For the life of the believer, one thing is beautifully and abundantly true: God’s chief concern in your suffering is to be with you and be Himself for you. And in the end, what we discover is that this really is enough. – Tullian Tchividjian
Assurance never comes from looking at ourselves. It only comes as a consequence of looking to Christ. – Tullian Tchividjian
Jesus is not the man at the top of the stairs; He is the man at the bottom, the friend of sinners, the savior of those in need of one. Which is all of us, all of the time. – Tullian Tchividjian
Thankfully, while our self-righteousness reaches far, God’s grace reaches farther. – Tullian Tchividjian
The Bible makes it clear that self-righteousness is the premier enemy of the Gospel. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace. – Tullian Tchividjian
At some level, every relationship is assaulted by an aroma of judgment – this sense that we will never measure up to the expectations and demands of another. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
The truth is, narratives of self-justification burble beneath more of our relationships and endeavors than we would care to admit. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
The world tells us in a thousand different ways that the bigger we become, the freer we will be. The richer, the more beautiful, and the more powerful we grow, the more security, liberty, and happiness we will experience. And yet, the gospel tells us just the opposite, that the smaller we become, the freer we will be. – Tullian Tchividjian
Our minds are affected by sin. Our hearts are affected by sin. Our wills are affected by sin. Our bodies are affected by sin. – Tullian Tchividjian
Even those of us who have tasted the radical saving grace of God find it intuitively difficult not to put conditions on grace. – Tullian Tchividjian
Believe it or not, Christianity is not about good people getting better. If anything, it is good news for bad people coping with their failure to be good. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
When God saved me, He gave me a thirst to learn and to read and to study. I thrived in college. I got a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and then went to Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando. – Tullian Tchividjian
God wants to free us from ourselves, and there’s nothing like suffering to show us that we need something bigger than our abilities and our strength and our explanations. – Tullian Tchividjian
As Luke 24 shows, it’s possible to read the Bible, study the Bible, and memorize large portions of the Bible, while missing the whole point of the Bible. – Tullian Tchividjian
Because Jesus came to secure for us what we could never secure for ourselves, life doesn’t have to be a tireless effort to establish ourselves, justify ourselves, validate ourselves. – Tullian Tchividjian
Grace is upside-down, to-do-list wrecking, scandalous and way-too free. It’s one-way love. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
An identity based in the one-way love of God does not take into account public opinion or, thankfully, even personal opinion. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
God loves us too much to leave us in the hell of unhappiness that comes from trying to do his job. Into the slavish misery of our ladder-defined lives, God condescends. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
The truth, whether we admit it or not, is that grace scares us to death. It scares us primarily because it wrestles control and manageability out of our hands – introducing chaos and freedom. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian