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Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just QUOTES

Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just QUOTES

1 " If believers in God don't honor the cries and claims of the poor, we don't honor him, whatever we profess, because we hide his beauty from the eyes of the world. When we pour ourselves out for the poor—that gets the world's notice. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

2 " If you have money, power, and status today, it is due to the century and place in which you were born, to your talents and capacities and health, none of which you earned. In short, all your resources are in the end the gift of God. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

3 " Christ literally walked in our shoes and entered into our affliction. Those who will not help others until they are destitute reveal that Christ's love has not yet turned them into the sympathetic persons the gospel should make them. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

4 " We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like. Jesus will have none of that. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need - regardless of race, politics, class, and religion - is your neighbour. Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbour, and you must love your neighbour. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

5 " Underneath all notions of justice is a set of faith assumptions that are essentially religious, and these are often not acknowledged. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

6 " For indeed, grace is the key to it all. It is not our lavish good deeds that procure salvation, but God's lavish love and mercy. That is why the poor are as acceptable before God as the rich. It is the generosity of God, the freeness of his salvation, that lays the foundation for the society of justice for all. Even in the seemingly boring rules and regulations of tabernacle rituals, we see that God cares about the poor, that his laws make provision for the disadvantaged. God's concern for justice permeated every part of Israel's life. It should also permeate our lives. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

7 " when the Spirit enables us to understand what Christ has done for us, the result is a life poured out in deeds of justice and compassion for the poor.5 "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

8 " the quartet of the vulnerable. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

9 " In Craig Blomberg’s survey of the Mosaic laws of gleaning, releasing, tithing, and the Jubilee, he concludes that the Biblical attitude toward wealth and possessions does not fit into any of the normal categories of democratic capitalism, or of traditional monarchial feudalism, or of state socialism. The rules for the use of land in the Biblical laws challenge all major contemporary economic models. They “suggest a sharp critique of 1) the statism that disregards the precious treasure of personal rootage, and 2) the untrammeled individualism which secures individuals at the expense of community.”38 "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

10 " If a person has grasped the meaning of God's grace in his heart, he will do justice. If he doesn't live justly, then he may say with his lips that he is grateful for God's grace, but in his heart he is far from him. If he doesn't care about the poor, it reveals that at best he doesn't understand the grace he has experienced, and at worst he has not really encountered the saving mercy of God. Grace should make you just. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

11 " A lack of generosity refuses to acknowledge that your assets are not really yours, but God's. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

12 " There is an inequitable distribution of both goods and opportunities in this world. Therefore, if you have been assigned the goods of this world by God and you don't share them with others, it isn't just stinginess, it is injustice. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

13 " By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need—regardless of race, politics, class, and religion—is your neighbor. Not everyone is your brother or sister in the faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

14 " While clearly Jesus was preaching the good news to all, he showed throughout his ministry the particular interest in the poor and the downtrodden that God has always had. Jesus, in his incarnation, “moved in” with the poor. He lived with, ate with, and associated with the socially ostracized (Matt 9:13). "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

15 " Reweaving shalom means to sacrificially thread, lace, and press your time, goods, power, and resources into the lives and needs of others. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

16 " What is the definition of “love”? Jesus answered that by depicting a man meeting material, physical, and economic needs through deeds. Caring for people’s material and economic needs is not an option for Jesus. He refused to allow the law expert to limit the implications of this command to love. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

17 " God loves and defends those with the least economic and social power, and so should we. That is what it means to “do justice. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

18 " Though some are more able “gatherers”—that is, some are better at making money than others—the money you earn is a gift of God. Therefore, the money you make must be shared to build up community. So wealthier believers must share with poorer ones, not only within a congregation but also across congregations and borders. (See 2 Corinthians 8:15 and its context.) To extend the metaphor—money that is hoarded for oneself rots the soul. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

19 " Instead, God directs that each person should bring what they can, and if their heart is right, that will give them access to his grace. For indeed, grace is the key to it all. It is not our lavish good deeds that procure salvation, but God’s lavish love and mercy. That is why the poor are as acceptable before God as the rich. It is the generosity of God, the freeness of his salvation, that lays the foundation for the society of justice for all. Even in the seemingly boring rules and regulations of tabernacle rituals, we see that God cares about the poor, that his laws make provision for the disadvantaged. God’s concern for justice permeated every part of Israel’s life. It should also permeate our lives. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

20 " Those who will not help others until they are destitute reveal that Christ’s love has not yet turned them into the sympathetic persons the gospel should make them. "

― Timothy J. Keller , Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just