“Concentration on our sin against God is the opposite of self-pity. Wallowing in self-pity may appear to be repentance, but it is not . . . . Our sorrow is not over how we wronged God or others but over the trouble it has brought us. We are not truly troubled by the sin, and […]
“The distinction between true guilt and false guilt is a crucial one to make. Why? Because time will not heal true guilt. . . . The only way to deal with true guilt is to take it to the grace and mercy of God. On the other hand, moral effort and prayer will not heal […]
“Here is the essence of what Christianity gives us. Only God is the final judge of who we are and what we have done. If — and only if — he is, then God can overrule our heart’s guilt and condemnation. If he says we are forgiven, then we are, and we can tell our […]
“Someone says, ‘Oh, God just loves everyone.’ But such a God is not as loving as the God of the Bible, who because he was holy and loving gave us grace. Because he’s loving, there’s free, free, free, free grace for us. But because he is holy, it was costly grace, infinitely costly grace.”- Timothy […]
“We spend all our lives finding ways to cover up that deep, radical sense of inadequacy. . . . Why all these things? They are fig leaves. . . . These are desperate efforts to deal with the sense of unacceptability — of unlovability — we all have. But fig leaves don’t work. . . […]
“The human condition needs a spiritual covering. We cannot bear to have people get an unfiltered, out-of-our-control look at who we really are. We are not proud of who we are ‘in the raw’, and so we desperately look for ways to cover up and to create a flawless image. But Instagram is not enough!”- […]
“To love those who do not love you is not offered as a piece of pragmatic wisdom, but as a reflection of the character of God himself (v. 45), who gives a fruitful earth, through rain and sun, to all people regardless of the motives or character.”- R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew “But […]
“Since doing justice is at its essence loving your neighbors enough to want them to be freed from the evil at work in their hearts, then it is possible to pursue both justice and forgiveness, to renounce revenge and still pursue justice for the good of all, not for your own emotional satisfaction.”- Timothy Keller […]
“[Attitudinal forgiveness and reconciled forgiveness] are not two kinds of forgiveness but two aspects or stages of it. One could say that the first must always happen, and the second may happen but is not always possible. Attitudinal forgiveness can occur without reconciliation, but reconciliation cannot happen unless attitudinal forgiveness has already occurred.”- Timothy Keller […]
“At the sight of men’s sins . . . always decide to use humble love. If you resolve to do that, once and for all, you can subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things and there is nothing else like it.”- Fyodor Dostoevsky “If your brother or sister […]
“The cross shows that God is committed to both justice and forgiveness; there is no pitting one against the other. When Jesus died on the cross, it meant that in a single stroke justice was done on sin and the door for forgiveness opened. . . . We must pursue both together as well.”- Timothy […]
“Silence happens on Saturday. After trouble hits you, after the agony of Friday, you call out to God. . . . On Saturday, in addition to the pain of Friday, there is the pain and the silence of the absence of God.”- John Ortberg, Who is This Man? (2012) “Surely he hath borne our griefs […]