Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Christian Hope and Suffering

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

The Christian hope is a life-shaping certainty that our ultimate future is the eternal love and glory of God, the new heavens and new earth. The uniqueness of the Christian hope means every area of our lives is shaped by that belief, that future. And so the Christian hope has an enormous impact on how we face and process suffering, disappointment, difficulty, troubles. In 2 Corinthians, we’re told three things about suffering: 1) the inevitability of it, 2) the pattern of it, and 3) the future of it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 16, 2004. Series: Living in Hope. Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:7-18; 12:7-10. 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. The English word for hope can can note uncertainty, but the Christian concept of hope is a life-changing, joyous certainty of future with God. Today on Gospel in Life, Tim Keller is teaching about Christian hope and how what we believe about the future can transform our present reality. Tonight's scripture is from 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 7 through 18, and then chapter 12, verses 7 through 10. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed.

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken, with that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly, we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is

temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. To keep me from being conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but He said to me, my grace is efficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so the Christ power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,

in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. This is God's word. We've been doing a series on hope. We've said that one of the theses of our series is that the way you live now, your present behavior and character, is determined mainly by what you believe your ultimate future to be.

We said that the Christian hope is a life-shaping certainty that our ultimate future is the eternal love and glory of God, the new heavens and new earth. And we said that the uniqueness of the Christian hope means that in every area of our lives, our life practices, our life is shaped uniquely by that belief, that future. And we have to look at each of the areas which we have been doing. Tonight we take a look at, this is the last in the series, by the way. Tonight we take a look at something we've alluded to in the past. And that is the Christian hope has an enormous impact on how we face and process, suffering,

disappointment, difficulty, troubles. This passage tells us three things about suffering, the inevitability of it, the pattern of it, and the future of it, the inevitability, the pattern, and the future of suffering. Now the first point is we're going to make it briefly because Paul makes it briefly and actually that's significant. I'll show you what I mean in a minute. In verse 16 Paul says, therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, though outwardly we're wasting away, or wearing away, maybe is a little better

way to put it. Now notice it's almost a throwaway line, he assumes everybody knows it, it's a given, but let's look and see what he's saying is the given. It's the Greek scholars will tell you that Paul's not just talking here about the body. He's talking about life in this world, the visible world. And by putting it in a present progressive, he is saying, everything in this world is wearing away. Everything in this world is steadily, irreversibly falling apart.

Everything. Your body is wearing away. Your hearts are not on electric clock. Your hearts are a wind-up clock. They were wound up at birth. And your heart has got a finite number of ticks in it, and it's ticking away even as we speak. Somebody saying, what a wonderful metaphor.

It's just... But it's true. Your body is wearing away. Your physical appearance, your physical attractiveness is wearing away, even in New York. No matter how much we put into it, no matter how much money we put into it, you can't stop it. Our relationships are wearing away. You get a group of friends around you and time and circumstance immediately begins to

wear it away. Wear them away. Pull them apart. Move people away from you. Your family is wearing away. You know, it's, again, time and circumstance puts distance between you and then you die off one at a time. Everything's wearing away. Your skills are wearing away. You can't stay on top of your game. You can't always stay on top of your profession. You can't stay

in demand. In other words, what Paul is saying is everything your heart desires, everything your heart most wants is like a wave on the sand. The minute you experience it, it starts to recede from you. A wave on a sand. You can't pin it down. You can't hold onto it. You can't keep it. Everything your heart most desires, Paul, is saying, is receding.

Now, as I mentioned, he says this kind of offhandedly. And he says it offhandedly because he understood that everybody, at least everyone in his world, everyone who would be reading his words, as far as he understood, would understand that this life is one sorrow after another. It's one loss after another. Everything is falling apart. Now the reason I think that's significant for us to at least think about just for a second, not much longer, is that we live in a unique culture.

Every society, even our society, 50 years ago, every society has always been more reconciled to the idea that everything in life is lost. Everything in life is full of sorrow. If you read, and I do, if you like history, if you read the journals and the diaries of people from 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 200 years ago, you'll see it. They understood this.

They were never surprised at suffering. They were never surprised at death. They were never shocked. They didn't freak out. They didn't even complain. At least not much, not like we do. I mean, we are kind of like the first culture that this is a shock to. We're surprised by suffering.

And Paul is telling us here, basically, don't be. Why would you be surprised by suffering? Everything in this world is receding from you. The deepest desires of your heart are moving away from you, even as we speak, unless, unless, unless what? Well, let's keep going. Second point.

The second thing we learn here is what I would call Paul is teaching us the pattern of suffering. Second Corinthians is written to a church where Paul's apostolic authority and credentials are being questioned. If you read the whole of second Corinthians, you'll see that Paul is responding to people who say, you can't trust Paul, God is not with him. And one of the lines of reasoning for that, one of the ways in which people questioned Paul's apostolic authority was along this line, Paul seemed to have an inordinate number of things go wrong in his life.

Paul seemed to have an inordinate number of tragedies and difficulties and troubles. Now he makes a list of them, he knows that people are talking about this, and he makes a list of them in 2 Corinthians 11. And here's a short little list. He says, I've been to prison. I've been in prison, flogged, five times I've received 39 lashes, three times beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times shipwrecked, I spent a day in a night in the open sea. I've been constantly in danger from rivers, from robbers, from my own countrymen, from Gentiles. I've known hunger and thirst.

I've been cold and naked. Who is weak? And I am not weaker. So here's how the questioning went. You can imagine it like this. People were saying, how could God be with a man? When all that stuff happens to him, surely when God's with you,

he protects you. Surely when God's with you, you prosper. You can imagine somebody saying, have been traveling the Mediterranean all my life, and I've never been shipwrecked, and Paul's been shipwrecked three times. What's the matter with him? I mean, if God's with him, if God's with you, if you're in a puzzle, if God is really with you, all these bad things wouldn't be happening.

Now, actually, this is a rather normal question. I mean, Job's friends asked that of Job. Everything was going wrong for Job in his business life, in his family life, and his health, everything was going wrong. And what did Job's friends say? Job's friends said, Job, there's something wrong here. If God is with you, all this kind of stuff wouldn't happen, not this much. If God's with you, He protects you, doesn't He?

God can't be with you. And of course, it's also the kind of question we ask ourselves. When you go into one of those seasons where one after the other, after the other, after the other thing goes wrong and you feel like you've reached the bottom and then you find out you actually there's a lower to go. And you look at your life and you say, this can't be right, either. Either there is no God or else God's mad at me or something, but whatever, He can't be with me. He couldn't be with me.

If God's with me, all this wouldn't be happening to me. Now, how does Paul respond to that? How does Paul respond to this premise that if God's with you, all this suffering wouldn't be happening? Paul does not just say, well, he is anyway, he doesn't just say, God's with me in spite of all that, he goes further. Paul says, his sufferings are not only not a denial of the gospel, they are a confirmation of the gospel, they are a confirmation of the gospel.

And he says that here in verse 10, 11 and 12 where he says, we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death, for Jesus sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then death is at work in us, but life in you. Paul is saying the gospel, the way the gospel works, death leading to resurrection, you know. Weakness leading to triumph and exaltation.

He says the way the gospel works in Jesus' life is the way it's working in my life. See, when Paul says, death is at work in me. Now that's a metaphor, of course. But it's a metaphor for all of the emotional deaths and the economic death. He's talking about his suffering and he calls it death working at me. It's an apt metaphor, but look what he says. He says, just as for Jesus, suffering in death led to greater life.

I find that in living in Jesus, the same sort of thing happens that my death seemed to lead to greater life. Now, there's two ways that this works, and Paul gives us both of them, the first way, and it's the way we have right here in this passage. Paul is talking about, and he's giving an interpersonal example of this pattern when he says, death working in me leads to life working in you. What he's talking about, what he's talking about the fact, that his sufferings in in ministry, his sufferings in trials and tribulations in ministry. He suffers because he's trying to minister to people, and as a result, he suffers, and

yet it's leading to greater life in people's lives. Because he suffered, people are hearing the gospel, people are having spiritual life. Now this interpersonal pattern doesn't just work with people in professional ministry. I know a number of people over the years, doctors, lawyers, other people who are in professions, and I know some people who have decided that they wanted to go to people who are not well served by the professions. They wanted to go to people who were not very well off, or people are pretty poor, and they went off the beaten path.

And they went and they given their lives to working in those places. And you know when you do that, you kind of fall out of the structure of your profession. You kind of go off the radar. And next thing, you know, you find you really can't advance. But the career deaths, they experience, it's a greater life in general. When you suffer because you do the right thing.

When you suffer because you live unselfishly when you suffer because you live on selfishly, your death lead to some kind of greater life in the lives of the people around you. But that's just one example. That's an interpersonal example. Paul also gives us an intra-personal example, not in this passage, but in Romans chapter 5 to 8, which is a kind of parallel passage to this one, Paul says this in Romans 5, we rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope.

And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which he has given to us. Now what is he saying there? He says the suffering of death, the death of suffering, leads to not just greater life in those around me, but greater life in me. Here's what he's saying. You know how much power there is in an acorn, give any idea how much enormous potential there is in an acorn.

You know, in that little acorn, an entire huge tree can come out of, it's all in there. It's all in there. Obviously, he's kind of squished up in there, but there it is. Out of that acorn can come a huge tree and out of the tree that comes out of the acorn can be, you know, a normalable other trees, that one acorn could fill a continent with wood. One acorn has the power to fill a continent with wood. But not unless it dies, as Jesus would say, not unless it falls into the ground and dies, without enormous power be released. Every human soul is made in the image of God.

And you have infinitely more potential than an acorn. You've got the potential for greatness, for wisdom, for compassion, for composure, for beauty, for character, but it will not be released according to Jesus and according to Paul. There will not be resurrection without death. There will not be resurrection without crucifixion. It will not be released except through the death of suffering and difficulty in trials. We know that.

You say, well, why would that be? But we know that. You say, well, why would that be? But we know that. One of my favorite passages in all of literature is a C.S. Lewis quote that you probably heard, if you've been coming to reading for more than four weeks, you've probably heard it. There's a place in the four loves where C.S. Lewis says, love anything and your heart will be rung and probably broken, okay?

So if you don't want to have your heart broken, if you want to keep your heart intact, if you want to avoid suffering, in other words, give your heart to no one, lock it up in a casket of selfishness, but in that casket of safety, your heart will change. It will not be broken, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only alternative to tragedy is damnation. And what is He saying? Actually, it's kind of common sense. You don't want your heart broken.

Don't give it to anybody. But what's the alternative to a broken heart? Shallowness, hardness, unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. We all know people whose hearts have never been broken. We all know people who have had a charmed life. They're shallow. There's no glory about them. There's no weight about them.

They're ephemeral. They're insignificant. I mean, that quote just tells you right off the bat, there is absolutely no way that greatness can be released in your life except through broken hearts. Your heart being wrong. Your heart being hurt. Reynolds Price was a Duke University,

is a Duke University professor of English. And he had spinal cancer about 20 years ago. And he survived, but he's a paraplegic. He's in a wheelchair. And a young man who was a doctor, he was a medical student, contracted cancer, and was dying of it. And he wrote Reynolds' price, a letter, saying, how can you still believe in God, because

Reynolds' price is a Christian? How can you still believe in God with Because Reynolds' price is a Christian. How can you still believe in God with all this suffering that's happened to us? And Reynolds' price wrote him a whole book back, by the way. It's called Letter to a Man in a Fire. Letter to a Man in a Fire. And he has a very bold thing at one point. I was really kind of gutsy, but I guess if you're in the wheelchair

and you still believe in God and death and resurrection, I guess you've got the right to say this, but here's what he wrote back to this young man. Don't forget, it was a med student who had dropped out of medical school. He says, if you survive this ordeal, you're certain to be a far more valuable medical doctor and a far, far more valuable person than you ever would have been otherwise. As Escalus of all people, Escalus, the Greek poet, runs wrote, it is God's law that he who learns must suffer.

Even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls dropped by drop upon our heart, and in our own despite even, yes, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the all-filling grace of God. Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it cannot bear life. Why is there so much pain in suffering in the world? And how do we handle it in a way that won't destroy us, but could actually make us stronger and wiser? Those of the questions Tim Keller explores in his book Walking with God Through Pain

and Suffering. The book doesn't provide easy answers, but is instead both a deeply theological and incredibly personal look at how we can face pain and suffering. Walking with God through pain and suffering is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of the Gospel 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. All right. Now somebody's saying, well, this is all very, very eloquent, you know,

suffering leads to greater life. The seed has to fall into the ground before it leads to greater life. That's all very, very sweet, very eloquent, very hallmarked, greeting cartesh. But how do I know it'll really work? I mean, it's a nice sentiment. How do I know it'll really work? I mean, it's a nice sentiment. How do I know it'll really work? And Paul does. And Paul tells you how he knows it will work in reality. It's in verse 14. He says, because we know, in other words, all this stuff, because we know, the one who

raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. Ah, now here's what Paul's saying. Since Jesus was raised from the dead, now he's assuming that's a fact. And I'm going to assume it right now, we spent a lot of time this year looking at the point that there is no historically possible alternate explanation for the birth of the Christian church if Jesus didn't rise in the dead. We spent time on it, but let's just not spend any more time on it.

Paul says, because the resurrection of Jesus happened, it's the very meaning of history that redemption comes out of injustice and pain and misery. It's the very meaning of history that life comes out of death. It's the very meaning of history that out of devastation comes redemption. And he gives us an example. His own example, the Thorn in the Flesh. What was Paul's Thorn in the Flesh?

We don't know. There's probably been 1,000 PhD dissertations written on what was Paul's Thorn in the Flesh. And we still don't know. I'm glad been a thousand PhD dissertations written on what was Paul's throne in the flesh. And we still don't know. I'm glad you got your PhDs out of it, but we still don't know. It was some kind of pain, some kind of circumstance that was a torture to Paul.

We don't know what it was, but we don't need to know. Here's what we do need to know. Paul over and over and over and over asked God to remove it. And God said, no. Does that remind you of anybody? In the Garden of Gisemony, Jesus Christ was not just facing a thorn. He was facing the ultimate stake through the heart, through his hands, through his soul.

And he asked God to remove it. And God said, no. But God said to Jesus, what God said to Paul here, what God said to everybody in this room, everybody listening to this. What did God say? He said, no, because my power always comes to perfection in weakness. My life giving power can only explode into the world and explode into all your friends, oh Jesus Christ, through your weakness.

And this is what Paul is suddenly realizing. And Paul says, if Jesus Christ can uncomplainingly submit to his infinite suffering and thereby have God's life explode into our lives and into the world, then you and I can take our finite suffering uncomplainingly. Because you see Jesus Christ took His infinite suffering uncomplainingly for us. So we can take our finite suffering uncomplainingly for Him and know the same thing will happen, the same principle will happen.

And that's the secret, if there is a secret, not just stoically saying, I'm going to take it, I'm going to take it. No. Being melted by the sight of Jesus, going through death into resurrection for us, and then going through death into resurrection for Him, and then the principle works, and then it all works, and then death in you works life in others and even in you. And therefore Paul is saying, the resurrection proves this.

If you're about to go under the anesthetic and you're not sure you'll ever wake up and you say, oh, what's going to happen? What's going to happen? Say, hey, Jesus was raised from the dead. I believe it, and that means no matter what happens, it's going to be all right because resurrection out of death is the meaning of history, because redemption out of tragedy is the meaning of history. And you know, one of the things that's very encouraging to me

is how Paul actually saw this work out in his own life. It's extremely interesting to compare chapter 4 verse 8 of 2 Corinthians with chapter 1 verse 8, you know why? In chapter 1 verse 8, Paul is talking about the last great suffering episode he's been through. And in chapter 1 verse 8 he says, when they were, we don't even know again what he went through, but in Asia, we're told the hardships we suffered in Asia were very great. Beyond our ability to endure, so we despaired of life. And yet in chapter 4 verse 8, he says, you see what he says, he says, we are hard pressed

on every side, but not crushed. Our perplexed, but we're not in despair. We're persecuted, but not abandoned. We're strucked out, but not destroyed. Now, is that a contradiction? He said, when I was in Asia, I was suffering so bad, I dispaired. Here, he says, I'm perplexed, but I don't despair.

Now, which is it? And the answer is, this is not contradiction. It's psychological realism. Here's what Paul's saying. Paul says, when you're actually going through the suffering, you do feel like you're crushed and you actually even do feel like you're in despair. But he says, I can look back and see that God was sustaining me with a hope that it couldn't go out, an indelible hope. Isn't that great? He's

saying, when you're going through it, you do feel abandoned, but you're not. You can be going through trouble right now, feel abandoned, feel like you've got no hope, feel like you've completely given up, and yet in the future you'll look back and see that gospel was working out in your life and underneath all along with the everlasting arms. Now, that's the pattern of suffering, but believe it or not, as great as that is, Paul actually tells us something else. He gives us something else.

He talks to us about the future of suffering. In verse 16 to 18 where he says, therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day, for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Now I already mentioned that Romans 8 is a kind of parallel passage to this, but when you put the two together you start to realize the astonishing claim Paul's making in chapter 4 verse 17. See in chapter 8 he says, I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the

glory that will be revealed in us. So in chapter 8 he says, the sufferings of the present time will be outweighed by the future glory. But in chapter 417 he says something more amazing than that. He says, the sufferings of this present time produce the glory, achieve the glory, work the glory. What does that mean? Marilyn McCord Adams, who teaches philosophy at Yale, has done a study of the female Christian mystics of the Middle Ages, like Hillary, of Bingan, like Julian of Norwich.

A lot of people that probably a lot of you haven't heard of and they are understudied and I'm glad she's doing it. And she has, she's distilled out of their teaching some remarkable teachings about suffering. They saw some amazing things in the Bible in the gospel and let me tell you what they are Adam says here's the teaching The stoic said accept suffering the Epicurian said avoid suffering

The aesthetics and the masochists said embrace suffering for its own sake And the masochist said, embrace suffering for its own sake. But the gospel does not accept suffering, it does not avoid suffering, it does not embrace suffering, it engulfs suffering. Ingulfs it. What does that mean? It all has to do with hope, the nature of the Christian hope. Listen, what is our Christian hope? Is it just heaven?

Is that it? If it's just heaven, we have compensation for all the things we've lost, and we've lost so much. We've lost our health, we've lost our youth, we've lost feasts and friends and family. And then, of course, there's all the things that we never even had. The books we wanted to write, which we never will, the poetry we wanted to write, which we're not good enough

to do. The musically wanted to compose, but we'll never get to it. I mean, in other words, is heaven our hope, because if it's so, then it's a compensation for all the things we've suffered, all the losses. But if the future is a new heavens, a new earth, if the Christian hope is not just a compensation for what we've lost, but a restoration of the world and the life we've always wanted, that changes everything with regard to suffering. And here's why. Years ago, I had a terrible nightmare.

And a nightmare was it was really a violent nightmare in which every member of my family was killed. Every member was killed. And if you've ever had, you know, it's probably not all that unusual, you may have had some kind of nightmare like that. And I woke up panting and suddenly realized I had them back. Now, it was 3 a.m. you know, so what, what, here's what I wanted to do. You know, I'd, I'd said good night to them, good night honey, good night kids, you know, I said, I loved them before the nightmare, but not like I loved them after the nightmare, you know, when you wake up and you think you've lost them and you think they were all bloodied and dead and you suddenly have them back?

You want to jump in a 3 a.m. of course. You want to jump on them and you want to hug them and kiss them and they say, what's the matter with you? It's 3 a.m. so I didn't. But here's the point. The joy of finding them wasn't a joy in spite of the nightmare. It was a joy that was enhanced by the nightmare.

Do you understand? It was because of the nightmare. It was a joy that was enhanced by the nightmare. Do you understand? It was because of the nightmare, my joy was 10 times, 100 times intensified. As it were, the nightmare was taken up into the joy of having them back. The nightmare made the joy greater. Now, you know what this means? If heaven is a compensation for all this stuff,

you've always wanted, but you're never going to have, that's one thing. But if the new heavens and new earth is our hope, and it is, and then therefore we have the restoration of everything you've always wanted, the new heavens and new earth will make the every horrible thing you've ever experienced, nothing but a nightmare. It'll turn the worst thing that you ever happened to you into a nightmare. And as a nightmare, we'll do nothing, but infinitely, correspondingly, increase your future joy and glory in a way that it wouldn't have been increased if you've never suffered it. And that is the ultimate defeat of evil. To say, evil is an illusion, or there were going to be compensated for it is one thing,

but to say that evil will in the end be the servant of your joy. That's astounding. The Christian hope does not just compensate you for suffering, it undoes it. It absolutely undoes it. Our momentary affliction achieves an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. There has never been an understanding of suffering, more hopeful, more encouraging, more

glorious than that. And you know the great writers and the great thinkers have understood this. It's an astounding teaching in the Bible. Do you think you understand it tonight? I don't think so. You've got to, as Paul says, fix your eyes on it. You've got to fix your eyes on it. That's a discipline.

You've got to think about it and think about it until it pulverizes your discouragement. You've got to let the glory of it hit you until it pulverizes your discouragement. You've got to let the glory of it hit you until it pulverizes your discouragement. And then you don't accept suffering because you know God doesn't want it. You certainly don't just avoid suffering because you realize how God can use it.

You don't embrace suffering like some kind of masochist because you realize that this is evil. This is evil. God didn't want this to happen. But look how he's worked out in Jesus Christ. So even the evil will be at the eventual servant of our joy and our glory. It's only because he understood this,

that you have this amazing statement from Dusty Eski right in the middle of the Brothers Karamatsov, where he says, I believe that all suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small euclidean mind of man. That in the world's finale, he says, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass.

It will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they've shed, that this thing will make it not only possible to forgive, but to justify everything that's happened. Tuskeesky understood, though, it's a mystery, it's a glorious mystery. How else could he say that at the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something will happen so great, it will not only make it possible to forgive everything that's happened in history, but to justify it. And then, of course, there's Tolkien, JR, Tolkien, who had a very, very, very sad life.

Do you know that? His father died when he was four, his mother died when he was 12. All his best friends but one died in World War I. By the time he was 25, how did he handle it? I'll tell you how he handled it. He wrote stories. And the stories, though superficially not Christian, are suffused with this deep kind of hope, a hope that he called, a hope beyond the walls of the world, a hope so deep and so great that it can sweeten a world in which everything wears away. And there is no remedy within the walls of the world for that wearing away.

But Tolkien understood, and if you know how to read his stuff, you'll see the hope everywhere. Like this passage right near the Danom Y in Lord of the Rings, he writes, the menstrual sang to them until their hearts wounded with sweet words overflowed. And their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight finally flowed together. And tears are the very wine of blessedness. Tears are the very wine of blessedness. What is are the very wine of blessedness. What is he talking about?

He knows this. He knows 2 Corinthians 4, 17. Do you? And his best friend, C.S. Lewis, runs, wrote, at present, we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of mourning, but they do not make us fresh and pure.

We see the morning star, we see the glory of the sun, but we cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all the leaves, all the pages of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Someday, God willing, we will get in. When human souls have become as perfect in our voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then we will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which nature is only the first sketch, for we are summoned to pass in through nature beyond her into that splendor which she so fitfully yet so wonderfully reflects. Fix your eyes on this. That's what Paul says, don't you see? It's a discipline. Fix your eyes on this and you'll be able to handle anything

and even the worst things will make you something great. Though outwardly we're wasting away, yet inwardly we're being renewed day by day, for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, for what is seen as temporary, what is unseen as eternal. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for creating a world that though it's fallen and though evil has marred it, your power is such that you will only make the world to come greater than if there had never been courage, never been crucifixion, never been bravery, never been rescue, never been suffering.

What infinite wisdom you have. We ask simply that you would help us to fix our eyes on these things, so that even the worst thing that happened to us make us like your son, Jesus Christ, and whose name we pray, amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller. If you were encouraged by this podcast, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel Unlife monthly partner.

Your partnership helps more people access resources like this podcast. Just visit GospelUnlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 2004 and 2008. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life Podcast will preach from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.