by Tim Keller
Let me remind you, the operating principle of religion is “Obey, there’for I’m accepted by God.” The operating principle of the Gospel is “I’m accepted by God, therefore I obey.” Two people sitting next to each other in church can operate out of those respective principles. They’re both trying to do all of the same things for different reasons, thus there’s utterly different results.
In Romans 1 pagans are seeking to be their own masters, lords and savior, but Paul points out in Romans 2 that believers may be missing it as well. If you think God has got to save me and bless me because of what I’m doing, Jesus isn’t your savior. He may be your example, but you are your own savior.
When Jesus gives the sermon on the mount, both groups are giving, both groups are fasting, both groups are following the 10 commandments, but they have a different motivation
The Gospel when brought to bear on the heart makes things new.
- A new self image and forms of humility – James 1 bears a lot of reflection. When the Gospel comes into your life you are simultaneously just, loved, adopted and at the same time in yourself a sinner. I couldn’t possibly accept how lost I was until I got the Gospel. Because before that your self-image is based on your performance.The poor Christian ought to take pride in his high position. The poor person gets nothing but abuse in the world. Now that you’re a Christian you should think of yourself as a child of the king. Those of you with inferiority problems, use the Gospel to raise yourself up.Those of you with superiority problems or who are successful, use the Gospel to understand you aren’t as good as you think you are.How do you help the poor person change their self image through the Gospel? The Gospel tells you that you are not defined by outside forces. You are defined by Christ irrespective of anything you have achieved or failed to achieve. That’s justification by grace proclaimed and practiced.
That’s exactly what James is talking about. The poor brother ought to take pride in his high position. The rich brother, the person the world considers successful, you need to think about your low position, that you’re a sinner saved by grace. It says take pride in your low position. You need to remind yourself that the reason you can hold yourself up high is because of Christ.
I once pastored at a church next to a poor town, and a pastor at a church in the poor town said that the only people who came to help who weren’t condescending were from the churches where the Gospel was preached well.
1 Corinthians 4:3-5: I care very little if I am judged by you or any human court. I don’t even care if I judge myself. In other words, you shouldn’t always be trying to live up to what your friends, family, or culture say. I don’t care what you think. I don’t even care what I think. What I care about is the Gospel.
- A new motivation and depths of joy. – Titus 2:11-15: The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared. Ever since I was a new pastor and preached the grace of God, people said that if I believed that, I’d have no incentive to live a godly life. Then I said, if you lose any incentive to live a holy life once you lose fear, then fear was your only motivator, and that’s not right.If grace isn’t an incentive to live a holy life, you don’t have the right understanding of grace.One way to understand it is that it’s free. Right, okay. When you go to an event you get a free pad of paper with the company’s logo on it. Is that grace, well, yes, it’s free. But that won’t change your life. But what if you lived in a poor country and you were poor and needed a life changing surgery that you couldn’t afford or access. Now imagine your friend liquidated all of his assets to provide the funds for you to get that surgery. That is free, but that is costly. That changes your life.
That’s what Jesus did on the cross. But the cross wasn’t just physical pain. He was being separated from the Father. He was experiencing spiritual death. He was experiencing hell in some way.
How would you treat that friend who sacrificed everything for your surgery? Would you treat them poorly? No. Sacrificial love breeds sacrificial love.
In the Bible, joy that displaces the fear becomes the primary motivator to live a holy life. Not the only one but the primary one. Imagine a friend paid a bill for you. How are you going to feel about that? You need to know how big the check was right? If it was last months phone bill, great. That was nice. But what if it was that back tax bill for 8 years from the IRS that you were going to jail for. You need to know how big the check was before you know whether to say thank you or to throw yourself at his feet and say command me.
I was in a meeting selecting elders when guy who was otherwise qualified came up and everyone approved but the senior pastor said he’s not happy enough. He must not understand how bad his sin is. He doesn’t understand what he’s truly been forgiven from.
If someone insults you, who cares if you’re happy enough in the Gospel. Nothing anyone does can make you furious. Now, sometimes in the short run you should do the right thing even if it doesn’t come from your joy, but in the long run it’s only joy that is going to make you do the right thing.
How can costly grace motivate you to live a Godly life? Joy, joy at response to the grace.
A woman who I knew years ago who wasn’t even a Christian said that if you’re saved strictly because of costly grace, there is no limit to what God can ask of me. That’s scary. I told her that yes, it’s scary, but only because you don’t know the joy it brings.
- A new set of values and a new logic of influence. – The Gospel gives us upside-down values. Jesus Christ came not with a sword in his hand but with nails in his hands, not to bring judgment but to bear judgment. He didn’t come in might; he came in weakness. He got power by giving everything away.That’s what happens to us. How do you get power in your life? By saying I’ve got nothing. By repenting. The way to success is to suffering. The way to riches is through poverty. The way to influence in through service. It’s how you become a Christian.That’s going to affect the way you live in every way. You see some of it in the OT.
The logic of the Gospel affects how you use your money. I should be impoverishing myself so that others can become more self-sufficient. This isn’t just giving alms to the poor. This is radical generosity.
Galatians 2, Paul is confronting Peter about his racism against the Gentiles. Paul does not to say to Peter that racism is against the law of God, though it is. He says to Peter, you are not walking in line with the Gospel. James 2 says if you really care about grace you’ll help the poor. Ephesians 1 says it.
You can see it in the OT, but it goes wild in the NT. Christians who have thought about the Gospel don’t fit in the left-right spectrum very easily. People who’s lives are changed by the Gospel are very hard to categorize.
- A general unpredictability of thought – Christianity is the most pessimistic and the most optimistic way of looking at the world, especially Reformed, Protestant Christianity. Total depravity is the most pessimistic view of humanity in the world. Yet what the Bible holds out is the most optimistic view. You go out into the world with the most optimistic and pessimistic view in the world.
Thomas Chalmers said, “It is seldom that any of our bad habits or flaws disappear by a mere process of natural extinction… but what cannot be destroyed may be dispossessed.” You can’t just stop one thing, but you can replace. “The boy ceases at length to be a slave of his appetite but a more mature taste has taken it’s place.”