Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding, our identity, and our view of the world. Behavioral compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting… We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts. We must feed on the gospel, as it were, digesting it and making it part of ourselves. That is how we grow.
Interpretation
True change comes from a deep understanding and internalization of faith, rather than mere adherence to rules.
In this quote, Timothy Keller emphasizes that genuine transformation in our lives is a result of deeply engaging with the gospel, which reshapes our motivations, self-perception, and worldview. He argues that merely following rules without a heartfelt change leads to temporary compliance, and it is only through a profound integration of faith into our being that we can achieve lasting growth and change.
In practice
This quote can be used in a sermon to highlight the importance of internal transformation through faith.
Falling in love in a Christian way is to say,'I am excited about your future and I want to be part of getting you there. I'm signing up for the journey with you. Would you sign up for the journey to my true self with me? It's going to be hard but I want to get there.
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.
All human problems are ultimately symptoms, and our separation from God is the cause.
While your character flaws may have created mild problems for other people, they will create major problems for your spouse and your marriage.
To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.
God's Kingdom is "present in its beginnings, but still future in its fullness. This guards us from an under-realized eschatology (expecting no change now) and an over-realized eschatology (expecting all change now). In this stage, we embrace the reality that while we're not yet what we will be, we're also no longer what we used to be.
Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.
It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes.
It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack.
Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
There is a naive belief that injustice only had to be pointed out in order to be cured.
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