Jesus > Religion Quotes

“The problem with fear-based Christianity is we only obey when the fear is there. If you only want to obey God when you feel threatened by his commands, it’s not God you worship, but your fear.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“He came not to save people but to save his entire creation, which we are a part of. It’s about restoration.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“Church in America is viewed as a brick building with a cross on top. Church in the New Testament is a group of people with the power of Jesus in them unleashing grace on anyone and everyone they encounter.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“When you take the mask off, you run the risk of being rejected. And not just rejected for your fake self, but being rejected for your vulnerable self.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“We are created to infect and infiltrate culture, restoring and reclaiming what is God’s.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“God’s grace is so much more powerful of a motivator than fear. Love is the deepest motivator. Only love can produce not only willing obedience but also lasting obedience.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“I saw that the church wasn’t a museum for good people; it was a hospital for the broken. Jesus wasn’t trying to create a place to show off his shiny employees; he wanted a place where his children could be healed.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“Covenant love is a love that implies deep commitment and promise. It’s not based on feelings or on the other person’s actions but on the initiating person’s good pleasure. God loves because he is love. He doesn’t love because we are lovable. There is a difference.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“Jesus ushered in a more beautiful covenant. One that is perfected in love, not in hateful and fearful obedience.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“Rather than love being an action of self-will and commitment, we’ve turned it into a shallow emotion whose absence warrants separation.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“The sacrificial system was God’s way of saying sin breeds death. Someone must die when there is sin.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“When we become Christians, we begin to follow Jesus, but the moments when he completely obliterates our self-righteousness and gives us a potent dose of real, transforming grace is when following him becomes deeply special.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“After trusting in Jesus, we are immediately joined together in something greater.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“When it sinks in that once we trust in Jesus we are eternally his, we immediately feel security and freedom.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“we are called to mirror and reflect God, everything we do should give people a proper picture of who he is. Our job as Christians is to stick so close to Jesus that when people are around us, they sense him.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“Zooming in on a leg or an arm or a particular muscle will give you a distorted view of who God is and what he is doing today. But if you zoom out and become part of the larger picture, then you’ll see the true Jesus.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“All the other religions center on people’s righteousness—what we do and how good we are. Real Christianity centers on Jesus’ righteousness—what he has done and how good he is.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“As I heard one pastor beautifully say, “The cross is God’s way of saying, ‘Me too.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“The reason we aren’t fulfilled or satisfied by our version of Christianity is because it isn’t Christianity. We have religion, but we don’t have Jesus. We have a good role model, but we don’t have God. We have theological debates, but we don’t have the living Word. We have good works, but we don’t have the source of good works. We have love, but not the God who is love.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“We don’t have to hide the fact that we are messy because God doesn’t hide the fact that that’s exactly the type of people he came to save.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“The truth is, when we are living for God, our desires are actually God’s desires.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“For me, the best part about the church is that God has uniquely wired it as his vehicle to heal and offer grace to hurting people.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“Grace is extremely vulnerable. But in that vulnerability you find people being completely transformed by grace’s power and never wanting to take advantage of it. When you hear that you are free, there is nothing sweeter than giving up your entire life for the one who set you free.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“I had just enough church to think that I could be good enough for God. I had just enough Jesus not to need him at all.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“When you understand how great the gift you have been given by Jesus is, you can’t help but follow him.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“storm. If one tree is standing alone and a storm comes, that tree could be knocked down and uprooted. But if there are thousands of trees standing together in a forest, they all lean with the wind and take the force together, spreading out the winds evenly.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“When you’ve experienced the joy and life of Christ in you, then nothing is as satisfying anymore. It’s not that you want to use his grace to do all the things you used to love. Those things no longer are attractive to you, and you love him now!”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“God broke me to fix me because he loved me.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“Changing the focus of the conversation from religion to Jesus actually invites people to face him and the grace he provides.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
― Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough