Words matter. These are the best Tullian Tchividjian Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
The gospel alone liberates you to live a life of scandalous generosity, unrestrained sacrifice, uncommon valor, and unbounded courage.
Rest assured: Before God, the righteousness of Christ is all we need; before God, the righteousness of Christ is all we have.
In the Old Testament, we are continually told that our good works are not enough, that God has made a provision. This provision is pointed to at every place in the Old Testament.
Don’t get me wrong – what we do is important. But it is infinitely less important than what Jesus has done for us.
A religious approach to marriage is the idea that if we work hard enough at something, we can earn the acceptance, approval, and life we think we deserve because of our obedient performance.
Death is the operative device that sets us free in Christ – when we die, we truly live.
From the time God saved me at 21 years old, I’ve always been fascinated by the parables of Jesus.
We may not ever fully understand why God allows the suffering that devastates our lives. We may not ever find the right answers to how we’ll dig ourselves out.
Our assurance is anchored in the love and grace of God expressed in the glorious exchange: our sin for His righteousness.
The Gospel announces that Jesus came to acquit the guilty. He came to judge and be judged in our place. Christ came to satisfy the deep judgment against us once and for all so that we could be free from the judgement of God, others, and ourselves.
I never had an intellectual struggle with the Bible, with the gospel, with the claims of Christ.
Contrary to what we conclude naturally, the gospel is not too good to be true. It is true! It’s the truest truth in the entire universe. No strings attached! No fine print to read. No buts. No conditions. No qualifications. No footnotes. And especially, no need for balance.
Thankfully, while our self-righteousness reaches far, God’s grace reaches farther.
We often read the Bible as if it were fundamentally about us: our improvement, our life, our triumph, our victory, our faith, our holiness, our godliness.
The gospel sets us free to become the romantic leaders of our marriages without fright or hesitation. Because we have been forever wooed by Jesus, we are now free to forever woo our wives.
The deepest fear we have, ‘the fear beneath all fears,’ is the fear of not measuring up, the fear of judgment. It’s this fear that creates the stress and depression of everyday life.
Our minds are affected by sin. Our hearts are affected by sin. Our wills are affected by sin. Our bodies are affected by sin.
Assurance never comes from looking at ourselves. It only comes as a consequence of looking to Christ.
The truth is, narratives of self-justification burble beneath more of our relationships and endeavors than we would care to admit.
The gospel announces that God doesn’t relate to us based on our feats for Jesus, but Jesus’ feats for us.
The gospel is for the defeated, not the dominant.
Hollywood is not known as a culture of grace. Dog-eat-dog is more like it. People love you one day and hate you the next. Personal value is very much attached to box office revenues and the unpredictable and often cruel winds of fashion.
The Bible makes it clear that self-righteousness is the premier enemy of the Gospel.
In ‘Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels,’ I retell the story of Jonah and show how Jonah was just as much in need of God’s grace as the sailors and the Ninevites.
I got my first tennis racket on my seventh birthday. And because we had a tennis court in our backyard, I played every day. By ten I was playing competitively.
The emphasis of the Bible is on the work of the Redeemer, not on the work of the redeemed.
Even those of us who have tasted the radical saving grace of God find it intuitively difficult not to put conditions on grace.
The good news of suffering is that it brings us to the end of ourselves – a purpose it has certainly served in my life. It brings us to the place of honesty, which is the place of desperation, which is the place of faith, which is the place of freedom.
God has hardwired me to thoroughly enjoy and be sharpened by good and friendly theological discussion about the gospel.
Indeed, there is nothing like suffering to remind us how much we need God. What good news that His purpose and plan for our lives moves in a different direction from ours!
Sanctification consists of the daily realization that in Christ we have died, and in Christ we have been raised.
My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace.
Because of total depravity, you and I were desperate for God’s grace before we were saved. Because of total depravity, you and I remain desperate for God’s grace even after we’re saved.
Christianity affirms that Jesus severed the link between suffering and deserving once for all on Calvary. God put the ledgers away and settled the accounts.
Passive righteousness tells us that God does not need our good works. Active righteousness tells us that our neighbor does. The aim and direction of good works are horizontal, not vertical.
I ended up dropping out of high school at 16 and getting kicked out of my home. My parents told me, sadly, that because I was so disruptive to the rest of the household, that I could no longer live under their roof.
For years and years, Christians have been singing about their wandering hearts. Our hearts need to be recalibrated and realigned and reoriented by God.
Your identity is firmly anchored in Christ’s accomplishment, not yours; his strength, not yours; his performance, not yours; his victory, not yours.
The law is God’s first word; the gospel is God’s final word.
Thankfully, God’s restraining grace keeps even the worst of us from being utterly depraved. The worst people who have ever lived could’ve been worse.
To be Biblically balanced is to let our theology and preaching be proportioned by the Bible’s radically disproportionate focus on God’s saving love for sinners seen and accomplished in the crucified and risen Christ.
There’s nothing like suffering to remind us how not in control we actually are, how little power we ultimately have, and how much we ultimately need God.
There is no better story in the Old Testament, or perhaps the whole Bible, for depicting the difference between the ladder-defined life and the cross-defined life than that of the Tower of Babel.
The truth is that when it comes to suffering, if we do not go to our graves in confusion, we will not go to our graves trusting. Explanations are a substitute for trust.
Justification and sanctification are both God’s work, and while they can and must be distinguished, the Bible won’t let us separate them. Both are gifts of our union with Christ, and within this double-blessing, justification is the root of sanctification and sanctification is the fruit of justification.
