Galatians for You Quotes

“No one is so good that they don’t need the grace of the gospel, nor so bad that they can’t receive the grace of the gospel.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“Our hearts love to manufacture glory for themselves.”
― Timothy Keller, Galatians for You

“God does not love us because we are serviceable; He loves us simply because He loves us. This is the only kind of love we can ever be secure in, of course, since it is the only kind of love we cannot possibly lose. This is grace.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“the gospel is the A to Z of the Christian life. It is not only the way to enter the kingdom; it is the way to live as part of the kingdom. It is the way Christ transforms people, churches and communities.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“We must go back again and again to the gospel of Christ crucified, so that our hearts are more deeply gripped by the reality of what He did and who we are in Him.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“The law has the power to show us that we are not righteous; but it cannot give us the power to be righteous.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“We tend to see gifts as the sign of the Spirit’s work in someone. But the Bible never does. Judas and King Saul were used by the Spirit to prophesy, do miracles, and so on… but they did not have Spirit-renewed hearts. To be truly led by the Spirit is to grow “the fruit of the Spirit” (v 22). Gifts may or may not operate out of a grace-changed heart; but the fruit-growth of the Spirit can only happen in a child of God. The only test that the Spirit has really indwelled you as a child of God is the growth in the fruit of the Spirit. The first part of that fruit, which Paul mentions here is “love”; and as he says elsewhere, to a church which over-desired particular spiritual gifts: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong … I am nothing … I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1, 2, 3).”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons, much less secure than non-Christians, because of the constant bulletins they receive from their Christian environment about the holiness of God and the righteousness they are supposed to have. Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive criticism of others. They cling desperately to legal, pharisaical righteousness, but envy [and] jealousy and other … sin grow out of their fundamental insecurity.” (Dynamics of Spiritual Life, pages 211-212)”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

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― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians for You

“hard for Christians from churches with emotional expressiveness and modern music not to feel superior to churches with emotional reserve and classical music, and vice versa. We cannot see that we are just different; we believe that our style and customs are spiritually”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“The benefits of suffering are the inner transformation into greater Christlikeness of character and therefore a deep joy that is independent of circumstances.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians for You

“The gospel calls us out of religion as much as it calls us out of irreligion.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“When we use God's grace as a motivator, we can criticize sharply and directly, but the other person will generally be able to perceive that we are nonetheless for them.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians for You

“Paul is not saying that I must have nothing to do with the people and things of the world. Ironically, if I must have nothing to do with the world and must separate from it, then the world still has quite a lot of power over me! Paul means that the Christian is now free to enjoy the world, because he no longer needs to fear it, nor to worship it.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“Ultimately, the gospel is offensive because the cross stands against all schemes of self-salvation.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“Christian living is therefore a continual realignment process—one of bringing everything in line with the truth of the gospel.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“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, Galatians For You

“The gospel comes and turns them all upside down. It says: You are in such a hopeless position that you need a rescue that has nothing to do with you at all. And then it says: God in Jesus provides a rescue which gives you far more than any false salvation your heart may love to chase.”
― Timothy J. Keller, Galatians For You

“Verse 20 is a restatement of verse 14: we need to live our lives “in line” with the truth of the gospel. Now that Christ’s life is my life, Christ’s past is my past. I am “in Christ” (v 17), which means that I am as free from condemnation before God as if I had already died and been judged, as if I had paid the debt myself. And I am as loved by God as if I had lived the life Christ lived. So “it is not me that lives, but Christ” is a triumphant reminder that, though “we ourselves are sinners”, in Christ we are righteous. Then Paul follows up with verse 21, to say: Now when I live my life and make my choices and do my work, I do so remembering who I am by faith in Christ, who loved me so much! The inner dynamic for living the Christian life is right here! Only when I see myself as completely loved and holy in Christ will I have the power to repent with joy, conquer my fears, and obey the One who did all this for me. Everything or Nothing? It’s worth remembering that Paul is still speaking to Peter here! And so he finishes by reminding Peter that the Christian life is about living in line with the gospel throughout the whole of life, for the whole of our lives. We must go on as Christians as we started as Christians. After all, if at any point and in any way “righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (v 21). Christ will do everything for you, or nothing. You cannot combine merit and grace. If justification is by the law in any way, Christ’s death is meaningless in history and meaningless to you personally. Imagine that your house were burning down but your whole family had escaped, and I said to you: Let me show you how much I love you! and ran into the house and died. What a tragic and pointless waste of a life, you would probably think. But now imagine that your house was on fire and one of your children was still in there, and I said to you: Let me show you how much I love you!, ran into the flames, and saved your child but perished myself. You would think: Look at how much that man loved us. If we could save ourselves, Christ’s death is pointless, and means nothing. If we realize we cannot save ourselves, Christ’s death will mean everything to us. And we will spend the life that He has given us in joyful service of Him, bringing our whole lives into line with the gospel.”
― Timothy Keller, Galatians For You

“Paul does not simply say that racism is a sin, which it is. He uses the gospel to show Peter the spiritual roots of the mistake he’s making. Paul says the roots of racism are a resistance to the gospel of salvation. In other words, racism is a continuation of works-righteousness in one part of our lives; it is born of a desire to find a way to feel we are in some way “better” or “righteous”. It is forgetting that we are saved by grace; a failure to bring our relationships with other cultures in line with grace-salvation. If you are a member of a racial majority, your race’s cultural pride is fairly easy to see. If you are a member of a racial minority that is often put down, discernment of “justification-through-racial-pride” is a bit more complex. But it surfaces when you begin to think: I’m more noble than you of the dominant race. I have suffered more and I’m not an oppressor like you. Paul’s approach makes all the difference. Paul did not simply say: You’re breaking the rules (even though Peter was), but: You’ve forgotten the gospel: your own gracious welcome in Christ. Paul did not focus so much on the sinful behavior as on the sinful attitude of self-righteousness that lay beneath it. This”
― Timothy Keller, Galatians For You

“Second, the gospel leads to emotional freedom. Anyone who believes that our relationship with God is based on keeping up moral behavior is on an endless treadmill of guilt and insecurity. As we know from Paul’s letters, he did not free Gentile believers from the moral imperatives of the Ten Commandments. Christians could not lie, steal, commit adultery and so on. But though not free from the moral law as a way to live, Christians are free from the it as a system of salvation. We obey not in the fear and insecurity of hoping to earn our salvation, but in the freedom and security of knowing we are already saved in Christ. We obey in the freedom of gratitude. So both the false teachers and Paul told Christians to obey the Ten Commandments, but for totally different reasons and motives. And unless your motive for obeying God’s law is the grace-gratitude motive of the gospel, you are in slavery. The gospel provides freedom, culturally and emotionally. The “other gospel” destroys both.”
― Timothy Keller, Galatians For You

“But we need to realize that there are deeper harvests that happen even when we don’t meet with much outward success. We will find our own character changing deeply through ministry. Our consciences will be clear and our hearts happier, since we’re less self-indulgent. We’ll develop a less selfish and more satisfied character, which will serve us well when we are under pressure. We may not reap quickly, and we may not see all that we reap; but we can know that there is a great harvest for those who sow to please the Spirit.”
― Timothy Keller, Galatians For You