Tim Keller (3:29)

New freedom to know yourself. Romans 7, which we looked at last week, right up to verse 1, I.e. romans 8, verse 1, right up to verse 22, 23, 24 of the end of chapter 7 is saying this, that in every one of us there is a dark mass, even the best of us, even the St. Paul's there's a dark mass of self absorption, self concentration, self centeredness, and it's far worse than any of us want to admit. And it makes us capable of terrible sin and evil.

Tim Keller (4:04)

And then immediately after saying that, as Paul is saying, this is true of you, it's true of me, it's true of all of us. The moment he says that, he turns then to verse one of chapter eight and he says simultaneously, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And no condemnation. The word condemnation is Greek word katakrino, which means to have a judgment against, to be condemned or to be guilty means there's something against you that there is, that you're liable for something and you're in a state of estrangement until you pay your debt, let's say, to society. But this is saying that though we not only are capable of wrongdoing, but we're doing wrong at the same moment with regard to God, nothing we have ever done brings us into condemnation. With regard to God. There is no liability. And this word no, there is now, therefore, now no condemnation. That word no is too strong a word to convey with any one particular English word, because it's not a word that means there's now, for the moment, no condemnation. This word no means there's no more condemnation. For Christians no longer exists. It's been destroyed, never again. That's what it's saying. So Romans 7 is just saying we are capable of tremendous evil and immediately says at the same time, simultaneously, if you're in Christ, none of that can ever bring you into condemnation with regard to God.

Tim Keller (5:32)

Now this is astounding and it's unique. There's a place in Luke chapter 11 where Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he's actually teaching them about prayer. And he says this. Luke 11. He says to his disciples, if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Heavenly Father, you who are evil. Now think about this. He's talking to the people he loves that he delights in, that he's going to die for, that he's unconditionally committed to. But he's also saying, well, can you hear Jesus saying this to you? I love you. I will never forsake you. I'm unconditionally committed to you. I delight in you. But you're evil, you know. Have you heard that? Because if you have, you have something that. No, from what I can tell, no system of thought, no philosophy, no religion, east, west, individualistic, collectivistic, liberal, conservative can give you. You know, there's a liberal, a liberal mindset that never calls anyone sinful or evil, including yourself. Because, you see, all problems are really functions of psychological or sociological dynamics. And when you really do something far more cruel or cowardly or worse than anything you ever thought you were capable of, you've got no category for it. You'll go into denial. But there's a conservative mindset, and there's a conservative mindset who does use the term sinful and evil for people over there and whose very identity is based on the idea that I'm not one of them. I'm one of the virtuous people. I'm not like those relativists, those anarchists. I'm one of the virtuous people. And when you find yourself and you will doing things worse, more cruel, more cowardly than anything you've ever done, you won't have a category for it. You won't know how to deal with it. You will go into denial. But the gospel of Jesus, Jesus attitude, Jesus statement, if you're in Christ, you are simultaneously evil and absolutely loved, gives us a freedom. You say, well, that's crazy. That's contradictory. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's crazy. Admittedly, it's really weird. But let me show you how great it is, because first of all, it gives you an unmatched, unique sociological freedom. What I mean by that is you don't have to divide. You can't, if you understand this, divide the world anymore into the good guys, the bad guys. You know, some people say there's the good people, then there's the liberals. Some say, oh, there's the good people, then there's the fundamentalists. Everybody's saying there's a good or bad. But if you're a Christian, if you have any understanding of this, you know, you know that the difference between you and a prostitute, you and a murderer, you and a Nazi.

Tim Keller (8:08)

The only difference between you and them is that the seeds in your heart that make you capable of being or doing that just never got watered.

Tim Keller (8:19)

So they never sprouted. And therefore you have the freedom in Christ. We have the freedom to find common humanity with people, anybody. We sense our common fragile humanity. We don't write people off and we don't call the people, those people, the other with capital O. But it's also, even more importantly, the gospel gives you psychological freedom to handle things that you are going to do. And then you won't have to deny or spin them or repress them and make it impossible for you to know who you are. Because I don't believe there's any other. Only with that support of saying, look, you're capable of terrible things and I'm absolutely, unconditionally committed to you, says Jesus. Only if you've got that kind of support will you really be able to be honest. Oh, you say this idea of calling yourself a sinner, that's emotionally unhealthy. You say, oh no. Oh no, it's emotionally unhealthy not to be able to call yourself a sinner. Can I give you an example? One true account that has really affected Kathy and my understanding of this is that years ago when we were in Virginia.

Tim Keller (9:21)

In our area, these weren't people we knew personally in our area. A terrible thing happened in the late 70s to a young married couple. They had three children. They were strapped into an automobile. The automobile ended up going in without any drivers in it. The automobile went into a lake or a pond and. And all three children were killed. They're all drowned. Horrible tragedy. But at the funeral, the husband and wife, to everyone's surprise, really testified to their faith in God. And he seemed so incredibly spiritually strong that everyone for miles around were just talking about what incredibly faithful good Christian people they are, what faith in God. And they did. They picked themselves up and they had more children and they built a new family. And they, of course, were pillars in the church. And the husband was an officer in the church. He was a pillar in the church. Twenty years later, we were in another church and we heard a minister tell a story about a man. And even though he rightly so did not use the man's name, it was very, very clear. It was very obvious to us, this is the same guy, the father. And he talked about the fact this man had gone through incredible trouble losing all three children, et cetera. And he was a pillar of this community and a pillar of his church. But they had come to the pastor many years later in absolute agony because he had discovered, he had found that he was very strongly sexually attracted to a woman in the church that wasn't his wife. And he had very strong feelings and a very strong attraction. And he was struggling and he was in agony.

Tim Keller (10:58)

And he was. He experienced horrible guilt. He, the pillar of the church, an officer in the church. How could he feel this way? How could he do this? How could he want this?

Tim Keller (11:09)

And the pastor said the story was that he got a lot of counseling. He got good counseling, he got professional counseling, he got spiritual counseling. But in the end he killed himself. Now, is that just a sad story? Oh, yes, of course it's a sad story. But listen to me. Here's a man who could handle the worst suffering that the world could give to him, but couldn't handle the possibility that he was a sinner.

Tim Keller (11:33)

And are you gonna tell me it's emotionally unhealthy to be able to call yourself a sinner? For him, it was the absolute opposite of emotional dis. Health unhealth. To be able to say, I am capable of terrible things, but I am unconditionally loved is the epitome of mental health.

Tim Keller (11:48)

And it's the gospel that gives us that.

Tim Keller (11:52)

The gospel gives you freedom to admit who you are when the information comes to see where you do need to change. The freedom to know yourself. Point 1.2. The second thing we learn here is the gospel gives you a new method for change, a method up in verse 3 there's another reiteration of one of the themes of Romans 7. It says, For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do.

Tim Keller (12:21)

And remember we talked about this last week. One of the points that Paul makes in Romans 7 is that we've got all this self centeredness and this self absorption and this self. This self concentration. We've got this mass in us that's making our own lives miserable with this self concentration. And it makes the lives miserable. People around us, what are we going to do about it? And what we usually do is we apply willpower and we see the moral law and we say we're going to live up to the moral law. And Paul is pointing out, here, he's summarizing what he said in Romans 7 that that doesn't help you because you know, self centeredness and self righteousness can take a moral form as well as an immoral form. You can be a Pharisee as well as a criminal and still make the world a mess of a place. So what are we supposed to do in order to change ourself? The answer is verse 13. Here it is. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Now in Romans 6 and Romans 7, and I'm afraid to prove this exegetically, you'd have to go back to the sermons. I can't recapitulate here, but in Romans 6:7 we learn that when Paul talks about the flesh, he's not talking about the physical body.

Tim Keller (13:40)

When Paul talks about the deeds of the body or the deeds of the flesh, he's talking about the whole life, okay, Being controlled by a self salvation project.

Tim Keller (13:52)

That what Paul means by living in the flesh means to be your own savior, to be your own Lord, to try to replace instead of letting God be your Savior and Lord. And that everything in your life, everything that your body does, everything your whole life does, everything in your life, all your actions and attitudes and everything is controlled by an effort to be your own savior and Lord. It's a self salvation project. That's what it means to live according to the flesh and live in the flesh. And what he's saying in verse 13 is fascinating. He says if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if you root out and destroy your particular ways of trying to save yourself, if you root out and destroy your particular ways of, of doing self salvation, you will live. If you just go with the flow, you will die. If you live according to self salvation project, you will die. But if you root out and identify and destroy your particular ways of doing self salvation, then and only then will you live. Well. You say, how does that work? What is this new method? At the heart of the new method, verse 5 and 6 says is recognizing and changing what you mind. Recognizing, changing what you put your mind on. Look at verse four and five. It's just another statement of verse 13. He says, for those who live according to the flesh, see, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life. Wow. And peace. Now if you, you must keep this in mind. Unpack this first of all in The Bible, mind and heart are not two different things. Yes, in English, in our way of thinking, mind means the reason and the cognition and heart means the emotions. But not in the Bible. Mind and the heart are the core of the being. And therefore when Paul says you set your mind on the flesh, he's not just saying you have bad thoughts. And he's not even talking only about thoughts. Here's what he's saying. He's asking you to look at yourself and recognize what preoccupies you, what engrosses you the most.

Tim Keller (16:02)

What is your heart most engrossed in? Where are your dreams? Where do they reside? What has captured your imagination? What most preoccupies and engrosses the very core of your thinking and your dreaming and your fantasizing and your heart and your mind. Because Paul says whatever that is is always your way of justifying yourself, your way of proving yourself, your way of developing your own sense of value and worth. And therefore that's your way of being your own Savior and Lord. You say, would you please flesh that out? Yes.

Podcast Host (16:41)

The Psalms can profoundly shape the way you approach God. Even Jesus relied on the Psalms to face every situation, including death. In Tim and Kathy Keller's 365 day devotional, the Songs of Jesus, you'll find daily readings through the Psalms with fresh biblical insight. If you don't have a regular devotional practice, this book is a wonderful way to start. And if you already spend time in study and prayer, then reading and praying through the Psalms can help you bring your deepest emotions and questions before God and discover a new level of intimacy with Him. We'll send you Tim and Kathy Keller's devotional as our thanks for your gift to help gospel and life share the love of Jesus with more people. Request your copy today@gospelandlife.com give that's gospel and life.

Podcast Host (17:27)

Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching.

Tim Keller (17:33)

I just recently realized, I mean I just found to my fascination that when the movie Chariots of Fire in 1981 was made, true story of two British men, Harold Abrams and Eric Little, who won gold medals for Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympics. I didn't realize that when that film came out in 1981, Jenny Little, Eric Liddell's sister, was still alive. Eric Little went on to be a missionary in China and died in a detention camp.

Tim Keller (18:06)

In China during World War II. But Jenny, who's also depicted in the movie, lived through to the place where she had an interview after the movie came out and One of the things that she said was, one thing that bothered her a little bit about the movie was there's only one scene in which there's a glimpse of this. And if you know the movie, you know which one it is. But she says the thing the movie didn't show is that every time, whenever Eric, her brother, who was a world class runner, sprinter, 100 yard dash and so on, whenever Eric ran, he always ran with his face straight up to the sky and his mouth wide open, looking like a crazy man. See, he always ran with his face smack up the sky, see, facing directly up with his mouth open. He looked crazy, he looked eccentric, but he was worshiping. Because Harold Abrams and Eric Liddell were both setting their mind on the same thing. They wanted to run, they wanted to win. And they wanted to run and win a race, but for totally different reasons. Because when Harold Abrams is asked, why are you running? He describes the hundred yard dash. And he says, when that gun goes off, I've got 10 seconds, he says, quote unquote, to justify my existence. And what he's saying is, only if I can be this, if I can win this race, if I can be an accomplished athlete, then I know I matter. Then I can face the world because I've accomplished this thing. But of course, Eric Little in the movie says to Jenny, jenny, God made me fast and when I run, I feel his pleasure. Now listen, here's one guy and he's running to praise his savior. And here's the other guy who's running to become his own savior, they said. So here's one guy who is running for the sheer joy of it. It's icing on the cake. If he wins, great. If he doesn't win, great.

Tim Keller (20:06)

Because he's already justified. His life is justified. Here's the other guy who's running in grinding anxiety, churning and grinding down anxiety and fear because he's seeking to be justified. He said so. And by the way, as you know in the movie, when, even after he wins, he finds it unsatisfying because idols never deliver.

Tim Keller (20:31)

Now, are you beginning to understand to set the mind on the flesh is not just having bad thoughts. It's essentially to put your mind and your heart on something besides Jesus Christ as functional savior and to see how that actually works. Let me just give you another kind of example. I remember some years ago, many years ago, counseling two young men at the same time. Both of them had just lost their jobs because their bosses had been pretty stupid and wrong and unfair. So because of an unfair action on the part of their bosses. They both lost their job and they both had a blot on their career record. But guy A pretty much got over it, forgave the boss, moved on and soon was doing so well that he more than compensated for that little blot. It essentially was a non issue. The other guy couldn't get past it, stayed very bitter, stayed incredibly cynical. And it was affecting his career, was affecting his job, it was affecting the whole, his whole future career path. I remember sitting down with that second guy and a lot of people have been trying to help him. And some people try to work directly on his emotions. And the way you work directly on the emotions is you say, oh, you know, your sympathy and you talk about how hard it's been and how awful it's been and you, you're trying to help the person. And the problem is the more sympathy that people showed him, the more he felt justified in how angry he was and the more his self pity grew and grew and he got worse. Other people tried to work right on his will. They said, come on, buck up, don't let the bastards get you down, just forgive it, get past it. Didn't help either. Because the gospel however, is different. For the gospel doesn't work directly on the emotions and say, oh, you know, God loves you in some general way though he does. And the gospel doesn't work directly on the will and say, now you have to do the right thing, though of course you do have to do the right thing. But the gospel says what is functioning in the place of Jesus Christ as your real functional salvation and savior? What are you looking to, to justify yourself and see what happened was the one guy cared about his career and the other guy cared about his career. But this second guy was looking at his career the way Harold Abrams was looking at running.

Tim Keller (22:43)

And he had a sense of condemnation. And it was through his career that he could prove himself that he mattered, that he could accomplish something. And when something went wrong with it, when something went wrong with the career, he felt absolutely condemned. And he was furious and he was paralyzed because the very foundations of his identity were falling apart. And it wasn't until we were able to do analysis like that, it wasn't able, till he began to understand he had set his mind on the flesh, that this was his approach to self salvation that he began to say, wait a minute, wait a minute, it's not just I have to forgive the guy. Yes, the reason I can't forgive the guy is not just that I have to get back on the Horse and you know, work hard. But the reason I have to what the real problem I have underneath is something besides Jesus Christ is functioning as my savior. And there always is something underneath your inordinate and out of control problems, desires, patterns, attitudes, emotions. That's always down there. And until you find it, you can't have life and peace. Until you find it, you're gonna find things falling apart in your life. That's called death. So first of all, you have the support in the gospel to be honest about what needs to be changed. Then you've got a method in the gospel to identify what you set your mind on so you can understand where you need to change. But then the third question is, wait, wait. How does that poor guy now really turn the corner? Here's what was going on. The guy was a professing Christian. Oh yeah, he was.

Tim Keller (24:13)

But. And he said, look, I. Technically I believe that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And technically I believe that I'm loved. But here's the simple fact. I should be able to say the king of the universe loves me. Who cares what my boss thinks? But I can't. Because what my boss thinks is more real to me than what the king of the universe says. It's just, it's, you know, what the boss says is on video, but what the king of the universe says is sort of on audio. I know with my head, but I don't know with my heart. And that's the third thing. Where do you get the power to really make this change? And the answer is it's actually down in verse 13, but it's also up in verse 5 and 6. Verse 13 says you have to put to death the deeds of the body. You have to destroy and root out your fleshly way of living your self. Salvation projects by the spirit, by the spirit. And up in verse 5, it says you have to take your mind off of the things of the flesh. You have to destroy the self. Salvation projects How? By minding the things of the spirit. Now what does that mean, minding the things of the spirit? See, this is where we move away from a pure technique. Now, we're not completely in control here, everybody. You can't just pick up the Holy Spirit like a scissors or like a screwdriver and start to use the Holy Spirit. But here's what it's saying. What does it mean to mind the things of the spirit? Don't forget, minding is more than thinking. Remember, to mind the things of the spirit means your whole heart Mind and being are enthralled, captivated by something. They're all brought together, they're engrossed in, they're preoccupied in. They're captured by something. Your imagination is captured by something. What? In John, chapter 14, 15, 16, Jesus says, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will take the things that I'm telling you. He will take my teachings and he will manifest them to you. Now this is it. You may have the teachings, they may be on a piece of paper, you may say it's okay, but the Holy Spirit's job is to make them real to you. It's the Holy Spirit's job to smite you with the beauty of Jesus Christ and what he's done until you weep and the penny begins to drop. And what he says about you is more real than what your boss says about you or what anybody says about you.

Tim Keller (26:39)

There's a great place where John Donnell in one of his sonnets says, and listen carefully, it's really, really amazing language. He's speaking to Jesus and he says, take me to you imprison me, for I except you enthrall me, Never shall be free, nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Tim Keller (27:02)

I'll never be chaste. I'll never have self control.

Tim Keller (27:05)

What he's really trying to say here is a love of this person or that person will be far more real than the love of you for my soul. And the only way I'm ever gonna have self control, the only way I'm gonna be able to forgive my boss. The only way I'm gonna be able to not worry about money. The only way I'm gonna be able to handle the rejection I'm getting in life. The only way I can walk through life at large, see, without it all pulling me down, is I need the ministry of the Holy Spirit to make what Jesus Christ has done for me so real that I weep with the beauty of it. And the penny drops and I'm off. That replaces those other things in the core of my being which I'm trying to push there to the center of my being. That's what does it. That's where the change you say, well, how does that happen? Well, God gives us an idea here. Paul gives an idea. In verse three, it says, for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. Look. By sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin he condemned sin. Now the little word for sin, boy, I know that looks so innocuous on the page, but it's all Experts and commentators and scholars understand that that's a technical term all through the Old Testament, the Septuagint for sin offering. And here's what it says. It's not enough just to say, oh, you need to just know God loves you in general. You have gotta fix your mind on what you gotta let the Holy Spirit show you what. How Jesus Christ was condemned in your place. How Jesus Christ sacrificially gave himself and was condemned in your place. And what you're doing, you first study that, you learn that that's the heart of the gospel. And then you spend the rest of your life letting the Holy Spirit amass radioactive material to work on the tumors of your heart. See, why do I say tumors? Sin is a tumor, you know, cancer. What is cancer? Cancer is just cell growth gone bad. So it's going to kill you. And what is sin? It's self centeredness, self absorption, self concentration. It's going to kill you unless you kill it first. And what is the radioactive isotope that will shrink and kill those tumors before they kill you? It's what Jesus Christ did on the cross, illuminated by the Holy Spirit. Now there's going to be texts you're going to. They're so diverse. Every person who has grown in grace and has bit by bit by bit been changed.

Tim Keller (29:40)

Has put to death the self salvation of the body, the self salvation of the soul. And slowly more and more lived large, lived free, lived, loved. Anyone who's been through that, you've got a kind of a secret throw of texts and movies and passages and biblical texts and sermons and things like that that over the years the Holy Spirit grabs hold of because of who you are and where you are at the time and turns it into a radioactive material which you can get out the rest of your life and use to shrink those tumors when you know that they're starting to grow back. You know, Kathy and I have got a. You know, for example, Duncan at the end of Last of the Mohicans, the British officer who dies in the fire, arms outstretched, crucified to save a life of Korah. Does that get to you? Maybe not to you, but it's part of the radioactive materials the Holy spirit's given us. First Corinthians 1. God made the foolish things of the world. He used the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He uses the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He used even the lowly and despised things, even the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are. You say, oh, that's kind of moving to me. Yeah. But for us, this is one of the radioactive parts. This is some of the material that the Holy Spirit is using to destroy the self. Salvation. You can find it anywhere. At the end of the Iron Giant, the great cartoon, the Iron Giant, he takes a nuke to save the people, and he gets resurrected to some incredible music. See, I can't. Kathy and I can't watch that without weeping about Jesus. And you might say, you know, gee.

Tim Keller (31:25)

But there's. Let me really show you how it works. At the end of A Tale of Two Cities.

Tim Keller (31:32)

Sydney Carton resembles Charles Darnay. Charles Darnay is in the Bastille, I guess, and he's been sentenced to death. He's condemned, and he's going to be.

Tim Keller (31:45)

Guillotined. Right? Okay. Sidney Carton breaks in stealthily to the jail, knocks Charles Darnay out, and some of his companions take the unconscious man and unconscious man and steal him out of the jail. And Sidney Carton takes his place, takes his clothes and waits to die in his place. And the next day, there's a young girl who's a young woman who's also been condemned to die. And she comes up thinking he's Charles Darnay, begins to talk, but then realizes it's not, sees his face and realizes it's not, and her eyes get really big and she says.

Tim Keller (32:26)

Are you dying for him?

Tim Keller (32:30)

And he says, yes.

Tim Keller (32:32)

See, that begins to shrink my tumors. The old King James Bible in verse 13 said, you must mortify the deeds of the flesh. You must mortify your false saviors, and you will live. And of course, today, that word mortification just means embarrassed. So we don't use the word anymore. In the old days, it meant to put something in the mortuary. But you know what? When I hear Sidney Carton say, yes, I'm dying for him, it shrinks my tumors. It mortifies my stupid egocentric heart that's always worried about what I'm getting here and what I'm getting there. And is somebody helping? Is somebody noticing me? Am I getting. It mortifies with joy, the joy of what Jesus Christ has done for me. It mortifies my ego into silence. So it's not bothering me as much. And it's not bothering you as much. Are you dying for him? And he says, yes, for him and his wife. And then she takes hold of his hand and says, stranger, it's going to be hard for me to die, but if I could hold the hand of someone so brave and so courageous and loving as you, I think I can. Face it. And he says, all right. She was smitten by the wonder of his substitutionary sacrifice for somebody else. How much more when the Holy Spirit shows you what Jesus Christ has done for you, will you be able to to put to death the things that's putting you to death? Let us pray. Thank you Father for giving us a method, a power and a freedom to really change. And we ask that you would help us now to get some more spiritually radioactive material for the things in our hearts that are harming us and the people around us. We're going to the Lord's table and we pray that you would be real to us by the power of the Spirit to change us into your own image. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Podcast Host (34:33)

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 2006. 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.