Episode Overview

Podcast: Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
Episode Title: "Admitting"
Speaker: Dr. Tim Keller
Date: December 31, 2025

In this sermon, Tim Keller continues his series on the Lord’s Prayer, focusing on the theme of "admitting"—that is, confession and repentance. Keller argues that confession is not a mere ritual, but a transformative, healing practice when done in the context of adoration and understanding God’s fatherly love. He examines why repentance is essential, what motivates genuine repentance, and how to practice it in a way that brings freedom, not increased guilt.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Lord’s Prayer: Not Just a Ritual, but a Vision for Life

• Keller’s Admiration for the Prayer: Despite his self-described "cynical streak," Keller says all answers to our problems are found in the Lord’s Prayer—if we rightly understand it (01:00).
• Prayer as Healing: Prayer recenters the human heart, bringing it back into its "true orbit" around God, much like a satellite that burns out when it strays from orbit (01:28).

  “The Lord’s Prayer is a vision of a whole new life, and it will not work for you until you see it as such.” – Tim Keller (02:20)

• Adoration Comes First: All prayer, including confession and requests, must flow from adoration of God. If repentance or requests don’t come from adoration, they will make guilt and anxiety worse (03:35):

  “If your repentance doesn’t flow out of adoration of the Father, it will not only not deal with your guilt, it will make it worse.” – Tim Keller (04:18)

Why Repentance? The Problem of Guilt

• The Inevitability of Guilt: Keller argues guilt is unavoidable for all humans and must be dealt with. There’s no adequate way to deal with guilt outside religion and repentance (05:40).
• Limitations of Psychology/Secular Methods: He cites stories from counseling and psychiatry, noting that even secular counselors encounter guilt they can’t resolve without forgiveness.

  “A psychiatrist ... said, ‘Many, if not most, of my patients need a priest more than they need a doctor because what they're dealing with is guilt... over moral issues and God.’” – Tim Keller (06:45) “If I could assure all of my patients of complete forgiveness, I could send 50% of them home.” – Head of a British mental institution (07:35)

• True vs. False Guilt: Psychology can help uncover guilt, but only faith can validate and cure it; ultimately these are “the area of morality, religion, God” (07:10).
• Illustration: Keller uses a Charlie Chaplin bit about a ball and chain to show how self-blame, justification, analysis, and denial all fail—the only solution is “rescue” (salvation).

The Motivation for Real Repentance

• Repentance Must Be Driven by God’s Love: Quoting Stephen Charnock, Keller distinguishes between "legalistic" repentance (driven by fear of punishment) and "godly" repentance (driven by the sense of God's love) (20:18):

  “A legalistic conviction of sin arises from a consideration of God’s justice, but godly repentance flows chiefly from a sense of God’s love.” – paraphrased from Stephen Charnock (20:32) “Real repentance has to come from rejoicing in the goodness, the acceptance and the love of God. When you look at what he’s done for you ... it makes you say, ‘How can I do this to someone like that?’” – Tim Keller (22:12)

• Repentance Fueled by Grace, Not Terror: When we see Jesus’ sacrificial love, it both convicts us of our sin’s seriousness and assures us we are accepted.

  “It’s the very certainty of his love that drives your repentance.” – Tim Keller (22:45)

• The Danger of Self-Reliant Repentance: If we approach God not sure of his grace, confession will destroy us—our self-image can’t bear sustained self-examination unless we’re secure in Christ’s love (25:44):

  “If you come to God, not sure you belong to him... and you start to confess your sins, it will really destroy you.” (25:55)

The Test of True Repentance: Forgiving Others

• Acid Test: Jesus says those who are truly forgiven will forgive others. Failure to forgive signals we've ceased to truly repent (29:07):

  “If you have stopped forgiving, you stopped repenting.” – Tim Keller (29:40) “Anyone who has come into unlooked for, absolutely spontaneous, unearned, gracious wealth becomes generous. And Jesus Christ says, here’s how I can tell whether you’ve ever really been rich in my mercy—you’re forgiving.” (30:34)

How to Practice Repentance (Application Points)

1. Be Specific (32:00)
   • Don’t simply pray “forgive all my sins,” but enumerate and name particular sins and failures.
   • Quote: “Don’t just say, ‘Forgive me for my sin.’ ... Be specific.”
2. Take Full Responsibility (32:57)
   • Stop blame-shifting; own your actions rather than excusing or rationalizing.
   • “Repentance doesn’t start until you stop your blame shifting and really call sins by their real name.”
   • Illustration: (Movie Dad)—true reconciliation occurs only when responsibility is fully owned.
3. Confess as a Child to a Father (34:40)
   • Approach God confident in his fatherly love. The Father longs to forgive, as in the parable of the prodigal son.

   “If you feel too small and too wicked for God to forgive you, that is arrogance. Do you really think your sins are any match for his mercy?” – Tim Keller (35:30)

   • God’s love is based on his perfection, not ours.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Heart of Repentance:

  “Repentance is bittersweet. It starts out bitter, but as you drink it down and as you throw the cross in, it becomes sweet.” – Tim Keller (38:00)

• On Adoration as the Foundation:

  “When you ask for things, when you confess your sins, when you do anything else in prayer, it has to flow out of adoration.” – Tim Keller (03:27)

• On the Power of Grace:

  “If you say, ‘I just feel too small and too wicked for God to forgive me,’ that is arrogance. ... Do you really think your sins are any match for his mercy?” – Tim Keller (35:30)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:00] – Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer and Keller’s perspective on its completeness
• [03:27] – The centrality of adoration in all forms of prayer
• [05:40] – Why repentance is necessary: the universality of guilt
• [06:45] – Counseling, psychology, and the limit of secular answers to guilt
• [10:05] – Charlie Chaplin illustration: the futility of self-justification
• [20:18] – Charnock on legalistic vs. godly repentance; true motivation for confession
• [22:45] – The double-edged reality of the cross: seriousness of sin and assurance of acceptance
• [25:44] – The peril of self-reliant confession; why repentance destroys unless rooted in grace
• [29:07] – Jesus’ ‘acid test’: forgiving others as proof of being forgiven
• [32:00] – Application steps for real repentance: specificity, responsibility, approach
• [35:30] – God’s fatherly love; parable of the prodigal son
• [38:00] – The bittersweet beauty of genuine repentance

Final Reflection

Tim Keller’s message moves beyond confession-as-ritual and challenges believers to see repentance as deeply relational and transformative. True freedom from guilt comes only when we confess our sins out of amazement at God’s fatherly love, rather than out of fear or self-loathing. Keller insists repentance, practiced this way, brings joy, freedom, and restored relationships—both with God and with others.

“Repentance is bittersweet... Only a Christian can know how great and sweet tears can taste. That sort of statement makes no sense to you unless you know repentance, real repentance. Humble yourself under his mighty hand and he will exalt you in due time.” – Tim Keller (39:00)

For more on Tim Keller and the Lord’s Prayer, visit Gospel in Life.