Tullian Tchividjian

“The passive righteousness of faith frees me from passing final judgment on myself.”

“We make a big mistake when we conclude that the law is the answer to bad behavior. In fact, the law alone stirs up more of such behavior. People get worse, not better, when you lay down the law. To be sure, the Spirit does use both God's law and God's gospel in our sanctification. But the law and the gospel do very different things.”

“The ironic thing about legalism is that it not only doesn't make people work harder, it makes them give up. Moralism doesn't produce morality; rather, it produces immorality.”

“The cross [is] the ultimate statement of God's involvement in the world on this side of heaven.”

“Whether it's a Christian or a non-Christian, there's nothing like suffering to show us how small, needy, and not in control we are. Suffering has a way of sobering us up to the realization that we can't make it on our own, that we need help, that we're broken.”

“God is the one to be praised, not our transformation.”

“God is not interested in what you think you should be or feel. He is not interested in the narrative you construct for yourself, or that others construct for you. Rather, He is interested in you, the you who suffers, the you who inflicts suffering on others, the you who hides, the you who has bad days (and good ones). And He meets you where you are.”

“Job's unraveling wasn't wrong or sinful; rather, it was emotionally realistic.”

“Grief, of course, is not something that operates according to a specific time frame, and it seems cold to suggest otherwise. Yet when we do not grasp that God is present in pain, we eventually insist on victory or, worse, blame the sufferer for not "getting over it" fast enough. This is more than a failure to extend compassion; it's an exercise in cruelty.”

“Moralism doesn't produce morality; it produces immorality.”

“The God of the Bible is a holy and righteous God. Which is another way of saying that to relate to Him on His own terms, or to receive His blessing, requires perfection. God articulates this perfection in His Law ("Thou shalt" and "Though shalt not"). The problem is that we are anything but perfect! We are only human, as the saying goes. And the divine standard makes it painfully clear just how significant our limitations are. The person who takes the Law seriously is immediately humbled, if not demolished completely.”

“A person with no arms trying to punch themselves until their arms grow back" may be the best description I've ever read of what it feels like for a depressed person to try to cheer herself up. Yet this description applies to any kind of suffering that resists our attempts to address it.”

“Information is seldom enough to heal a wounded heart.”

“...this culture of mandatory happiness actually promotes dishonesty and more suffering.”

“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.”

“The world isn't scandalized by our freedom but by our fakeness.”

“If you uproot the idol and fail to plant the love of Christ in its place, the idol will grow back.”

“To focus on how I'm doing more than what Christ has done is Christian narcissism”

“Legalism breeds a sense of entitlement that turns us into complainers.”

“Disobedience happens not when we think too much grace but when we think too little of it”

“Your pain could be God prying open your life and heart to remove a gift of His that you've been holding on to more dearly than Him.”

“God's capacity to forgive is greater than our capacity to sin; while our sin reaches far, God's grace reaches farther. It's a message revealing the radical contrast between the sinful heart of mankind and the gracious heart of mankind's Creator.”

“Legalism says God will love us if we change. The gospel says God will change us because He loves us.”

“God's ability to clean things up is infinitely greater than our ability to mess things up.”