The more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing Godโs grace appears to you.
Timothy KellerThe 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 KellerWhen people say, "I know God forgives me, but I can't forgive myself," they mean that they have failed an idol, whose approval is more important than God's.
Timothy KellerYou dont fall into love. You commit to it. Love is saying I will be there no matter what.
Timothy KellerIf your fundamental is a man dying on the cross for his enemies, if the very heart of your self-image and your religion is a man praying for his enemies as he died for them, sacrificing for them, loving them - if that sinks into your heart of hearts, it's going to produce the kind of life that the early Christians produced. The most inclusive possible life out of the most exclusive possible claim - and that is this is the truth. But what is the truth? The truth is a God become weak, loving and dying for the people who opposed him, dying forgiving them.
Timothy Keller