Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Bought Out of Slavery

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

We’re looking at the passage that Martin Luther thinks is the greatest single place in the Bible that explains the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he might be right, because it’s talking about three great gospel words.  The three great gospel words are redemption, propitiation, and justification. What do we need? Redemption. What does God do about it? Propitiation. And what do we get as a result? Justification. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 7, 2016. Series: Bible: What We Are Receiving: The Gospel Goods. Scripture: Romans 3:22-31. 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. People around the world understand the word gospel to mean good news, but it's much more than a message of salvation. The gospel is also a comprehensive worldview that can shape how we understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. Today Tim Keller is delving into the underlying implications of the gospel and how it truly changes everything. After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospelandlife.com and sign up for our email

updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly newsletter with articles from Dr. Keller as well as other valuable gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at gospelandlife.com. Scripture reading comes from the book of Romans chapter 3 verses 22 to 31. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between you and Gentile for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all have justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of

atonement through the sharing of his blood to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance he had left the scenes committed beforehand and punished. He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time. So is to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Well, then, he's busting. It is excluded because of what law? The law that requires works? Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, Hanna, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami,ami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami, kami,ami, the law, the weight of the law. So, hi. A reminded of Henry V on the Battle of Ashenchor when he looked at everyone and he said, we fue, we happy fue. We've been to brothers and sisters. So, we have a great thing to do tonight. brothers and sisters. So we have a great thing to do tonight. We're taking a look at one of the passages that one was just read to you that Martin Luther thinks is the greatest

single place in the Bible that explains the gospel of Jesus Christ. He might be right, because it's talking about three great gospel words. One of them actually doesn't appear in this translation, but I'll explain it to you. The three great gospel words are redemption, propitiation, and justification. If you take a look at the heart of this passage in verse 24, it says, we all need redemption. In verse 25 it says, and in response to that, God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement and the older word was propitiation, I'll give back to that.

And then at the near the bottom it says, as a result we receive justification. Now those are three tremendous great gospel words. What's our problem? What do we need? Redemption. What does God do about it? Propitiation.

And what do we get as a result? Justification. Three tremendous gospel words, and it's ridiculous, that I'm gonna try to unpack all three of them now. On the other hand, you guys don't have anything to do afterwards. I know you don't, so we could stay here for hours, but I probably won't do that. Instead, I'd like to let's unpack each of these words. Verse 24, we've all sinned, we've all fallen short of the glory of God,

and therefore it says, we need the redemption that comes through Jesus Christ. Now the word redemption means to be bought out of slavery. It means a price is paid to buy us out of slavery. And we might say, well, you know, we don't have slavery around here. Well, you have to understand that the word redemption is an economic word. And its background is in ancient times there was no bankruptcy law. So that if you fell into debt and you couldn't pay your debt

and you were in violation of the law because you had made legal contract to pay and now you can't pay your debt, what did you do? Well, sometimes you would lose your land and you would have to farm it as a tenant farmer until you paid the debt. Sometimes you did become a slave in what we would call an indentured servant today. But see, modern people today don't have, we don't have debtors' prisons. We don't have indentured servanthood. So we say, well, we don't have those things. And yet, any of you who have been under a huge weight of debt, a huge load of debt, you know that your freedom is compromised always

by debt. Your freedom is always compromised. There's many things you can't do unless you get that debt off of you. And if you can't do it, if you just don't have the wherewithal to pay your debt, there's no hope for you. You will never be free unless someone comes from outside and pays that debt for you. Now Paul, of course, is using an economic word, but he's using it to apply to all human

beings. He said, we all need redemption. So he's not talking at this point about the economic. He's talking about the spiritual moral. He's saying that all human beings need to be redeemed. How so? Well, the whole Bible talks about this, and I will just briefly I will talk about this and I will just briefly summarize. That's all I can do. We need to be redeemed from guilt. All human beings know at some level we're not living the way we ought to live. You know, in ancient times people were guilt-racked

and supposedly now in modern times we're not. We say, hey, I have to decide what is right or wrong for me. You can't lay your guilt trip on me. And yet, all human beings at some deep level know that we're not who we should be. We're not the people we should be. We all have a sense of condemnation of some kind. And, you know, Samuel Johnson, the great British writer, in his biography, we're told, it was the 18th century now,

that when he had been a little boy, when he'd been a boy, I don't know how little he was, when he was a boy, his father, who ran a bookstall on the Occeter Public Square. At Occeter was in English town, and his father on certain days of the week ran a book stall. He sold books. And one day he came to Samuel and said, I can't be there.

I want you to go there for two hours, make sure nobody steals the books. People pay for the books. I want you to attend my book stall at the Adoxeter market for two hours. And he never went. And they'd always bothered him all of his life, but as he got older, now this is after his father was dead, after he got older, the memory of what he did there became symbolic, it symbolized all the ways in which he had failed to be a good son,

but not only that, it started to symbolize all the ways that he hadn't been a good person, all the ways in which he'd failed to be the person he should have been. And it's a very famous incident. In fact, if you go to Adoxeter's public, you know, town square, you'll actually see a little plaque there or a monument there. One day in the driving rain, his guilt got to him, and his driving rain, he walked to the marketplace and stood in the place where decades before his father's bookstall used to be and stood

there in the pouring rain bare headed for two hours, the kind of penance. The deal with his guilt didn't work. We need redemption. I mean, once we know we haven't done what we should do, you can't go back somehow. I mean there's no way to pay for that. We need redemption. We need to be freed from our guilt. We also, one more thing, we actually need to be freed from what I'll call heart slave masters. Now think about this. Because we all have a sense that we do not live as we ought to live, we try to find ways to shore up our sense that we do deserve to be here, that we are earning our way in a sense, that we are significant, we are worthwhile. So for example, Sydney Pollack, who was a great Hollywood

producer, director, he made a lot of films. Near the end of his life, when he was very sick, and he kept wanting to make films, and people said, what do you need to keep making films? You made great films, you've won Oscars, you know, why do you have to keep going? And he actually said, at one point, he actually said, every time I finish a picture, I feel I've earned my stay

for another year or so. He wasn't joking. Now, there's unless I make a really good picture that really helps people and really does good, then I feel like, okay, I've earned my stay. You remember Harold Abrams in Charity of Fire, and he's trying to get the gold medal in the Olympics, and somebody asked him,

why are you working so hard for athletic glory? And he says, he was running the 100-year dash. So he said, when that gun goes off, I have 10 seconds to justify my existence. That's the same thing Sidney Pollock has run. I say, I do what I do to justify. It's my justification. I don't just make movies. It makes me feel that I'm okay, that I belong here. I'm not just running the race. I'm doing it, not just because it's a good thing. I needed it. it's my justification.

It's my way of dealing with this deep down sense that I'm not what I should be. But let me tell you what happens if you take your job or you take a romantic relationship. And that's not just those things, sometimes aren't good things, they become your justification. They become why I feel that I belong here. They become my sense that this is why I can respect myself, is why other people should respect me because I'm this, or I have this, because this person loves me, because I've accomplished this in life,

because I have this career, because I've made this much money. When you make those things your justification, I always want you to consider. If you displease a boss, what can your boss do? Reprimand you? Yeah. Fire you?

Yeah. But if you displease a slave master, what can a slave master do? He can beat you to a pulp. He has no boundaries. There's no boundaries on a slave master. If you break up with somebody and you're sad, that's one thing. If you break up with somebody and you're sad, that's one thing. If you break up with somebody and want to throw yourself off a bridge. If you don't do well in your career and you're sad, that's one thing.

If you don't do well in your career and you just feel like I've got no meaning in life, I feel like I feel terrible. I'm hating myself, I'm beating myself up. You know what that is? Your career or that relationship, these things are your slave masters. You need to be redeemed. But you see they go together. Unless we're redeemed from our guilt,

we can't be redeemed from the slave masters that run our lives. So, and I could go on, the Bible actually says, your bodies need to be redeemed because they're actually enslaved to decay and to death. And someday God has to redeem our bodies. So we need redemption. All right, well then what does God do?

Secondly, verse 25, God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood. And I said, if you go to the older translations, here it translates a particular Greek word, sacrifice of atonement, but it's actually only one word, and it's the word, halastrian, and the older translations, which translated God presented Christ as a propitiation through the shedding of his blood.

Now the word propitiation, I understand why they didn't use the word, it's partly because it's actually an old word, an old English word, and not that many people use it anymore, so it's not very well known. But you can, you know, you can almost parse it a little bit, see the word pro and pity in there. Propitiation always means just turn aside someone's wrath. Someone's angry. Someone's furious. Propitiate means you satisfy the person. You pacify, you turn away the wrath.

This is saying that Jesus Christ propituated the wrath of God by shedding His blood. The wrath of God on sin, the wrath of God on you and me was coming down and Jesus Christ on the cross shed His blood and propituated the wrath of God. Now that is very, what I just said is an incredibly unpopular doctrine. I could rate, I don't have time to do, I could read all kinds of people who say that this is primitive, this is terrible, this is awful, a bloodthirsty God, a God who needs Jesus Christ's blood in order for him to forgive us. This is horrible. This is terrible. If there is a God, he has to be a God of love. We don't want a God of wrath, a God of violence. This is horrible. People hate this doctrine. So what do we have to say? I'd like you to believe it. I think it's one of the, I have to say it's the most practically precious doctrine that

in my life over the years of almost everything that I see here, it just, it astonishes me, it's changed my life. But here's what I think, in order to understand it, especially for contemporary people, we do require that. It does bother us, and it won't make sense to you that the doctrine that Christ's shed blood propitiates the wrath of God, that doctrine will not make sense unless I hate this to this, unless you understand four background truths. There's four truths that you have to understand if the doctrine of propitiation of the wrath

of God is going to make sense. You know what those four are? I mean, it could go on a long time, but I don't want to. the doctrine of perpetuation of the wrath of God is going to make sense. You know what those four are? You know, it could go on a long time, but I don't want to. Here's the four art. Number one, you have to understand that great love makes you capable of great anger.

That's the first thing. So to say, oh, I don't want a angry God, I want a loving God, makes no sense when you realize that if you really love someone, you can get very angry at them if they're destroying their lives. If you love something, you'll get angry at anything that's destroying it. Right? And that's the first thing you just have to understand. If God really loves the world He made, and He really loves the people He made, then anything

He sees that's destroying and He's going to get angry at. Some years ago I read an article by a woman who was wrestling with this idea of the wrath of God until she realized she had a friend who was really doing stupid things, really ruining her life, really being impulsive, really being selfish, dabbling with drugs, doing bad things, and she was furious with her friend, and she realized she was furious with her because she loved her so much. That if she didn't love her so much, she wouldn't be anywhere near that angry. And then she thought about God, and she said, anger isn't the opposite of love, hate is.

And the final form of hate is indifference. Did you hear that? The opposite of anger isn't the opposite of love, because love makes you angry. Angry at the evil or the sin that's ruining what you love. Anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is and the final form of hate is indifference. You don't want a God who's indifferent to evil and is in. And another writer puts it like this,

any God who's not angry at evil and injustice isn't worthy of my worship. And that leads to the second. The first truth you have to understand is, great love makes you capable of anger, great anger. So to say, I don't want to angry God, I want to love God, makes no sense. The second truth is that God is a judge and that God's anger is not crankiness, it's a settled judicial opposition to evil.

If you went into a court of law And you saw a man found guilty of robbery. And okay, now it's time for the sentence. What if the judge, at the time of the sentence, the man gets up to receive a sentence, what if the judge jumped over the bench and started beating the man? I'm so angry at you and hitting him with his gaville. I'm sure someday that's going to happen on television. You know, this television court, I sure someday that's going to happen on television. You know, this television court, I'm sure this is going to happen. It'll help the ratings. You know, you look and say, oh, that's not the kind.

That's not what you want. You know what? You don't want to judge who's just losing his temper. Nor do you want to judge who's indifferent. You don't want to judge who says, oh, well, yeah, you've wrote the law. But are you sorry? Yes, I'm sorry, Judge. Well, then just try not to rob people in the future.

That wouldn't be any good. What you want is the judge to have real indignation, real anger toward the injustice, toward the hurt that this man had done. But all that anger would be channeled through enforcing the law. And God's, because God is a judge, remember what I just read, the guy said, if God is not a God who is angry at evil and injustice, he's not worthy of my worship.

Do you want someday for everything to be put right in the world someday, the answer, the aim, I hope you say yes, that'll only happen if God's a judge. And God's a judge. And God's wrath is simply his settled judicial opposition to evil, which is what you'd want, not crankiness, not, you know, not getting, not, not temper. The third thing you have to understand is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, which is, forgiveness

is always a form of suffering. Forgiveness is a form of suffering. Dietrich Bonhover, you know, the guy who died, opposing the Nazis, who was a Lutheran minister, opposing the Nazis, and World War II, died for it. He wrote in one of his letters, Forgiveness is a form of suffering. When I first read it, I thought, that's really weird, but no, it's not.

If someone wrongs you, the most satisfying thing, if someone wrongs you, is to go pay them back. They've hurt your reputation. Now I'm going to kill their reputation, and that maybe I get my reputation back a little bit. You hurt my good name. I'll destroy your good name, and that'll help me. Or you made me unhappy, I'm gonna make you even more unhappy, and that'll make me feel a little more satisfied. So, in other words, if someone wrongs you, one thing you could do is pay them back,

really pay them back, and that'll be satisfying, in a sense. But as maybe you've heard, say before, but if someone does evil to you, and you pay them back, really eventually pay them back. You know what happens? The evil wins. The evil wins. The evil wins. Because you become more cruel and mean.

And probably who they're the perpetrator will probably not see the error of his or her ways, but will come back at you. And then, you know, there'll be more fighting and everybody will get involved and people will take sides. Evil wins. Because you are paying back for the evil.

You say, okay, well, what should I do? You should forgive, but get this. If someone wrongs you, it always is pretty satisfying to pay back. If you forgive, you're suffering. In other words, you're bearing the cost. They hurt your reputation and you forgive them for that. Then you bear the loss to your reputation. They stole some happiness from you and you forgive them,

then you bear that loss. When someone sends against you, it creates a debt. You can make them pay it or you can pay it, but that doesn't go away. One or the other, and if you pay it, if you forgive, forgiveness is always a form of suffering. And now you see something about the cross, do you not? Why does Jesus have to die?

Why does he have to shed his blood? If we human beings have done wrong and we have, and by the way, standing out in the rain, bare-headed is not going to deal with it. Most Christians, even pastors, struggle to talk about their faith in a way that applies the power of the gospel to change lives, especially in our skeptical culture. Tim Keller's book of preaching, communicating faith in an age of skepticism is a guide for anyone who wants to become more effective in communicating about their faith.

Pastors and lay people alike. Drawing on his years of experience, Dr. Keller will help you share your faith in a more engaging, passionate, and compassionate way from the pulpit or in the coffee shop. Preaching is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So, request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give.

That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Well then how can God, can he just overlook it? No, he's a judge. And he has sent a lot of opposition to evil. That's his wrath. Well, can he just forgive? No, no, he's a judge. And he has settled opposition to evil, that's his wrath. Well, can he just forgive? No, because if he's going to forgive us, and much of our sin is against him, the only way he can forgive us is if he bears the cost instead of making us bear the cost. And when Jesus Christ goes to the cross, he's bearing the cost for us soon. Abbas, somebody says, my goodness, it's just still seems so awful to the idea that Jesus Christ has to shed His blood to appease the wrath of the Father. And in other words, the Father's angry at us and Jesus Christ has to go and appease.

That's bloodthirsty, that's terrible. It's like the ancient gods. And I just don't like it. But did you notice something? Look at the grammar, everybody. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of His blood. It doesn't say Christ presented His blood

to propitiate the wrath of God. It says, God, what does that mean? And here's where we get into that wonderful mind-boggling doctrine that I will show you though it always boggles the mind. It's incredibly useful. It's called the doctrine of the Trinity, everybody. And the doctrine of the propit- that Jesus Christ propitiates the wrath of God

through his setting of his blood will not make sense unless you understand the doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity is not that there's three gods up there who just happen to like each other. The Trinity is just one God and inside that one God that one God exists in three persons. And what that means, and it tells you right here, is not that the Father is angry and therefore

Jesus Christ comes and appeases the Father and anger. What it's actually saying is God Himself in Jesus Christ goes to the cross and pays the price, absorbs the suffering of divine justice himself. It is not just Jesus, it's when who goes the cross, the God goes to the cross in Jesus Christ, which means God is substituting himself for us. John Stoughton is great book on the Cross of Christ says, here's what you have to understand. Sin is you substituting yourself for God, putting yourself where only God deserves to be in charge of your life.

Sin is you substituting yourself for God, putting yourself where only God deserves to be in charge of your life. But salvation is God substituting Himself for you, putting Himself only you deserve to be on that cross, taking the penalty. See, there's an ancient story of member Agamemnon in the Elia Agamemnon, the gods are angry at him

and they won't give him fair winds to get the Troy. So he sacrifices his daughter, if a genia, he slays her and sacrifice her. And then the gods will give him fair winds. And some people say, see, that's just like Christian god, that's just like Christianity. Bloodthirsty terrible. No, it's the other way around. It's the opposite of barbarism, it's the opposite of paganism.

In that story, poor human beings have to put up the blood to appease the cranky gods, but in the gospel, God Himself comes and sheds His own blood. It says that in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 20. God purchased the church with His own blood. God sheds His own blood to appease the wrath, the divine wrath, and pay the debt of justice and free us and redeem us. If you understand those four things, suddenly you begin to realize the propitiation of the wrath of God by the blood of Jesus Christ is what redeems. It has to be that way. Any God is not angry at injustice, is not worthy to be worshipped.

Any forgiveness and tale suffering, and so God himself shed his own blood to purchase our salvation. Now, finally, what does that bring us to? Well, it tells us here, and that is several times, it says, he justifies now those who have faith in Christ. The law requires faith.

We maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. We're justified without earning it. It's a gift now. Well, what is all this? What does that mean? When you and I hear the word justification, that Jesus died on the cross so we can be justified, almost always immediately we think of pardon and forgiveness. And that's fine. That's a wonderful thing.

And it's part of it, sure. Jesus died on the cross so God could forgive us, yes. But justification is much more than forgiveness. Listen, everybody. Justification is much more than forgiveness. Marcus Loan, Christian writer, puts it like this. He says, to speak forgiveness is to say, you may go. You have been let off of your penalty.

But the speak of justification is to say, you may come. You are welcome to all my love and presence. See the difference? As wonderful as it is, forgiveness is negative, a negative. It's saying, you are no longer liable to penalty. You may go, you're free, no more penalty. But justification is the bestowal of a status.

It's not just you no longer reliable. It's a bestowal of a new status with incredible rights and privileges and benefits attached to it. You may come, and now you may be in my presence. How do we understand this? Well, here's how we understand it. Some years ago I was watching a TV show that was a detective show, and one particular episode was about an old man in his 80s, broken down. He's the next Marine. It turns out, for the show, this is a fiction piece, by the way.

It turns out that the man was charged with allegedly doing some crime when he was the Marine. And so the military police were out to find him, and they were trying to track him down. They were trying to find him. And finally, to track him down, they're trying to find him. And finally, a scene comes where they've tracked him down, they find him, and they come up to him. And these two great big MPs, military police are looking down at him and they're snarling and they're yelling at him. Stay, you know, put out your hands up, you know, and they get out their handcuffs and they're

ready to, this poor broken owl man, they're ready to take him into custody, but the little man has a friend next to him and the friend reaches over, pulls aside the man's tie, opens the top button and shows what he's wearing underneath. You know what it is? That for the story, say, that years ago on the field of battle in World War II, he had done an active and credible bravery and as they pulled this aside, the military police see that he's wearing the congressional medal of honor. And suddenly, their faces change, their posture changes, they drop their handcuffs, and they snap to attention, and they salute.

It's very moving and very poignant and it makes perfect sense. What were they saluting? Not really the man. Maybe, I mean, it doesn't matter to them. Was he a criminal? It doesn't matter. What are they saluting? They're saluting.

They are honoring the metal. Because the metal represents all the people who shed their blood on the field of battle for decades and centuries for our freedom. Yeah, our freedom, yes. How so? Ever see the series, the Man in the High Castle? It's a science fiction theory series about what would have happened if in World War II we'd lost.

What would have happened if the opponents, the enemy, had gotten the atomic bomb first, which they could have? And what would have happened if they dropped an atomic bomb on Los Angeles and on New York? What would have happened? It could have happened. We would have lost our freedom. So the people who are out there fighting, shedding their blood, heroically, what were they doing?

They were doing it for us. They were doing it to purchase our freedom. And that medal represented all that honor, all that heroism, all that glory. And that's why they weren't saluting him. They were saluting the medal, which was on his chest. And they were giving him that kind of deference, that kind of honor, because he had that metal on his chest.

Now think about this. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, everything about the crucifixion had the trappings of shame. He was stripped naked. You don't have to execute somebody naked, but he was stripped naked. It was a mark of shame. It was a way of shaming him. He was crucified outside the gate.

He was crucified at Calvary, Golgotha, a garbage dump. He was experiencing the ignominy. He was taking the dishonor. He was taking the shame that we deserve. Oh, but wait a minute. Think about it for a second. He had the ultimate honor in the universe, but he voluntarily gave it up and came and went to the cross. But voluntarily gave it up and came and went to the cross. But if anything, that makes him worthy of greater honor than he had before. If that's possible, or he had this incredible glory, but he emptied himself of his glory,

and he became small and he became killable and vulnerable. And he lost all his glory and he took on the shame, but if anything, if anything, that makes him worthy of greater glory, if that's possible. What does Jesus Christ deserve? What kind of award? What kind of medal does He deserve? Because on that battlefield, He shed His blood.

Look at that heroism. Look at that incredible bravery. Look what He faced. What kind of medal does He deserve for that heroism, for that shedding of his blood, for our freedom. What is it, his own? I don't know, but here's the gospel, everybody. When you believe in Jesus Christ, the moment you believe in Jesus Christ, it's not just that your sins are put on him and your shame is put on him, but that his righteousness, his glory, everything he deserves is at war as pinned on you. All of his medals are pinned on you.

It's not just that he's treated as we deserve, so he takes our penalty, but then in Christ, we are treated as he deserves. All those medals, all those awards are pinned on us and God salutes and the universe salutes in him. That's what it means when it says we are righteous in him. This is the reason why Richard Hooker, the great Anglican writer from the 18th century, put it like this in describing the doctrine of justification by faithless and this. He says, let it be counted as folly or frenzy or fury whatsoever. This is our comfort in wisdom and we care for no knowledge in the world but this, that

God has made Himself our sin that we might be made His righteousness. We are in the sight of God the Father as is the very Son of God Himself. Let it be counted as follow your friendsy or fury whatsoever. This is the only thing in the world. This knowledge, I care for nothing else in the world but to know this, that God made Himself since so we could be made His righteousness, that when God looks at me, when God the Father looks at me,

He sees me in Jesus Christ. And I am an absolute beauty to Him. Justification. Now listen, two implications in a story that we're done. The first implication is what does it mean to be a Christian? When I ask people, are you a Christian? Sometimes they say, I'm trying. It's a little bit like me asking,

are you married or are you single and you say, well, I'm trying to be married? Well, in one sense, maybe, okay, I'm after somebody, and she hasn't said, yes, maybe that's what you mean. But I mean, honestly, if I say, are you married or not, you say, well, you look, yes or no, right? I mean, you either had a married a wedding service, there were vows, there was some minister just of the piece or not.

There's one second of which you're not married, and there's another second of which you are. It's not a process. And the same way, to become a Christian, yes, of course, we want to be like Jesus, and in certain sense, we're all trying to be Christians. But you either are a Christian or you aren't. You're either justified or you're not.

You either have had this incredible status bestowed on you. The medals have been pinned on you and your shame has been put on him, or it hasn't been. It's one of the other. You understand that. Because if you don't understand that, you don't understand the gospel. But here's the other thing, if you do understand it. And if you make this yours. Some years ago, in fact, I know how many years ago,

was right around the time of the Great Recession in 2008, 2009, I was at a men's retreat. And there was a man there who got up, and he had been converted about three years before at that retreat, I think. So he, I mean, it was an annual retreat, so three years before. So he gets up at this retreat, 2008, 2009.

And this is what he said. He said, he says, I work in a field that used to be called wealth management, but now it's more better to be called wealth survival. And he said, this year, I have lost an enormous amount of money. And I'm here to tell you that I've never been happier in my life. If the great recession had happened two years ago,

when my justification was still in my performance, I know where the vodka bottle is, and I would have driven myself right into the ground. But what changed, you see, His career was just a job now. It wasn't his justification. What was his justification now? It's Jesus' justification. In a sense, he was saying what Paul says in Galatians a little bit later in Galatians, he says, May I never boast except in the cross of Jesus Christ, my Lord, through whom the world has crucified to me and I to the world.

May I never boast. You see, where is boasting? It is excluded. Ah, but not if you boast in Jesus Christ. That is to say, if you say, my identity is in him. My justification is in him. Not anything else. You know what that means.

The world has crucified to you and you to the world. Who cares what people think? Who cares what kind of how you did in your portfolio this year? It's not your justification anymore. See? The only two eyes in the universe whose opinion counts, looks at you in Jesus Christ and sees you as more precious than all the jewels that lie beneath the earth. So who cares? The world is just, look, that kind of identity, that kind of imperviousness to ups and downs,

that kind of ballast, that kind of buoyancy, that kind of joy can be yours. If you understand the gospel words, redemption, perpetuation, justification. Look, people are very, redemption, propitiation, justification. Look, people are very, very, in this especially in a place like New York, people are incredibly offended by the idea that you gotta be saved through the blood of Jesus.

In 1955, Billy Graham went to Cambridge and to preach in evenings at great St. Mary's at the Cambridge University of Cambridge. Before he got there, there was a lot of indignation on the part of people in London times where articles, there were pardon me, there were letters saying, how can this American fundamentalist come and speak to our best and brightest about the blood of Jesus, which is very offensive. We don't believe in that. Our best and brightest aren't going to be in any way

impressed by this particular preacher. So Billy Graham was a bit intimidated, by the way. You can read about this in the biography. He was a bit intimidated by it. So the first few couple of nights he was preaching there, he quoted a lot of existentialist philosophers and intellectuals and things like that, and that's not Billy Graham. And he realized he just wasn't getting any traction with the listeners, and he got down

in his knees and says, tonight, Lord, I'm going to preach the cross. I'm just going to preach the cross. And this is an account by somebody who was there. He says, I'll never forget that night. That was Wednesday night at Greenstreet Marys in Cambridge. He says, I was in a totally packed chancel sitting on the floor with the Regis Professor of Divinity at Cambridge sitting on my one side, another faculty member sitting on the other. These were good men, but completely against the idea that we needed salvation from sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.

But dear Billy, that night got up and began a Genesis and went right through the whole Bible and talked about every single sacrifice. The blood was just flowing all over, everywhere, for three-quarters of an hour. Both my neighbors, these faculty members, were terribly embarrassed by this crude proclamation of the blood of Christ. It was everything it disliked and everything they dreaded, but at the end of the sermon,

to everyone's shock, 400 young men and women stayed to commit their lives to Christ, back when the student body was only 8,000 people. This man says, I remember many years later meeting a young man who was a minister, a young minister, and he asked, where did Christian things begin with you? He says, oh, Cambridge, 1955, really, when? Wednesday night, last night of Billy Graham, well, how did it happen? And he said, all I remember is that I walked out of great St. Mary's that night for the

first time in my life thinking, Christ really died for me. There's power in the blood. Power for you. Let's pray. So Father, these great gospel words show us what they mean. Yeah. Lord, they can save us, they can change us. If we understand and grasp what you're offering us in them.

And those of us who have, we can spend the rest of our lives exploring them, and that's what we've done tonight. Thank you for your redemption. Thank you for the propitiation. And thank you for your redemption, thank you for the propitiation, and thank you for our justification. Make us the kind of people who live in accordance with these great truths we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You can find more resources from Tim Keller at gospelandlife.com. Just subscribe to the Gospel and Life newsletter to receive free articles, sermons, devotional, and other resources. Again, it's all at gospelandlife.com.

You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. This month's sermons were recorded in 2009 and 2016. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.