Jesus Christ as only an example will crush you. You'll never be able to live up to it. But Jesus Christ as the Lamb will save you.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the difference between viewing Jesus as an unattainable standard versus as a source of grace and salvation.
Timothy Keller's quote highlights two contrasting perceptions of Jesus Christ: one as a perfect example whose morally unattainable life can lead to despair, and the other as the forgiving Lamb who offers grace and salvation. By recognizing Jesus primarily in the latter role, believers can find hope and solace rather than being crushed by the weight of perfectionism.
In practice
During a sermon discussing faith and grace, one could use this quote to illustrate how to approach the concept of perfection.
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.
What happens is consciousness operates in mysterious ways. One of those ways is that the old paradigm suddenly starts to die.
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
From the depths of the West of Europe, a young child will be born of poor people, he who by his tongue will seduce a great troop; his fame will increase towards the realm of the East.
It is neither just nor human so to grind men down with excessive labour as to stupefy their minds and wear out their bodies.
Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation.
We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions and organs with our own, and fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.