The Cross is not simply a lovely example of sacrificial love. Throwing your life away needlessly is not admirable โ it is wrong. Jesusโ death was only a good example if it was more than an example, if it was something absolutely necessary to rescue us. And it was. Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive us? There was a debt to be paid โ God himself paid it. There was a penalty to be born โ God himself bore it. Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering.
Timothy KellerGod's Kingdom is "present in its beginnings, but still future in its fullness. This guards us from an under-realized eschatology (expecting no change now) and an over-realized eschatology (expecting all change now). In this stage, we embrace the reality that while we're not yet what we will be, we're also no longer what we used to be.
Timothy KellerIt is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you.
Timothy KellerA job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it for them rather than for yourself. And so our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests. Thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person.
Timothy Keller