Tim Keller (pastor) Quotes

177 Sourced Quotes

A common vision can unite people of very different temperaments.

Tim Keller
The gospel is not about choosing to follow advice; it's about being called to follow a King.

Tim Keller
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.

Tim Keller
God's grace and forgiveness, while free to the recipient, are always costly for the giver.... From the earliest parts of the Bible, it was understood that God could not forgive without sacrifice. No one who is seriously wronged can "just forgive" the perpetrator.... But when you forgive, that means you absorb the loss and the debt. You bear it yourself. All forgiveness, then, is costly.

Tim Keller
The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

Tim Keller
While your character flaws may have created mild problems for other people, they will create major problems for your spouse and your marriage.

Tim Keller
One of the signs that you may not grasp the unique, radical nature of the gospel is that you are certain that you do.

Tim Keller
So live in the light of the resurrection and renewal of this world, and of yourself, in a glorious, never-ending, joyful dance of grace.

Tim Keller
The greatness of prayer is nothing but an extension of the greatness and glory of God in our lives To fail to pray, then, is not to merely break some religious rule - it is a failure to treat God as God. It is a sin against his glory

Tim Keller
Jesus's miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming.

Tim Keller
As many have learned and later taught, you don't realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.

Tim Keller
There seems to be a human instinct for prayer. Swiss theologian Karl Barth calls it our 'incurable God-sickness.'

Tim Keller
Only in Jesus Christ do we see how the untamable, infinite God can become a baby and a loving Savior. On the cross we see how both the love and the holiness of God can be fulfilled at once.

Tim Keller
If you aren't constantly astonished at God's grace in your solitude, there's no way it can happen in public.

Tim Keller
It is because Jesus Christ experienced cosmic thirst on the cross that you and I can have our spiritual thirst satisfied. It is because he died that we can be born again. And he did it gladly. Seeing what he did and why he did it will turn away our hearts from the things that enslave us and toward him in worship. That is the gospel, and it is the same for skeptics, believers, insiders, outcasts, and everyone in between.

Tim Keller
Prayer should be done regularly, persistently, resolutely, and tenaciously at least daily, whether we feel like it or not.

Tim Keller
Our prayers should arise out of immersion in the Scripture. [We] speak only to the degree we are spoken to.

Tim Keller
While marriage is many things, it is anything but sentimental. Marriage is glorious but hard. It's a burning joy and strength, and yet it is also blood, sweat, and tears; humbling defeats and exhausting victories.

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

Tim Keller
The gospel frees us from the relentless pressure of having to prove ourselves, for we are already proven and secure.

Tim Keller
Nothing is more important than to learn how to maintain a life of purpose in the midst of painful adversity.

Tim Keller
The resurrection was God's way of stamping PAID IN FULL right across history so that nobody could miss it.

Tim Keller
It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him or her.

Tim Keller
The purpose of Sabbath is not simply to rejuvenate yourself in order to do more production, nor is it the pursuit of pleasure. The purpose of Sabbath is to enjoy your God, life in general, what you have accomplished in the world through his help, and the freedom you have in the gospel-the freedom from slavery to any material object or human expectation. The Sabbath is a sign of the hope that we have in the world to come.

Tim Keller
Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire.

Tim Keller
If we are deeply moved by the sight of his love for us, it detaches our hearts from other would-be saviors. We stop trying to redeem ourselves through our pursuits and relationships, because we are already redeemed. We stop trying to make others into saviors, because we have a Savior.

Tim Keller
You should not begin to pray for all you want until you realize that in God you have all you need.

Tim Keller
To fear the Lord is to be overwhelmed with wonder before the greatness of God and his love.

Tim Keller
I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ - therefore I obey

Tim Keller
Just because you cannot realize your highest aspirations in work does not mean you have chosen wrongly, or are not called to your profession, or that you should spend your life looking for the perfect career that is devoid of frustration.... You should expect to be regularly frustrated in your work even though you may be in exactly the right vocation.

Tim Keller