Your identity is firmly anchored in Christ’s accomplishment, not yours; his strength, not yours; his performance, not yours; his victory, not yours. – Tullian Tchividjian
The gospel announces that God doesn’t relate to us based on our feats for Jesus, but Jesus’ feats for us. – Tullian Tchividjian
Don’t get me wrong – what we do is important. But it is infinitely less important than what Jesus has done for us. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
When you don’t have anything to lose, you discover something wonderful: you’re free to take great risks without fear or reservation. – Tullian Tchividjian
I never had an intellectual struggle with the Bible, with the gospel, with the claims of Christ. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
Grace is thickly counter-intuitive. It feels risky and unfair. It’s dangerous and disorderly. It wrestles control out of our hands. It is wild and unsettling. It turns everything that makes sense to us upside-down and inside-out. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
When it comes to engaging and influencing culture, too many Christians think too highly of political activism. – Tullian Tchividjian
Whether this was explicitly taught or implicitly caught, I grew up with the impression that when it comes to the Christian life, justification was step one and sanctification was step two and that once we get to step two there’s no reason to revisit step one. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
Rest assured: Before God, the righteousness of Christ is all we need; before God, the righteousness of Christ is all we have. – Tullian Tchividjian
Our assurance is anchored in the love and grace of God expressed in the glorious exchange: our sin for His righteousness. – Tullian Tchividjian
The required cheerfulness that characterizes many of our churches produces a suffocating environment of pat, religious answers to the painful, complex questions that riddle the lives of hurting people. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
If we read the Bible asking first, ‘What would Jesus do?’ instead of asking ‘What has Jesus done,’ we’ll miss the good news that alone can set us free. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
The emphasis of the Bible is on the work of the Redeemer, not on the work of the redeemed. – Tullian Tchividjian
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! – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
Sanctification consists of the daily realization that in Christ we have died, and in Christ we have been raised. – Tullian Tchividjian
We are deeply conditioned against unconditionality because we’ve been told in a thousand different ways that accomplishment always precedes acceptance, that achievement always precedes approval. – Tullian Tchividjian
When we imply that our works are for God and not our neighbor, we perpetuate the idea that God’s love for us is dependent on what we do instead of on what Christ has done. – Tullian Tchividjian
When everyone in the world spoke the same language, God came down in judgment, breaking the world apart. But at just the right time, he came down again, this time to reconcile that sinful world to himself. – Tullian Tchividjian
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. – Tullian Tchividjian
For years and years, Christians have been singing about their wandering hearts. Our hearts need to be recalibrated and realigned and reoriented by God. – Tullian Tchividjian
God has hardwired me to thoroughly enjoy and be sharpened by good and friendly theological discussion about the gospel. – Tullian Tchividjian