Tullian Tchividjian Quotes

Guide the people by law, subdue them by punishment; they may shun crime, but will be void of shame. Guide them by example, subdue them by courtesy; they will learn shame, and come to be good.

Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.

The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.

Scriptures were written, not to satisfy our curiosity and make us astronomers, but to lead us to God, and make us saints.

We need good laws, but no law can change a human heart - only God can do that.

We have never stopped sin by passing laws; and in the same way, we are not going to take a great moral ideal and achieve it merely by law.

Christianity is not so much the advent of a better doctrine as of a perfect character.

People are not prepared or able to rejoice in suffering unless they experience a massive biblical revolution of how they think and feel about the meaning of life. Human nature and American culture make it impossible to rejoice in suffering. This is a miracle in the human soul wrought by God through His Word.

I don't think goodness is something that you learn. If you're left adrift in the world to learn goodness from it, you would be in trouble.

We should not expect people to be good, but should make it impossible for them to be bad.

Oh what people of God we ought to be; and grace can make us so!

The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.

I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law. The Law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man’s heart unless you first send the needle of the Law to make way for it.

How is it that there are not many who are led by sermons to forsake open sin? Do you know what I think? That is because preachers have too much worldly wisdom.

The evidence of justification by faith is the ongoing work of sanctification through the Holy Spirit.

I conceive the essential task of religion to be "to develop the consciences, the ideals, and the aspirations of mankind".

Sanctification is not a work of nature, but a work of grace. It is a transformation of character effected not by moral influences, but supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.

Slight sorrow for sin is sufficient, provided it at the same time produces amendment.

The purpose of the church is to make bad men good and good men better.

Christianity will only make a contribution to the future of Europe if it can prove that people like Sam Harris are wrong and that we can make peace.

The Word of God proves the truth of religion; the corruption of man, its necessity; government, its advantages.

Law, in its most general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate, or inanimate, rational or irrational. Thus we say, the laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics, as well as the laws of nature and of nations. And it is that rule of action, which is prescribed by some superior, and which the inferior is bound to obey.

God desires that we become spiritually healthy enough through faith to have a conscience that rightly interprets the work of the Holy Spirit.

To amend mankind, moralists should show them man, not as he is, but as he ought to be.

It is a mistake that there is no bath that will cure people's manners, but drowning would help.