The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness QUOTES

1 " ...the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

2 " In other words, we are only proud of being more successful, more intelligent or more good-looking than the next person, and we are in the presence of someone who is more successful, intelligent and good-looking than we are, we lose all pleasure in what we had. That is because we really had no pleasure in it. We were proud of it. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

3 " Do you realize that it is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance? The atheist might say that they get their self-image from being a good person. They are a good person and they hope that eventually they will get a verdict that confirms that they are a good person. Performance leads to the verdict. For the Buddhist too, performance leads to the verdict. If you are a Muslim, performance leads to the verdict. All this means that every day, you are in the courtroom, every day you are on trial. That is the problem. But Paul is saying that in Christianity, the verdict leads to performance. It is not the performance that leads to the verdict. In Christianity, the moment we believe, God says ‘This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

4 " I cannot live up to my parents’ standards – and that makes me feel terrible. I cannot live up to your standards – and that makes me feel terrible. I cannot live up to society’s standards – and that makes me feel terrible. I cannot live up to other societies’ standards – that makes me feel terrible. Perhaps the solution is to set my own standards? But I cannot keep them either – and that makes me feel terrible, unless I set incredibly low standards. Are low standards a solution? Not at all. That makes me feel terrible because I realize I am the type of person who has low standards. Trying to boost our self-esteem by trying to live up to our own standards or someone else’s is a trap. It is not an answer. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

5 " He sees all kinds of sins in himself – and all kinds of accomplishments too – but he refuses to connect them with himself or his identity. So, although he knows himself to be the chief of sinners, that fact is not going to stop him from doing the things that he is called to do. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

6 " She quotes three current studies into the subject of self-esteem, all of which reach this conclusion and she states that ‘people with high self-esteem pose a greater threat to those around them than people with low self-esteem and feeling bad about yourself is not the source of our country’s biggest, most expensive social problems.’1 "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

7 " Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about.’3 In "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

8 " Could you explain to someone else how the gospel can (and should) transform our sense of identity? How much do you experience that transformed sense of identity? • In what ways has God’s Word encouraged you or challenged you? Pray about it. • Pray that God would give you what you need to enable you to develop true gospel-humility and the freedom of self-forgetfulness. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

9 " By comparing ourselves to other people and trying to make ourselves look better than others, we are boasting. Trying to recommend ourselves, trying to create a self-esteem résumé because we are desperate to fill our sense of inadequacy and emptiness. The ego is so busy. So busy all the time. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

10 " This is gospel-humility, blessed self-forgetfulness. Not thinking more of myself as in modern cultures, or less of myself as in traditional cultures. Simply thinking of myself less. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

11 " C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity makes a brilliant observation about gospel-humility at the very end of his chapter on pride. If we were to meet a truly humble person, Lewis says, we would never come away from meeting them thinking they were humble. They would not be always telling us they were a nobody (because a person who keeps saying they are a nobody is actually a self-obsessed person). The thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel-humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less. Gospel-humility is not needing to think about myself. Not needing to connect things with myself. It is an end to thoughts such as, ‘I’m in this room with these people, does that make me look good? Do I want to be here?’ True gospel-humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself. The freedom of self-forgetfulness. The blessed rest that only self-forgetfulness brings. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

12 " You see, the verdict is in. And now I perform on the basis of the verdict. Because He loves me and He accepts me, I do not have to do things just to build up my résumé. I do not have to do things to make me look good. I can do things for the joy of doing them. I can help people to help people – not so I can feel better about myself, not so I can fill up the emptiness. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

13 " the problem with self-esteem – whether it is high or low – is that, every single day, we are in the courtroom. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

14 " Do you realize that it is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance? The atheist might say that they get their self-image from being a good person. They are a good person and they hope that eventually they will get a verdict that confirms that they are a good person. Performance leads to the verdict. For the Buddhist too, performance leads to the verdict. If you are a Muslim, performance leads to the verdict. All this means that every day, you are in the courtroom, every day you are on trial. That is the problem. But Paul is saying that in Christianity, the verdict leads to performance. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

15 " the natural condition of the human ego: that it is empty, painful, busy and fragile. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

16 " This is gospel-humility, blessed self-forgetfulness. Not thinking less of myself as in modern cultures, or less of myself as in traditional cultures. Simply thinking of myself less. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

17 " The truly gospel-humble person is a self-forgetful person whose ego is just like his or her toes. It just works. It does not draw attention to itself. The toes just work; the ego just works. Neither draws attention to itself. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

18 " Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

19 " The thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel-humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

20 " In his book Sickness Unto Death, Søren Kierkegaard says, it is the normal state of the human heart to try to build its identity around something besides God.2 Spiritual pride is the illusion that we are competent to run our own lives, achieve our own sense of self-worth and find a purpose big enough to give us meaning in life without God. "

― Timothy J. Keller , The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness