do.

Prayer is the way to experience a powerful confidence that God is handling our lives well, that our bad things will turn out for good, our good things cannot be taken from us, and the best things are yet to come.

Where you find your significance is where you find your salvation.

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.

Those who understand the gospel cannot possibly look down on anyone, since they were saved by sheer grace, not by their perfect doctrine or strong moral character.

The great basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us.

Pride is the carbon-monoxide of Sin. It silently and slowly kills you without you even knowing.

If the church does not identify with the marginalized, it will itself be marginalized. This is God's poetic justice.

Generosity is not only about money. There is more than one currency. Let your generosity be pervasive in life.

A life of gratitude to God for being saved is far more pleasing than a life based on self-righteousness over being good.

Tolerance isn't about not having beliefs. It's about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you.

You are a totally loved moral failure.

When I forget the gospel I become dependent on the smiles and evaluation of others.

Money isn't an idol. It just shows you where your idols are.

Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power than you can imagine.

You are more sinful than you could dare imagine and you are more loved and accepted than you could ever dare hope.

After creation God said, 'It is finished'-and he rested. After redemption Jesus said, 'It is finished'-and we can rest.

If you love anything in this world more than God, you will crush that object under the weight of your expectations.

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. 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).

The Gospel is news of what God has done to reach us. It is not advice about what we must do to reach God.

We tend to see God as a means through which we get things to make us happy. For most of us, He has not become our happiness.

Forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting the forgiveness. To not retaliate is to absorb the cost.

If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning of life, and identity then it is an idol.

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.'

The key question in order to change you is not 'What would Jesus do?' but "What has Jesus done for you?"

Christmas is telling you that you could never get to heaven on your own. God had to come to you.

The infallible test of spiritual integrity, Jesus says, is your private prayer life.

The Gospel does not promise you better life circumstances; it promises you a better life.

Jesus warns people far more often about greed than about sex, yet almost no one thinks they are guilty of it.

You can't live the Christian life without a band of Christian friends, without a family of believers in which you find a place.

It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him or her.

Suffering is unbearable if you aren’t certain that God is for you and with you.

Every single emotion you have should be processed in prayer.

...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.

How you experience your present is completely shaped by what you believe your ultimate future to be.

You don't fall in love. You commit to it.

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.

The purpose of Jesus's coming is to put the whole world right, to renew and restore the creation, not to escape it.

As long as we think we are not that bad, the idea of grace will never change us.

Nothing is more important than to learn how to maintain a life of purpose in the midst of painful adversity.

The cross is the place where the Judge takes the Judgment.

When love of one's people becomes an absolute, it turns into racism. When love of equality turns into a supreme thing, it can result in hatred and violence toward anyone who has led a privileged life. It is the settled tendency of human societies to turn good political causes into counterfeit gods.

Prayer should be done regularly, persistently, resolutely, and tenaciously at least daily, whether we feel like it or not.

The gospel is not only the way to enter the kingdom; it is the way to live in the kingdom.

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.