Saturday Quotes #2

Every Saturday I plan to present to you direct quotes from books I have read.

Last week I posted selections from the first 2 chapters of Timothy Keller's Generous Justice. Let me give an overview of the rest of the book this week. I am sure there will be posts in the near-future that are inspired by the book. I will note those posts when they come.

"Jesus did not say that all this done for the poor was a means of getting salvation, but rather it was the sign that you already had salvation, that true, saving faith was already present... This meant that one's heart attitude toward the poor reveals one's heart attitude toward [Christ]."

"What does it mean to love your neighbor? ... 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 said it meant being sacrificially involved with the vulnerable, just as the Samaritan risked his life by stopping on the road... 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."

[Referencing the story of the Good Samaritan] "Only if you see that you have been saved graciously by someone who owes you the opposite will you go out into the world looking to help absolutely anyone in need."

"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."

"Many religions teach that if you live as you ought, then God will accept and bless you. But Paul taught that if you receive God's acceptance and blessing as a free gift through Jesus Christ, then you can and will live as you ought."

"If the Lord takes his law so seriously that he could not shrug off our disobedience to it, that he had to become human, come to earth, and die a terrible death - then we must take that law very seriously too. The law of God demands equity and justice, and love of one's neighbor. People who believe strongly in the doctrine of justification by faith alone will have this high regard for God's law and justice. They will be passionate about seeing God's justice honored in the world."

"Many people who are evidently genuine Christians do not demonstrate much concern for the poor. How do we account for that? I would like to believe that a heart for the poor 'sleeps' down in a Christian's soul until it is awakened... When justice for the poor is connected not to guilt but to grace and to the gospel, this 'pushes the button' down deep in believers' souls, and they begin to wake up."

"It is not your money [God] wants, but your happiness."

"It is impossible to separate word and deed ministry from each other in ministry because human beings are integrated wholes - body and soul."

"If you wish to share your faith with needy people, and you do nothing about the painful conditions in which they live, you will fail to show them Christ's beauty."