I found this little reworking of some Tim Keller teaching on Religion vs Gospel at The Journey Church’s site, and it’s a wonderful, Jesus shaped piece of theology perfect for praying through, meditating on or sharing with others.
You can print off the original pdf version here.
Thank God for Tim Keller. Ask the Spirit to press these truths into your life and Jesus will be more wonderful than ever.
This is wonderful–thanks for posting it!
Thank God for Tim Keller is right! You introduced me to him some time ago and I jokingly refer to him now, when talking to my husband, as my “new best friend” (he loves him too). Such refreshing insight. We need more pastors like Tim and like you too! Thank you so much.
“I am so bad he had to die for me and I am so loved he was glad to die for me.”
I had to stop and just meditate on that line for a while. Good stuff.
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We certainly would like to be on the right sided column, the “gospel” life. I think this is the way to live, if you are truly undergoing divinization and living by Grace.
But I don’t think it is so simple. Matthew’s Gospel says many things on the “religion” side of the page: “if you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven.” “you did not feed me when I was poor, or visit me when I was in prison.” “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
OK, this isn’t the whole Gospel, but it really is part of it. And I get the impression, that if Jesus was saying these particular verses in some churches, He would lose his job. Maybe, some people need “religion”, and that’s OK with God too.
[...] antithesis of the Gospel Michael Spencer, veteran blogger from that vanguard of online Christian punditry, internetmonk.com, has linked to a [...]
Joe,
I don’t think Keller is saying the things you mention are unimportant… in fact he would say that they are important. The key difference is in the motivation for why you do them. Do you forgive others so that God owes you forgiveness or do you forgive others because God has forgiven you?