Top 450 Timothy Keller Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “God’s grace and forgiveness, while free to the recipient, are always costly for the giver...”

— Timothy Keller

202. “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

203. “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

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

— Timothy Keller

205. “Life changing repentance begins where blame shifting ends.”

— Timothy Keller

206. “We only fully grasp the gospel when we understand, as Paul did, that we are the worst sinner we know.”

— Timothy Keller

207. “The resurrection of the body means that we do not merely receive a consolation for the life we have lost but a restoration of it. We not only get the bodies and lives we had but the bodies and lives we wished for but had never before received.”

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

209. “The essence of forgiveness is absorbing pain instead of giving it.”

— Timothy Keller

210. “Mercy and forgiveness must be free and unmerited to the wrongdoer. If the wrongdoer has to do something to merit it, then it isn’t mercy, but forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting the forgiveness.”

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

214. “It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him or her.”

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

217. “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

218. “Without immersion in God’s words, our prayers may not be merely limited and shallow but also untethered from reality.”

— Timothy Keller

219. “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

220. “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

221. “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

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

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

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

230. “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

231. “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

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— 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. “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

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

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

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

— Timothy Keller

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

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

— Timothy Keller

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

— Timothy Keller

248. “Jesus warns people far more often about greed than about sex, yet almost no one thinks they are guilty of it.”

— Timothy Keller

249. “The God of the Bible takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself.”

— Timothy Keller

250. “In the church we have to deliberately let ourselves be transparent and accountable to others. We’re a family.”

— Timothy Keller