Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Alive With Christ

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

Christians talk about being saved. But what does it mean to be saved? Whatever we say we think it means, we should be meaning what’s said here in Ephesians 2. This is one of the richest passages in all the Bible word for word on what it means to be saved. And it says twice that we’re saved through faith. Notice it easily breaks into three parts: 1) the life we’re saved from, 2) the life we’re saved for, and 3) how we get from here to there. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 30, 2011. Series: A Study of Ephesians: Who is the Church? Scripture: Ephesians 2:1–10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. When we look at the Christian church today, it's easy to see that there is polarization and disagreement between various groups and denominations. Yet, as Christians, we know the Bible calls us to unity. How can the Gospel bring us together? Join us as Tim Keller preaches through the book of Ephesians, which is all about the church and how Christians can experience deep unity across divisive issues. Tonight's scripture comes from the book of Ephesians, Chapter two, verses one through ten. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and 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 you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves,

it is the gift of God, not by work 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 the word of the Lord So we're continuing to look at this great letter of Paul the Ephesians Which is as we're going to see as time goes on, it's all about the church. Who the church is, what the church is. In particular today though, we have this passage,

which is one of the richest passages in all the Bible, word for word, on what it means to be saved. You notice how a couple times it comes up? It says we're saved through faith. We're saved twice. And Christians talk about being saved. What does it mean to be saved? Well, whatever we're supposed to mean,

whatever we say we think it means, we should be meaning what's in here. This is a rich passage on what it means to be saved. And notice it easily breaks into three parts. Verses one to three talks about the life we're saved from. Verses eight to 10 at the bottom, those three verses, tell us about the life we're saved for. And in the middle, verses four to seven, tells us how we get from there to here.

Or maybe we should say from here to there. Tells us what we're saved through, how we're brought from the kind of life we live in, verses one to three, to the kind of life that's described in verse eight to 10. Let's actually look at it like that. Let's first of all see what we're saved from, that's the beginning, then secondly,

what we're saved to, what we're saved to, that's the end, and then how we're saved and what we're saved through, verses four to seven. So first, the first three verses is a comprehensive picture of who human beings are, the human condition, outside of God. And it says, very famously, we're dead in trespasses and sins.

And what does that mean? What does it mean to be sinful? And the answer is, it means first of all, to be enslaved. Because you notice two times the word followed shows up. It says, in verse two, you followed the ways of this world and the ruler times the word followed shows up. It says in verse two, you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Down in verse three it says you follow the desires of our sinful nature. The word follow in English is really weak sounding. It doesn't really get across the strength of the Greek word

there and the Greek word is to be mastered, to be controlled by something. So if you are in sin, the reason it says we're dead in trespasses and sin, that we're as helpless as a dead body. We cannot exert ourselves. We are completely controlled, we are completely mastered. We're completely enslaved. Well, to what? And there are three agents there. First of all, we're enslaved

to the ways of this world. Literally it says to the spirit of the age. And then it says we're also enslaved to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, that's the devil. And oh, if we had time it would be interesting to go down into these terms and say what does the Bible mean by being, what does it mean by this spirit of the age? What does it mean to be worldly? What does it mean to be in bondage to the devil? As interesting as they are, we're not gonna go there because the key idea, the key thought behind what it means to be enslaved in sin

is in verse three where it says, we are gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature following its desires and thoughts. The word sinful nature, it translates the Greek word sarx, S-A-R-X. And sarx means the flesh. In this context, however, the flesh does not mean your body, your physical body. It refers to self-centered human nature. to self-centered human nature. Your self-centered human nature. And that is the thing that drives you.

That's the thing that masters you. That's the thing that controls you. And if you say, well, I'd love to hear more about the devil. Well, okay, except what made the devil a devil? 1 Timothy 3, Paul almost offhandedly says, don't let that person become conceited. And then he says, for then he will fall under the same judgment as the devil.

To be conceited, what made the devil a devil? Pride, conceit, self-centeredness. And therefore, as interesting it would be to talk about the devil as opposed to the sin inside your heart, it's basically the same problem. According to the Bible, the reason we're dead in trespasses and sin, the reason that we're slaves to sin is because the human heart is profoundly

self-centered. Martin Luther put it perfectly. Martin Luther in one of the most profound and brief definitions of sin, in his lectures on the Romans, said the human heart is incurvitus in se, curved in on itself. Self-centered, looking inside, centered, absorbed on itself.

That's what it means to be a human being apart from God. And he puts it in this one sentence, listen, quote, our nature is so deeply curved in on itself that it wickedly, curvidly, and viciously seeks to use all things, even God, for its own sake. That's sin. You're so curved in on yourself, you're so self-centered and so self-justifying,

so self-absorbed, that the human heart, wickedly, curvidly, and viciously, seeks to use all things, even God, for its own sake. The sinful heart uses everything, serves nothing, uses everything to serve you. You use things, even God, to serve you. You use things, even God to serve you, everything centers around you. What's that mean?

All right, think of it like this. To be a sinner, according to the Bible, is to have a little computer in the very center of your heart, and it never stops. It goes on and on, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and you know what it's doing? It's analyzing. It's analyzing.

It's analyzing everything. It's viewing everything. It's seeing everything, every person, every object, every interchange, every event, every setting, everything. And it's basically saying, what's in it for me? Everything is being analyzed with regard to how it benefits your happiness, your glory, your power, your reputation, your comfort, your control of things. Everything is dealt with only to the degree,

everything is analyzed completely in terms of that. How does it help me? How does it fit my interests? How does it make me happy? Everything is looked at like that. That's self-centeredness. Now self-centeredness can make you a cruel person. And if you take a look at the great tyrants of history, the genocidal maniacs, the great dictators and tyrannical kings who slaughtered thousands and millions of people, yes, we say they were self-centered.

Very self-absorbed and self-centered and proud and egotistical and conceited, yes. But more often, self-centeredness makes you incredibly moral. Because if you have a ravenous ego, if you need so desperately to feel good about yourself, if everything's about you, there's no better way to feel good about yourself. There's no better way to put people in your debt.

There's no better way to get control over other people. There's no better way to feel good about yourself than to be a good person. There's no better way than to be moral. And self-centeredness drives most people into being incredibly good, trying really hard. Oh yeah, what you're doing is you're serving the needy and you're being a good child to your parents

and you're being a good parent to your children, you're being a good friend and you're helping people. But, as Luther said, you're doing it all for you. You're not doing it for their sake. Oh, you're helping people, but you're not helping them for their sake. You're helping them for your sake. So that you can feel like you've got a meaningful life,

so that you can feel like you're a good person. So that you, see? You're being very good, but it's all about you. You're working very hard, but the work is all about you, so you can feel you've made a name for yourself. You remember how in the first Rocky movie, he's talking to Adrienne, and she's trying to say, why do you want to do this fight?

You know you can't win, you can't beat. Remember he's got this match with the champion of the world? It's basically a spectacle, a show, a Fourth of July thing, and why did you do it? You know you can't win. And he said, I just want to go the distance, then I'll know I'm not a bum. Okay? Then I'll know I'm not a bum.

Down deep inside, all of us feel like we're bums. And we're doing something out there to try to convince the world and ourselves we're not and therefore everything is about trying to deal with that. So not only by the way does the self-centeredness make you a good person, it can make you a very religious person. Remember what Luther said? What Luther says what we do is we get very many times self-centeredness drives us to be incredibly religious and to love people. I love God and you know to give ourselves to God and obey and come to sermons and take notes on the sermons, that's okay if you're doing that, and pray and obey the Ten Commandments and go to church all the time. But you're doing it all for you and

how do you know when you're doing it all for you? See, remember what Luther said? The sinful human heart seeks to use all things, even God, for its own sake. When things don't go well in your life, when God's not answering your prayer, you get out. Why? I've lived so well and I've tried so hard, I've done so many things, and why isn't God coming through? It was all for you then.

You had not gotten into Christianity to serve God. You had actually gotten into Christianity to have God serve you. That's the only reason why your obedience and your practice is so conditional. All right? And therefore self-centeredness, self-centeredness just clings to everything.

And that's how we're gonna end this particular point. And by the way, it makes you miserable. Oh, it does. And by the way, look at the terms. Let me just say one last thing as we leave. It says the cravings of our sinful nature, the following is desire. See verse three, cravings is a word epithumia,

which means inordinate desire and addicted, almost an addiction. There's nothing more addictive than the ego. You know, the whole, if you're addicted to drugs, you need more and more and more to get a high and you're just addicted. If you're addicted to ego, if you're living for yourself, if you're living for your own glory, you're doing everything, you're trying to get compliments, you're trying to get acclaim, you're trying to get popular, you're trying

to get whatever, but it's never enough and you always need more and more and more and you never feel like it's enough. So you're driven. And it says, like the rest, we are by nature objects of wrath. CSO has written about the fact that self-centered, there's nothing the fact that self-centeredness, there's nothing more miserable than self-centeredness, there's nothing more enslaving than self-centeredness. And what self-centeredness is actually hell, it's so miserable and agonizing, it's hell begun in you that will eventually take you to hell. Why? Because, remember, what made the devil the devil?

What put him in hell? Conceit, self-centeredness, and therefore, it's conceit and self-centeredness, and self-absorption, always thinking about you and how does it make you look and how are you feeling and how are people treating you? And is it all, are you being treated fairly? There's nothing that will make you more miserable than that.

It's hell begun in you and eventually will take you to hell because it'll take you toward the person you're becoming like, which is Satan. C.S. Lewis, for example, at one place wrote this. He says, I'm thinking of the mark which any selfish action leaves on that tiny central self which no one sees, but which each of us will have to endure or enjoy forever. One man may be so placed in his life that his anger sheds the blood of thousands, while another is placed so that however angry he gets he will only be laughed at. But the little mark on the soul is much more the same in both. Each has done something to himself unless he repents will make the rage worse each time each is in the long run doomed Each person is is dumped doomed if he will not repent see what he says every time look whenever you get into Any situation there's two ways you can operate out of a framework of your life for me out of a framework of your life for me, your life to enhance me, your life to build up me,

your life to me, or you can operate out of the framework my life for you. You can either say I'm here because I'm trying to see how this situation and you can serve my interests, or you can say I'm here because I'm trying to find out how I can serve yours. And every time you say, your life for me, you put a little mark on the soul,

you make yourself a little more self-centered, a little more proud, a little more self-righteous, a little more angry when things aren't treating you right. It's a little harder for you to control because more and more you're a slave to ego and bit by bit by bit you become miserable, it's hell starting in you, and eventually it takes you there.

Or you can go not toward becoming like the devil, but becoming like the Lord, saying, no, my life for yours, let me serve you. And the more that happens, the more free you are. So the first thing is that's the life we're supposed to be saved from. Now secondly, let's go to the end of the passage and it talks briefly. It doesn't give us a lot of details, but it gives us suggestions about the kind of life

that God wants to save you for, save you into. The kind of life he wants to give you through his salvation. And what is it? Well, there's a couple of fascinating terms here. One of them is, and maybe you think you know what it means by this, it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourself, it's the gift of God. This is saying, you are not saved by how good you are,

how moral you are, you're not saved because of your pedigree, you're not saved because of anything you do. God's salvation is a gift, and once you get this salvation, you ought to see everything in life as a gift. Even faith, look it, it says even your faith, which is a good thing, even that's a gift. It's not something you brought up, it's something God gives you.

And so, the kind of life God wants you to live is a life in which you see everything as a gift. You see everything you've got as a gift. Not, I've worked so hard for that, you know, and I'm not, or I deserve more. No, everything's a gift. It's easy to assume that if we understand the gospel and preach it faithfully, we will be shaped by it. But this is not always true. How can we make sure that our lives, churches, and

ministries are being shaped by, centered on, and empowered with the gospel? Tim Keller's book, Shaped by the Gospel, is meant to help congregants, lay leaders, and pastors understand how to make the gospel the center of all ministry. In Shaped by the Gospel, Dr. Keller shows how gospel-centered ministry is more theologically driven than program-driven. As you read, you'll discover how reflecting on the essence, the truths, and the patterns of the gospel lead to renewal in your churches and ministries. This month when you give to Gospel in Life, we'll send you Dr. Keller's book, Shaped

by the Gospel, as our thanks for your gift. Just visit gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. And thank you for your generosity, which helps us reach more people with Christ's love. You don't deserve it, but there it is. And you're living by faith. And the word faith in the Bible does not just mean intellectual belief. It means no less than that, but it's something more. Faith means trust, means resting. So you're a person at rest. There's a peace about you.

You see everything as a gift. And it says, so that no one may boast. And here's where I want to drill down a bit, as they say. Paul says, the reason why you can experience a life of faith, a life of rest, a life of grace, is because you do not boast anymore. Once you've been saved, you're no more boasting. Paul actually says this a lot.

In Romans he says, he says, we're saved by grace so no one will boast. What's that mean? Now when you and I hear the word boast, you're thinking of what? Bragging. But boasting meant something much more profound to ancients. In fact, you can see it if you read Shakespeare,

read Henry V, if you read ancient legends or accounts of great battles in the past, even if it's in the Bible, before a warrior, before the warriors, before soldiers were ready to go into battle, you know how scary it is to run into battle when you know you're better than even chance of never coming back? To run into battle, argh!

What's gonna get the soldiers ready to face almost certain death and run in charging the night before or right before, the soldiers would boast, they would boast. And what do you mean by boast? They would say things like this, because they would boast and the boast would be this, they'd say we

Have iron chariots, and they don't huh see that's a boast We have ten thousand soldiers don't we have five thousand yeah, that's right. That's good We have the greatest of warrior king. He has the longest sword. He has the greatest the longest spear yeah, okay? What are they doing? You can see it in the old accounts. They're boasting. What is boasting? Boasting is giving yourself the confidence

to face something really hard. Boasting is what gives you the confidence, say we can do it. Now why would Paul say that the great thing about the Christian life is it ends boasting. It's the end of boasting. Why? What is he talking about? We're not warriors. No. He's taking an idea and he's applying it. And here's what he's really saying. Everybody boasts. It says in Jeremiah 9, let not the mighty man glory or boast in his might. Let not the wise man

glory in his wisdom. Let not the rich man glory in his riches. What is he talking about? What is that? Everybody, everybody, life outside of Jesus Christ means this. Every single one of us is looking around for something to boast in, to rest in, to be proud of, to give ourselves confidence to face life. Everybody's trying to find something that gives you a sense of value, of worth, of strength. Everybody's looking for something. You see, when those soldiers were saying,

when the warriors were saying, look at our chariots, look at our numbers, look at our warrior king, they weren't just looking at, they were saying, look at our chariots, look at our numbers, look at our warrior king, they weren't just looking at, they were saying, let's look to them. They were trusting in them. They were boasting in them. They were saying, they were proud of them.

And that gave them the confidence, everybody in this room is doing that with something, you have to. Because we're all like Rocky, remember? And we all down deep feel like maybe we're bums and we've got to do something to prove that we're not. And what Rocky was saying is, I want to spend all of my life being able to say whatever else I've done wrong, I went the distance with the champ.

See, he's looking for a boast. He's looking for an identity factor. He's looking for something that he can rest in, something he can be proud of, something that will really make him feel like I can face life, I can face things. Everybody here is doing that. Some of you are looking to your grades because you're smart. Some of you are looking to your career because, boy, not many people have had the career I've had. Some of you are looking to your salary. Some of you are looking to your career, because boy, not many people have had the career I've had. Some of you are looking to your salary. Some of you are looking to your moral decency.

Some of you are looking to your religiosity. You're looking to something. But it's an exhausting thing. Because everything you're looking to, when you're looking around for things to boast in, you're looking for things you must achieve, you think you must acquire, things you must perform for. And they're hard to get, and many times we fail,

or even if we get them, then later on we feel like we're failing. We never feel like we're good enough. A life looking for things to boast in is a life of scrambling for identity, scrambling for self-worth and self-esteem, scrambling for identity, scrambling for self-worth and self-esteem, scrambling to perform. And it's exhausting. It's absolutely exhausting.

What would a life be like without it? What would a life of faith, what would a life of grace, what would a life without boasting look like? Well, let me just give you four marks of a scrambling, boasting, restless life, and therefore four marks of a restful, grace-filled, grace-based Christian life. One is anger versus, how do I say it? Anger versus contentment.

Do you believe that everything you've got is a gift? See? Do you believe that everything you've got is a gift? More than you deserve? Then that means no matter how life goes, you say, well, Lord, you know what's best and I don't deserve as much as I got, and here it is, you're always content.

But that's not how, oh boy, that's not how you are. If deep down inside, you are actually looking for something to boast in. You're looking for something to boast in. You're looking for something to rest in. You're trying to earn this for your salvation. You're trying to earn your sense of confidence. Oh no.

Instead, you're always working, you're working very hard, and when your life doesn't go well, when circumstances don't go well, you get mad at life or you get mad at God, and therefore there's always an undercurrent of anger, not contentment. You're always angry. You're always grumpy. Life's never really treated you right. Life's never been fair because you deserve so much because you have worked so hard and you have done so much. Do you have a life of absolute contentment or do you find yourself always chafing, always grumpy and angry?

A second mark of this life, both the good and the bad, is the area of disdain versus acceptance. People who, listen, it's okay to be glad that you have worked very, very hard to, in life. You're just a hard worker. In fact, there's many people who actually are just proud of the fact that whatever else, I'm a productive person,

I work really hard. It's okay to be glad about that. But if it's your identity marker, if it's the thing you boast in, if it's the thing you boast in, if it's the thing that really earns for you a confidence to face the world, then you have to despise anybody that you think of as lazy. You just can't stand them.

You're not sympathetic to them. You just look down at them. And therefore, a life of, how do I say, boasting, means a life of looking down your nose at people. People of different cultures, people of different races, people of different politics, people of different religions, people of anything. Earlier this year I read a journalist,

somebody, a reporter wrote an article about Governor Christie, the governor of New Jersey, when he was thinking – well, at least when he seemed to have been a potential presidential candidate. And of course, Governor Christie is overweight. And so what this reporter, what the writer actually said is, you know, Governor Christie, he said, you're always talking about fiscal discipline. How about trying some physical discipline? Eat a salad.

Now whoever that reporter was, I'm almost positive the reporter himself was not overweight. If he had been, how could he have faced his colleagues to write something like that? But what makes it possible to be that cold? What makes it possible to be that disdainful? You can't just be glad that you've kept your weight down. You gotta be proud that you've kept your weight down.

You gotta be proud. I've worked really hard and look at this fat slob over there. Most people are little, I mean generally, most people don't let the disdain out because of course you wanna be thought well of and everybody knows disdainful people are not well regarded and of course that if self-centered person wants to be well regarded But if you walk around just despising people looking at different kinds of people you just hate them

You don't say it out loud people of the other political party people of other classes people of other Nationalities people with particular views people of other religions, you just can't stand them. Look at yourself. You're a miserable person. If you knew you were sinner saved by grace, you would accept people. There wouldn't be that disdain. If you knew you were sinner saved by sheer grace,

you'd be content, there wouldn't be anger. I'll give you one more, just one more, I don't have the time for all of it. If you are sinner saved by grace, you can forgive. If you know you're saved by grace and faith, not by your works, then you can forgive, why? The only way you can keep bitter, keep a grudge, stay angry at somebody, is if you are sure

you are superior to them. See, if somebody has done something to you and you know you do that too, and you know you could do that too, and you know you have done that too, well then it's hard to keep a grudge. But if you look at somebody and say, I would never do anything like that, then you can keep the grudge forever.

And that's the reason why you walk around all the time very bitter, because you're proud. A sinner saved by grace can forgive. A sinner saved by grace can forgive. A sinner saved by grace can accept. A sinner saved by grace can be content. A sinner saved by grace isn't always wrestling at night because somebody snubbed you. A sinner saved by grace isn't always feeling like

I'm not getting my desserts, my rights. Sinner saved by grace isn't always feeling like I'm not getting my desserts, my rights. Sinner saved by grace is not always feeling like I haven't been doing very well lately and I feel bad, I fail, I hate myself. Sinner saved by grace can relax. There's an old hymn that goes like this, lay your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' feet. Stand in him, in him alone, gloriously complete. If you're living a life of faith,

if you're living a life of rest, if you're living a life without any more boasting, you don't need to boast, you got confidence in Jesus. Then you can lay your deadly doing down and stand in him gloriously complete. Now, how do we get from that old life to this life? And the answer's simple, but profound. It says in the middle, look carefully,

God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms. Now we all know that Jesus was raised from the dead and he's seated at the right hand of God, the Father, in the heavenly realms. And ancient people understood that metaphor perfectly.

What does it mean? If you were a conquering hero, if you had conquered on the battlefield ancient people understood that metaphor perfectly. What does it mean? If you were a conquering hero, if you had conquered on the battlefield, and you had achieved glory for your people, then when you came home, back to the capital city, you were given the greatest place of honor possible, which was at the right hand of the throne.

You sat at the right hand of the throne, because you had conquered. It was the place of greatest honor. And so it made sense for ancient people when they saw that Jesus Christ, because of all he accomplished, he was raised from the dead and taken into heaven, and he sits at the right hand of God the Father,

which means the place of honor in the whole universe, the most honorable seat in the universe, and it says here we're seated already there in Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Past tense. We are seated. Now it can't mean we've been raised from the dead. We haven't. At least last I looked. And it can't mean that we're literally there because we're not there. We're here. And it must mean since we're not literally seated there, we're legally seated there. When you believe in Jesus Christ,

all your sins are so hidden, they're so covered, and you are treated as if you'd done everything Jesus Christ had ever done. And now God delights in you and he honors you and he accepts you and he rejoices over you the way he does over his own son. How could that be? There's a little hint right here. rejoices over you the way he does over his own son. How could that be?

There's a little hint right here. When it says this all came in verse seven because of his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. And the word kindness is another English word that doesn't get across the Greek word. The Greek word means not sentiment but action, costly action. It means not just saying I love you,

but putting your money where your mouth is, putting your life where your mouth is, doing something costly. And what did Jesus Christ do? I'll tell you what he did. And now that we put, let's put the whole thing together. The first three verses tell us that the essence of sin is us putting ourselves where only God should be,

at the center of our life, on the throne of our lives. Only God should be there, right? What is sin? It's putting ourselves where God deserves to be. What is salvation? It's God putting himself where we deserve to be, on the cross. And because Jesus Christ went and took our seat

where we deserve, which is the punishment we deserve for all this, and he didn't just take physical death, he took the wrath of God, verse three. He was cut off from his father, and he experienced the agony that we would experience if we were cut off from God from all eternity. I don't even know how that happened,

I don't even, can't even imagine. He experienced all that, why? He went into your seat so that now we sit in his. That's the reason why John Stott put it perfectly years ago. Here is the gospel in a nutshell. Where John Stott said, the essence of sin is us substituting ourselves for God,

while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. We put ourselves where only God deserves to be, God puts himself where we deserve to be. And so how does that work? Here's how it works. Do you want to finally be blasted out of your own self-centeredness? How did Jesus Christ die save you? He saved you through the absolute opposite. He saved you through the absolute opposite. He saved you through the most radically unselfcentered thing anyone's ever done. Though he was equal with the Father,

he emptied himself of his glory and he came down and took the place of a servant. He said, my life for yours. And when you see him doing that, when you know he's done that, that's going to finally say that I don't need to be self-centered because I'm filled. I'm seated. I'm seated there. I've got all the honor I could possibly want. Now how does it work? Here's how it works.

There is one boast that will stop all boasting. Do you know that? There is one boast that will stop you scrambling through life trying to figure out a way to have confidence in yourself, have confidence that you can face things. What is that? It's in Galatians 6 where it says, "'May I never boast,' Paul says,

"'except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, "'through which the world has been crucified to me "'and I to the world.'" May I never boast except in the cross of Jesus Christ through which the world is crucified to me and I'm to the world. What's that mean? Years ago I remember talking to a woman who lived in a trailer park right up the, right, just a block or two away from my little church in Virginia. And I know she'd had a really hard life. She'd basically been a sex addict. She'd been certainly a man addict. She always needed a man. know she'd had a really hard life. She'd basically been a sex addict. She'd been certainly a man addict.

She always needed a man. And she'd been abused, she'd been beaten. Ugh. And you know, she'd always felt, she was always falling for some guy who misused her. And at a certain point, she really made a change. She completely changed. She became a Christian.

She understood the gospel and she turned away from all that. And she had a new kind of freedom. I remember asking her at one point, how did that happen, what happened? He says, oh, she said, Colossians three, one, two, and three, where it says Christ is my life, no man is my life, no money is my life.

These things aren't important to me, not if you have Jesus, not if you have his love. So she says, when I see a guy and he's looking at me, and I think, is what I always think in my heart, I look at him and I say down deep in myself, I say, hmm, not bad, I wouldn't mind being married, but I don't need a man to be a whole person. I don't need to be married to be a whole person.

And she says, I always look at men when they're walking around and she says to them, in her heart, she says, you're nice, but you're not my life. Christ is my life. What is she doing? She's boasting in Christ. And as a result, the world is crucified to her and her to the world.

These things don't daunt her anymore. These things don't knock her over anymore. They don't attract her. She's not being controlled by the cravings of her heart. Do you know how to do that? Remember how I said the old soldiers used to boast that they had the greatest king? They had confidence because they had the greatest king with the longest sword and the longest spear. Well, we have a king who didn't come bearing a spear, he came and took the spear in his side. He's like a great warrior who goes out on the battlefield where we're all dying.

And what is he doing? He binds up our wounds and he puts his armor on us and then he takes the arrow, he takes the spear, he takes the thorns. Look at him doing that for you. Look at his selflessness. And that will blast you out of your own self-centeredness. It'll affirm you and love you out of your own self-centeredness. Look at what he did, and that will take you from verses one to three to verses eight to 10.

Let us pray. Our Father, we're so grateful that you've given us this tremendous salvation. You have saved us. You have saved us. You have rescued us. The only way that somebody can be rescued if they change seats. If we're drowning in a river and somebody is safe,

jumps in and takes on our danger so we can have his safety, that's the way rescue works. That's the way salvation works. We pray that you would enable me Through your word to reach the hearts of the people who have been listening So that they can see through the power of your spirit and your word the kind of life you want us to live and the wonderful salvation you've given us Let us to live. Let us live lives of greatness in accord with your gospel. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thanks for listening to today's message from Tim Keller. If you have a story of how the gospel has changed your life or how Gospel In Life resources have encouraged or challenged you, we'd love to hear from you. You can share your story with us by visiting gospelinlife.com slash stories. That's gospelinlife.com slash stories. Today's sermon was recorded in 2011. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.