Tim Keller (5:55)

It is at home in us. It dwells in us. It resides in us. It's deeply rooted in us. And as a result, there's this deep splitness about us of good and evil. Now, the classic depiction of this.

Tim Keller (6:10)

In literature is Robert Louis Stevenson's book the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Now, have you ever really read the book? I bet you haven't. Because what we do is we see movies and plays and I like to work off the. And it's not very long, it's like 80 pages. It's a pretty short book, but a fascinating book. And, you know, basically the narrative. Dr. Jekyll came to realize that he was what he called, quote unquote, an incongruous compound of good and evil, of conscience and coveting. And he felt that because of this, his bad nature held his good nature back. And so he could aspire to do things, but. But he could never follow through on them. Just like Romans 7. But he comes up with an idea, a potion. He's going to concoct a potion that will separate the two natures out from each other. And he intends to drink the potion at night to let his bad side out. But during the day, when he's doing his work, he'll be his good self. And his good self will now be unencumbered. It will be free from the influence of the evil and will be able to realize all of its goals. Nice theory. But when he takes the potion and his bad nature side comes out, to his shock, he's far more evil than he ever dared believe he was. That's the problem. And he says in the narrative in the book, he says, I knew myself at the first breath of this new life to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked than I had thought. And the thought braced and delighted me like wine. This being, Edward Hyde, was inherently malign. His every act and thought centered on self. His every act and thought centered on the self. Why is his bad side named Edward Hyde? Do you know why? First of all, because he was hideous. It's the hideousness. But also because he was hidden.

Tim Keller (8:13)

He was hidden even from Dr. Jekyll had no idea he was this evil. And so when Edward Hyde here's how the narrative goes on. Edward Hyde comes out, he's far more evil than Dr. Jekyll ever thought he would be. And he starts doing terrible things, including murder.

Tim Keller (8:26)

And finally, we'll get back to this in a second. Dr. Jekyll says, I'm going to try to stop it, then I'm going to try to repress this evil side. But Edward Hyde more and more gets the upper hand and more and more is in control. And. And when Dr. Jekyll realizes he's about to lose complete control and not even become Dr. Jekyll anymore, but permanently become Edward Hyde, he kills himself. Very, very disturbing narrative, but right out of Romans 7, because Romans 7 is saying and what Robert Louis Stevenson are saying are the same thing, and that is number one. Even the best people, even the most brilliant and decent Dr. Jekylls or Apostle Paul's, See, even the best people have at the core of their being a hideousness, an evil, a capacity for incredible self centeredness. Because notice Robert Louis Stevenson actually in a very biblical way, defines what was so hideous about Hyde. Absolute centering of every thought on the self. And it's that self absorption and that self centeredness. And it's me, me and my needs and my interests and my desires. That incredible ability to center on the self is what leads to the evil. So even in the very best people, there's a core of evil, a capacity for doing terrible things way beyond what you believe it to be. Far greater, far worse than you ever imagine. It's hidden from you. But sometimes there are certain situations that act as a potion, stress, temptation, marriage to a difficult person.

Tim Keller (10:02)

And the real wickedness, the real capacity for evil, that incredible hideousness, that enormous, almost endless capacity for self centeredness, self absorption, self will, self indulgence comes out and then you're dead. Do you believe this? That the very best person is capable of such awfulness and that you almost certainly, no matter what we're being taught here, is your assessment of your own capacity for evil. And sin is way too small.

Tim Keller (10:35)

Way too small. Sufjan Stevens, he's an indie rock artist some of you know, has a song called John Wayne Gacy. It's a song about a serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, who killed 30 people and hid them under the floorboards of his house. And Sufjan sings about this serial killer. And the last two lines of the song are absolutely astounding. In fact, even the Village Voice was blown away by the art critic, the music critic there, because at the very, very end he's singing about this serial killer. How awful. What a terrible person. Incredible serial killer. And the very last lines go like this. But in my best behavior, I am really just like his him. Look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid, he says, look beneath the floorboards of my life and you will see the capacity to do terrible things. Do you believe that? Do you really? Do you believe what Stevenson's saying, what Sofjan Stevens is saying? Robert Louis Stevenson, what Paul is saying that in you, you've got a capacity for hideousness and selfishness and evil way beyond what you really think you're capable of. But at some point you might find some situation bringing it out and then you're dead. So if that's the case and it's important to understand and that is the case, what do we do about it? Point two, the main solution that most people try to bring to bear on it, Paul says doesn't work. What is that? It has to do with the moral law. Now when we see in here Paul talking about turning to the law and turning to the moral law, he's thinking of the Mosaic Law. He's a Jew and he's thinking about the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic Law. But what he says here really fits. It really, really holds true across all the cultures. At the very end of C.S. lewis's book, the Abolition of Man, he has an appendix which is incredibly valuable. And in that appendix he compares.

Tim Keller (12:33)

The moral law of Confucianism and Hinduism and Buddhism and Islam and Christianity and Judaism. And he shows a remarkable convergence and a remarkable consensus about what the basic requirements that God has of us, what the basic requirements are of a moral life and the moral law. Therefore, we do understand, we do know what it is. And across all of the cultures and across all of the religions, what most people do about the fact that we have a bad nature is we take the moral law and with an enormous exercise of willpower, we apply that moral law to our bad nature. In other words, we try to wipe out our Hyde with our Jekyll. We try to deal with our Edward Hyde by just being incredibly Jekyll, incredibly good, incredibly obedient. We form moral communities in which we read the moral law and every week and we applaud it and we obey it and we instruct our children in it. And we say we by applying the moral law of God to people's lives. That is how we're gonna overcome our hideousness, that selfishness, that pride, that self centeredness that destroys people. That's how we're gonna overcome it. And Paul says it won't work. In fact, Paul says in verse five, something absolutely amazing. Look at verse five. He says, while we were in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. Aroused by the law. Our sinful passions, aroused by the law.

Tim Keller (14:09)

Paul says the law has a greenhouse effect on what's wrong with us. It doesn't shrivel, aggravates it, it prospers it, it grows it.

Tim Keller (14:21)

You say, what? Now, how could that be? He's saying that applying the law of God through willpower, just insisting and bringing the law of God to bear on somebody's life and saying, this is what you have to do. This is what you have to do. This is what you have to do. It doesn't make you a better person. It makes you worse. It brings out, it aggravates what's wrong with you. How could that be? Well, at one level, nobody talks about this better than St. Augustine. By the way, St. Augustine, in his famous book the Confessions, reflects on an incident in his youth. In his youth. At one point he broke into a private orchard and stole some pears off a tree that weren't his, of course. And later on, he reflected theologically and very profoundly actually on that incident. And he thought back on it and he said, why did I steal the pears? A, I wasn't hungry. B, if I was hungry, I would. I didn't like pears. After he sold the pears, he threw them to pigs. He didn't even like pears. But he went and stole the pears. So he said, why did I steal the pears? I didn't even like pears. And the answer is I stole the pears because somebody told me that they were forbidden.

Tim Keller (15:31)

In other words, someone says, thou shalt not take those pears.

Tim Keller (15:36)

And he says, until someone said, thou shalt not, I had no interest in the pears. But once they said, don't take those pears, I wanted them.

Tim Keller (15:46)

There is something about the heart, deep inside the heart. There's an aspect of our hideousness, of our self centeredness, of that self absorption that says, nobody tells me how to live. Now, there's a lot of people that, that is right on the surface of your life. Because there's a lot of people who walk around talking like that all the time. Nobody tells me how to live my life, you see, but the rest of us, a lot of us, oh, well, we don't say like we're very nice, but deep inside us.

Tim Keller (16:16)

Deep inside you, Mr. Ms. Jekylls, is.

Tim Keller (16:22)

A part of our heart that absolutely hates being told how to live. That's part of what's wrong with us. And when you bring the moral law to bear on a child or bring the moral law to bear on people, bring the moral law to bear on people. Instead of it shriveling up that aspect of our beings, it actually aggravates it. And people do things because they're forbidden. But there's more to it than that. How does the law act as a greenhouse on what's wrong with this? Paul actually says in verses 8 and 9 or Paul actually gives us a little autobiographical sketch of how he moved from being a legalistic Pharisee into being a Christian. And it's not an easy sketch to grasp. It's very, very sketchy.

Tim Keller (17:07)

Well, he says, I was alive apart from the law, but then one of the ten Commandments, thou shalt not covet, came home and slew me.

Podcast Host (17:20)

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

Tim Keller (18:13)

What's that mean? Now here's what I think it means. Paul was saying, I was alive. Now what does that mean? I was spiritually alive. What does it mean? Well, you know, we talk about a team is still alive if it's in the running for the pennant, you know. And what Paul was saying is when he looked at his life, he was a Pharisee, he was a pretty good person. And he felt like, I'm in the running. I'm alive, spiritually alive. I'm a pretty good person. I've got a real chance to be saved. I got a real chance to get to heaven. I got a real chance for God's blessing. I'm really good. And the Reason he felt alive and like a good person was because he tended to look at the law of God the way most of us do. And that is he read the Ten Commandments in terms of external behavior only. So he would go down the list and he could tick it off. He said, okay, I don't bow down to any statues. Okay, that's good. I call my mother and father once a week from New York City. And so I'm honoring my parents, okay? And I'm not committing adultery and I'm not stealing and I don't kill anybody. At least I haven't killed anybody really important. You know, that's Paul. Now, I killed a few Christians, but they had it coming. And so he goes down, he was alive. He said, hey, you know, I went. As long as he was looking at the law in terms of external behavior, he said, hey, I'm okay. But then the Tenth Commandment, and the problem with the Tenth commandment is there's no way to read it.

Tim Keller (19:31)

In terms of behavior. It's about motives, it's about your heart, it's about your intentions. Thou shalt not covet. You know what the opposite of coveting is? Contentment.

Tim Keller (19:44)

And he realized it was saying that if you really love God, if you really were resting in God, if you really had God, then the commandment is, thou shalt love God enough to be content. But when he looked inside his heart, he saw all kinds of coveting. He saw all kinds of stuff. He saw anger because he was killing people who didn't agree with him. You know, he was persecuting the church. He saw fury and self righteousness and envy and comparing himself to other people. He saw the inside. He was a mess. And he says, it slew me. And you know what that means. I realized I was as spiritually dead as the lawless people. That underneath all my morality and underneath all my goodness, I realized that the law was actually creating.

Tim Keller (20:31)

Something inside. It was creating all this insecurity, creating all of this problem, creating all this anger, creating all this envy. What is he talking about? Why would he say, I'm just as lost, I'm just as dead spiritually as the immoral people out there? Robert Louis Stevenson in Jekyll Hyde has a fascinating passage. When I read it, I was blown away by it. And I realized it never comes out in any of the kind of horror films and plays and things based on the story. When Dr. Jekyll realized that Edward Hyde was killing people, he made a resolution. First of all, he said, no more potion, okay? I'M not taking that again. I'm never gonna take the potion. Cause that's how you became Edward Hyde. So I'm not taking the potion. And secondly, I'm gonna live such a good life. I'm gonna be more good, more moral, more generous, more kind, more upright than I've ever been, than anyone's ever been. And I'm gonna, with an act of my will, see, I'm gonna obey the moral law and I'm gonna actually squeeze out and repress Edward Hyde so he never shows up again. And he does a very good job. But we're told this. Here's the passage. He says, I resolved in my future conduct to redeem the past. And my resolve was fruitful. You know how earnestly in the last few months of this last year I labored to relieve suffering. You know how I lived. You know how much was done for other people. But on one fine, clear January day, I was sitting in the sun in Regent's park and I reflected and smiled, comparing myself with other men. Comparing my act of goodwill with the lazy cruelty of their neglect of their fellow man. And at the very moment of that vainglorious thought, a qualm came over me. A horrid nausea and dreadful shuddering. And I looked down and I was once more Edward Hyde without the potion. And see, this is the turning point. This is the beginning of the end. Because when he became Edward Hyde without the potion.

Tim Keller (22:33)

He knew he was cooked. But why would he have become Edward Hyde without the potion? And the answer is not in spite of his goodness, but because of his goodness. Did you hear what he said? You hear what the passage said? It was as he was thinking about how much better he was than everyone else. As he was thinking about how other people are cool, other people are living selfish lives. And I'm not. I'm living a very good life. I'm caring about everybody. At that moment, he became Edward Hyde without the potion. Why? He became Edward Hyde through his goodness, not in spite of his goodness. Why? Because there's two ways to be self centered, you know.

Tim Keller (23:07)

One is by being very bad and breaking all the rules. But the other is by being very good and becoming a self righteous Pharisee. There's two ways to be your own savior and Lord rather than God and trample on other people. One is by saying, I'm gonna live my own life. Nobody tells me how to live my life. I'm gonna break all the moral laws if I want. So that's being your own God, right? But see, if you Say I'm gonna be so good that God's gonna have to bless me and take me to heaven. You're being your own savior, right? You're not letting God be your savior. And even though there's all kinds of moral behavior in your life, inside you are filled with self righteousness and cruelty and bigotry and you're miserable cause you're always comparing yourself to other people and you never assure you're good enough. See, and what does that mean? It means that you can't deal with your hideousness. You can't deal with that self centeredness. You can't deal with that self absorption by trying to be a good person and by just bringing them all to bear so that you can say, now I'm gonna be a really, really good person. That can just make you worse. You don't deal with your hideousness with an act of the will. You need a complete transformation of the very motives of your heart.

Tim Keller (24:15)

Or you're dead.

Tim Keller (24:18)

So that's our problem. And that's what will not solve our problem. But what will? Not just application of the will to the moral law. Not just application of the moral law to your heart through an act of the will. What will? What will really solve it? And the answer is up in verses 1 to 7. The very beginning of this passage is kind of weird. When you first read through it, did you notice that you really couldn't figure out what was going on in the beginning and as time went on you sort of figured it out. That first part is very weird. And here's why. Paul is dealing with a question. He actually poses it in verse seven. He says, okay then, considering all that we've been talking about, that the law doesn't really sanctify us, the law doesn't really make us any better. You know, the law, if anything, is a greenhouse effect on what's wrong with us. Then he says, what? Then shall we say that the law is bad? That the law is sin? Shall we just throw the law and say, oh, when you're a Christian, you don't have to listen to the law? Is that what he's saying? No, he says, by no means. He says, if it wasn't for the law, I wouldn't know what's wrong with me. I wouldn't know how I should live. And so every indication in verse 7 is as a Christian, you should follow the law. You do need to obey it. You do need to let it sift through you and guide you as to how you should live your life. You do well then what is he saying we shouldn't do? And that is, he's saying in verses one to four especially, we should obey the law, we should follow the law, but we mustn't be married to the law. Married to the law. Now you miss that unless you read rather carefully and the metaphor is a little bit odd. In verse 1, 2 and 3, he's talking about a woman who's married. And he is saying, well, you know, if you're married and there's a death.

Tim Keller (26:02)

If you're married and one of the spouses dies, you're free to remarry. Marriage is binding, he says, and you just can't go off and do anything you want. But if there's a death, see, if one spouse dies, then the other spouse is free to remarry, right? That's what he's saying in verses 1 and 2 and 3. Then he suddenly shows what the metaphor is all about. And verse four, he says, so you must die to the law to belong to another. And then what he means by that is, up to this point, we're married to the law. We're in the arms of the law. What in the world would that mean? Why would he talk about being married, spiritually speaking, to the law of God? What does it mean to be married to the law of God? Well, marriage, Think about it. When you first become married, not only does your entire life revolve around your spouse, but so does your self image and self program. I mean, here's what I mean by that. Your self appreciation, your self regard, your self understanding is massively reprogrammed by your spouse.

Tim Keller (27:05)

Your self image is the product of what everybody says about you. Your parents have said things about you, your siblings have said things about you, your friends, your parents, your teachers, your coaches. People have been saying things about you all your life. And they say you're good. They say you're bad. And you know, you cull out of that a feeling of who you are, what you're good at, what you're bad at. But when you get married, because of the power of the relationship of marriage, you can look into the face of your spouse and your spouse can overturn what everybody's saying about you in the face of your spouse. You can have your entire self image reprogrammed. In other words, if everybody calls you ugly, but your spouse looks at you and says you're beautiful, you feel beautiful. Your spouse has that kind of power to massively reprogram your self understanding, your self image, your self worth. What does it Mean to be married to the law.

Tim Keller (28:03)

It's not just you follow the law to please God, that's fine. You have to do that or you follow the law in order to serve your neighbor, that's fine. You have to do that. To be married to the law means you're getting your very self from your performance. You're looking into the face of the law and you're saying, because I'm good, because I'm obedient, because I'm moral, because I'm religious, because I read the Bible, because I pray, because I do all these good things.

Tim Keller (28:26)

Now I know I'm a good person. You're trying to prove yourself to God or to other people or to yourself by your moral performance. And if that's the case, you're married to the law. And verse six goes beyond that and says, you're a captive to the law. You're a slave to the law. You know why? Because the dominant motive in your life is fear.

Tim Keller (28:46)

You may be incredibly good, you may be incredibly moral, but the dominant motive, the dominant motivational structure of the heart is fear. So for example, if you're married to the law and you're a very good person, you tell the truth, do you not? You tell the truth, you don't lie. Why do you tell the truth? Because you're scared. You tell the truth because you're scared God will get you, but he'll condemn you. He'll send you to hell. Or maybe you went to Harvard Law School and you took an ethics course and you're scared because it'll ruin your profits. But see, everybody in this culture, everybody in this culture, whether it's inside the church or outside the church, gets you to be good through fear. You don't want to be like those awful people. You don't want people to find out. You don't want to be caught. You don't want God to punish you. Fear, fear, fear. And you know what? If you are therefore trying to, in a sense, earn your salvation, earn your self image through your performance, you're driven inside. You're always comparing yourself to other people. You're crushed by criticism. You're furious and condescending toward people who don't have your beliefs, you can't handle failure. And if you try to deal with your fear, and fear is basically self absorption, you know what fear is? Fear is thinking of yourself. Fear is, what about me? What about me? What about me? How am I doing? How am I looking? How are people treating me? Fear is incredibly self absorbed. And you cannot deal Therefore, with self absorption and fear by saying, I'm going to be really good and then God will have to bless me and people will really see that I'm a good person. It just makes it worse. Oh, wretched people that we are, who will deliver us then from this body of death? Thanks be.

Tim Keller (30:30)

Verse 4 says you can die to the law that you belong to another who.

Tim Keller (30:39)

You need to become the spiritual spouses. You need to have someone else's love, you need to have someone else's face that you're looking into in order to find out who you are. You die According to verse 4 to the law and you belong to another through the body of Jesus Christ, through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. See at the end of Jekyll Hyde, Jekyll kills himself. And you know why? Because justice is at the door. Edward Hyde had murdered people. But he was never having to pay for his sins. Because the police couldn't find him. Because he kept becoming Dr. Jekyll. But when Jekyll realized that he was becoming Hyde permanently, he realized that he was going to be caught by the police, he was going to have to pay for his sins. And judgment day was at hand. So he killed himself anyway. And it's quite a metaphor, is it not, for judgment? No matter how hard you hide, no matter how often you put it off, eventually your sins will find you out. There will be a judgment day. Your hideousness will be revealed and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Judgment day will come. Well, wait a minute. There is something.

Tim Keller (31:46)

Isaiah 52 and 53 talk about Jesus Christ, the suffering servant who comes to save us. And this is what it says about him. They were appalled at him. His appearance was disfigured beyond that of a man and his form marred beyond human likeness. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds we are healed. Did you hear this? We were appalled at him. He was so hideous we couldn't look upon him. We turned our faces from him. What does it mean when 2 Corinthians 5:21 said God made him sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. God made him sin, treated him as pure evil. Jesus Christ became the hideous one.

Tim Keller (32:49)

And he took our judgment day.

Tim Keller (32:53)

And he died for us while we were hideous. Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, that he could present us to himself. Pure, beautiful, without spot or blemish.

Tim Keller (33:08)

The only thing that is going to silence that self centeredness, that fear at the center of your life, that black hole that's making your life miserable and everybody else's that says, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, me, me, me, me, I've gotta have this, I've gotta do that. You know, there's a moral version of that. I'm afraid that God's gonna get me, so I better be good. And there's an immoral version of that. I'm afraid that God's gonna oppress me, so I gotta live the way I wanna live. But only Jesus Christ as your new heavenly spouse, who has given himself for you unconditionally when you were hideous, to make you beautiful. Only Jesus Christ looking at you in the face and saying, I love you, I love you unconditionally, I love you. Only that. If you look into his face and see that, only that will destroy.

Tim Keller (33:56)

Eventually the fear in the heart of your being that is just driving you into the ground, that fear, I've gotta do this, I've gotta do that. Jesus Christ says, I got a new motive for you. Gratitude, security and love. Tell the truth. To resemble me and to please me and to delight me and to become like me. Out of gratitude. Not because you'll be condemned. Because now there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because of what he did.

Tim Keller (34:29)

Tell the truth. Give your money to the poor out of love, out of joy, out of gratitude. And that's the only motivation that won't drive you into the ground. Let the spousal love of Jesus Christ completely reconfigure the motivational structures of your heart.

Tim Keller (34:46)

Lay your deadly doing down, down at Jesus feet. Stand in him and him alone, gloriously complete. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for giving us this very dark message. It's a dark chapter, but it ends on a note of joy. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to Jesus Christ. Through him we die to our old spouse, the law, and die to the fear because of your reassurance. And we look into the face of our new heavenly spouse and we hear him say, I love you and I died for you. And now there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And we ask that you would help us apply this to our own lives. Through your Holy Spirit, we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Podcast Host (35:46)

Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the Gospel to your life and to share it with others. For more biblical resources from Tim Keller, visit gospelandlife.com There you can subscribe to the Life in the Gospel Quarterly Journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other great gospel centered resources. Again, it's all@gospelandlife.com you can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 2006. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life Podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2007 while Dr. Keller was senior Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.