Union With Christ

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_01] Welcome to Gospel in Life. Everyone builds their life around something, whether it's success, family, or the pursuit of happiness. These are good things, but can they really support the full weight of our lives? This summer, we're going through an extended series of teachings from Timothy Keller that explore the central claims of Christianity, showing us how the Gospel speaks to our deepest questions about meaning, identity, and hope.

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_00] Let me read to you from Ephesians chapter 2. Let's look at this passage.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00] By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. That's God's Word. Well, let's see what we can do.

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_00] We said Ephesians chapter 2 is actually a before and after picture. It's a before and after an encounter of an individual with Christ. In verses 1, 2, and 3, which we didn't read tonight, but which we've looked at for a couple of weeks, you have the before picture. In verses 4 to 10, you have the after picture. Paul is trying to get through to us.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00] He's trying to get across to us in the most vivid terms that the difference between being in Christ and being outside of Christ is a cataclysmic difference. In verse 1, he said we were dead spiritually. In verse 4, it says we're made alive spiritually.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00] In verse 3, Paul says of chapter 2, he says we lived gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature. We were in bondage. We weren't free. We were bound. And here in verse 5, it says, and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms. So, in opposition to being in bondage, now we're in authority. In opposition to being dead, now we're alive.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00] You know, what Paul's trying to say before we go on, Paul's trying to say if you have an understanding of Christianity that sees a Christian as someone who is different from other people in a matter of degree, if you see Christianity as basically trying to live a better life so that sometimes you're living like a Christian and sometimes you're not. You go into Christianity, you go out of Christianity. Sometimes you're living a Christian life. Other times you're not living a Christian life.

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_00] If you see Christians, a Christian is someone who has supplemented his or her life. If you see the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian in terms of a matter of degree, you're not doing justice to the language here. Paul is saying you were dead, now you're alive. You say, I don't know what you think about this whole idea of being born again. We talked about it last week. That's not really our subject this week. But look, people are irritated with the idea of being born again.

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_00] They are irritated by the very notion that to be a Christian, you've got to go through some kind of momentous, profound, cataclysmic change in your life. They're offended by it. And whenever I ask people why, well, what do you think a Christian is? They just say, I think a Christian is somebody who just tries their best to live like Jesus said. And that sounds very humble. And it maybe is kind of humble.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00] But I don't know how in the world you can do justice to what Paul is saying here then. Do you just trample what Paul says? Do you just trample underfoot what people have experienced over the years, over the centuries? That the difference between being in Christ and out of Christ is the difference between being dead and alive, being in bondage and being in authority. How can you see Christianity as just a matter of degree, something you can fall in or out of? Not at all.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_00] We're talking about something that cannot be seen as anything other than, as we said, momentous and profound, the most radical possible change. Now, how does it happen? We looked a little bit last week at what happens. We talked about this idea of being made alive with him. We talked about the new birth. This week I'd like to really throw you some theology. Excuse me. I'm sorry. But, you know, every couple of months I think I should.

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00] What Paul says here, if you look carefully, you've got to look carefully, he tells you that we were made alive in Christ. We were dead and now we're born again. How? The answer is there if you look carefully. It's an important theological theme in Paul. That which brings about the new birth, as we're going to see here, is union with Christ. You can't even tell it.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_00] Unfortunately, the modern translations, in a way, hide what's happening in verses 4 and 5 in a way that the old King James doesn't. The old King James says, but God made us alive together with Christ. There's three verbs, three verbs of which were the object in verses 4 and 5. It said, we're made alive, all right?

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00] We're raised up, and we're seated with him. There's three verbs, each one of which were the object. God has made us alive, he's raised us up, and we're seated with him. But if you read this in Greek, you'll find something interesting. Every one of these is a Greek verb. But at the beginning of every one of the Greek verbs, there's a prefix attached. And the prefix is the little Greek prefix syn, S-Y-N.

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_00] In English, we know what S-Y-N means. It means in union with. It means together with. We have the word synonymous. We have the word synchronized. And so what Paul is doing is in the strongest terms, he takes the prefix and sticks it, slaps it on the front of every one of these verbs. So what he's trying to say is, you were raised together with Christ. You were seated together with Christ.

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_00] This theme is an important theme, especially in the New Testament and especially with Paul. Paul, for example, talks about it in Romans 5, Romans 6. He talks about it in 1 Corinthians 15. He talks about it in 2 Corinthians 5. Excuse me. And we'll talk about that one. But if you want to see a great example of it, in Galatians 2.20, Paul says, I have been crucified together with Christ. Sin.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_00] I've been crucified with Christ. And I live, yet not I, but Christ lives within me. We referred to this a couple of weeks ago. That's one of the neatest verses to me. Paul says, I live, yet not I. Christ lives within me. That's exactly how every Christian feels. After you've gone from death to life, after a while you look at yourself and you say, who is this?

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_00] Sometimes you say, it's me, Paul. Paul of Tarsus. And then other times you say, but it's not me. This isn't the Paul of Tarsus I used to know. But of course it has to be me. Who else could it be? You know? I am Paul of Tarsus. I'm not Paul of Tarsus, you see. I'm both Paul of Tarsus and not Paul of Tarsus. Being a Christian is a very complicated condition. That's always been true.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_00] Being a Christianity brings into you a new complexity psychologically. I sure wish people would see that. Being a Christian does not suddenly get rid of all your problems by any means. Being a Christian, in some ways, creates a lot of problems. I mean, a bear is dangerous. But nowhere near as dangerous is if you just shot her in the leg. She's much more dangerous then.

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_00] Your sinful nature, that part of you we talked about for several weeks, that the part of you, the sinful nature is the part that wants to belong. You want control of your life. You want to be God. You want to be your own savior. You want to be your own king. We talked about that. That's dangerous. But when you become a Christian, you just shot it. You bring into the life, into your heart, the Holy Spirit. You have mortally wounded your sinful nature.

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_00] It's dying while a new nature is growing. Well, that makes you a much more complicated person than you used to be. In fact, your sinful nature is considerably more angry and upset and violent and hostile, just like a bear that's been shot is far more angry and alienated and violent and hostile. You become a very, very complicated person because you have both an old nature and a new nature. You have an old self and a new self. I am Saul of Tarsus. I'm not Saul of Tarsus. I'm both.

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_00] And anybody who's a Christian knows that that sort of thing's going on. Anybody who's a Christian realizes that there has just been a momentous change inside, that you've been rocked from the inside. Someone has grabbed a hold of you and turned you inside out. All right, what causes that in Galatians 2.20? I live, Paul says, yet not I. Well, you know what caused it? The first line, I have been crucified with Christ.

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_00] See, then he goes on and says, it is I who live, yet not I, but Christ lives within me. What's the cause of this momentous internal change? He's been crucified with Christ. What's the cause here of this great change? It's together with Christ. I was crucified with Christ. I was raised with Christ. I've been seated with Christ. What is that? Now, what does that mean? Here's what it means, and this is where the theology comes in.

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_00] It's all right to say that becoming a Christian means you enter into a personal relationship with God. That's all right. That's true. That's wonderful. That's delicious. That's sublime. But that's not all there is. Paul is actually saying that the personal relationship is based on something else. When you become a Christian, when you trust in Christ as Savior, you enter into a federal relationship with Christ, a legal relationship with Christ.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_00] All of these strange statements, I was crucified with Christ. How could I have been crucified with Christ? How could that be? But then it goes and says, I was raised with Christ. How could that be? But then worse than that, I'm seated with Christ. And every one of these verbs is a past tense. Now, you know, you could understand it better if it says, I will be raised with Christ. Is that what it says? And God will raise us up with Christ?

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_00] He will seat us in the heavenly places someday? We could understand that. Yeah, but that's not what it says. It says God raised us up, past tense. He seated us there. That means that we have a personal relationship with Christ. But first, the cause of all this momentous change on the inside is we're brought into a federal relationship with God, with Christ. He is our federal head. He is our representative. We are in a legal covenantal relationship with Him. Now, we're going to have to talk about this for a second.

[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_00] I want you to know that as complicated as this may seem, this is fundamental to understanding the gospel. And I don't, you know, I could not get out and face my life this coming week if I didn't know this. And I shudder to think that there's people in this room who are trying to do that very thing. So I'm going to try to help. I'm going to try to ameliorate that situation. Listen, when Paul talks about this numbers of places, for example, in Romans 5, he says,

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_00] As sin entered the world through Adam, and through the disobedience of one, many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one, many will be made righteous. I wouldn't usually mention this, but Greek is an interesting and very complicated language, and it has more than one kind of past tense. One of the past tenses it has is what's called an aorist tense, A-O-R-I-S-T.

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_00] One of the things that's amazing about many of the verbs in Romans 5 is that Paul is using aorist past tenses to talk about things that we did in Christ. What he means is we sinned, we died in Christ, we were raised in Christ, and in Christ we're made righteous. How could that be? This, we are in a legal relationship. We've got a few of these analogies we can talk about here. For example, if you're in a labor union, you elect a negotiator.

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_00] That negotiator represents you at the table. What happens may be that the contract, if the negotiator is savvy, you get a great contract, and everybody benefits. Or if the negotiator is stupid, you get a lousy contract, and everybody is hurt. The point is, you are in a federal relationship with that negotiator. The savvy or the stupidity of the negotiator, the benefits or the demerits of that person, accrue to you. Is that fair?

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_00] It's a legal thing. In marriage, I know there's various laws about this, and every state differs, but in general, if a husband and a wife both have their name on the same house, if they both have their name on the same bank account, then the debts of one accrue to the other. There's a federal headship, or the prosperity of the one accrues to the other.

[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_00] Or, another one, we've mentioned this before, if you're going to court and you have a defense attorney, that defense attorney is in a federal headship relationship to you. If that defense attorney makes a motion, if that defense attorney makes an argument, and the attorney does a good job, then all of the benefits of that accrue to you. If the attorney does a bad job, you're screwed, you see. You're cooked. Is that fair? That's the law.

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_00] It's possible to enter into a relationship with another individual, so that person becomes a federal head. You're in federation. You're in legal union, which means whatever is true of her or him is true of you. If the defense attorney is smart, you're smart. If the defense attorney is stupid, you're stupid. If the union negotiator is smart, you're smart. If the union negotiator is stupid, you're stupid.

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_00] And this is exactly what God says has happened between you and Jesus Christ the moment you believe. Think of this. Look at 2 Corinthians 5. Think of this. God made him sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him. If you get rid of the idea of federal headship, that makes absolutely no sense at all. Think of this.

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER_00] First of all, it says that on the cross, God made Jesus Christ sin. What does that mean? Does that mean that when Jesus was on the cross, he made him actually a sinner? Does it mean that his heart became full of corruption and selfishness and pride? Is that what it means? No, it couldn't. In fact, you know, I've been... Look at me... For a minute, look at him on the cross. We'll come back to this, but we're going to make use of this. Look at him on the cross with me. Do you see hardness there?

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_00] Do you see selfishness? You see someone still forgiving his enemies. But not only that, you see an act of love and devotion and obedience that never before occurred and never can occur again. It's stupendous. It's something that no one ever has or ever will be able to do again. Jesus Christ depends on a God who forsakes him.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_00] No one else before and no one else ever again will ever have to do that. You talk about loyalty. You talk about devotion. You talk about obedience. You talk about love. Jesus Christ continued to stay in a dependent situation with a God who forsook him. That will never happen to anybody. It never did and never will again. Somebody was telling me that there's a place in California where there's a statue done by

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_00] a modern sculptor of Job. You know Job. And the statue shows Job in agony. In agony. You know, you read some of those tremendous prayers of Job where he was just wrestling under the suffering that had come into his life. At the bottom of the statue, there is one verse from Job's mouth. I think it's from Job 13. Though he slay me, yet will I praise him.

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_00] Yet will I trust him. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Now, Job, Job, you didn't really have to do that. Anyone who trusts God will not be crushed. Anyone who trusts God will not be let down. Anyone who trusts God, God would never forsake. There's only one person in the history of the universe that actually had to say that.

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_00] There's only one person in the history of the universe that actually did that. Only Jesus said, though you slay me, yet I will trust you. And it happened.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_01] Why does God allow suffering in the world? How can one religion be right and the other's wrong? Hasn't science basically disproved Christianity? Timothy Keller addresses these questions and many more in his book, The Reason for God. Drawing on literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning, this book will challenge you to gain a deeper understanding of the Christian faith, whether you're a believer seeking to understand your faith better, whether you're exploring Christianity yourself,

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_01] or whether you're reading it with a friend who's searching for answers. When you give to Gospel in Life during the month of August, we'll send you two copies of The Reason for God, one for you and one to give to a friend. It's our hope that through reading the book with a friend, you can have conversations about the claims of the Christian faith. To receive your two copies of The Reason for God, as our thanks for your support, simply make a gift at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_01] Thank you for partnering with us. Your gift helps the message of Christ's love go out all over the world, because the gospel truly changes everything.

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_00] When it says God made him sin on the cross, does that mean he actually became sinful? Oh no. Look at the devotion. Look at the breathtaking holiness and righteousness. Look at the breathtaking obedience. No one has ever had to say, though you slay me yet will I trust you. No. Jesus Christ was not made actually a sinner on the cross. And what could he have been made? He must have been made legally a sinner. It means that he became a federal head for you,

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_00] so that your sins came to him. Your punishment came to him. And then when it says, God made him sin who knew no sin, that must mean not actually becoming a sinner, but legally becoming a sinner, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. What does that mean? It can't mean that you actually become righteous. It means the minute you are believed, you legally become perfectly righteous. Legally. That's why you have Colossians 1.22.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_00] Now he has reconciled you by his death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish, and free from any accusation. You're not actually righteous. You still have got in your heart lots and lots of faults, all sorts of flaws, all kinds of ravenous desire and anger, all sorts of selfishness and pride, and yet God looks at you. What does he see? Think about it. When you look at Jesus saying,

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_00] though you slay me, yet will I trust him, just gives you a... Doesn't it make your flesh crawl with the holiness of it? Doesn't it amaze you to see that kind of devotion and loyalty? Doesn't it take your breath away to see that kind of perfection and righteousness and godliness? Okay, hold on to your hats. When God looks at you, that's what he sees. Hey, when God made him a sinner,

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_00] it didn't mean he actually became a sinner. It just means that legally he became liable for all of your sin. It all fell on him. What does it mean then when it says God made you righteous the minute you believe in him? It means he becomes your federal representative, and all of his righteousness, everything that he's ever done, everything that he deserves now, accrues to you. It's imputed to you. All that spine-tingling godliness, all of that beautiful perfection

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_00] that takes your breath away to look at it. Though you slay me, yet will I trust you. It's yours. It's yours. Don't you see why Paul said, it's I, yet it's not I. Why? Because I'm crucified with Christ. I'm raised with Christ. I'm seated with Christ. Everything that happened to him has happened to you. Whatever is true of him is true of you because you're in a federal relationship with him. I know that's radical.

[00:22:32] [SPEAKER_00] I know that's astonishing. I know for many of you, you thought being a Christian just meant, hey, I thought it meant, you know, ask God for forgiveness and try your best to live a good life. Yeah, that's part of what it means to be a Christian, but don't you see how much, this is light years ahead of what you've thought. This is something, this means to become a Christian is to be brought into another realm. I have been crucified with Christ. You know what that means? When Jesus died

[00:23:03] [SPEAKER_00] to take the punishment for your sins, you died with him. That means God treats you as if you've paid for every last debt. He treats you as if you have been punished already. You know, here's the law. Don't go through a stoplight. There's two ways to satisfy that law. One is to stop at the stoplight. The other is you go through it and they give you a fine and then you pay the $57 or whatever it is. And then once you've paid the penalty,

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_00] the law has no more hold over you at all. What does it mean to say I was crucified with Christ? Christ, God treats you as if you have already died, you've already paid. I don't know how many of you realize at what a deep level you're still trying to atone for your own guilt. I don't know how many of you realize at what a deep level you still feel like you deserve to die. At least you deserve to be unhappy. Plenty of you are like that.

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_00] Plenty of you. You don't believe then this text. I have been crucified with Christ. No wonder when Paul realized that he suddenly was totally changed. He was born again. His attitude toward life was different. I've been crucified with Christ. Here I've been trying to crucify myself. I deserve to suffer, people think, at some very profound level. Not if you take the doctrine of the federal headship of Jesus Christ

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_00] into the heart and center of your soul. And then you've got these other statements. I've been raised with Christ. I've been seated with Christ. Past tense. What does that mean? It doesn't mean you're actually there. It means you're legally there. It means that you're seated there and that what it means is God already holds you as acceptable. He sees you clothed in the righteousness of his son. He sees you as an acceptable person at his table. He regards you that way.

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_00] Now, I know that this immediately raises a tremendous number of questions. I wish, instead of letting your little... Well, I'll have to do it. First of all, before you begin to see all the little intellectual problems that show up, and I'll mention them here and just take a minute or two to try to deal with some of them before we close up, can't you just enjoy it? Can't you just see how wonderful it is? Can't you just see that if this is really what it means

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_00] to be a Christian, how different this is than just a matter of degree, supplementing, going to the... I'm going to church more often than I used to. I'm reading my Bible more often. I'm really... I'm praying more. I'm asking God to forgive my sins. I've made these little changes. I think I'm a Christian now. You're either dead or alive. You're either in bondage or in your authority. You're either in your sins or you're out of your sins. You either owe God your own death or else you've already paid Him.

[00:25:55] [SPEAKER_00] Do you see that? You either owe Him everything or else it's all been paid. Which is it? Now, friends, listen. You see how practical this is? You see why this also... Here's another perfect example of why Christianity is so totally different. Every other founder of a religion came to show you the way of salvation.

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_00] Jesus Christ came to be the way of salvation. Every other founder says, this is the way. Jesus says, I am the way. Now, you see why? When He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, Paul says, Jesus Christ has been made unto you wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is your righteousness. He doesn't just show you the way to righteousness. He is your righteousness. He is your sanctification. He is your redemption.

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_00] You know, it's utterly different than every other faith. I mean, Christianity is either an absolute crock or it is the only way. It just doesn't fit in. A lot of people always say, hey, every religion has part of the truth. Every religion shows you one way to God. No way. This religion just does not fit into the pie. It's either the whole pie or it's not there. It's either a fraud or it's a crock. It doesn't fit in. It doesn't say, well,

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_00] you see, Confucius shows us a way to God and Buddha shows us a way to God and Muhammad shows us a way to God. And admittedly, the ways are a little bit different, but they do have a lot in common, frankly. They all lift up integrity. They all lift up family values. They all lift up compassion to the poor. I mean, frankly, they all talk very similarly. And so every one of those founders is telling you a way to God and every one of them, though they're a little bit different, they have a lot in common, and so they're all true.

[00:27:51] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, except there's one guy who does not show you the way to God. He is the way to God. That's what he says. He's your federal head. You either receive him as your savior and give up trying to find the way to God and then automatically find that you're in God, that you're crucified and you're raised and you're seated, or else everything Jesus is saying is nonsense. It's a crock. It's fraud. But here's something else. Have you,

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_00] Christian friends, I'm saying this to, I mean, if you don't know where you stand with Christ, I know this is all kind of pretty amazing, but let me just show you, those of you who are trying to figure out what you believe about Christ, listen over here what I'm about to say to my Christian brothers and sisters. This is the way you're going to face your Monday and your Tuesday and your Wednesday. This is the way you have to do it. How do you know that God loves you? Basically, that's the reason, and that's the thing that we're not sure of. That's the only reason we can't take criticism.

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_00] That's the only reason that we get scared. That's the only reason that we worry because we're really not sure he loves us. How do you know God loves us? Well, if you say, because I'm better than most people, you know that's not true. If you say, because God's merciful in a general way, yeah, but you always wonder whether you haven't maybe, you know, worn out his patience. If you say, well, I know God loves me because I've suffered more than other people. I know God loves me because I try my best. You know, deep inside,

[00:29:20] [SPEAKER_00] you don't believe those things. You're always worried. How do you know God loves you? How do you know God loves you? Because I was crucified with Christ. Because I was raised with Christ. Because I was seated with Christ. It's past tense that I'm righteous in Him. It's in Him that I have redemption. It's in Him that I have sanctification. It's all complete in Him. If you go around still feeling guilty like you still owe God some kind of suffering that you deserve to be punished,

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_00] you don't understand this yet. Not only if you go around feeling real bad about yourself, you don't understand the federal headship of Christ, but I'll tell you another thing. If you go around feeling superior to other people, you don't understand it either. Superiority complexes and inferiority complexes are alike repulsive and impossible in the blaze of this doctrine. Because the only reason you are anything is because it's all happened to you in Christ. You cannot be proud. You cannot be up on yourself. You can't be down on yourself.

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_00] You don't worry anymore about yourself. What a difference that would be. What a greatness, what a great self-forgetfulness would characterize you if you understood that it's all happened in Him. Yeah, one last thing. A lot of people say, oh, what? Did I hear you right? That you're already justified in Christ?

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_00] That you're already raised and seated? Past tense? That means that no matter what you do, no matter how often you fail, that He loves you and accepts you as perfect? Whew! You're going to have a great life. Once I accept Christ, I can do anything I want. I can live any old way I want. Now, Paul, whenever, ever he preaches the gospel, like in Romans 5, he then starts Romans 6 with a question. What then? Shall we sin

[00:31:18] [SPEAKER_00] that grace may abound? Now, you know, I once heard a professor tell me that he said, if you never get people to ask you the question, what then? Shall we sin that grace may abound? You haven't preached the gospel. See, if you, if the first thing you think about when you've heard what I just said about the doctrine of the federal headship of union with Christ as the basis for everything that happens to a Christian,

[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_00] if you hear that and you realize the radical proportions of it and the radical nature of it, if you say, well, in that case, then it doesn't really matter how I live, I'm in. What incentive have I got to do good works? What incentive do I have to lead a moral life? You see, if you don't ask that question, it means that you've never, if you've never asked that question before, you've never heard the gospel. The gospel is so radical that it automatically makes people wonder about that. But the answer is, of course,

[00:32:15] [SPEAKER_00] that if you really experience union with Christ, you will see that the doctrine of the free justification by faith of the sinner in Christ, the doctrine of complete grace and acceptance through adoption by the Father does not ever lead you to seek, to lead a licentious life. Oh, no, as a matter of fact, it gives you your real motivation. And you've heard me say it before, but I've got to say it because there's always people who have never heard this message before.

[00:32:46] [SPEAKER_00] If you say you've lost your incentive to lead a godly life and do good works because you're no longer scared that God will, of God's wrath, that means that the only incentive you ever had was fear. Did I say that again? It was a pretty long sentence. If when you no longer are afraid that God's going to get you, you've lost your incentive for good works, that means your only incentive for good works was fear and self-interest.

[00:33:15] [SPEAKER_00] I would like you to know that the idea that you're totally saved, that there's no condemnation of those in Christ Jesus, not only is that not a good basis for good works, it's the only basis for good works. Let me close with a story. I read this about two months ago. It's a fairy tale, obviously, but interesting. There was a king and a queen. They lived somewhere long, long ago, far, far away. And in it, there was a young servant girl who loved her queen. She served her queen.

[00:33:45] [SPEAKER_00] A young servant girl, she loved her queen, so one day, she was an embroiderer. She was a seamstress. And one day, she came up with the nicest piece of embroidery she'd ever done and probably ever would do. So she stitched it into a handkerchief. She wasn't a very wealthy girl. And she gave it to her queen as a present. She said, this is the best thing I've ever done. I want you to have it. And the queen perceived how much she loved, how much the little girl loved her, how much the young girl loved her. And so what she did was, she said, I want to give you a new room. I want to give you

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_00] a new wardrobe. I want to give you a new job. I want you to come into the courts. I want you to serve me. And she showered her with all sorts of gifts. There was another girl who lived in the court. She wasn't a servant girl. She was of the royal family. And she saw what happened and she sat there and said, boy, you know, if that's what the queen gives for a nice piece of embroidery, what if I get her a diamond necklace? And so this girl, a couple days later, came to the queen and said, here's a diamond necklace. I got this. This is something that was given to me some years ago,

[00:34:45] [SPEAKER_00] but because I love you so much, I want you to have it. And the queen understood what was going on and she took the diamond necklace and she didn't give the girl anything. And the girl looked at her, puzzled, and the queen understood what she was puzzled about and she said, look, the servant girl gave me the handkerchief but you're giving yourself the necklace. See, if you are giving me something because you want to get something, then you're giving yourself the necklace. I've talked to people

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_00] who are feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and visiting the sick and they say they hope that by doing this they can believe that God will love them and have favor on them and let them into heaven. In that case, it's yourself you're clothing. It's yourself you're feeding. It's yourself you're visiting. There's a certain sense in which until you know that God has saved you, not because of any good works

[00:35:43] [SPEAKER_00] but simply because of what Jesus Christ has done, until that happens you can't do any good works for God. You're not really doing them for Him but when the love and gratitude wells up and overflows your heart and when the fear of God getting you diminishes for the first time you'll have real incentive to do good works. For the first time you'll do things for Him. This week, as my friend Jack Miller often likes to say, this week, go out and do something just for Jesus.

[00:36:14] [SPEAKER_00] Don't do it for you, don't do it for anybody, just do it, do some things for Jesus because God made Him sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Let's pray. Now, Father, we ask that as we contemplate our week in light of the fact that we've been made alive with Your Son, that we've been crucified with Your Son,

[00:36:43] [SPEAKER_00] that we've been raised and seated with Your Son, that we are now righteous in Your sight, help us to gain the confidence that we need, help us to stop trying to atone for our own sins, let this come into the center of our souls and heal us emotionally, help, let this come into the center of our beings and affect us socially, let this invigorate us and drive us out to the poor and needy, let this have its way, let this great doctrine have its way with us. I've been crucified

[00:37:13] [SPEAKER_00] with Christ, therefore I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

[00:37:30] [SPEAKER_01] Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, you can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great gospel-centered content by Tim Keller anytime, visit gospelinlife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 1992. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was Senior Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.