Religion says earn your life. Secular society says create your life. Jesus says, 'My life for your life.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the contrast between religious, secular, and Christian perspectives on the purpose of life.
Timothy Keller presents a thought-provoking contrast between three views on the meaning of life. Religion often implies that one must work hard to earn their existence, while secular society encourages individuals to shape and define their own lives. In the Christian viewpoint, however, Jesus's message transcends self-creation and earning; it points to selflessness and sacrifice, suggesting that the essence of life is found in giving oneself for others. This highlights a deeper, relational understanding of life that goes beyond personal ambition.
In practice
During a philosophy lecture on purpose and meaning in life.
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.
And when suddenly the god stopped her and, with anguish in his cry, uttered the words: βHe has turned roundβ β she comprehended nothing and said softly: βWho?
I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!
It is these black clothes," said Strange. "I am like a leftover piece of funeral, condemned to walk about the Town, frightening people into thinking of their own mortality.
If what we need to dream, to move our spirits most deeply and directly toward and through promise, is discounted as a luxury, then we give up the core -- the fountain -- of our power, our womanness; we give up the future of our worlds. (From "Poetry is Not a Luxury")
That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
Hinduism threw away Buddhism after taking its sap. The attempt of all the Southern Acharyas was to effect a reconciliation between the two. Shankaracharya's teaching shows the influence of Buddhism. His disciples perverted his teaching and carried it to such an extreme point that some of the later reformers were right in calling the Acharya's followers "crypto-buddhists".
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