One of the signs that you may not grasp the unique, radical nature of the gospel is that you are certain that you do.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the idea that true understanding of the gospel requires humility and recognition of its radical nature.
Timothy Keller's quote suggests that those who believe they fully understand the essence of the gospel might actually be missing its profound and transformative nature. The 'gospel' represents not just a set of beliefs but a radical reorientation of one's life and values, and assuming complete comprehension can blind us to its deeper implications and the ways it challenges conventional understanding.
In practice
In a sermon discussing faith and understanding, this quote can remind listeners of the importance of humility in their spiritual journey.
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.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
Man is to become divine by realizing the divine. Idols or temples, or churches or books, are only the supports, the help of his spiritual childhood.
There are the stars--doing their old, old crisscross journeys in the sky. Scholars haven't settled the matter yet, but they seem to think there are no living beings out there. Just chalk... or fire. Only this one is straining away, straining away all the time to make something of itself. Strain's so bad that every sixteen hours everybody lies down and gets a rest.
From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. ... I fell morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed.
Human life is inherently creative. It's why we all have different résumés. … It's why human culture is so interesting and diverse and dynamic.
What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.
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