← Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
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Welcome to Gospel and Life. Are you longing to see real change in your life, in your habits, your relationships, your heart? Today, Tim Keller explores how lasting change actually happens in the life of a Christian and why the Gospel offers a radically different process of transformation than anything else. Tonight's scripture reading is found. Anna. Romans, chapter 8, verse 28, and then.
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Verses 38 and 39.
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And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is God's word.
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We've been looking for a few weeks at Romans 6, 7, and 8. And we said that this is especially about how Jesus concretely changes your life when he comes into it. And what I wanted to do was just one last time. I wanted to look at this ending of Romans chapter 8. It's a magnificent ending, and yet its point is very simple. And these last several verses. In these last several verses, Paul says, here's the thing I'm giving you that will absolutely change your life through Christ. And the thing that he's giving us is an assurance. He says, this is the thing you can get out every day and use. This is the thing that'll change your life. But as he expresses the assurance for us in our modern Western culture, a question comes up. So it's very hard for us in our modern Western culture just to receive this thing and to enjoy it and to use it unimpeded. So what we're gonna do tonight is look at this assurance. Actually, first let me read it to you. Let me read you the whole last 12 verses. Listen to what he's saying. He's really saying one thing. I'll read it in a slightly different translation. And we know that all things are working together for good. For those who love God and who are called according to his purpose, for those who he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. And those he predestined, he called. And those he called, he justified. And those he justified, he glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, together with him freely give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect. It is God who justifies, who is to condemn. It is Christ who died more than that, was raised and is ever at the right hand of God interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all things. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am absolutely certain that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor anything to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There's an assurance there, and I'd like to look at it under three headings, that we can be assured. Why we can be assured and how we can be assured. How we can make this assurance not just an abstraction, but an operative thing in our lives, that we can be assured. Why we can be assured and how we can be assured. First, briefly, that we can be assured. What is his point? Here's his point. There's a joy to be had. There's a joy to be had that if you have it, will enable you to face anything in life without sinking or crumbling. And this joy is a certitude. It's a certainty, an absolute certainty that God doesn't just love you now, it's a certainty that he does love you now in Christ, but He always will. And nothing can shake that. And nothing can separate you from that, no matter what. The Lord of the universe loves you. Not just now, but always will. That's the assurance. And this assurance is two forks, okay? It says once you've accepted, you know, once you've connected with God through Jesus Christ, this assurance is two forks. The first is. Well, I'll tell you what the two forks are right off. It means that God loves you. No matter what bad stuff is happening inside you. And no matter how much bad stuff is happening outside you, no matter how bad the stuff is happening inside you, no matter how bad the stuff is that's happening outside you, you can be sure he still loves you. See, first of all, no matter how bad stuff is going on inside you, sometimes we do some awful stuff. I want you to know that there is stuff in your heart that you don't know about yet. And that when it pops up, you're gonna say, I can't believe I'm capable of that. And you're gonna be so disillusioned with yourself and you're gonna be so mad at yourself. And when those times happen, what do you say? You say, ah, I can't believe that God could love me after I've done that. And yet here's what. What does Paul say? He says, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies who is to condemn. It is Christ Jesus, who died more than that, was raised and is ever at the right hand of God interceding for us. Not one thing that you can possibly do today can bring you back into condemnation. It's all covered. It's all paid for. See, God loves you no matter how much bad stuff happens inside you. But secondly, we're told the other fork of the assurance is that God loves you no matter how much bad stuff is happening outside you. You see this list. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. See, when bad stuff happens, when everything's going wrong, you feel like God doesn't love me or he wouldn't let all this stuff happen. See, really bad stuff happens inside, you say, oh, look what a mess I am. God couldn't love me. But when really bad stuff happens outside, you say, oh, look what a mess life is. Obviously God has abandoned me. There can't be a loving God. And yet Paul says, oh, yes, there can be. No matter how bad the mess is on the outside, you still can be assured. He says that God loves you. Cause he says in verse 28 what he says, all things are working together for good to those that love God. Now, what does that mean, taken together as a whole? Look at from the long term, everything that happens, every single thing, God is working together into a plan for our good and for his glory. That's what it says. And my favorite biblical example of that are two incidents that happen in a place called Dothan. In Genesis, the first thing that happens at Dothan is that Joseph is thrown into a pit by his brothers and he's gonna be sold into slavery. So he's got a life of absolute misery ahead of him. And he prays to God, oh, God, you know, get me out of this. Don't let me be sold into slavery. And guess what? Silence. Silence. And he is sold into slavery. And he has a horrible, miserable life for years and years and years, years. And then many centuries later, a second thing that happens in Dothan, Elisha is in Dothan. And by now it's a city, and it's besieged by an enemy, and he's afraid that they're gonna be overrun and destroyed. And Elisha cries out to God and says, oh Lord, please save us. Please save us from this peril. And this time God sends chariots of fire and wipes out the invading army and everybody's saved. But if you know the story of Joseph, you know that if he hadn't been sold into slavery and if he hadn't gone through all those years of misery, not only would have hundreds of thousands of people died of famine, but his own family would have been destroyed by their own sin. And what that means, if you know the story, you know how it works out, and what that means is that God was just as actively working everything together for good in Joseph's life as in Elisha's life. He was just as actively working in the seeming slowness and non answer to Joseph as he was in the swift, noisy answer to Elisha. And so Paul says, that's always the case. And so no matter how much bad stuff's happening inside you, no matter how much bad stuff's happening outside you, you can be assured God absolutely, infallibly, unchangeably loves you. And then when he gets to the very end, he has this sweeping statement in verse 38 and 39, which is printed out there. And at this point Paul says, I am absolutely certain he uses a word that means absolute, intense certainty and persuasion. And then he just bursts, he pushes, he stretches out to the limits of language to try to say neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor heaven, nor hell, nor height, nor depth. Nothing, nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing, nothing can dislodge you from his love, and nothing can dislodge his love from you. And there are people who have looked at this passage and said, oh, well, yes, but nothing can separate you from God. But you could separate yourself. Because if you start out to follow Jesus and you turn back, you can lose your salvation, you can lose his love. So maybe nothing can separate you from God's love, but you can separate yourself. And that is not right. That is not the right way to read that text. And I'll tell you why. Look, what does it say? If you could turn back, if you could separate yourself from the love of God, aren't you part of creation? He says, nothing in all of creation can separate you from the love of God. Aren't you part of creation? Last time I looked, you were. What Paul is trying to say is every possible situation that might turn you away from God, every possible situation that might turn you away from God, persecution, torture, none of those Things will. God's love is so powerful that he will keep you facing him, keep you loving him, keep you in his arms no matter what. So see, here's your assurance. No matter how much all the powers of evil inside you and all the powers of evil outside you cannot separate you from the love of God. Can't dislodge you from it, can't dislodge the love of God from you. Once you give yourself to God through Christ and he is yours, you are his. Nothing ever, ever can change that. That's the assurance. Now, it would be great if we could just move on and say, so now. How does that work in your life? But we can't, because as I said, in our Western culture, this sort of, this promise immediately raises an issue. Now the reason I say Western culture is pretty important because we have an objection that really bothers us. All this talk about predestination, right, and calling and election and God working everything out according to his plan. Now this bothers us. But don't forget who us is. It's us. There's other centuries and there's other cultures that this doesn't bother. This is, this is a problem for modern Western enlightenment drenched individualistic people. And it's always good to remember that this great objection we have, we must not absolutize any of our objections. They always arise out of our culture and we should take it seriously because here's where we live. But it's not, you know, we're not the only culture in the world and we shouldn't therefore say this is an insuperable obstacle to faith in Christ. However, here's the thing that modern Western people say when they hear that Jesus Christ will keep you in his love so that no matter what we do, we'll never stop loving him and he'll never stop loving us. And he's totally in control of everything. So everything is working out according to his plan. The first thing that comes to our mind is, well, hey, what about free will then? See, that's our problem. What about human responsibility? Because it sounds like God is doing all this stuff despite our choices, that everything that's gonna happen is gonna happen in spite of our choices. And if that's the case, well, then who cares how you live? Who cares what you do? It's all gonna happen. See, you know, I'm a Christian. So now, you know, it doesn't really matter. I don't have to do anything because he's going to keep me loving him and, and everything's working out according to his plan, well, then it doesn't really matter. So what happens to free will and what happens to personal responsibility? That's a good question. And in modern. When I said this is a Western issue in particular, we're reminded of that this last week in the Science Times, New York Times on Tuesday, there was a big article, and the name of it was the Power of Free Will. Now you have it, now you don't. And it was a kind of survey of the current debate right now about whether we have free will or not. And the consensus of most of the scientists and the people in the. In the article was we don't. Now, what's intriguing for a person of my age is it's interesting that now the real question is, do we have free will or are we determined by our evolutionary biology? That's the issue. Now. See, the argument is that natural selection is what determines everything about us. So we think we're choosing to love someone or fall in love with someone. We think we're choosing that. But actually we're hardwired to do that to pass on our, you know, our genetic material. And that's just so we're not. We don't really have free will, you know. And so that's the debate. Do we have free will or not? Or are we hardwired by our biology? It's funny, because 30 years ago, when I was in college, the argument was. Was a psychological one, not a biological one. The argument was a free Freudian one, as it were. That is, do we have free will? Or are we completely controlled by our unconscious urges or our past or things like that? But the thing you always see in all these debates in the west is it's either or, either or. Either we have free will or everything is determined. Or put it this way, we believe either we have free will and we're responsible for our choices, and our choices matter. And that means the future is open and undetermined. Either we have free will and the future is open, undetermined, or something has set and fixed the future, and then our choices don't matter. See, it's either or. But in the Bible, it's never either or, never, from the beginning to the end, in principle and in practice, it's always this. You are free and you're responsible, and your choices matter, and you're responsible for your choices, and no one's forcing you to make those choices. And yet every single thing that happens as a result of those choices is working out exactly according to the plan of God. And it's not just that God foresees what you're going to do, but rather what you do fits in with the plan that he wants and the course that he wants history to take. I mean, there's so many examples I could give you. I'll just start with. I'll give you two. First of all, principle. Listen to these proverbs. This is from Proverbs 16, verse 1. To man belongs the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue. And verse nine, the heart of man plans his way, but it is the Lord who establishes his steps. Hear that? To you belong the plans of your heart, but what you do as a result of the plan comes from God. To you belongs your plans. But when you actually speak or act, that always fits in with God's plan. Always. Now that's astounding. See, on the one hand it says, your plans, your choices belong to you. They're yours, they're not coerced. God is not doing it for you. And you can't say, I couldn't help it, they're yours. You are free, you are responsible, and yet the result is always exactly what God wants. You say, how can that be? Well, that's because you're a Westerner. And it's always either or. Why does it have to be either or? Can't God? Isn't it possible that God could actually fix things and work things out and at the same time not violate your free will? Why couldn't God do that? I can't imagine how I could do it. No, of course you can't. But you're under qualified for this job of God. J.I. packer puts it fascinatingly in his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. He says the relationship of our free will and responsibility and God's sovereignty and control of all things is an antinomy. An antinomy he defines as not a contradiction, but an apparent contradiction. And the example he uses is light. We know that light sometimes acts and behaves as waves and sometimes as particles. Sometimes it acts as if it does not have. It does not consist of matter. And sometimes it acts as if it does. Now, we don't know how that could be. It shouldn't be, but it is. We don't know how that works, but we know it does work that way, and so we work with it. Otherwise you're not gonna know how to handle light. And J.I. packer says, See, it's obviously not a real contradiction. It's just an apparent contradiction. We don't have the Knowledge to figure it out. Same thing here. And if you wanna see that, we are absolutely. That on the one hand, God is setting and fixing absolutely everything the way he wants it to be. But he doesn't do that despite our choices, but through them, our choices are part of his plan. And you say, oh, so he just knows what we're going to choose. Yeah, but it's more than that. See, there you go. You wanted to do the either or thing. No, it's both. And both and. And here's a perfect example of it in Acts chapter 27. This is my favorite example in the Bible of this. Paul is on a boat with sailors and soldiers in a terrible storm. Terrible storm. And in the midst of the storm, when everybody's scared, the sailors and soldiers are really afraid that they're gonna die. God sends an angel to Paul and says, the ship will be wrecked, but not one life will be lost. So Paul comes out onto deck and says, God has spoken to me. And he has said that even though the ship will be wrecked, not one life will be lost. And now Paul believed that you knew why in the Old Testament, if you're a prophet and you make a prophecy and that prophecy doesn't come true, the prophet's put to death. You know why? Because the word of God is always sure. And if he actually gave you the word of God, then it has to come true. And so Paul was absolutely sure that it was God's plan. And it was absolutely certain that no life would be lost. But in verse 31 of Acts 27, it turns out that the sailors decide they were going to. You know, the storm is continuing on, and the sailors decide they were going to sneak off the boat. So they start to get into the lifeboat. And when Paul sees the sailors trying to get off the boat, he tells the soldiers to stop them. And he says, if they leave the boat, we're all going to die. Now, I believe this is the beginning of the great Army Navy rivalry, actually. But beyond that, this doesn't make sense to us, does it? Wait a minute. We would say to Paul, look, if you really believe that no one's life is going to be lost, if that's the way it is, if that's the plan of God, then who cares whether they get off the boat or not? Who cares whether they get into the lifeboat, you know, go snorkel, it's all right. Because, you see, we believe if it's fixed, it's fixed despite our choices. So choices don't matter. But see, here's what Paul is. Paul has a biblical understanding of this. Our choices matter. Absolutely they matter. But they don't determine the future because they matter. He's not passive. So he says, let's do things the way we ought to do them. But because they don't determine the future, he's not paralyzed. He's neither passive nor paralyzed.
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As 2025 comes to a close, it should come as no surprise that we have great hope for the year ahead because of what God is doing to bring people to faith and to renew Christians through the gospel teaching and resources you help us provide on our podcast, YouTube channel, radio broadcast, quarterly journal and website, and soon through our translation project. We're grateful that so many of you are partnering with us to spread the message of Christ's love. Thank you. God continues to provide opportunities for us to expand the ways we share the gospel. In 2026, we anticipate adding new international radio broadcasts to and additional online ministry partnerships, publishing new books and beginning to make Dr. Keller's sermons available in other languages. So as we close out the year, we invite you to prayerfully consider making a year end gift to gospel and life. The year end gifts we receive are a vital part of how we will prepare for ministry in 2026. Your support allows us to share the story of the Gospel with people in over 200 countries and we are deeply grateful for your participation in this mission.
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Thank you.
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To make a year end gift, visit gospelandlife.com give that's gospelandlife.com give and please pray that we would steward your gifts well and that through the ministry of gospel and life, many new people will find the hope and joy of knowing Christ as Savior. Thank you for partnering with us to share the love of Christ with a world that needs him. Because the Gospel truly changes everything. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's message.
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See, if you believe everything's fixed despite our choices, you'll be passive. If you believe that our choices actually determine the future, then you should be paralyzed. But he's neither. It's incredibly practical. And you say, well, why would he be paralyzed? I believe my choices determine the future. You know, all the movies say so Back to the Future said so you know, my choices determine the future. Well, you should be paralyzed. Here's why. You know, there's a great story short story by Ray Bradbury that you've probably never read. But you've seen this. It's a short story called the Sound of Thunder. But you've heard the storyline, probably because it's Been used on so many Star Treks and Twilight Zones and all that sort of thing over the years. And the Sound of Thunder is about an illegal time machine. And a man named Travis, for a lot of money, will take people back in that illegal time machine to see the past. And a man named Eccles comes to pay the money to go back in the time machine. But Travis says, now, when you get into the past, I want you to realize there is going to be an anti gravity metal path. It'll be 6 inches off the ground. It won't touch anything. And though we're going back into the past to see how things are, you must not get off the path. You mustn't even touch a blade of grass. You must stay on the path. And Eccles says, why? And here's what Travis says. He says, well, say we accidentally kill a mouse, one mouse, by stepping on it. That means all the future families are the families of the families of that one mouse. With a stamp of your foot, you've annihilated a billion possible mice. They're all gone. And what about the foxes that will need those mice to survive? For one of 10 mice, a fox dies. For one of 10 foxes, a lion stars. And eventually some caveman goes out to hunt for food, but there is no food because you stepped on it. So the caveman starves before having any children. And from his loins would have sprung 10 sons, and from their loins tens 100 sons. And thus onward, a billion people unborn are throttled in the womb. Rome never rises on its seven hills. Step on a mouse and you crush the pyramids. Washington never crosses the Delaware. There's never a United States. So stay on the path, he says. Never step off. And by the way, as you know, Eccles does step. Maybe if you know the story, he does step off the path because he's too curious. And he steps on a butterfly, and it changes everything. And when they get back and Travis realizes, he shoots him. What? He did. Wonderful story, huh? It's actually quite a powerful story. But here's. Don't you understand what it's saying? Every single thing, every single thing in history is interlocked, interlaced in a million infinite number of ways. And every little change, you go this way or that way changes everything. And if that was really completely determined by you, you haven't got the slightest bit. You don't have a millionth of the wisdom necessary to make those choices. You have no idea what all the anticipated. You know, you can't possibly anticipate all the changes. And what the Bible is trying to say, you don't have to. You are absolutely responsible for your choices. You're held responsible for them. They're free. Nobody's forcing you to do them. If you make bad choices, there'll be bad consequences. But God is the one in charge of the future. God is the one who's overruling everything. So you can do your best and then relax. And if you know you should be paralyzed. If you really believed that your choices determine the future, it would be the free will, if that was the case, would be the most horrific gift. You shouldn't even get out of bed in the morning. But it's not. Instead, what we can be sure of is all things work together for good to those who love God. Even though it's very intricate now, we hardly ever see how. But let me give you one example. You know why we're here tonight. I was thinking of this example this week, and you'll see why in a minute. You know why we're here tonight. There's a lot of reasons. All kinds of people have done so much to make this ministry and this church happen. But we could certainly say that it wouldn't be here if my wife and I, Kathy and I, had not come to New York, you know, 18 years ago or so to start the church. We wouldn't. None of this would be here. Well, why? What's the reason? We came to New York to start the church? Because we joined a Presbyterian denomination that not only encouraged, but gave us the freedom and has set a priority for church planting. Well, why were we a member of that Presbyterian denomination? Because my last year, my last semester in seminary, I took two courses with a professor that convinced me that I was theologically a Presbyterian. And that's the reason I went into the. Into the Dalmatian. That's the reason why I planted the church. But why did I take those two courses? Because at the very, very last minute, this man was able to come and teach those courses in spite of the fact there was a bureaucratic snag at the top that was keeping him from getting his visa. He was British. And the only reason why he came and taught those courses and the only reason why it changed my theological views, the only reason why I joined the prestige denomination, the only reason why it was planted the church, the only reason why we're here tonight is because that bureaucratic snag was suddenly opened up at the last minute and he was able to get there in time to teach me those courses. Well, what opened his snag? I mean, what happened? And the answer is, one morning the dean was praying and saying, I don't know how we're going to get this guy here in time to teach these courses this semester. And his prayer partner was a young man who was a student at my seminary at the time. And he also happened to be one of the sons of the sitting President of the United States at the time, who was Gerald Ford. So one of Gerald Ford's sons. And he was a student there. And when he asked the dean what he was praying about and the dean told him, he says, well, you know, I have a name that you could talk to that might get you through the bureaucratic snag. And it did. It worked. It worked. So why did he have the power to, you know, open that? You know, to get rid of that snag so that man could come so I could have that course, so I could change my views, so I could join the Presbyterian Church, so I could come and plant this church so we could be here tonight because only because Nixon resigned. Gerald Ford never, ever, ever, ever been president unless Nixon resigned. But why did Nixon have to resign? Because of the Watergate scandal. And why did the Watergate scandal happen? Because the people who are bugging the Democratic Parties offices, those guys bugged it. But the night they bugged it, they left the door open. And because a night watchman noticed that a door was unlatched, he went in and it was all discovered 2 inches. If that door had just been closed 2 more inches, we wouldn't be here tonight. Everything would have been changed. I have a question. Do you think that happened by accident that that guy kept the door open instead of closing it? All he had to do was just pull it or turn around and say, oh, is that door closed? It. Didn't you think that happened by accident? And of course, if Ray Bradbury is right, and he's right, if that didn't happen by accident, nothing happens by accident. All things work together for good. To those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Even Watergate happened for you. And you know what? Very seldom do we even get a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a glimpse of how God is working all things together for good to those who love God. But he is. And therefore you can be assured that no matter what bad stuff is happening inside you and no matter how much bad stuff is happening outside you, he has not abandoned you. He loves you. Now, once you see not only that, we can be assured and why we can be assured. Finally, how do we really make this operative in our lives? How? And the reason we have to talk about this, just for a second, at least, is there's lots of people walking around New York tonight who say, oh, I believe in a God of love. I believe that God loves everyone unconditionally. I believe he loves me no matter what I do. I believe he loves me. But it's not changing their lives because it's abstract. Love is a kind of force, and it's an abstract cognitive belief, and it's not operative in their lives. Here is how this can change your life. You have to personalize it, and you have to personalize it two ways. You have to personalize the love of God in you, and you have to personalize this assured love of God in Christ here. First of all, how to personalize it in you. Now, here's what I mean by that. I just gave you a great little intellectual trope, I guess you'd call it. How do you deal with the fact of free will and the sovereignty of God? Well, the antinomy, it's apparent contradiction. It's not a real contradiction. We don't have enough knowledge to understand how it works, but it works that way. It's like light waves and particles. Isn't that interesting? That means that we are responsible and we have to do things, and yet at the same time, God is totally in control. And when it's all over, everything happens according to his will. Isn't that interesting? It's kind of a nice intellectual, you know, little structure, a way of understanding. But I want you to apply it to you. I want you to personalize it right now. I want you to apply it to you, yourself and your relationship with God. Do you have a relationship with God? You know, have you gone to God through Jesus Christ? Now, here's how it works. If, and this is an old illustration, but it's totally true. If you could think of a relationship with God as a door. As you're coming up to the door over the door, you see it say Matthew 10:32, Whosoever will confess me before men, I will confess before my Father. Whosoever will. In other words, as you're coming up to a relationship with God, what you're told is you've got to do it. You've got to make a decision. You've got to make a commitment. You have things to do. You can't be passive. But if you actually do, and if you bite, and if you say, lord, accept me because of what Jesus has done. And you actually open that door and you walk through it. The minute you walk through it, you turn around, you look, and over the top is written John 15:16, you have not chosen me, I have chosen you. And John 6:44, no man can come to me except the Father. Draw him. And everybody who has ever actually moved through that door at some point realizes this, that in spite of all the work they did and all the commitment it took and all the, you might say, you know, sweat it took to make that commitment, when you get in, you start to look back and say, the reason that I'm a Christian is not because I'm more spiritual than other people, not because I'm more humble than other people, not because I'm more valiant for truth than other people. It's simply because God kept pushing and pressing and he persistently, persistently sought to love me till he broke me open to him. And therefore, what makes me a Christian is simply God came to me not because I was smarter or better, not because I was more repentant, not because I was more spiritual in any way. It is free, absolutely free. It is totally sovereign. Now. What does this mean? I remember when I was in college, I heard a minister speak on a text and it changed my life. He was Speaking on Deuteronomy 7:7 and Deuteronomy 7:7 is this. The Lord did not set his love upon you, O Israel, or choose you because you were the greatest of people, for you were the least of all people. No, it was because the Lord loved you that he brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And I'll never forget the preacher said, do you see the logic there? It says, God says, I didn't love you because you were greater. You were actually less. I didn't love you because of this. I didn't love you because of this. I brought you out of Egypt because I loved you. It's a circular argument. I love you just because I love you, just because I love you. And then he says, and we were all college students and none of us were married, but we could understand. He says, let's apply this to your spouse. If your spouse comes up to you and says, do you love me? And you say, yes, your spouse will usually say, why? Why do you love me? And he says, never say, well, You had such a sharper intellect than the other girls, you're really good looking, you've got great career possibilities. You're just so much. We have so much fun together. You see, if you say, I love you, because of this factor or that factor, or this factor or that factor, the person's complete identity now shifts to that factor. Because the fat factor is the basis for my value. That factor is what secures me love. But I never. The minister says the only way to answer a question, why do you love me? Is to say, honey, I love you just because I love you. And he says that is not just sweet talk. That is not just rhetoric, that is not just sweet nothings. He says there is no other way for love to operate. But when God says that to you, when God says, I don't love you because you're more spiritual, you're more. You're more moral, you're more doctrinally sound. I love you just because I love you. And you love me only because I kept after you and after you and after you too. I finally broke you open. That transforms. That transforms your identity. Why? Because finally I don't have to be smart. I don't have to be sophisticated. I don't have to be make a lot of money. I don't have to be fun. I don't have to be good looking. Those factors are gone. Finally, I'm love for myself. And you see, if you know the reason why God loves you or people love you, or your spouse loves you, or anybody loves you because you have a great career, you will never be able to handle a reversal in that career. Or because you're so talented, you'll never be able to handle competition, or because you're so anything, you'll never be able to handle failure. But the divine sovereign electing grace of God, he loves you just because he loves you, that will transform you. Have you personalized it? So you have to personalize it for you. But then secondly, you have to personalize it in Jesus. What do I mean by that? Well, when people say, oh, I believe God loves me, nothing can separate me from the love of God. Oh, I believe that. But don't think of love abstractly. Jesus is the love of God. In the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, do you know what was happening? All the greatest forces in the universe were arrayed against Jesus and he could have stopped them. He could have stopped the rejection, he could have stopped the torture, he could have stopped the death. He could have stopped the rejection of his Father. He could have stopped eternal justice coming down on his head. All he had to do was give up on us. That's all you had to do, just walk away. Charles Spurgeon, I think it was, who said Jesus Christ was up on the cross, kneeling, bleeding, dying, looking down at the people betraying him and forsaking him and denying him. And in the greatest act of love in the history of the universe, he stayed. Bomb after bomb after bomb was coming down on Jesus Christ, trying to get him to drop us, to separate him from us, see? And even hell itself couldn't do it. He stayed. Nothing could separate him from us, his love from us. He held onto us. He was our savior. He died for us. Now that's how you know. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. It's not an abstraction. It's not just say, oh, I just believe that God loves me unconditionally. Oh, no, he loves you, counter conditionally. He loves you against conditions because of Jesus. When you see Jesus Christ never let you go, no matter what came down on him. That's how you know, and that's the only way you really know. Absolutely certain that no matter what you do inside, no matter what is bad is happening on the outside. He has not abandoned you. If he wouldn't abandon you then, he won't abandon you now. See, if he wouldn't abandon you when hell itself was coming down on him, and if that didn't separate his love from you, do you think you having a bad week is gonna do it? Do you think there's anything you could do that could destroy his love for you when that couldn't do it? Or when bad things are happening to you all over, and you say, oh, I must be abandoned? If he didn't abandon you there, he's not gonna abandon you now. He spared not himself. The father spared not his own son. And if he wouldn't spare that, if he wouldn't spare us that, he gave us the ultimate gift. You thinking somehow he's gonna let your wife, your life, go off the rails? Now? He's not going to deny you anything you need if. You know, if somebody spends a billion dollars on your present, you think he's going to skimp on the wrapping paper. This is the love you've been looking for all your life. No friend love, no married love, no popular acclaim, no parental love will give you what this will give you. Psalms 27:10 says, Though my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will bear me up. Your mother and father will forsake you. Even if you have the best mother and father in the world, they're going to die. But nothing. Nothing. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor anything to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Are you certain of that? You can be let's pray. Thank you Father for giving to us this great assurance and we pray that you would help it help us make it operative in our lives. And the Lord's Supper is a time to do that. Meet us now as we take these concrete elements into our hands and as we give ourselves to you because we know that you gave yourself to to us. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
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Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel and Life podcast. We hope that today's teaching encouraged you to go deeper into God's word. You can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great gospel centered content by Tim Keller, visit gospelandlife.com Today's sermon was recorded in 2007 the sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.