Alive With Christ (Part 1)

Tim Keller: 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 Tim Keller that explore the central claims of Christianity, showing us how the gospel speaks to our deepest questions about meaning, identity, and hope.
Tim Keller: I'm going to turn with you. I'm hopefully you can turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. Is that all written out here in the, pardon me? Yep. Ephesians chapter 2. And I want you to read with me verses 1 to 5.
Tim Keller: As for you, kind of an ominous start, isn't it? As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved.
Tim Keller: Now we're looking at a classic text on sin, classic. I'm not going to be able to spend as many weeks on this as I like because I'm getting bored with spending so much time on the same verses all the time and I hope I don't want to be tedious to you. But I want you to know that these first three verses have got almost everything you need to know about the biblical doctrine of sin, it's all in there. We won't even get into it, but in here you learn about the nature of God's wrath. You learn about original sin, which we will mention tonight. You learn about the nature of sin. You learn about total depravity, which is a theological term for the for the results of sin, which is spiritual death. You have the relationship between the world and the flesh and the devil, all mentioned here. We're not going to look at all that.
Tim Keller: But we do want to go on a little further and draw out what the scripture here tells us about the doctrine of sin. Maybe you think that's a downer. That doesn't surprise me. Last year I read in The Wall Street Journal a little article about, actually, a big article, about some of the new super churches. Churches that have grown extremely large in in certain cities of the country. And one of the things that the journal writer, the writer of the article, pointed out was that from many of these churches, he said, the word sin has been airbrushed out.
Tim Keller: It's not there in the language, it's not there in the sermons or the teaching of the communication. You've got a lot of words, you've got the word recovery, you've got the words hurt, you've got the words you have words like that, but the word sin has been airbrushed out. And the writer found out that one of the reasons for that is because many of the large church leadership in these huge super churches are very sensitive to market research. And market research shows a couple of things that people just hate about churches.
Tim Keller: One of them is this, we don't like churches because they're always telling you what's wrong with you. I don't go to churches because they're always telling me what's wrong with me and how I'm a sinner and why I'm sinful and what how I sin. And the market research says people don't like to hear about sin, they don't like to be told what's wrong with them. And so, if we want to, you know, if we if we want to create a church that really is going to target the market, we've got to get rid of the idea.
Tim Keller: I remember when I was in Virginia, I would visit a lot of people in their homes. In fact, visited everybody and got to know them in a very interesting way. And there was a handful of people, just a couple, I remember, who absolutely would never go and were completely hostile to doctors. It was always odd because these these would be people that would have growths on their arm, they would have pain in their legs so they couldn't walk, they'd have all kinds of things that are clearly seriously wrong and they say, "Oh no, I'm not going to a doctor." Everybody would beg them. I would beg them. "You got to see a doctor." "Oh no." And what would what why would they say that? They said, "Here's what I don't like about doctors. All you ever do when you go to a doctor, all you ever hear is what's wrong with you."
Tim Keller: All they ever do is tell you what's wrong with you. All they want to do is cut on you. All they want to do is slap you in the hospital and get lots of your money. I don't like doctors, all they ever do is talk negatively about what's wrong with me and I never go to them. Now, all the people that had that attitude died terrible and untimely deaths.
Tim Keller: Because doubtless there are doctors who prescribe unnecessary surgery. Doubtless there are doctors who who are more interested in the money than the patient. Doubtless there are doctors who are too negative. But it's pretty stupid to say, "Oh, I hate doctors because they tell you what's wrong with you." That's what doctors are there for. That's what doctors exist for. They tell you what's wrong with you because you need it. And to deny that you need it is actually to live in denial of your own mortality. The real reason that they didn't want to go to doctors was they were afraid to hear that they were mortal. They were afraid to find out why their leg hurt. They were afraid to find out what the growth was on there. And they seemed to think that by painting all doctors as if they were all a bunch of quacks and all a bunch of negative people, that somehow the growth would go away, and it didn't.
Tim Keller: No, and somebody says, "Well, I don't like churches because they tell me what's wrong with me." Just as doctors are there to tell you what's wrong with you physically, so churches are there to tell you about your moral diseases. Not only that, but plenty of people just don't want to hear about sin because they're afraid of their own mortality. They're living in denial in the same way. And they will die terrible and untimely deaths, spiritually speaking.
Tim Keller: You see, we've got to understand about sin, we've got to not be afraid of talking about sin. The world doesn't make sense without sin. You know, you read you read the history, for example, of labor and management. It's really funny. You know, when unions don't have enough power, when the workers don't have enough power, the management takes advantage of them until their morale is so broken that the firm is not helped. And then the pendulum swings, and what happens is when the unions get so much power, there's no accountability, productivity plummets, and they essentially what, you know, they they cook the goose that laid the golden egg until the company's not competitive and it goes down the drain. And basically, what do you learn is that if you give any particular group too much power, the self-interest takes over and everything is destroyed. What is that, though?
Tim Keller: Why does the United States Constitution, why is it filled with with checks and balances? Why is it that you can't give any one branch too much power? Why is it you can't give this or that group too much power? We don't want to say it, but none of that makes any sense unless you believe in sin, sin. If there's no sin, none of it makes sense. What is self-interest? That's a very nice way of saying we're self-centered. And we're so blind to what's wrong with us that we'll bring the whole house down rather than admit it. That's what the Bible calls sin.
Tim Keller: In fact, in a campaign year, any Christian who understands the doctrine of sin, it's a painful thing to look at, because every philosophy and every political philosophy and every ideology basically says the trouble with the universe is them. You take a look, every single political ideology says the trouble with the universe is them. Hmm? The communists, the underclass, the rich people who don't pay too pay enough taxes, the poor people who don't pay enough taxes, you see. The DWM, the dead white European males. The fascists. What's wrong with the world is the elite. What's wrong with the world is the unions. What's wrong with the world is what's wrong with the universe is them. The Bible says, we will never get over our problems until you realize the doctrine of sin, and the biblical doctrine of sin is the problem with the universe is me.
Tim Keller: I didn't say the problem with the universe is you, because that's not the way the biblical doctrine of sin goes. The biblical doctrine of sin is that all human beings naturally live in utter denial of the depth of their own depravity. All human beings will blame, because of their sin, they and because of their self-interest, they will blame the problems of their family, the problems of their community, the problems of their city, and the problems of their country, and the problems of the universe on somebody besides them. And the Bible says the problem of the universe is you. The problem of the universe is me. And until you can say that, there's no freedom. There's no way out until you're willing to look at yourself and admit the worst.
Tim Keller: Therefore, the biblical doctrine of sin, without it, you can't understand what God does in salvation, you can't understand the message of the gospel, you can't understand how the world operates, you can't understand why things are the way they are, you can't understand what's wrong with you, you can't understand why you're miserable. The doctrine of sin.
Tim Keller: Now, we actually, there's three things that the passage tells us about it, and we looked at one of them last week. No recap, just a reminder. The results of sin was the first thing we learned. And the results of is, you were dead in trespasses and sin. The results of sin is spiritual death. And just just a reminder, especially for those of you who weren't here. The Bible doesn't say you're sick in your sins, you're dead in your sins. A physically dead body and a spiritually dead soul have much in common. Sin will kill you physically eventually, but it has killed you already spiritually right now, unless you've received Christ, unless you see, the new birth, the new life that comes through the gospel, assumes that there's no life there.
Tim Keller: You're dead in sins. What does that mean? You're spiritually dead? We said just as a physical body is unable to be is unable to be responsive to stimuli, so a spiritually dead soul is not responsive to spiritual stimuli. When I when I took a church in Virginia, it was not a church like this. There is no church like this. What what is this, anyway? But anyway, there was a it was just a it was a regular church in which people had been born and raised, and their parents in some cases had been born and raised in it. And when you go to a traditional church that's been there for a long time, you'll find that though you'll have, you know, 200 people sitting in the pews, baptized members, some of them are spiritually alive and some of them are spiritually dead. Some of them have born again and some of them haven't.
Tim Keller: It's really, if you go into a regular church and try to just minister, and the church has been there for a long time, you're going to find there's an awful lot of people, some very active, some pillars of the church that are spiritually alive and some are dead. Some of them are born again, some of them are not. Anybody, it's actually very it makes things very complicated, by the way, as some of you know. So, for example, I would find that when as when I was a young minister, and I naively expected everybody who's baptized must be have new life, they can't be dead in their sins. Sometimes I would have a a person who'd go through a terrible, terrible tragedy, and it was there were some awful things that happened because that's the way life goes. And if they were spiritually alive, I would sit down with them and I wouldn't know what to do.
Tim Keller: But sometimes in desperation, I would take out the word of God and I would just read. I remember, for example, one day, there was a a couple whose whose one of one of the children was put in prison. And it was a terrible tragedy for this older couple, whose young child had been put in prison. And I went to see them there in the waiting room. They hadn't even gotten to see their their child yet, but they knew that there'd been incarceration and so on. When we sat down, we didn't know what to do. What to do? And you know, actually, to give pat answers is a bad idea. We all know that in times of crisis. The great thing about the gospel is you can get out the scripture and just start reading it. And the scripture never gives pat answers, never ever ever.
Tim Keller: So we got out and I and I looked and I suddenly alighted upon a verse where Jesus was washing the disciples' feet and they didn't understand what in the world he was doing. And it was John 13 verse 7, and all I said to him, I just read it and said, "Here's a great verse." And Jesus said, "You do not right now understand what I am doing, but later you will understand." And it just went right through us all. You know, just it's almost like the light just sort of stepped out of the page and it went through us like a shaft and suddenly we said, "It's all right."
Tim Keller: Now, you see, the two people there were spiritually alive, they were responsive to spiritual stimuli. They uh they suddenly said, "Yes, that's right, there's Jesus and he's in charge. And why should we understand all these things?" And we can't understand everything, they were spiritually alive. And they were responsive, just like a a physical body, when the light hits, it, you know, you respond to it. When you hear something, you respond to it. A dead body can't respond. Kick it, knock it, put a light on it, you know, put a match under it, nothing.
Tim Keller: And then there were other people who went through those tragedies and they were in my church too and they were right there in the pews and they were baptized and they all that stuff. And I would sit down with them and I would pray for them and I would read scripture to them and they turned to me and they'd say, "Why is God doing this?" And I would sit down and say, "Well, there's wisdom and there's this and he's this and you know, he's done this for us. And you have to remember that we've got this and we are born in in him and we're raised in him and we have adoption and so on." And they would look at me and they'd say, "So what? I don't care. That doesn't help me. It doesn't make sense." And they just went under. And the same truths that would just almost be like ballast that would take other people from the depths who were spiritually alive and bring them on up.
Tim Keller: It's like the same things that would happen would just sink people to the bottom. They just. And I began to realize some people are alive and some people are not. Some people are dead in their sins and some people have new life. Some people are to some people, spiritual truth is thrilling and disturbing and enlivening and and it changes you and to other people it's not there at all. There's numbers of you, I know, and this is the this is one of the great things about this church, dozens of you, scores of you that can remember when you heard the same stuff you're hearing here and it meant nothing to you. And now it gives you the ability to get through the week. Now it lifts you up. Now it goes through you like a shaft. These truths, these doctrines, they're not abstractions anymore. What happened?
Tim Keller: I appreciate sometimes the compliments you give me about the communication and about the greatness of Redeemer. But the fact is, you're alive. And before you were dead. You see? That's the difference. It's it, you know, the the guitars are great, but you were alive now and you were dead before. Sure you enjoy the music and sure you like it, but you were alive now and you were dead. You see, sin kills you. And not only just like a physical body, you're you're you're spiritually unable to respond to stimuli, so also just like a spiritual body like a physically dead body. A physically dead body is decaying and it's it's not growing. Growth means things come together. Growth means things get more complex. Growth means things get more and more whole. Growth means things get bigger. Decay means things fall apart. Decay means things get simpler. Not more complex. Decay means things get break into their constituent parts rather than come together more. Dead bodies decay, live bodies grow.
Tim Keller: That's the reason why sin keeps you from being able to grow in humility, grow in bravery, grow in courage. But when you have new life in you, there is the ability to seek God, there's the ability to do things for him, there's the ability to become like him. So sin kills you. And it's easy as anything to see the difference between somebody who's spiritually alive and spiritually dead. The results of sin, death.
Tim Keller: The second thing we learn in the passage is the origin of sin. Where does it come from? Where does it come from? And the answer is, you're born with it. It comes from your inborn nature. This text says, twice actually, look verse 3, "All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts." But then, just to make sure you don't misunderstand what he's saying, "Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." Very strong statement, and here's what Paul's saying. You're born with disobedient with a disobedient with a sinful nature. You're a sinner by nature. You don't learn to sin. Nobody has to teach you. Nobody has to sit down and say, "Well, now here's how to do it." You're by nature a sinner. You have a sinful nature.
Tim Keller: Now, that's not a popular view. Back in the fourth and fifth century, he lived between the fourth and fifth century, there was a British monk who began to teach opposite what I just told you. His name was Pelagius. Pelagius. Today, there are millions and millions of people who are Pelagians and have never heard of him. But this is what he taught. He said, "When a child is born, we do not get a sinful nature from our parents, we only get, we don't get a bad nature, we get bad examples, we get bad models. Oh no, a child is not wicked because he or she is born wicked. A child is wicked because he or she learns to be wicked. You're born with a very neutral, you're born with a a good or neutral nature, and the reason that we sin and become sinners is simply because we learn it from our parents." Therefore, he said, "Sin is sins are particular deliberate actions of the will. And if we put our will to it, we can live very, very good lives, and we can move in that direction."
Tim Keller: Now, Pelagius lived at the same time as another great theologian named Augustine. And Augustine developed a case against Pelagius and eventually ran Pelagius out of the church because Augustine showed that Pelagius's view not only ran contrary to scripture, but to common sense. And yet, though he ran it out and Pelagianism was branded forever a heresy inside the church. Today, in the United States, there's an extremely small number of people that have an Augustinian view of sin, though it's the biblical one, though it's the Pauline view. And there are tons and tons of people that have the Pelagian view. So Pelagius, you know, in some ways, maybe hopefully is in heaven and probably not having the last laugh because he realizes he's wrong now.
Tim Keller: Pelagius's view and August and Augustine, Augustine's views clashed. And Augustine won because there because he was able to go to the scripture and to common sense and to make the case this way. He goes to the Bible. And in the Bible, you've got statements by Jesus, especially by Jesus. There's a place, for example, in Mark chapter 7, where he says, "It's not what comes into a man that defiles him, it's what comes out of the man that defiles him." "Out of the heart comes all sorts of wickedness." Now that's a pretty strong statement. Jesus is right there saying, "Here's a little child. Why is that child a sinner? A child does not become a sinner because of the models and the examples that come in."
Tim Keller: No, a child is a sinner because the sin comes out of the heart. What Jesus is saying there is sins are just outward and external expressions, eruptions of a nature we've already got. Whenever Jesus would come up against a Pelagian or a semi-Pelagian, he knew just how to wipe out his argument. The rich young ruler was a Pelagian. Jesus sits down with the the rich young ruler comes and says, "Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus says, "Well, obey the commandments. You know, don't uh don't steal, uh love the Lord God, don't covet, you know, don't lie." And what is the what is the young rich young ruler say? "Master, I've I've kept all these commandments all my life." That's a Pelagian view of sin. His understanding of sin is a superficial one. His understanding of sin is an external one. He sees sins basically as, "Here's a bunch of rules that God's given me, and the and what is sin is when I break the rules, but actually I haven't been breaking the rules very much."
Tim Keller: What does Jesus come along and say? Jesus says, "Oh, well, there's only one thing you lack. If you've obeyed all 10 commandments, fine. Here's the one thing you lack. Sell everything you have. Give it all away to the poor, and follow me." Now, a lot of people have been puzzled by that because there's no place in the Bible where it says you have to do that. No place except there. A lot of people have been very troubled by that verse because where else does it say that? In fact, there's all sorts of places that it could say that and it doesn't. Where does it say that every Christian needs to give away all of his or her money away to the poor and follow Jesus? Where does it say that? It doesn't. Some of you went, You know, you're all really scared. It doesn't. What was Jesus trying to say? Here's what he's trying to say.
Tim Keller: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and all your strength. Why does God allow suffering in the world? How can one religion be right and the others wrong? Hasn't science basically disproved Christianity? Tim 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, or whether you're reading it with a friend who's searching for answers. When you give to Gospel and 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/give. That's GospelinLife.com/give. 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.
Tim Keller: Look and see what Jesus really teaches us we've got to be like. It's appalling, it's searching. When he says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind," that means love God with 100% of your heart and 100% of your mind and 100% of your motives, 100% of the time. Love him. There's a place where Jesus says, "Love him so much that you're always content." Love him so much that you're so grateful for what he is and you love him so much and admire his wisdom so much that no matter what he sends into your life, you're never ungrateful, you're never upset, you're never angry. Love him so much that you love your neighbor as yourself. That means that you should meet the needs of your neighbor with all of the with all of the the swiftness, with all of the alacrity, and with all of the eagerness, and with all of the energy, with which you meet your own needs.
Tim Keller: When you read what Jesus really wants from us, he tells us he wants loving hearts and he defines love in unbelievable ways. You know, the place in Luke 17, in Luke 14, where he says, "If you really love your neighbor as yourself, you wouldn't invite people into your home who can invite you into their home. You'd only invite the poor and the needy. You'd only invite the homeless in." He says, "Never give a banquet and invite people who can invite you back. Always invite the poor and the needy." He says, "Never love your neighbor as yourself." He says, "Don't only not hate people, but love people perfectly and never have a grudge. He says, "Don't only not envy people, but be unbelievably generous and give your money away all over the place. And when somebody asks for something, give him two. And when somebody asks for this much, give him double that."
Tim Keller: And whenever you read what Jesus says about the kind of love we ought to have and the kind of generosity we ought to have and the kind of unselfishness we ought to have, nobody, no matter what you believe about Jesus or Christianity, nobody can read what he's saying and fail to admit, "This is what people should be like. This is what society should be like. This is what I should be like." And as soon as you admire his teaching, you're immediately cut down because he doesn't just give you little rules. He doesn't just say, "Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal." What he shows you is the kind of motives you ought to have and the kind of nature you ought to have. And you immediately know you don't have that kind of nature at all.
Tim Keller: And so when he says to the rich young ruler, "Sell everything and give to the poor," what he means is, "If you love me, no matter what I would bring into your life, you should eagerly and happily do it. You should be so aware of my wisdom that you would immediately say, 'Hey, you created the universe, I didn't. So you must know what you're doing here. Take the money.'" It's preposterous for us to be angry at God when he lets things like this happen. And yet we are, why? Because our very natures are we love ourselves with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. And when you actually see what Jesus actually teaches in the Bible, you immediately realize that you have a nature that moves away, you have a habitual way of thinking that moves in another direction.
Tim Keller: I say this to you, you cannot actually be a Christian, and you cannot have even seen who Jesus Christ is, and you haven't even begun to grasp his teaching, if you only believe that you are guilty of sins. If you really understand what his teaching is, if you really have seen what he demands of you, if you've really seen the glorious nature of his ethical standard, you immediately feel, "I don't just break the rules. My very nature is sinful. My very nature is depraved. My very nature is makes it impossible for me to do this."
Tim Keller: You see, Pelagius was wrong, Augustine was right. Jesus continually demands, "If you want to come to me, it's not enough just to see that you have a bad record. You've also got to see that you have a bad nature." It's not good enough for you to see that you've just flubbed up and you've made some mistakes, and all you need is a small improvement course. If you understand what he's teaching here, what Jesus is teaching, what Paul is teaching, you will see the radical necessity of the new birth. I have plenty of people who say, "Hey, I believe in being religious, but all this stuff about conversion and and being born again, that's too strong for me." If you think it's too strong for you, you have never seen what Jesus is trying to get across. You think that you've got a bad record, you think you've made mistakes, but you don't see that you've got a bad nature, that you're by nature sinful.
Tim Keller: That you've got a self-centered and a self-interested nature that is so far removed from what Jesus says should be the generous and loving nature that a human being ought to have. That it's impossible for you to change yourself or be improved unless there's been a a radical renovation of your nature through the new birth. What is the origin of sin? A sinful nature that you're born with.
Tim Keller: Now, lastly, we've seen the results of sin, which is death. We've seen the origin of sin, and that is that you've got a nature you're born with, you've got a you've got a very disposition toward sin, toward self-centeredness, therefore, toward violence, toward selfishness, toward lust, toward envy, toward jealousy, toward ego, and all those things. It's not just a few violations that you've done, but you've got a whole disposition of life. And you really can't really you've never really seen what Jesus says, you've never really admired him as a teacher unless you're convicted that you also have a sinful nature.
Tim Keller: The last thing we're taught here is the operation of sin. How does it work? How does how does it operate? And he tells us in one remarkable little phrase that I want to analyze for our concluding section of our teaching tonight. This is how sin works. The result is death, the origin is the sinful nature, but it says here verse 3, "gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts." "Gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and satisfying its desires and thoughts." All right.
Tim Keller: The word sinful nature is the word flesh. It's the Greek word sarx flesh. If you've got another translation, it'll say, "We gratify the cravings of our sinful nature and followed its desires and thoughts." Now listen, the trouble, one of the great tragedies in the history of the Christian church is a misunderstanding of this word flesh. Jesus says, I mean, Paul says in Galatians 5, "The flesh wars against the spirit. Your flesh wants you to do this and your spirit wants you to do this." And the flesh wars against the spirit. And the works of the flesh were told saying in Galatians 5:17 and down there, it says, "The works of the flesh are obvious: impurity and debauchery and idolatry and witchcraft and hatred and discord and jealousy and fits of rage, selfish ambition, sexual immorality, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like." But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Tim Keller: Now, over the years, there's been a terrible misunderstanding of what Paul means when he talks about the flesh versus the spirit. In Romans 8, he says, "You must kill the deeds of the flesh if you want to live." And unfortunately, sometimes the Greek word sarx means body. But unfortunately, one of the tragedies in the history of the church is many people have believed that when Paul talked about the flesh versus the spirit, he was talking about the body versus your soul. And as a result, many, many people have seen when Paul says, "You've got to put to death the flesh, that the flesh is the source of the evil, and the flesh is the source of sin." That people have believed over the years that the body's bad. And what it means to be a Christian is to pummel the body. What it means to be a Christian is to put down the body. What it means to be a Christian is to not allow the body any kind of satisfaction. And as a result, bodily sins, in both evangelical and Catholic churches, who have been very dominated by this misunderstanding, that when Paul talks about the wicked evil flesh, that he's talking about the body somehow. In both, even if you've been raised in evangelical churches or Catholic churches, you have a tendency to have a kind of hierarchy of sins. Sins that have to do with the body, sexual immorality is much worse than gossip. Drunkenness is much worse than pride or racism, right? See, sins that have to do with the body, we throw those people out, we gossip about them, we talk about them.
Tim Keller: Sins that have to do with uh with with, you know, pride and envy and racism and gossip and backbiting and those sorts of things. Well, nobody's perfect. The fact of the matter is that the word flesh, what Paul means here and elsewhere, the flesh is not the body. The flesh is the bent of the entire person to be God, to want to be God instead of be under God. The flesh is the aspect of your heart, the sinful aspect of your whole self that wants to live a life independent of God, that wants to be your own God and your own king and your own savior. Every part of you, body and soul, has a flesh side. And until you become a Christian, then you have both the flesh and you have the spirit. The flesh is not the body. It's that whole part of your life, that whole aspect or bent of the whole being that wants to be your own God and your own king and your own um your own savior.
Tim Keller: And as a result of that, people people don't seem to realize that the flesh actually operates in this way. The flesh is any effort to be your own king and to and to center on yourself and to live a life of independence from God. On the way home from a this week on a we had spent some uh plan a planning day with the staff and I was telling some people about this. I I'll never forget talking to a woman, a very prim, older lady, who sometimes came to church, but wasn't very religious. This was in Virginia. And I sat down and tried to explain the gospel to her one night because I visited her. Now, here's a woman who who would look at you really nasty if you uh used an off what she called off-cutter language. I mean, she was prim, she was traditional, she was decent, uh she was uh very moral.
Tim Keller: And at one point, she looked at me and she said, "Let me get this straight. You're telling me that if I live a really good, decent life, and even come to church, but if I never receive Christ as my savior, if I never admit that I'm a terrible sinner and that I can only be saved through Christ. If if I just live a decent life, a moral life, work real hard all my life, but I never receive Christ as savior, and I die, I'm lost." "And then here's an ax murderer, somebody who's killed a hundred people." "And five minutes before he's about to die, he suddenly sees the light and he receives Christ as Lord and savior and he goes to heaven and I don't. Is that what you're saying?" I said, "Yeah." And she said, "You know, that's the stupidest religion I've ever heard of."
Tim Keller: And though I was a little more gentle in the way I said this, what I came back on and said, "Well, maybe you think it's the stupidest religion that you've ever heard of, but that ax murderer, it's the greatest thing he's ever heard of. The ax murderer says, 'I can't believe that there's a religion that holds out hope for somebody like me.'" Now here, listen, do you understand that that very prim little lady, little older lady, that very moral older lady, who was absolutely sure that she was better than most people, she was more decent than most people, that she was more moral than most people, that she thought that the whole idea of the Christian gospel was insulting and stupid, that she was in the grips of the lust of the flesh. That's what the flesh is. It's the it's the flesh is the desire to live a life independent of God. And if you when you think of the lust of the flesh, what do you think of? Do you think of Times Square? Or do you think of her? And if you think of Times Square, you are actually under this terrible mistaken idea that the flesh is the body, not. The flesh is the bent of the whole person to be your own God, your own king, and your own savior. It's the thing that makes people self-righteous.
Tim Keller: Look, here in in Philippians, there's a great place where Paul says, "If anyone else thinks he has a reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. I'm of the people of Israel, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, in regard to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal persecuting the church, as for righteousness, I was faultless." What is he saying? He's saying, "I I had complete confidence in the flesh, I was in the flesh." As long as I thought that my righteousness could save me. Now, Paul goes one step further and gives us an unbelievably great psychology of how the flesh operates. He says, "We gratify the cravings of the flesh, the cravings of the flesh following its desires." The word craving, now that's what it says in my New International Version. I don't know what you've got, but there's the word there for for for craving is a Greek word thelema, which means the commands of the flesh. And this is the insight, and this is what I hope you're going to remember as we leave.
Tim Keller: The work of the flesh is to take a good desire, a normal thing, a normal desire and turn it into a bondage. Because the work of the flesh is to take good things and make you center your life on them so they become your life. And turn good things into strategies for life independent of God. Look, what are some of the desires that a person has? Let me give you six. Three that are almost so basic that even animals have them, and three that are very basic to humans. You have a desire for food. There's nothing wrong with that. God invented food, and and food is a good thing. You have a desire for for recreation and relaxation and comfort. You have sexual desire, and even animals have those three things. They need food, they you know, there's there's the there's the the uh uh the nutritional need. There's the need for leisure and comfort and there's sexual needs. But then let's go beyond that. There's also a desire to be useful, to be competent, to feel like you can do something that's useful. It feels good to be able to know that people will pay you for what you can do because you've got a skill, you're competent.
Tim Keller: Fourth, that's fourth. Fifthly, there's the desire for love and affection. Sixthly, there is a desire for power, which isn't bad. Desire to not have to always ask people for everything, not to be dependent, to be able to have some mastery and some control over yourself and over your environment. Those three things that I just said, the desire for competence, the desire for love and affection, and the desire for power are things that God gave us. They're all in Genesis 1:2. God put you in the, he says, "Put Adam down and says, 'I want you to be a gardener, I want you to cultivate the earth.'" And so we want to work, we need to work, we need to feel useful and competent. Secondly, he said, "It's not good for man to be alone. Here's Eve." He gave us the desire for love. And fourth and then lastly, he put us in the in the world to have dominion, he says. To be in charge of the world, to have dominion. But let me tell you, all those six things, food and sex and comfort and leisure, desire to be competent, love and affection, power and control, under the influence of the flesh, those good things become things that drive you and command you, thelemata.
Tim Keller: There is nothing wrong with eating, but you can live to eat. And what the flesh will do is take eating and give turn it into a strategy for life independent of God. What is an eating disorder? I console myself, I control my life through eating. What's wrong with eating? Nothing. But it becomes an inordinate desire under the influence of the flesh. What about sex? Some of you know the whip of that. Some of you know the. See, we satisfy the commands of the flesh because the flesh takes good desires and puts them in the center and makes this instead of Jesus your life. And so sex becomes a strategy for life independent of God. And you can get so caught up in it and you can get so hooked on it. Leisure and comfort. What's wrong with that? And yet some people get absolutely addicted to what? To their hobbies, to leisure, to pleasure, to comfort. The amount of money they spend on it. They have to have it. Work becomes something you've got to do, you've got to be competent, so you work yourself into the ground. Love and affection, you've got to be loved, you've got to be accepted, you've got to have affection. Power, you've got to control things. You've got to be in charge of things. You've got to argue with everybody and win every argument. You've got to gossip so you can feel superior. The fact is, the Bible says that you will never understand yourself unless you understand what your characteristic flesh is.
Tim Keller: One of the most one of the worst things about many Christians is that when they think of the flesh, they only think, "I lie, I steal, I commit adultery, I worry." These are sins. So they sit down and they say, "Lord, I repent. I'm so sorry that I lied, I'm so sorry that I worried." But why did you lie? Why did you worry? You see, the flesh, your characteristic flesh is some way in which your sin nature has taken a good thing and turned it into a strategy for way for life without God. The sinful flesh takes good things and turns centers on these things, makes them your life. The flesh takes these things and says, "If you have this then you won't need to depend on God. You can save yourself." And so they become things you've got to have. You quarrel over them. You die if you think you're not going to have them. And if you understand yourself, you have to understand your characteristic flesh.
Tim Keller: Extremely important. Otherwise, if you don't understand the the way the flesh works under the surface, you're going to put yourself against the like a Pelagian, the external superficial actions of the will, and you're going to miss the underlying roots. I remember a guy who had a real the his flesh made him need to have power, and he was under the commands of the flesh, a desire had turned into an inordinate desire. Before he became a Christian, he this need for power showed up in the fact that he was abusive to women. He would seduce them and immediately drop them as soon as he knew that he had them. As soon as he knew he'd conquered them, he dropped them. I mean, he was a wicked guy. And he was a licentious guy, and he was an immoral guy, and he became a Christian. He immediately realized, "Oh, thou shalt not commit adultery," so he stopped doing that. He came on into the church, and he needed to be in charge of every group he was in. And he came into the church, and he needed to dominate every conversation. And he worked his way right up the ladder in the church. Why? Because his flesh took on a religious form.
Tim Keller: He he repented of his sexual indiscretions, but he just had put his elbow and his shoulder against the most superficial aspect of it, and he didn't understand how the flesh operates. It makes you gratify the desires. It's commands. It turns good desires into bondages. It turns good things into pseudo-salvations. Do you see how critical it is to understand the depth of your sin? Let me conclude this way. There are people here who I if you don't know whether you're born again, you don't know what you think about Christianity, you're not sure why you're here, somebody brought you here, or maybe you're you're kind of intrigued, but you really don't know where you stand, and you don't know what you think about Christ yet. Listen to me. I urge you to see that your problems are deeper than you think. I urge you to see that your sin is deeper than you think, that your flaws are deeper than you think. That your problem is not just that you've made some mistakes, but there's a whole orientation of your life that resists the whole idea of God. And you're in bondage in some way that you still are not sure of, you still cannot perceive. You're blinded by your own sin.
Tim Keller: There are things that are too important to you and that actually have you by the throat, they're commanding you, thelemata. Don't you see that your problems are much deeper than you think? You need to be born again. And if you don't know what that means, then you need to start looking at it, you need to start reflecting on it. You need a radical renovation of the heart. And Christians, you may be alive in Christ. And yet, if you notice here, your aliveness will not your aliveness in your life will only happen to the degree that you can spot the remaining deadness. You are going to that young man that I won't, you know, it's not somebody here. That man I told you about that had an undelt with power idolatry in his life. His characteristic flesh was still dominating him. He had repented of his sexual indiscretions, he repented of lies, he repents of things like that, but he doesn't see what's really going on in his life. There's not a lot of spiritual life there until he can identify and name and repent of the sin beneath the sin.
Tim Keller: Yes, he lied, yes, he seduced women, but why? Because Jesus' salvation wasn't enough. 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, when Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.