Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - God’s Law

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

The book of Deuteronomy is a series of sermons Moses preached just before he died. In it, he lays out, in the most comprehensive and practical way, how you should live if you experience the grace and salvation of God. If you experience God, how should that actually affect the way in which you live your life? It’s a very, very practical book and an incredibly comprehensive book. Today, we get to the Ten Commandments. This is one of the most influential texts in the entire history of the world. Let’s take a look and see what we’re taught about it. It’s awfully basic, but it’s awfully basic because it’s awfully important. There are four things we’re going to learn here about God’s Law: 1) the origin of the Law; 2) the substance of the Law; 3) the problem of the Law, and 4) the solution to that problem. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 27, 2007. Series: Deuteronomy – Doing Justice, Preaching Grace. Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:6-21, 24-29. 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 and Life. During January, we're inviting our listeners to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. If you'd like to learn more, keep listening at the end of today's podcast for details. Have you ever wondered what it really means to live a great life? The Bible says the Ten Commandments aren't confining rules, but a framework for building a life of true greatness. Today, Tim Keller takes an in-depth look at one of the Tenth Commandments. commandments, and helps us understand what it means to live the way God designed us to, free, whole, and rooted in his love.

The reading today is taken from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 5, verses 6 through 21 and 24 through 29. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those. who love me and keep my commandments you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God for the

Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your man-servant or maid-servant, nor your ox, your donkey, or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your man-servant and maid-servant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the

Sabbath Day. Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

You shall not set your desire. on your neighbor's house or land, his man-servant or maid-servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. And you said, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today, we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer. For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire as we have and survived? Go near and listen to all that the Lord

our God says. Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey. The Lord heard you when you spoke to me and the Lord said to me, I have heard what this people said to you. Everything was good. Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever. This is the word of the Lord. We've started to look at the Book of Deuteronomy. Book of Deuteronomy is a series of sermons that Moses preached just before he died, and in it he lays out. He lays out, in the most comprehensive and practical way how you should live if you experience the grace and salvation of God. If you experience God, how should that actually affect the way in which you live

your life? It's a very, very, very practical book and an incredibly comprehensive book. Now, today we get to the Ten Commandments. This is one of the most influential texts in the entire history of the world. God's law, Ten Commandments. And even though it's also mentioned in Exodus 20, this exposition of it here in Deuteronomy 5 is really the most complete exposition and explanation of God's law, the Ten Commandments, that there is anywhere in the Bible. So let's take a look and see what we're taught about it. It's awfully basic, but it's awfully basic because it's awfully important, so we have to look at it. Now, there's four things I think we're going to learn here about God's law. The origin of God's

law, the origin of the law, the substance of the law, the problem of the law, and the solution to that problem. The origin, the substance, the problem of the law that every culture has to deal with, and the solution. Okay, first, the origin. Notice in verse 16, when it talks about honoring father and mother, it says, I want you to honor your father and mother, that things will go well with you. But that is not only, that promise, as it were, is not only attached to that command, because at the very end, the last verse, verse 29, it says, I wish that you would always do all of my commands that things may go well with you. And that word well, going well, doesn't just mean, you know, things go smoother. It means full flourishing. And this is the first and very

important thing to understand. What is God's law? Is it a set of arbitrary decrees that God has come up with. You know, a king could come up with a whole set of decrees just to try to make sure his subjects keep off the streets, stay busy, just to prove their loyalty. You know, the king sits down and says, well, okay, I'll have him do this, I'll have him do this, I'll have him do this, I'll have him do this. In no way should you understand God's law like that. Of course, God makes decrees. But the law of God is an expression of his actual nature. So when God says, don't lie or bear false witness. He says that because he doesn't lie, because he is a God of integrity, because he is a God of truth, and he is utterly consistent. But since you and I are made in his image, you know what that

means. The law of God, then, therefore, reflects our nature. It's extremely important. Hear this. It reflects our nature. We were made in his image, and if the law expresses his nature, then it actually reflects what we need to be to be fully who we are. So, for example, think about lying for just one second. All kinds of scholars have understood over the years that you have to have truth and trust in a society for there to be any kind of economic life, civic life, family life, life. We have to be able to trust that what's being told to us is true, or everything breaks down. You know, when the Soviet Union essentially collapsed from within, there was a lot of analysis, but everybody mentioned at least one thing, and that is, that nobody could trust anything they read.

Nobody could trust anything they heard. They couldn't even trust the weather reports. They couldn't trust anything. And as a result, there was absolute breakdown. Why? Because when God says, don't lie, he's not giving you busy work. It's not an arbitrary decree. He is saying to lie goes against your nature,

as human beings, as what I made you. And therefore, to violate the law of God, violates you. If a doctor, let's just say you've got high cholesterol or you've got incredibly bad, you know, you've got a heart problem, and if your doctor says, don't you eat X, Y, Z. If you do eat X, Y, Z, nobody's going to give you a fine. Nobody's going to come and give you a ticket. Nobody's going to come and put you in jail. They won't have to. Because the consequences are natural. if you violate your doctor's order you're violating your own nature and you're unraveling your own fabric and God is saying that here says don't think of the law of God as arbitrary decrees the law of God outlines who you are to violate the law of God sets up strains in the fabric of reality

that only lead to breakdown the law of God outlines the kind of life in which you will find who you really are. We'll find your absolute being. You will finally flourish. That's number one, very important. So there we see the origin of God's law. It's in the nature of God and in the nature of our own being, and to violate it, violates our own being, and to fulfill it, fulfills yourself. Number one, number two. The second thing I want to look at here is the substance of God's law, and here's what I mean by that. During the next few months, we're going to be looking at what Deuteronomy says, and the middle part of Deuteronomy is actually an exposition of each of these laws to 10 commandments. So there's no need for me to go down and say, this means this, I'm not

going to go through right now and say each commandment means this. What I want you to see is something that I usually don't notice, that I don't think many people notice, and that is how all these commandments hang together. I want you for a minute to see that they all are absolutely interdependent. when I first became a Christian, one of the Bible verses that really bugged me was James Chapter 2 verse 10. And in James 2 verse 10, it says, if you're trying to obey God's law, but you violate it at any point, you've broken all of God's law. If you violate the law of God at any point, you've broken all of God's law. And I bugged me, because I felt like, look, if nine out of ten isn't bad today. You know, if I've kept nine out of ten,

lost, I want some credit. What does it matter with this, God? 90%. That's an A. It used to be. And I wanted to know something about that, see? And now I realize I really got it wrong. James wasn't saying, oh, God doesn't grade on a curve. What James is trying to say is, you actually can't break one law without breaking them all, and you can't keep one law without keeping them all, that they're much more interdependent than you ever thought. Let me explain. First of all, let me show you three combinations, three ways in which the ten commandments, combine. First of all, they combine the vertical and the horizontal. Now, that's one that you've probably heard. The first table of the law, commands one to four, are about God. How do I honor God?

And how do I love him with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind? So the first four commands are about how do I honor and love God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mine. The next table of the law, which is commandments 5 through 10, are horizontal. How do I love my neighbor as myself? How do I honor their personhood? And so there you have horizontal, pardon me, horizontal, how do I love my neighbor as myself, vertical, how do I love the Lord God with all my heart, soul, and strength of mind?

So it combines the horizontal and the vertical. It's not just spiritual, it's not just social, it's both. It's not just personal and spiritual. It's not just external and social. It's both. That's the first combination. second combination you may not have thought of, at least I haven't until fairly recently. It also covers the inner and the outer.

It covers the inner, psychological, spiritual, motivational, as well as the external and practical. And I want you to think this. Now, we actually talked about this last week, and we'll keep talking about it because Deuteroni brings it up all the time. Commandments one and two, where it says, have no other gods before me and make no graven image of anything, whether bird, or fish or sun, moon stars, worship no graven image, have no other God's before me.

That is talking about your very heart of hearts. If anything is more important to your hope, your meaning in life, your self-worth, and your security, then God's love, you're sinning. Now, we've talked about this before, but let me give you one more illustration. I occasionally use this, but it's one of my favorite ones. many, many years ago, there was a girl in our youth group back in Virginia. Some of you heard me say this before, but I think this will still bring this home. And she was 15, I think, or something like that.

And she was sitting there saying how discouraged she was about her whole life. And so we went through, being a 25-year-old pastor, I gave her theology, you know, and I said, you know, are you a Christian? Yes, you know, I'm born again, and I have the righteousness of Christ, and I have the father's love, and I have a guaranteed place. the new heavens and new earth. And then she says, but you know what? What good is all that?

If the boys don't even know I'm alive. Now, cute, right? Right, titter, titter, that's great. Okay, but here's what she was doing. Did she not believe in the gospel? Did she not believe in God and all these great things? Yeah. But God was on audio and the boys were on video.

I mean, if you're listening to something on audio, at the same time you're watching a movie, you know, something on video. What's going to win? What's going to get your attention? It's going to be the movie, not the audio, right? It's going to be the image, not the sound. She believed in God, but boys had captured her imagination. Imagination, image. Boys had grabbed her heart. Boys were more important to who she was in herself, which by the way is true, just about any 15-year-old girl, probably. I mean, I'm not trying to pick on her. But you say, see why the Ten Commandments are getting at the very heart of things.

What turns your crank? What captures your imagination? What is your real motivation? Why do you really get up in the morning? What is your real hope? What is your real meaning in life? What is it? Is it anything more than God's love? Now that's the first thing the commandments are after. So it's talking about the inner. And then in Commandment 10, it gives you the sign. How do you know if there's something more important to you than God? Lack of contentment. Yes, commandment 10 says thou shalt not covet, but do you know what that means? That's a command to be content.

If you love God more than anything else, when you look out there at the things you don't have, he might say I like them, but they won't drive you, they won't gnaw at you. The 10th command is a command to have inner peace. The 10th command is a call to love God enough to be content. It's like everybody wants success. Everybody wants a relationship. Everybody wants to be loved. Everybody wants achievement.

But if God's your ultimate comfort, your ultimate concern, your ultimate security, then when you don't have the money and you don't have the relationship and you don't have these things, they won't call you. Now, if you have made that inner transformation, that's amazing. If you put God in the very center of your heart, then you can keep the Sabbath day. See, let's go to the external now. Why? because if you're content, you won't overwork. Then you won't commit adultery because if you're content,

you won't use sex as a way of self-fulfillment and self-realization, but only as a way of doing, building commitment with another person in marriage and building community. See, only if you have the inner transformation, will you be able to do all these other things that the commandments say you should do? So in a way, you know, the Ten Commandments command that you be born again. The Ten Commandments command an inner transformation and an inner peace and contentment, as well as all these practicals. So here you see the commands not only combine the external, pardon me, the vertical and the horizontal, but it combines the inner and the outer.

And last of all, I meant briefly, it also combines the individual, personal, and the corporate. You know, in our culture right now, there's very often values are fragmented. You've got a group of people over there who's stressed caring about the poor and justice and equity and including everybody. But when it comes to the personal morality, that's social morality. But when it comes to personal morality, you know, what you do with your sexuality is your business. And then over here you've got a bunch of people to talk about traditional values and, you know, being religious and being moral and not committing adultery and all those sorts of things. But when it comes to concern for the poor and all that, that seems to be not so important. but if you actually read the Ten Commandments and understand what they're all saying,

and we're going to see that over the months, there's a combination here. You know, Commandment 2 is no false religion. Commandment 4 is honor your father and your mother, traditional family values. No adultery. But on the other hand, thou shalt not steal, as we will see later on, means caring for the economic of well-being of everyone. Thou shalt not kill means not harming anyone, caring for their physical safety and their physical conditions.

So you're going to see that when it comes to thou shalt not kill, it means caring about the hungry. And therefore, there's this combination. Even the Sabbath, as you can see, if you look carefully there, is really an act of liberation. If you overwork, you are a cog in an economic system. It's using you and exploiting you, even if you're doing it voluntarily. And therefore, there's cultural analysis here and social analysis and religious theological analysis and individual personal morality and social morality. it's all there. Now let's go back here for a second to James

2, verse 10. And you see what it means? When he says if you break one, you break them all, they're all interdependent. For example, what if you say, oh, I'm very good, I go to church, and I read my Bible, and I pray, and I honor God, I honor God, I honor God. Now, I'm abusive to my employees, I'm harsh, I'm nasty, I'm unkind, I'm cruel to people, but I love God. See, wait a minute, if you say, I'm okay at the first part of the commandments, I'm honoring God, but I just don't love people. You're not honoring God if you don't love people. They all are of a peace. You can't keep commandments one to four without keeping commandments five through ten.

Or you say, well, I lied. Well, I stole. But at least I didn't commit idolatry. And we talked about this last week. You always commit idolatry if you lie or steal or break any of other commandments. Why would you lie unless you made approval or saving face or money or something like that? More important than God. You wouldn't lie. You wouldn't steal. You wouldn't do anything wrong if God was actually absolutely first in your life.

You wouldn't need to. You wouldn't have to. There'd be no motivation to. You see, they're all of a peace. You can't actually keep one without keeping them all. You can't break one without breaking them all. We all chase things like success, true love, or the perfect life, good things that can easily become ultimate things. When we put our faith in them, deep down, we know they can't satisfy our deepest longings.

The truth is that we've made lesser gods of good things, things that can't give us what we really need. In his book, Counterfeit Gods, the empty promises of money, sex, and power, and the only hope that matters. Tim Keller shows us how a proper understanding of the Bible reveals the truth about societal ideals and our own hearts, and shows us that there is only one God who can wholly satisfy our desires. This month, we'll send you counterfeit gods as our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the love of Christ with people all over the world. You can request your copy at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give.

Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. So there's the substance, the interdependence of the Ten Commandments. It's not the sort of thing we usually talk about because we have almost immediately when we're teaching them, then we break them down and say, well, this commandant means this and this and this, and we'll get there. But I want to show you that they are all of a piece. Isn't that amazing? But that leads us to our third point. It leads us to our third point, which is the problem of the law. If you want to have an understanding of the problem of the law, you take a look at verse 24 and 25.

Here's the first response. This is what the children of Israel said as soon as they heard it. notice what they say the Lord our God has shown us his glory and his majesty we have heard his voice from the fire but now why should we die the great fire will consume us and we will

die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer now notice what they're saying to hear God out of the fire is wonderful and yet terrible it's great what an honor and we don't want any more of it

we talked about this last week the fire of god is the beautiful danger of the absolute holiness and perfection of god but here's what they're seeing it's what you feel whenever anybody you know i didn't even go through the 10 commandments did i i didn't even really go through exactly explain what they all are but even when you do the little summary i just gave you you start to feel the weight of it and here's the problem of the law here's the problem they felt on the one hand when you you hear the law of God, you say, of course. Of course I should live like that. C.S. Lewis, in his book, The Abolition of Man, in the very back, there's an appendix in which he shows that the Ten Commandments are essentially held by all the religions of the world. As different as the religions of the world are,

and boy, are they all, are they on, who's God, and who are we, and where do we come from, and how can we be saved? The religions of the world are absolutely different on us. And, all those things. And when you ask them, how should we live in the world? There's almost a complete consensus. The Ten Commandments are virtually common sense. Romans 2 says they're written on our hearts, no matter who we are. And Lewis makes a pretty good case of it. So on the one hand, when you hear the law of God, you say, of course I should live like this. How could I not live like this? But on the other hand, you say, but I can't live like this. The law of God, the children of Israel realized, is something they can't live with and they can't live without.

They can't live with it, and they can't live without it. And this is a problem that every culture has to deal with in different ways, and yet every culture it plays out. Let me give you a real quick example, a very brief example of this. Today, you have what's often called culture wars. And the culture wars, to a great degree, have to do with this idea, is there a divine moral absolute? is there a set of divine absolute moral laws that all people must obey that are true for everyone? Now, on the one hand, you have the secular people who are saying no. That morality is relative to the individual and it's relative to the culture.

And there is no set of divine moral absolutes that are true for everybody. And if you think you've got them, and if you think you've got the truth, you're the problem with the world. And on the other side, we have traditional people, and traditional people say there is. Traditional people tend to be religious. They come from various religions, and they say, yes, of course there is a divine law. Of course there is a set of moral absolutes. And you relativists, you people who don't believe in them, you're the problem with the world. But both those positions have severe problems.

And I mean severe problems. because on the one hand, the secularist, if you say to the secularist, tell me, if there is no God and we just evolved, on what basis can you say that it's right to be kind and wrong to be cruel? On what basis? How can you say, you know, how can you impose your views on other people? And it's a difficulty. On the other hand, the religious people have a terrible record of oppression and using the warrant that they have the truth. to harm other people? And I think this all came together to me in a way in a little, it was actually

not a whole article, but part of an article I read in New York Times Magazine not too long ago, in which it said that a university in Israel back in 2003 did a study of all their communes, of all their communes. You know, they have hundreds of communes around Israel. And in those communes, some are religious and some were secular. And the religious ones were doing far better than the secular ones economically. And they did a kind of thorough study and they discovered something, namely that secular people, especially secular men, especially secular males, secular people are far more selfish and individualistic than religious people. And that's one of the reasons why the communists didn't do very well. But you see, the nub of the problem? Secularism makes

people individualistic and selfish. But religion makes people try. divisive, self-righteous. See, without the law, if everything's relative, then why not live any way I want? But with the law, when I've got the truth, then I feel like I can bash people. So secularism makes people individualistic and selfish, but religion tends to make people tribal. What are we going to do? We can't live with the law of God, and we can't live without it.

It's the same thing that the children of Israel had a problem with. What's the answer? Here it is. One of the most amazing things about this whole passage is verse 29. Because in verse 29, God speaks and says, oh, that this people, oh, that this people would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so it might go well with them. Now, even in English, it looks like, what? God's getting emotional. This consuming fire is getting emotional. oh, that these people would incline their hearts to fear me, and boy, that he is.

First of all, the word fear is not what you think it means, because in English it means to be afraid. But in the Old Testament, in Hebrew in the Old Testament, it actually means the opposite. To fear someone is to experience awe and wonder before the grace and glory of something. It's like to be enraptured by an incredible piece of music or an incredible piece of art. That's what it means. And here's what God is saying, oh, that my people would want to obey me out of love. Oh, that my people would not just obey me because they're afraid of me, because they know they have to, but because they love me. And the Hebrew actually is even more nuanced than that, because Chris Wright, in his commentary on Deuteronomy, points out, that the Hebrew phrase that is rendered here, oh, that.

See, that's an English way of getting across a Hebrew phrase. But oh, that means unfulfilled longing. And we have a number of places in the Old Testament, like Isaiah 48 and Jeremiah 2 and Hosea 11, where God says, oh, that. And what it means is how I long, how I weep with unfulfilled desire that my people would not just obey because they have to, but because they want to. not just obey because I'm God, but because I'm your God. And one of the most obvious things I realized, as I was looking through this passage,

just last night actually, was one term is used throughout the law of God more than the other term, and that is this preposition. Verse 6, I'm the Lord your God. Verse 9, I'm the Lord your God. Verse 11, I'm the Lord your God. Verse 12, I'm the Lord your God. Verse 13, I'm the Lord your God. Fifteen, your God.

Sixteen, twice, your God. And then, of course, Moses keeps saying he's the Lord our God over and over again. Why? Look, if you hear somebody say, my John or my Susie, you know immediately we're talking about, you know, I don't know, husband, wife, child, sibling, somebody incredibly close. And this is what God is saying. I don't want you to obey me because I'm God. I want you to obey me because I'm your God.

I want there to be intimacy. I want there to be love. This is an amazing thing. Why did he give us the law? You say, to get us to submit to him. No, that's why you and I would do it. But he's God. If he wants to get us to submit to him,

he's got to snap his fingers and we've got to do it, you know? We couldn't help it. He couldn't possibly be giving us the law to make us submit. He doesn't need to do that. Why would he be giving us the law? He's telling us. He says, I want to be giving us. want a love relationship with you. If you obey me, that's you giving me love, and it's also

me giving you love because this fulfills your deepest being. Oh, that my people would say, not I obey you because you're God, but I obey you because you're my God. Is there any hope for this vision? It's unfulfilled longing. He knows this isn't happening. Centuries later, a man comes to Jerusalem, looks at Jerusalem, and begins to weep in Luke 1941 and says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, oh, that. You would know the things that pertain to your peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes. It's Jesus. And one week later, he went to the cross. Why? To pay the penalty for our breaches of the law. To pay the penalty for our sins, the way in which we fail. to obey the law. Okay, you've always heard that? Yeah, but here's something I don't know that

we know enough, or know well enough, or maybe no at all. When he was on the cross, he was forsaken. Now, psychologists will tell you the worst thing that can happen to you is to be forsaken by someone that you love. A death of a spouse or a divorce are the two worst things that can happen to a human being, but compared to that, to compare to this, that's nothing. because the father and the son had known and loved each other for all eternity and on the cross Jesus is forsaken. He's experiencing the penalty for breaking the law. He's dying the death we should die. But when he goes to the cross, here's the question. Why? He didn't have to go to the cross. He tells you the reason, because when he cries out, he doesn't say, God, God, why have you

forsaken me. He says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's covenant language. That's deliberate covenant language. And well, you know what that means? On the cross, Jesus Christ was not just dying the death we should have died, but living the life we should have lived. Jesus Christ is fulfilling the law. He is being, he is doing what God wants us to do. My God, do you realize what he was doing when he went to the cross to die for our sins. He was loving the Lord, his God, with all his heart, soul, strength of mind in a way no one ever has. No one's ever been sent to hell and still love God. You know, Ahab says, from hell's heart, I stab at thee. Remember Captain Ahab? From hell's heart, I stab at thee, but that was just a metaphor. Jesus Christ was literally in hell,

and he said, from hell's heart, I'm still loving you. I'm faithful to you. There's, no one's ever loved the Lord is God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind like that. And no one ever loved his neighbor like that, because he went to hell for you and me. He was fulfilling the law perfectly, fulfilling the law completely in a way that no one else ever has. And that's why when 2 Corinthians 521 says, God made him sin that who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God and Him, it means not only is our sins put on Him

and he's given what we deserve, but His righteousness comes to us, his obedience, the fulfillment of the law comes to us. Now God treats as if we'd done everything he'd ever done. And that means two things. one is I don't have to be afraid to obey the law because I'm accepted because of what Jesus Christ has done. I don't be afraid. Now I can go to the law out of delight. I know I'll be imperfect about it, but I won't have to feel incredibly guilty all the time because even my

imperfect obedience to law is a way to begin to love the one who did this for me. And secularism makes people individualistic and selfish and religion makes people tribal, but the gospel humbles you out of selfishness and humbles you out of being tribal and superior. turns you outward, to serve others, walking in the footsteps of the one who died for his enemies. Our pleasure and our duty, though opposite before, since we have seen his beauty, are joined apart no more, to see the law by Christ fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice, transforms a slave into a child and duty into choice. Jesus Christ was the ultimate covenant keeper so that we covenant breakers. He was the ultimate law fulfillers so that we law breakers can now obey the law out of love

and gratitude with relief and a lack of fear with only joy so we can please and resemble and delight the one who did that for us. Let's pray. our father the law of god is exceeding broad and incredibly powerful and impossible to live with without jesus but with jesus when we see him fulfilling that law now we want to obey the law and we're not afraid of trying we want to obey it and we're not afraid of trying and failing because we will it just transforms completely our whole approach of the law and we ask that you would help us to keep these things in mind so that we don't get back into the problem that everyone else has who doesn't understand the gospel, either the problem of throwing the law off, and there's so much

devastation that comes when we just go away from it, or trying to obey it, and there's so much guilt and pride and anxiety that comes from doing that. Father, we'll never overcome our problem with the law unless we understand that Jesus Christ on the cross loved you with all his heart, soul strength, and mind, loved us neighbors as himself in unsurpassable ways in our place, in our stead, on our behalf so that now we know there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Help us take all this in.

Let it move us, let it change us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the gospel-centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a gospel-in-life monthly partner. Your monthly partnership helps us to plan and steward our resources throughout the year to be the most effective in reaching people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. And as a small thank you for your monthly support, we will mail you a physical comment. of each new Life in the Gospel Quarterly Journal that you can enjoy and share with others. To learn more, just visit gospelandlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelonlife.com slash partner.

Today's sermon was recorded in 2007. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. You know,