God so Loves, Cherishes and Delights in Us
The following quote comes from my favorite book, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters by Tim Keller…
“We have to know, to be assured, that God so loves, cherishes and delights in us that we can rest our hearts in him for our significance and security and handle anything that happens in life.” – and we really can come to that assurance, but only if “we look at his sacrifice on the cross, and say to God, ‘Now we know that you love us. For you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from us.’”
Obedience as a Form of Rebellion
The following was an article written by a Wheaton College student, Jeff Coners, in Wheaton College’s weekly newspaper. I think it’s terrific, and per his permission, wanted to pass it on…
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In Tim Keller’s book, The Prodigal God, he proposes that, “Careful obedience to God’s law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God.” In essence, he is saying that doing all the ‘right things’ we think bring us closer to God, can separate us from Him instead. Is he suggesting that we curtail our Bible study and start sleeping till noon on Sundays? The answer is most definitely NO.
From the pulpit, we hear sermon after sermon emphasizing the obedience that God expects. Obedience can become synonymous with regular church attendance, involvement in a ministry, and following the community covenant. Often unknowingly, this emphasis on obedience leads to a performance oriented Christianity. It begins to place a huge burden on us, by telling us to try and achieve something we never can. In doing so, convincing us that our personal performance is what merits God’s favor.
There is nothing wrong with obeying Gods commands; nothing wrong with going to Church; nothing wrong with striving to live every day for Him. However, I want to pose two questions… ‘Why do we do all of these things?’ and ‘What is behind our motivations?’
Church attendance, pursuit of success in Jesus’ name, and service to others become our Christianity, and why we see ourselves as children of God. Furthermore, these ‘good’ things are what we build our identity around, and where we find rest and peace. As a result, our obedience becomes a means to an end; we obey in order to attain salvation, or we obey because it makes us feel content in living a good Christian life.
Consider this quote from the soon to be president of Wheaton College, Dr. Phil Ryken:
“Knowing our acceptance in Christ, we must understand that we cannot be any more loved by the Father or any more saved by the Son. It is much easier to practice and preach the law, but God’s plan is grace.”
In every other major religion, the emphasis is placed on what one does in order to attain salvation. The same holds true under the law, and as Dr. Ryken points out, it is convenient to turn our faith into following a set of rules. This type of Christianity can lead down a deadly spiritual path, and is what Jesus criticized the Pharisees for.
For many Christians, it seems as if we miss the point as to why we live our Christian lives. Wheaton students know about salvation, about the story of Christ, even about Church history. If you ask anyone on campus what Christianity is all about, you will almost certainly get an answer reflecting that we are sinners saved by grace through faith in Jesus. We’ve sung the hymns a thousand times and have been taught about Jesus since our Sunday school days. We’ve now moved on to more important things like developing our systematic theology or learning the intricacies of implementing our faith into economics, politics, or philosophy. Amongst all of this, we forget the message at the heart of our faith, and the freedom that comes with this “good news.”
I want to suggest that we go back to the basics and consider the value in being saved by grace alone. The concept of grace completely offends our pride, and is why we tend to shy away from it. In some form or another, we want to be able to point towards our service to others, our church attendance, and our moral résumés and think that our efforts had some part to play. If not, what were they all for? Our inclination is to keep trying to include ourselves as part of the salvation process. This happens when we begin to believe that it’s Jesus plus our own efforts that bring us into right relationship with Him, when in fact it’s just Jesus.
So why am I writing about the gospel message of Jesus Christ to a college that is “for Christ and His Kingdom?” The truth is that even believers need to be reminded of the Gospel. I feel like I need to hear it everyday. It’s far too easy to reduce our faith down to performance where our good behavior merits our salvation and favor in Gods eyes.
The gospel is not about what we do for God; it’s about what He has done for us. The gospel says, ‘I am loved and accepted unconditionally, and therefore I believe and obey.’ When we truly grasp that, we begin to be transformed. We start to act out of love that comes from the knowledge that we have truly been set free.
In the hymn, It is Finished, James Proctor records these words:
Lay your deadly “doing” down—
Down at Jesus’ feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
Gloriously complete.
Total Grace and Mercy for Christ’s Sake
I’ve been encouraged to read Luther’s Commentary on Galatians by several people over the past couple years and came across the following in a bible study on Galatians from Tim Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. The following excerpt is one of the best paragraphs ever written. If you are looking for a good bible study, click here and if you want to see more of Luther’s Commentary, click here.
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It is an absolute and unique teaching in all the world, to teach people, through Christ, to live as if there were no law or wrath or punishment. In a sense, they do not exist any longer for the Christian, but only total grace and mercy for Christ’s sake. Once you are in Christ, the law is the greatest guide for your life, but until you have Christian righteousness, all the law can do is to show you how sinful and condemned you are. In fact, to those outside of Christian righteousness, the law needs to be expounded in all its force. Why? So that people who think they have power to be righteous before God will be humbled by the law and understand they are sinners. Therefore we must be careful to use the law appropriately. If we used the law in order to be accepted by God through obedience, then Christian righteousness becomes mixed up with earned/moral righteousness in our minds. If we try to earn our righteousness by doing many good deeds, we actually do nothing. We neither please God through our works-righteousnessnor do we honor the purpose for which the law was given. But if we first receive Christian righteousness, then we can use the law, not for our salvation, but for his honor and glory, and to lovingly show our gratitude. So then, have we nothing to do to obtain this righteousness? No, nothing at all! For this righteousness comes by doing nothing, hearing nothing, knowing nothing, but rather in knowing and believing this only — that Christ has gone to the right hand of the Father, not to become our judge, but to becomefor us our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness, our salvation! Now God sees no sin in us, for in this heavenly righteousness sin has no place. So now we may certainly think, “Although I still sin, I don’t despair, because Christ lives, who is both my righteousness and my eternal life.” In that righteousness I have no sin, no fear, no guilty conscience, no fear of death. I am indeed a sinner in this life of mine and in my own righteousness, but I have another life, another righteousness above this life, which is in Christ, the Son of God, who knows no sin or death, but is eternal righteousness and eternal life.
All of Life is Repentance
The following comes from Tim Keller’s All of Life is Repentance. It’s 2 pages and very encouraging. Read all of it here.
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Like this:
Beggar Thief —> Beloved Son
The following comes from McKay Caston’s blog:
The gospel is news, declaration and invitation; not instruction.
As Tim Keller says, “I am more sinful than I could dare to admit, but at the same time, because of my substitute Jesus, I am more forgiven, loved and accepted than I could ever dare to dream.”
The gospel is not religion. Religion says that I am blessed because of my work and sacrifice for God. The gospel says that I am blessed because of Jesus’ work and sacrifice for me. Yes, I am saved by works, but not myworks. I am saved by his works… the works of Jesus.
Jesus received the justice for my sin so that I could receive the mercy of God.
The gospel tells me that I am reconciled to God not because of what I do for God, but because of what God has done for me in Jesus.
Reconciliation with God is not something that I achieve. It is something that I receive (through faith alone). Seriously. I receive it like a beggar must accept a gift, with no hope of repayment.
It is a beggar thief being told he is now a beloved son
Knowing About Honey vs. Tasting Honey
The following quote comes from Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon, “A Divine and Supernatural Light.” I came across this in Redeemer Presbyterian’s Prayer Bible Study.Killing the Addiction
The following quote comes from Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters, by Tim Keller (p.93-4):
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The idol of success (or any other idol) cannot be just expelled (by will-power or determination), it must be replaced. The human heart’s desire for a particular valuable object may be conquered, but its need to have some such object is unconquerable. How can we break our heart’s fixation on doing “some great thing” in order to heal ourselves of our sense of inadequacy, in order to give our lives meaning? Only when we see what Jesus, our great Suffering Servant, has done for us will we finally understand why God’s salvation does not require us to do “some great thing.” We don’t have to do it, because Jesus has. That’s why we can “just wash.” Jesus did it all for us, and he loves us-that is how we know our existence is justified. When we believe in what he accomplished for us with our minds, and when we are moved by what he did for us in our hearts, it begins to kill off the addiction, the need for success at all costs.
Thou Art My Loveliness, My Life, My Light, Beauty Alone to Me
I’m currently reading (2nd time) Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters by Tim Keller and wanted to share some things that I’ve come across with you. If you haven’t read this book, please pick it up and if you don’t have the $, I’ll buy it for you (seriously). I think it’s one of the best books ever written.
Throughout, Keller identifies things that we rely on to feel okay in this very challenging world. As the title of the book indicates, he specifically looks at money, sex (or relationships) and power, examining why we are drawn to them and then articulates their insufficiency to satisfy our deepest longings and needs. He doesn’t stop there… He then brings us to Jesus and reminds us of the true love that we were made for, the only hope that doesn’t disappoint, and the true Savior that truly saves. My take on what Keller is trying to communicate is this: God delights in us in Christ. If you are in Christ, you are God’s treasure. You are his beloved and he is absolutely pleased with you.
To give you a taste from the book, the following quote comes from the section on human relationships (p. 40)
The failure of romantic love as a solution to human problems is so much a part of modern man’s frustration… No human relationship can bear the burden of godhood… However much we may idealize and idolize him or her (the love partner), he/she inevitably reflects earthly decay and imperfection… After all, what is it that we want when we elevate the love partner to this position? We want to be rid of our faults, of our feeling of nothingness. We want to be justified, to know our existence has not been in vain. We want redemption – nothing less. Needless to say, human partners cannot give this.
Keller goes on to discuss what will rid us of our faults, our feelings of nothingness, what will justifies us, what does enables us to know our existence has not been in vain and where our redemption does come from. (p.45, 47)
Jesus took upon himself our sins and died in our place. If we are deeply moved by the sight of his love for us, it detaches our hearts from other would-be saviors. We stop trying to redeem ourselves through our pursuits and relationships, because we are already redeemed. We stop trying to make others into saviors, because we have a Savior.
Who can I turn to who is so beautiful that he will enable me to escape all counterfeit gods? There is only one answer to this question. As the poet George Herbert wrote, looking at Jesus on the Cross: “Thou art my loveliness, my life, my light, Beauty alone to me.”
An Exacting Boss or a Loving Father?
The following comes from Tim Keller’s book, The Prodigal God. I have copied some of the quotes or sections that I found particularly helpful (coming from Ch. 5). I highly recommend this book as well as his recently published book, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex and Power and The Only Hope That Matters.
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(In reference to the elder son in Luke 15) His spiritual problem is the radical insecurity that comes from basing his self-image on achievements and performance, so he must endlessly prop up his sense of righteousness by putting others down and finding fault. As one of my teachers in seminary put it, the main barrier between Pharisees and God is “not their sins, but their damnable good works.” … To truly become Christians we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right… We must learn how to repent of the sin under all our other sins and under all our righteousness-the sin of seeking to be our own Savior and Lord. We must admit that we’ve put our ultimate hope and trust in things other than God, and that in both our wrongdoing and right doing we have been seeking to get around God or get control of God in order to get hold of those things… When you realize that the antidote to being bad is not just being good, you are on the brink (of getting the gospel). If you follow through, it will change everything: how you relate to God, self, others, the world, your work, your sins, your virtue. It’s called the new birth because it’s so radical.
Keller points out that this recognition is necessary, but it is equally imperative that we understand the love of the Father in Christ… How can the inner workings of the heart be changed from a dynamic of fear and anger to that of love, joy, and gratitude? You need to be moved by the sight of what it cost to bring you home. The key difference between a Pharisee and a believer in Jesus is inner-heart motivation. Pharisees are being good but out of a fear-fueled need to control God. They don’t really trust him or love him. To them God is an exacting boss, not a loving father. Christians have seen something that has transformed their hearts toward God so they can finally love and rest in the Father.
Jesus Christ, who had all the power in the world, saw us enslaved by the very things we thought would free us. So he emptied himself of his glory and became a servant (Philippians 2). He laid aside the infinities and immensities of his being and, at the cost of his life, paid the debt for our sins, purchasing us the only place our hearts can rest, in his Father’s house. Jesus was stripped naked of his robe and dignity so that we could be clothed with a dignity and standing we don’t deserve. On the cross Jesus was treated as an outcast so that we could be brought into God’s family freely by grace. There Jesus drank the cup of eternal justice so that we might have the cup of the Father’s joy. There was no other way for the heavenly Father to bring us in, except at the expense of our true elder brother.
The selfless love (of Christ) destroys the mistrust in our hearts toward God that makes us either younger brothers or elder brothers.
The Most Deceptive Idols
Per Tim Keller’s upcoming book, Counterfeit Gods – to be released on Oct. 20th: (This brief excerpt comes from the Willow Creek Leadership Summit where he was a featured speaker)…..
“We think that an idol is a bad thing, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.”
We must repent for the reasons we do our good deeds. If we only repent for our bad deeds, we fail to see the root of our problem.
