“The gospel shows us that our spiritual problem lies not only in failing to obey God, but also in relying on our obedience to make us fully acceptable to God, ourselves and others.
Every kind of character flaw comes from this natural impulse to be our own savior through our performance and achievement. On the one hand, proud and disdainful personalities come from basing your identity on your performance and thinking you are succeeding. But on the other hand, discouraged and self-loathing personalities also come from basing your identity on your performance and thinking you are failing.
Belief in the gospel is not just the way to enter the kingdom of God; it is the way to address every obstacle and grow in every aspect. The gospel is not just the “ABCs” but the “A-to-Z” of the Christian life.
The gospel is the way that anything is renewed and transformed by Christ — whether a heart, a relationship, a church, or a community. All our problems come from a lack of orientation to the gospel. Put positively, the gospel transforms our hearts, our thinking and our approach to absolutely everything.”
— Tim Keller
Paul's Letter to the Galatians: Living in Line with the Truth of the Gospel
(New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 2
"I just want to be a NORMAL Christian: I want to continue to repent and believe the gospel and follow Jesus, take up my cross, deny myself, eat and drink with sinners, turn the other cheek, lose my life for Jesus' sake and the gospel, love my enemies, abide in Christ, & make disciples of Jesus who will do the same."
I'm thrilled to announce the launch of a new website designed specifically for anyone investigating the Christian faith. After many months of hard work by the CE team and our friends at The Good Book Company, the all-new www.christianityexplored.org is now up and running.
The idea is for this site to be a welcoming, unpressured and jargon-free place for people to explore the Christian faith. It is packed with answers to tough questions as well as some wonderfully engaging real-life stories of people who have come to faith in Christ Jesus. There is an animated presentation of the gospel and some info on the Christianity Explored course as well as a powerful 'find a course' feature so that we can point people to churches local to them which are running a CE course.
I'd be be delighted if you'd have a look at the site and if you like it, forward the link on to others who you think may be interested. Why not link to it from your church website or post it on your Facebook page? The beauty is that it is suitable for anyone and everyone to visit, regardless of how they would describe themselves spiritually.
When even the atheist can see this truth, why is it that so many church members and theologians cannot see it?"The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?
I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian."
