|
9c53078
|
All that is required to know this salvation is belief: it is offered to "everyone who believes" (v 16)."
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
1f7878f
|
Notice that Paul says that the gospel's power is boundless and boundaried at the same time. He says it is to everyone. It came to the Jew first, through Jesus, but it is for the Gentile as well--everyone and anyone. Yet he also sets a limit on it. It is for everyone who believes.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
1ae9409
|
Think of the implication of the very term "regressive." To reject the Bible as regressive is to assume that you have now arrived at the ultimate historic moment, from which all that is regressive and progressive can be discerned. That belief is surely as narrow and exclusive as the views in the Bible you regard as offensive."
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
2f8aa7d
|
a saved person does not work (v 5a). This cannot mean that a saved person disregards the law (see 3:31). It must therefore mean that the saved person no longer trusts in obedience as a way to be saved. A Christian is one who stops working to be saved, not one who stops working!
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
52b816d
|
The main problem in a person's life is never his suffering; it's his sin.
|
|
suffering
sin
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
53c087f
|
To have any kind of livable society some choices have to be restricted, some authorities have to be respected, and some individual responsibility has to be assumed.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
49f8fda
|
Many say that it is ethnocentric to claim that our religion is superior to others. Yet isn't that very statement ethnocentric? Most non-Western cultures have no problem saying that their culture and religion is best. The idea that it is wrong to do so is deeply rooted in Western traditions of self-criticism and individualism. To charge others with the "sin" of ethnocentrism is really a way of saying, "Our culture's approach to other culture..
|
|
religion
relativism
culture
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
0f5f65e
|
If you go to Jesus to get a new personality, Lewis says, you still haven't really gone to Jesus. Your real self will not come out as long as you are looking for it; it will only emerge when you're looking for Him.
|
|
jesus
faith
self
self-improvement
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
6cf36cd
|
Externalities are to do with our doing; internalities have to do with our being; and Christianity is about who I am in Christ, not what I do for Him.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
4955ac4
|
I believe this particular part of 1 Corinthians 7 is an important practical resource. Each partner in marriage is to be most concerned not with getting sexual pleasure but with giving it. In short, the greatest sexual pleasure should be the pleasure of seeing your spouse getting pleasure. When you get to the place where giving arousal is the most arousing thing, you are practicing this principle. When I was doing research for this chapter, ..
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
084921f
|
The spiritual intense fixation of the mind, by contemplation on God in Christ, until the soul be as it were swallowed up in admiration and delight, and being brought unto an utter loss, through the infiniteness of those excellencies which it doth admire and adore . . . are things to be aimed at in prayer, and which, through the riches of divine condescension, are frequently enjoyed. 293
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
a2ad382
|
when you try to get payment through revenge the evil does not disappear. Instead it spreads, and it spreads most tragically of all into you and your own character.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
7876358
|
The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
6db6ba3
|
Put most simply, the gospel is an announcement--a declaration. The gospel is not advice to be followed; it is news, good (eu) news about what has been done.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
bfd6953
|
Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
5e90ec4
|
Though most spiritual seekers start their search afraid of disappointment, Jesus says that he will always be infinitely more than anyone is looking for. He will always exceed our expectations; he will be more than we can ask for or imagine. So
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
609d4ab
|
Our prayer is that as you read, you'll be struck not by the contents of this book, but by the book it's helping you open up; and that you'll praise not the author of this book, but the One he is pointing you to.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
472eab8
|
Christians who don't understand "no condemnation" only obey out of fear and duty. That is not nearly as powerful a motivation as love and gratitude. If"
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
7443a97
|
the prerequisite for receiving the grace of God is to know you need it.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
41354e6
|
Forgiveness means absorbing the debt of the sin yourself.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
44771e5
|
The true god of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
ec5b2d3
|
Whether we are husband or wife, we are not to live for ourselves but for the other. And that is the hardest yet single most important function of being a husband or a wife in marriage. Paul
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
821575a
|
the distance between the Earth and the sun--ninety-three million miles--was no more than the thickness of a sheet of paper, then the distance from the Earth to the nearest star would be a stack of papers seventy feet high; the diameter of the Milky Way would be a stack of paper over three hundred miles high. Keep in mind that there are more galaxies in the universe than we can number. There are more, it seems, than dust specks in the air or..
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
07554cd
|
I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art m..
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
da88cce
|
There is an old story of a king who went into the village streets to greet his subjects. A beggar sitting by the roadside eagerly held up his alms bowl, sure that the king would give handsomely. Instead the king asked the beggar to give him something. Taken aback, the beggar fished three grains of rice from his bowl and dropped them into the king's outstretched hand. When at the end of the day the beggar poured out what he had received, he ..
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
b157e69
|
Lord, admitting my accomplishments are your gift is a bittersweet thing to do. It stings at first because it humbles. But then it is so very sweet and brings such peace. It is not up to me, and it never was. Let me work hard, with this liberating insight removing the pressure I sinfully put on myself. Amen.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
51eb813
|
There are thousands of men and women who go to churches and chapels every Sunday, and call themselves Christians. Their names are in the baptismal register. They are reckoned Christians while they live. They are married with a Christian marriage-service. They are buried as Christians when they die. But you never see any "fight" about their religion! Of spiritual strife, and exertion, and conflict, and self-denial, and watching, and warring ..
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
865df3f
|
the Bible says that only in God do we "live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). We exist only because he is upholding us, keeping us together every moment. You are borrowing your being from him. This is true not only of your physical body but also of your spirit, your soul."
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
7d2f3e6
|
How silently, how silently The wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts The blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, But in this world of sin, Where meek souls will receive him still, The dear Christ enters in.5
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
2a250f3
|
St. Augustine famously said, "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee" (Confessions 1.1.1). Augustine believed that even when you seem to be enjoying something else, God is the actual source of your joy. The thing you love is from him and is lovely because it bears his signature. All joy is really found in God, and anything you do enjoy is derivative, because what you are really looking for is him, whether you know it or ..
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
efca1a9
|
Christmas shows us that Christianity is not good advice. It is good news. THE
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
0b8d344
|
The founders of the great religions say, in one way or another, "I am here to show you the way to spiritual reality. Do all this." That's advice. Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, comes and says, "I am spiritual reality itself. You could never come up to me and, therefore, I had to come down to you." That's news. Christmas,"
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
86f1959
|
We see, then, that freedom is not what the culture tells us. Real freedom comes from a strategic loss of some freedoms in order to gain others. It is not the absence of constraints but it is choosing the right constraints and the right freedoms to lose.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
6d82e53
|
Our modern culture's idea of freedom is wholly negative. We are free as long as no one is constraining our choices. However, this concept is too thin to be adequate.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
7dcd529
|
Some years ago, a man who regularly listened to my preaching made a shrewd observation. He said, "When you are well prepared for your sermon, you cite a great variety of sources, but when you aren't well prepared, you just quote C. S. Lewis."
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
6471dab
|
I have had homosexual friends, both men and women, tell me that one of the factors that made homosexual love attractive to them was how much easier it was than dealing with someone of a different sex. I have no doubt this is true. A person of one's own sex is not as likely to have as much Otherness to embrace. But God's plan for married couples involves embracing the otherness to make us unified, and that can only happen between a man and a..
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
dbd5bd9
|
The history of the patriarchs is filled with such missteps and moral failures. How could these be our moral examples? The answer: Biblical faith, unlike other kinds, is not primarily about emulating moral examples. The Bible is a history of God offering his grace to people who do not deserve it nor seek it nor ever fully appreciate it after they have been saved by it.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
3ff1f1a
|
If our prayer life discerns God only as lofty, it will be cold and fearful--if it discerns God only as a spirit of love, it will be sentimental.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
d5b3a8b
|
In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as . . . not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of god or spiritual thing to worship. . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough. Never feel you ha..
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
145bcd3
|
Jesus evokes extreme reactions. Some are so furious with him they try to throw him off a cliff and kill him. Others are so terrified they cry out, "Depart. . . . Get away from me!"5 Others fall down before him and worship him. Why the extremes? It is because of the claims about who he is. If he is who he said he is, then you have to center your whole life on him. And if he is not who he said he is, then he is someone to hate or run away fro..
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
1e82421
|
Jesus is not a metaphor. He is real. This all happened.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
435c3f2
|
What is more ultimate, the absolute or the particular? The One or the Many? The ideal and eternal or the real and the concrete? Is Plato right or Aristotle? But the doctrine of the incarnation breaks through those binaries and categories. "Immanuel" means the ideal has become real, the absolute has become a particular, and the invisible has become visible!"
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
4903eab
|
Proper contextualization means causing the right scandal -- the one the gospel poses to all sinners -- and removing all unnecessary ones.
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |
|
0d545fd
|
How will you get the strength to be courageous like that? By looking at Jesus himself. Because if you think it takes courage to be with him, consider that it took infinitely more courage for him to be with you. Only Christianity says one of the attributes of God is courage. No other religion has a God who needed courage. As Packer points out, Jesus could save us only by facing an agonizing death that had him wrestling in sweat in the Garden..
|
|
|
Timothy J. Keller |