Top 450 Timothy Keller Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “While your character flaws may have created mild problems for other people, they will create major problems for your spouse and your marriage.”

— Timothy Keller

202. “If you want God’s grace, all you need is need, all you need is nothing. But that kind of spiritual humility is hard to muster. We come to God saying, “Look at all I’ve done,” or maybe “Look at all I’ve suffered.” God, however, wants us to look to him – to just wash.”

— Timothy Keller

203. “The basic premise of religion– that if you live a good life, things will go well for you– is wrong. Jesus was the most morally upright person who ever lived, yet He had a life filled with the experience of poverty, rejection, injustice, and even torture.”

— Timothy Keller

204. “Those who understand the gospel cannot possibly look down on anyone, since they were saved by sheer grace, not by their perfect doctrine or strong moral character.”

— Timothy Keller

Featured in: Strong Quotes

205. “No matter what precautions we take, no matter how well we have put together a good life, no matter how hard we have worked to be healthy, wealthy, comfortable with friends and family, and successful with our career – something will inevitably ruin it.”

— Timothy Keller

206. “Not everyone is your brother or sister in the faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor.”

— Timothy Keller

207. “Most people want Jesus as a consultant rather than a King, and He does not come that way.”

— Timothy Keller

208. “God’s grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge their need for a Savior.”

— Timothy Keller

209. “God’s grace and forgiveness, while free to the recipient, are always costly for the giver...”

— Timothy Keller

210. “Many times people think if God has called you to something, he’s promising you success. He might be calling you to fail to prepare you for something else through the failure.”

— Timothy Keller

211. “True citizens of the heavenly city are the best residents of the earthly city.”

— Timothy Keller

212. “The infallible test of spiritual integrity, Jesus says, is your private prayer life.”

— Timothy Keller

213. “Real love, the Bible says, instinctively desires permanence.”

— Timothy Keller

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214. “Do you realize that it is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance?”

— Timothy Keller

215. “You can’t live the Christian life without a band of Christian friends, without a family of believers in which you find a place.”

— Timothy Keller

216. “All human problems are ultimately symptoms, and our separation from God is the cause.”

— Timothy Keller

217. “Careful obedience to God’s law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God.”

— Timothy Keller

218. “How you experience your present is completely shaped by what you believe your ultimate future to be.”

— Timothy Keller

219. “Work is taking the raw material of creation and developing it for the sake of others.”

— Timothy Keller

220. “Look at Jesus Christ. Every time he was in trouble he used the Word of God. When he was tempted he used the Word. When he was suffering on the cross he used the Word.”

— Timothy Keller

221. “All change comes from deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ and living out the changes that understanding creates in your heart.”

— Timothy Keller

222. “We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order.”

— Timothy Keller

223. “The Gospel worldview equips the artist with a unique combination of optimism and realism about life.”

— Timothy Keller

224. “When you experience God it is deeply personal, but it’s not at all private.”

— Timothy Keller

225. “The world is polarizing over religion. It is getting both more religious and less religious at the same time.”

— Timothy Keller

226. “Christ will do everything for you or nothing. He’s either all of your righteousness or none.”

— Timothy Keller

227. “When Jesus got the big questions, he didn’t present arguments. He presented himself.”

— Timothy Keller

228. “The goal of prayer is not just the sharing of our ideas, but also of ourselves.”

— Timothy Keller

229. “Prayer gives us relief from the melancholy burden of self-absorption .”

— Timothy Keller

230. “The church should be a place where people can be free to say that they are sinners.”

— Timothy Keller

231. “Only with time do we really learn who the other person is and come to love the person for him- or herself and not just for the feelings and experiences they give us.”

— Timothy Keller

232. “God looks at the anxious and says, I tore my Son to shreds for you, and you’re afraid I will not give you what you need?”

— Timothy Keller

233. “Power, approval, comfort, and control are meta-idols that hold sway over our daily lives.”

— Timothy Keller

234. “If you love anything in this world more than God, you will crush that object under the weight of your expectations.”

— Timothy Keller

235. “The observer of beauty always receives a passion to share the beauty with others.”

— Timothy Keller

236. “Jesus came into this world not as a philosopher or a general but as a carpenter. All work matters to God.”

— Timothy Keller

237. “It takes both spouses to say, “My self-centeredness is the main problem in my marriage” to have a great marriage.”

— Timothy Keller

238. “The lack of joy in your life is due to your lack of mission.”

— Timothy Keller

239. “If we can’t “love the sinner; hate the sin” then how can we relate to ourselves? Love who we are in Christ but still hate the sin remaining.”

— Timothy Keller

240. “We are saved by a man who died loving his enemies.”

— Timothy Keller

241. “Men, you’ll never be a good groom to your wife unless you’re first a good bride to Jesus.”

— Timothy Keller

242. “We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.”

— Timothy Keller

243. “Prayer is awe before an infinite force, and yet it’s intimacy with a personal friend.”

— Timothy Keller

244. “Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God.”

— Timothy Keller

245. “The more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you.”

— Timothy Keller

246. “How could a good, all-powerful God allow suffering?”

— Timothy Keller

247. “The prerequisite for receiving the grace of God is to know you need it.”

— Timothy Keller

248. “Hell is having to execute a pointless act from which nothing ever comes except the need to do it again.”

— Timothy Keller

249. “If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning of life, and identity then it is an idol.”

— Timothy Keller

250. “The Bible says that our real problem is that every one of us is building our identity on something besides Jesus.”

— Timothy Keller

Featured in: Real Quotes