Timothy Keller Quotes

Jesus lost all his glory so that we could be clothed in it. He was shut out so we could get access. He was bound, nailed, so that we could be free. He was cast out so we could approach. And Jesus took away the only kind of suffering that can really destroy you: that is being cast away from God. He took so that now all suffering that comes into your life will only make you great. A lump of coal under pressure becomes a diamond. And the suffering of a person in Christ only turns you into somebody gorgeous.

If you come from insignificance and when you die you return to insignificance, then nothing is significant now.

Jesus does not just bring good news; he is the good news.

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.

Jesus does not divide the world into the moral "good guys" and the immoral "bad guys". He shows us that everyone is dedicated to a project of self-salvation, to using God and others in order to get power and control for themselves. We are just going about it in different ways. Even though both sons are wrong, however, the father cares for them and invites them both back into his love and feast.

By praying with friends, you will be able to hear and see facets of Jesus that you have not yet perceived.

What greater value could you possibly have than to be delighted in and sacrificed for by the Maker of the universe.

The world says you are loved because of what you do. Jesus says you can now do all things because you are loved.

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

Only if you are part of a community of believers seeking to resemble, serve, and love Jesus will you ever get to know him and grow into his likeness.

Jesus is the author of faith, the provider of faith, and the object of faith.

Because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord, and Judge just as each son sought to displace the authority of the father in his own life.

The Bible says that our real problem is that every one of us is building our identity on something besides Jesus.

We must go back again and again to the Gospel of Christ crucified, so that our hearts are more deeply gripped by the reality of what He did and who we are in Him.

We were designed to know, serve, and love God supremely - and when we are faithful to that design, we flourish.

Those who believe they have pleased God by the quality of their devotion and moral goodness naturally feel that they and their group deserve deference and power over others. The God of Jesus and the prophets, however, saves completely by grace. He cannot be manipulated by religious and moral performance--he can only be reached through repentance, through the giving up of power. If we are saved by sheer grace we can only become grateful, willing servants of God and of everyone around us.

In the christian view, the ultimate evidence for the existence of God is Jesus Christ. If there is a God, we characters in his play have to hope that he put some information about himself in the play. But Christians believe he did more than give us information. He wrote himself into the play as the main character in history, when Jesus was born in a manger and rose from the dead.

When pain and suffering come upon us, we finally see not only that we are not in control of our lives but that we never were.

It is because of the doctrine of judgment and hell that Jesus' proclamations of grace and love are so astounding.

The simple fact is that only if I love Jesus more than my wife will I be able to serve her needs ahead of my own.

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.

In the church we have to deliberately let ourselves be transparent and accountable to others. We're a family.

When Jesus got the big questions, he didn't present arguments. He presented himself.

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.

Jesus Christ, who had all the power in the world, saw us enslaved by the very things we thought would free us ... He laid aside the infinities and immensities of His being and, at the cost of His life, paid the debt for our sins, purchasing us the only place our hearts can rest, in His Father's house. Knowing He did this will transform us from the inside out.

A lack of generosity refuses to acknowledge that your assets are not really yours, but God's.

To fail to pray, then, is not to merely break some religious rule- it is a failure to treat God as God.

In the secular view, suffering is never seen as a meaningful part of life but only as an interruption.

Holiness gives us new desires and brings old desires into line with one another.

The more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you.

Out of the cross comes the resurrection. Out of weakness comes real strength.

If you want God's grace, all you need is need, all you need is nothing.

Love is the effort and desire to make someone else everything they were created to be.

Your heart is smothering under your small ambitions.

A sense of Jesus’ absence might be a sign of his presence- a sign that he’s working already in your life.

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.

When 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.

It is remarkable that in all of his writings Paul's prayers for his friends contain no appeals for changes in their circumstances.

I wouldn't venture to say which kind of sin is more prevalent. I wouldn't even want to try to characterize certain 'circles.'

If you are a child of God, you don’t lose your status if you have a bad week.

Marriage has the power to set the course of your life as a whole. If your marriage is strong, even if all the circumstances in your life around you are filled with trouble and weakness, it won't matter. You will be able to move out into the world in strength.

Legalistic remorse says, "I broke God's rules," while real repentance says, "I broke God's heart."

The sin under all other sins is a lack of joy in Christ.

Prayer is both conversation and encounter with God.

If you're avoiding sin and living morally so that God will have to bless you and save you, then you may be looking to Jesus as a teacher, model, and helper, but ironically you are avoiding him as Savior. You are trusting in your own goodness rather than in Jesus for your standing with God.

The irreligious don't repent at all and the religious only repent of sins. But Christians repent of their wrongfully placed righteousness.

The main problem in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel, we have not 'used' the gospel in and on all parts of our life.

The common moral framework: Do anything as long as it does no harm to others. Problem: Whose definition of harm?