Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Indestructible Truth

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

When people in the West were faced with the atrocities of World War II, the culture’s prevailing optimistic views of human nature were devastated. Two questions kept coming up: what’s wrong with us that we’re capable of this, and what are we going to do about it?  Isaiah 52 to 53 was written to answer those same two questions. It was written to a nation facing exile, to people who were about to face captivity, atrocities, and prison. And it has maybe the most well-known answer in the Bible to the question about human evil: God is sending somebody, the servant of the Lord. In this passage, we learn 1) who he is, 2) why he came, and 3) what he did. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 28, 1999. Series: What’s Really Wrong with the World. Scripture: Isaiah 52:13-53:12. 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. Some people say the fundamental problem of the world is poverty. Others say it's bad systems, poor education, or biology. But what if none of these can fully explain the brokenness we see, both in the headlines and in our own hearts? In today's teaching, Tim Keller looks at how the Bible's teaching on sin gives us a deeply honest and yet incredibly hopeful view of the world. I was reading Ezekiel recently, and Ezekiel got to, was with the exiles,

and he was in a far-off land, and a lot of his fellow Jews were saying, how can we worship God in a strange land? And he got this vision. You read it? It's very, very strange, but the most important thing about Ezekiel's vision is he sees God, high and lifted up, and he sees him on his throne, something different about Ezekiel's vision than Isaiah's vision or anybody else's vision of the throne of God. If you look to the bottom of the throne, he found that God's throne had wheels.

It was a mobile God. And it was God's way of saying, I can make you a home that you and I can dwell in absolutely anywhere, absolutely anywhere. So welcome home. And let me read to you, Isaiah 52, 13, verses from 13 down to the end of chapter 53, 52, 13 to 53. C, my servant will act wisely. He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him, his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man in his form marred beyond human likeness. So will he sprinkle many nations.

and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender chute, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities,

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and who can speak of his descendants,

for he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people, he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the help and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.

By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors, for he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. This is God's word. There's a little bit of a guess that there's new people here tonight that haven't been part of any series, that this is actually part of a series, and we've been actually talking about what's wrong with us. I mean, the human race.

Kathy and I just watched a video of a movie. I think it came out last year, which was just called Paradise Road. True story of a prison of war camp in Sumatra, World War II, and all of those true stories, whether they're not. It's the book Shantung Compound by Langdon Gilke or the accounts of the death camps by Victor Frankel or this movie. They're gripping, of course, but there's a whole lot more than that. What happened in the Holocaust, what happened in World War II, what happened on the battlefield fields, what happened in the prison camp was this, the optimistic views of human nature that were very, very prevalent for about 100 years before that in the West.

The optimistic views, the views have said basically evil is a matter of bad family nurturing or a bad lack of education or not the right socialization process or just false consciousness. All those kinds of optimistic approaches were devastated. They were devastated because when you're in the midst of one of those experiences, when you're in the midst of World War II, two questions keep coming up. see what's wrong with us that we're capable of this and what are we going to do about it what's wrong with us and how can we address it and what's interesting about this chapter it's very easy to forget who this was written to there's a lot of disagreement among scholars about the book of Isaiah but one thing everybody's in agreement about is Isaiah chapter 40 through 55 was written for a nation that was facing exile,

was written to the Israelites who were about to face all the stuff we're talking about. Captivity, atrocities, see? Prison. And it was written to them to answer those same two questions, what's wrong with the human race, and what are we going to do about it?

And this is the answer, maybe the best answer, maybe the most famous answer in the Bible, to the question about human evil. here's the answer God's sending somebody the servant of the Lord and what we learn in we take a look at a text is we learn who he is

why he came and what he did this is pretty much everything right who he is why he came what he did let's take a look first of all who he is now there's a little there's a lot in this passage

and when we get to the top you see it pretty right off the bat It says, see, my servant will act wisely. He'll be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Now, actually, that's the same terminology that described the one that Isaiah saw in the temple back in Isaiah 6. When it says, I went to the temple and I saw the Lord high and lifted up, same words. It's got to do with the transcendence, the transcendent majesty of God.

It's got to do with the purity, the perfection. It's amazing that the same terms would be, you know, attached to this person. But the real amazing thing is verse one. And you don't notice it right off the bat. There's a number of ways to translate it. Let me just tell you what he's saying. Verse one, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. Now, let me give you a little bit of a paraphrase of this.

What he's saying is, who has believed our message, that this is the arm of the Lord. It's going to take revelation, Isaiah is saying. Nobody's going to believe that this one, this servant, is the arm of the Lord. Nobody's going to believe it. And here's why. The arm of the Lord is not just a kind of nice metaphor that Isaiah came up with on the spot. The arm of the Lord has a very specific, very definite meaning in the Hebrew Bible and also especially in the book of Isaiah. The arm of the Lord is the Lord himself come into history to do something concrete. The arm of the Lord is what moved the Red Sea, part of the Red Sea. See, the arm of the Lord is not God's strength in general. Of course, arm, if it was the eye of the Lord, we'd be talking

about the knowledge of God, but the arm of the Lord is the power of God, but not just any kind of power. It's not just general strength. It's God's power in history. And no wonder Isaiah says, look, I know people aren't going to believe it. Nobody's going to believe that this is the arm of the Lord revealed. This is the arm of the Lord. This person is the omnipotent God come into history. Now, before we move on, we've got to move on. Let me just say, what's neat about this passage,

it's got to do with essentials. In fact, the more I look at this, who he is, why he came, you know, what he came to do, this really gets the kind of essential definitions. passage. For example, you know, Aristotle brought us the distinction between what he called the essence and the accidents, the essentials and the accidentals. So, for example, what if you'd never seen clay, you'd never seen steel before in your life? And I put in front of you a ball of clay and a steel eye beam. And I said, okay, what's the difference between clay and steel? And you

looked and said, I got it. Clay is round. steel is long and you'd say it's hard to laugh in here isn't it but try you know you can laugh under curly cues you don't just need graffiti

okay now that's better you'd say you miss the essence those are accidental it's sort of an accident clay can take number of shapes, but the shape isn't, is an essential. Shape is not essential. It's the, you know, it's

softness, hardness, chemical composition, all that kind of thing. Now, what's the essence of Christianity? Well, you say Christianity leads people to love one another. Yeah, yeah, but hey, there's a lot of people who aren't Christians that are very loving. Well, Christianity leads you, gives you strength, gives you peace, makes you good, yeah, but those are accidental. I don't mean they're accidents. I'm using in the Eurystitilian terms. They're not the essential. They overlap with lots of other groups of people.

What's essential? The armness of Christianity. What do I mean? All right, here's what I mean. Jesus Christ is not here called the mouth of God, the mouth of the Lord. He's called the arm of the Lord. That doesn't mean he didn't come to teach. He is a teacher.

But he didn't primarily come to tell you what to do. He came primarily to do. And that's the essential difference between Christianity and every other religion. Jesus Christ did not essentially come. Every other founder comes and says, Jesus did not, every other religion comes and says, I'm going to show you how to connect to God, do this. Jesus Christ says, I'm going to connect you to God, I've done this. Or I'll put it another way.

I mean, just a number of ways to put it. It means, for example, the gospel is news, not advice. you see the other founders come with advice and they say hey here's how you can change your life but news is this is what's happened that changes your life

now if I want some of you may have heard me say this before but let me put it to another way that I think brings it home the stories of Christianity don't work unless they're true whereas the stories of other religions work anyway. See, for example, what's the purpose of Buddhism? What's Buddhism about? It's about enlightenment. It's a wonderful faith. It's got lots of great stuff to teach us. It's about

enlightenment. And it's about an attitude toward life, an attitude towards suffering, and an attitude toward not grasping and, you know, working against the craving ego. So all the stories about Buddha, does it matter if they're true or not? No, it doesn't. Here's why. I mean, they might be, they may not be. The point is they're inspiring and they're exemplary. They tell me how to find enlightenment. They tell me how to live and they work whether they're true or not. Okay. Muhammad. No meaning no disrespect anybody, but take a look at the stories of Muhammad. What is Islam about? Well, the word Islam means submission. Obedience. Not so much enlightenment. Obedience to Allah. So all the stories about Muhammad work in this. Whether they're true or not, they show me how to

admit they show me what to do. Right? So they work. Let's look at the stories of Christianity. Okay. Let's look at the Christmas story. Born in a manger. Okay. What's the moral of that story? Have natural childbirth? What's the moral? Homelessness is fine? What's the moral? Let me listen. There is no moral. story is this. The arm of the Lord. The ideal has broken into history. It's become real. Finally. And this has happened and it changes everything. Well, in fact, let's get more to the point. Let's take a look at the story in front of us, the cross. There's a Christian story. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Now, what's the moral of that story? If that story is not true, think about this for a second.

and say, oh, well, it doesn't matter if it's true, it's just, it's inspirational. Oh, really? Let's think about this for a minute. What's the moral of a story? Don't protect yourself. You're the victim of what? Is it say oppression? When oppression comes to you, you just give in. You just let them walk all over you.

You don't open your mouth. You don't protest. Just let injustice roll over you. Is that? Is that the moral of the story? That's perverse. you know if there's another way to put it okay and put it to you like this

let's just say you and I have gone to the top of the Empire State Building and we're looking out there and all of a sudden you come up to me and say Tim I just want you to know how much I love you I want you to know how much I care for you and I'm going to show you how much I love you and you get up on the ledge and you say watch and you throw yourself off and down you go to your death and do I look over the ledge and I say look how that person loved me

do I no I would say what's wrong with that person but what if I because I'm stupid or because I'm a fool or something what if I get to the edge myself and I'm about to fall off and you come over and you push me to safety but in the process you fall

now listen the crucifixion is something has happened in history that changes everything. The servant has come to take your punishment. Changes everything. If it's not true, it's not just unimportant, it's bad.

It's not just that the story doesn't work if it's not true. It actually works badly. It's perverse. It's pernicious. Unless the stories of Christianity are true, unless Jesus Christ is the arm and not just the mouth.

See? Christianity is really bad for you. Very, very bad. Terrible. It's one of the other. He is the arm of the Lord. Okay? That's who came. It's God himself acting in history. Second.

That's who he came, but why did he come? Now, again, we're getting into essences. Because the reason he came is, look, verses 4 through 6, there's a whole slew of a great vocabulary where it's a whole survey of almost every kind of way to describe human evil, sin. Look, you've got infirmities, see, transgressions, iniquities. By the way, of all the words, by way, that's almost my favorite one, because you know what, the Hebrew word translated in iniquity, it's a shame, it doesn't come across in English at all, means bent, bent, okay? Bent means it doesn't work, but if you try

to unbent, it'll just make it worse, it'll break. But, in the the midst of all of these interesting words, there's one that kind of gets at the essence of what's wrong with us. So this is the answer to the question. What's wrong with us? Here it is. Verse six, very famous, but overlooked. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. Now you say, my word, this is this is, this is the central place where God is telling us the secrets of what's wrong with us, of human evil. This is a definition of evil. This is a definition of sin, own way? My word, you say. I mean, every, you know, why not murder or robbery or something like that? I mean, every little kid

wants their own way. Ah, I'm glad you said that. Look, a friend of mine who's, he's a lifetime bachelor. He's a preacher, and I listen to his sermons. And, uh, but he's, since he's a lifetime bachelor, when he actually comes across children, he's always struck by them in a way that I don't anymore because I, you know, being a parent, I'm sort of surrounded by them. But one day he was at a retreat and he was walking with a whole family of five and he were walking along and they were on their way to a pony corral. And the parents were saying to Charles, there was Charles and Sarah and Sally. And the parents said, now Charles, you rode the pony all morning. It's Sarah and Sally's turn. So it's their turn. And he said, oh, he nodded his head. They rounded a turn. They

got near the corral and as soon as they got near the corral charles dart off ahead of everybody ran into the crowd ran up to the staff person who was in charge of and said me first and uh my friend you know you know is this profound what kind of illustration is this but he he was amazed by it yeah but then he suddenly thought about it he says well wait a minute what if this is the undeleatable heart of every microchip in the soul of every human being can never be put out. What if this is essential? Oh, there's many, many, many, accidental. I mean, there's many forms of it. But what if this is something we can never delete? He says, if me first, basically, is what's wrong? What are death camps?

What is war? What is every single crime? What is every crime? Come on. What's the essence of every crime? Me first. That's it. I mean, years ago, Burger King had a song. Remember, it had a little ditty. It said, have it your way. According to verse 6, it's the essence of sin. Frank Sinatra saying, I did it my way. According to verse 6 is the essence of sin. But now look, it's not just very helpful.

Very helpful showing us basically my way, me first, how that shows what our relationships is with each other. But essentially, it shows us our relationship with God. Because it doesn't say we are all like snakes. gone to our own way. Snakes know their way. Sheep need a shepherd. And when sheep want to go their own way,

what they're saying is, I want to be my own shepherd. And when a human being goes its own way, what we're saying is, I want to be my own maker. You know, we're not totally sure whether Psalm 100 booted off of

Isaiah 53 or whether Isaiah 53 boots off of Psalm 100. But here, listen, Psalm 100 says, know that the Lord is God. It is he who has made us. and not we ourselves, for we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Now, it's very simple. Listen, this is one of the reasons why it's not a good idea to think

so much of sin in terms of breaking rules. Everywhere we look, we see brokenness, wars, cruelty, and heartache. We feel it in the world around us and in our own lives. How did it get this way? And what can be done about it? In his brand new book that's releasing this month, What is Wrong with the World? Tim Keller offers a clear and compassionate answer. Drawing from a series of teachings given at Redeemer, Dr. Keller shows how the reality of sin explains the pain we see all around us

and how only the gospel offers lasting freedom and healing. Whether you're overwhelmed by the state of our world, struggling with your own mistakes or choices, or looking for hope and joy, what is wrong with the world will help you see how the gospel speaks, both the heartache of our world and the pain within each of us. This newly released book, What is Wrong with the World, is our thanks for your gift this month to help Gospel in Life share the good news of Jesus.

Request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. If you say sin is breaking rules, God's rules, and that's partly, that's one perspective. But if you start there, here's the problem. Let's just say you just cheated on the test. You cheated on a test. Well, that's nothing like robbery.

So you think of sin. You know, you can actually say, well, it's just a very small sin. You just, you know, it seems so insignificant. And therefore, you're thinking of sin sort of like a pile of ceramic, you know, pots. And they're all in the pile, and you throw a baseball into the pile. And you break one. Whoops, you go on over, take it away. Who's going to know the difference?

I mean, the pile is intact, basically. But sin is much more like throwing a baseball through a window. Either the window is intact or it's shattered. And here's the point. Either God is God in your life. Either he calls the shots, you might say. Either you let him be God. It's another way to put it.

Or else you're God in your life. Let me put it three ways. first of all, either your will is law and his will is advice, or see, his will is law and your will is advice. Let me put it another way. If you say, I'll obey when it makes sense to me, if it fits in with my opinion of what is, you know, good for me, if it fits my feelings, if you say I'll obey if, what you're saying is my will, my wisdom, and my goals sit in judgment on gods. If you say I'll obey no matter what. I'll obey if it kills me.

I'll obey if I'm the last person on the earth that does. I'll obey no matter what it costs me. I'll obey whether I understand it or not. I'll obey whether it's practical or not. I'll obey whether it's relevant or not. Then and only then. Are you saying God's wisdom, God's will, and God's goals sit in judgment on mine.

Now, it's one or the other. There's no in between. It's not like you break a couple of rules. but you know basically the pile's intact it's a principle of God's godness who's the shepherd who's the sheep who's the Lord who's the servant whose will is law

and whose will is advice it's one or the other there's nothing in the middle nothing at all and this is what's so interesting it says if you decide you're going to be the call the shots in your own life this isn't so much hey this is not so much for example, cheating on a test.

This is essentially living for your own happiness, living for your own comfort, living for your own glory. Just making your decisions without reference to God, just ignoring God, is that you've broken the glass. You've bent your soul. Nothing's going to work. If you read through here and I don't have time to do it, your emotions won't work, it tells you that,

your intellect won't work. You esteemed him not. We thought he was zero. That's literally what it means. your emotions don't work when you look at them you don't desire him I mean nothing will work now one more

before we go on to the last point that's why he came he came because there's some undelatable seemingly insignificant thing on the internal microchip of every human heart which is I want to be God I want to be my own God

me first which is the cause of all the misery that's why he came but here one little thing You know, think about this for a second. Christians are often accused of having their head in the sand intellectually, and by the way, it's true. However, it's awfully easy, more than easy. The average person, when it comes to their relationship with God, definitely has his or her head in the sand. Here's how I want to put it, here's how I want to put it, according to this.

If God's your maker, if God made you, if you've been created by God, you owe him everything absolutely everything you owe it to have him be the one who calls all shots right otherwise you're bent otherwise it's terrible it's wrong it's unjust it's unfair it's stupid it's foolish and you're going to die as certainly as those sheep sheep that think they can be shepherds will die

so if see if god made you then you have to go all the way with him totally it's got to be number one if he did not make you then it's warranted for you to go your own way. If you haven't been created by anybody, of course you belong to yourself. But then your life's meaningless. If you're not created, you're an accident. You came without purpose into the world.

No matter what you do, everything's going to rot, everything's going to burn up. So nothing you do makes any difference. And if your origin is insignificant and your destiny is insignificant, have the intellectual guts to admit your life is insignificant. And this is all you've got. If you've been made, you'll have to give everything to him. If you haven't given everything to him, then your life is utterly meaningless, and that's it. You're either bent or you're meaningless.

It's one or the other. And almost nobody thinks like that. Because almost nobody will say, everybody I know that says, look, I have to decide what's right or wrong for me. They won't say, well, that means my life is utterly meaningless. Or I am bending myself against the very God who made me. You don't do that. What do you say? Well, you just go along with what everybody else is saying.

You're not thinking it out at all. Your heads in the sand. Now, your unconscious knows something about it. There's something here. Am I still on? Yeah. I think I'd kick something. Pardon me.

You're unconscious. Your semi-conscious knows. It's why Kierkegaard calls it the sickness under death. Sartre calls it nausea. Deep down inside, you know this. Either there's a God and I know him absolutely everything, or I don't. I can be my own maker

and there's no meaning to anything. One or the other. Almost nobody thinks that out. You don't want to think it out. But I'm respectfully asking you to think it out. Now lastly, see, who he is,

why he came, what he did. Now, what we have here is one more essence. You know, the essence of who he is, arm the Lord. The essence of sin. Ah, what is the essence of sin? Didn't really define it, did I?

The essence of sin is us substituting ourselves for God. Putting ourselves into places where only God deserves to be in your own life. Well, then what's the essence of salvation? And the answer is right here in verse 4, 5, and 6. It's God substituting himself for us. This is the meaning of life, substitution. Look, first of all, in verse 4, it says, pardon me, verse 5,

He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Now, in Hebrew, it doesn't say four. It just wouldn't work in English to put out exactly what it says. In Hebrew, it says he was pierced from our transgressions. He was crushed from our iniquities. And that's a Hebrew way of saying he was crushed as a result of. See?

It's what it's actually saying. He was pierced as a result. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Our transgression, consequence, goes. to him. See, our iniquity, consequence goes to him. And then, look down here at verse 11, oops, sorry, look over here at verse 11. It says, by his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many. My righteous servant will justify many. You know what the word justification means? You think about it. In English, it works. What if you make a statement and I don't like it,

or I'm upset by it, or I don't, so I come to you and I say, you made a statement, justify that statement and you say well let me explain and you make some explanations and I say oh fine okay good you justified that's fine what did you just do did you change the statement no you didn't change it a bit didn't change a word you didn't change a letter but what you did do you changed my attitude toward it you changed my relationship to it when it says that our transgressions have gone, have a cause, and the cause of the transgressions have gone to him, it's also saying he has lived the perfect life. And the cause, the consequence of that perfect life will come to us.

Just as God, here, the essence of being a Christian. What's the essence of being a Christian? Trying hard to live like Jesus? No, that's a consequence. In fact, in most of our cases, that's an accident. What's the, essence. When Jesus, you know, Second Corinthians 521 is absolutely summarizing all of Isaiah 53. Here's how it goes. God made him sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness

of God and Him. What does that mean? What does it mean to say Jesus Christ became sin? Does that mean he became sinful? No. Does that mean he became wicked and nasty and awful? No. What does it mean? It means he was treated by God as if he'd done every bloody thing the humanity had ever done. Well, then what does it mean to become righteous in him? I know what most of you think. You say, I want to become a Christian. I'm going to have to clean up my act. Well, yes, you are, but that's not the essence. What makes you a Christian is that the moment you believe in him and you say, Father, for Jesus' sake, because of what he did in history, accept me. That moment, according to this, it means God gives you credit for absolutely everything

that Jesus ever did. One of the things that comes out in here, now you say, how could that be? Let me show you. One of the things that comes out in here is the voluntariness of Jesus' death. Well, the voluntariness of his death comes out when it says, he took up our infirmities, very active word. He picked them off of us in a sense and put him on himself. Or all these places where he said, he opened not his mouth, he opened not his mouth, he opened not his mouth, what is all that? He's voluntary. He voluntarily died. Well, you say plenty of people have voluntarily died. No, they haven't.

Nobody voluntarily died like Jesus. Well, they say, there's people who've given their lives for others, there's people who've committed suicide. No, no, no, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. They volunteered, no. What they did was they chose when to die. They didn't choose to die. You can't choose to die. You're going to die.

They choose how to die. They didn't choose to die. Even when you say, I choose to die and you commit suicide, you're still a victim of death. You haven't chosen to die. You were going to die. You could never have stopped it. You could never have held it off.

Jesus is the only person who ever died who wasn't a victim of death. Jesus is the only person who ever died voluntarily. The only person who didn't have to die, ever have to die. Jesus was beautiful and he voluntarily became ugly. Jesus was unlimited and he voluntarily became limited. Jesus was eternal and he voluntarily died. It was an act of supreme authority. That's the reason why one guy says,

Jesus Christ alone, his death was like this. It's almost as if Jesus Christ took his body in one hand and his soul in one hand and tore himself apart. He says, I lay my life down according to all my own accord. Now, what does that mean? Well, it means something for your heart and something for your understanding, and then we're going to end. Here's the thing it means for your heart.

The heart. What held Jesus to the cross? Think about it. What held him to the cross? You mean, there's a lot of people who've died for other people. And it's, and those that they, it moves you. you. Something deep in our soul tells us substitution is the meaning of life. Whenever you get near it in a story, you know, the movie version of the screenplay of Last of the Mohicans,

remember where the women are about to be killed and in comes, you know, Daniel Day Lewis, Walanga, Caribbean, you know, Nathaniel Poe, at least in the story. And he comes and he says, remember he says to the Indian chief, me for her. You see, me for the, me for the them, me for them. Kill me instead of them. But he doesn't know French, you see, and he doesn't, or he doesn't know the language. So he has to do it through an interpreter. Remember who the interpreter is? Duncan. Duncan, the spurned suitor of one of the women. And Duncan starts speaking, but Duncan says, me for them. And they string Duncan up, remember? And they kill him so they can flee. And you watch that, something moves you. This is the meaning of life.

This is something amazing. Or, you know, tale of two cities. Charles Dickens, a fascinating place. Sidney Carton is in love with the woman, but she marries Charles Darnay. But Charles Darnay is soon in prison and he's going to be executed. He's going to go to the guillotine. and Sidney Carton, who looks quite a bit like Charles Darnay, comes in to see Charles Darnay and says, I'm switching with you. What? And he basically knocks the man out. And he puts on the condemned man's clothes. The condemned man is given the free man's clothes. And Sidney Carton dies. And by the way, near the very end, Sidney Carton, who's playing like he's Charles Darnay. He's in line, he's ready to go to the guillotine. And there's a woman, there's a young girl who's there and says,

hey you know me i used to be with you back and here and back and there and she looks up and she realizes it's not charles darnet and she her face goes white and she says are you dying for him and he says yeah and she says hold my hand somebody like you i think i'll be able to face anything with somebody like you and to see what what's going on there there's nothing more moving than that it's the opposite of sin and the opposite of sin is me first salvation is you first the essence of sin is see your life for mine the essence of salvation is my life for yours and when jesus christ was dying on the cross what was holding him there his love for you nothing else nothing else at all and that means no matter what you do you couldn't possibly break his love for you

think about it what did it take it took his it took god's wrath it took punishment it took all this stuff. And now some days you're sitting around and you're saying, I've been so inconsistent, I've been so stupid, I've been so foolish, I've done all this and I've done that, I wonder whether God's going to, like Jesus is going to give up on me. Your inconsistency, your foolishness is going to break poor Jesus' little love when this wouldn't break it? This love for you took everything hell could give and it didn't give up. He was absolutely voluntary. He gave himself for you. That's something your heart's got to know. It's a strong love. You couldn't possibly wear it out. You couldn't possibly wear through it. But then here's the last thing is for your

understanding. This is not only something you need to know for your heart, but you need to know this for your understanding. Jesus Christ essentially fulfill the law of God twice when he came to earth. Because he didn't just die to fulfill the law. He lived an incredible life. In that, he voluntarily gave himself for someone else. He actually did love his neighbor. You see, completely. Another way to put it is this. I don't know how much it costs because I have,

some of you know, there's the law of the stoplight in New York City. And there's two ways to satisfy the law of the stoplight. One is stop. The other is, pay $75, I think. Either way, you satisfy the law of the stoplight. How do you satisfy the law of God? Love your God with all your heart soul strength and love your neighbor as yourself, or pay the penalty. And Jesus Christ, as he was paying the penalty, was loving God with all his heart, soul strength, and mine, and his neighbor as himself.

So he fulfilled the law of God twice, you see, he took our sins that leaves his record for us, his perfect record for us. Listen, put it this way. What does this mean to you? it means the meaning of your life is the cross in two ways unless the cross makes sense to you life won't make sense unless you begin to see first of all that through the cross you're not going to have to worry anymore

so much about your comfort because the great disease has been taken away from you forever you don't have to worry that much about your looks because the great beauty has been put on you forever you don't have to worry that much about your reputation. Because the only one who matters loves you. What does that mean? It means as you go out into the world, the stuff that used to bother you just doesn't. Suffering will happen. You'll get sick, but the great disease, you see, has been cured. You'll get abused, but you see, the great

reputation is yours. And so what happens is if you move on through the cross, not only gives you enough emotional wealth to handle the problems of life. But then secondly, it gives you the wisdom to see, look, this is the way Jesus came. This is the weakness of the arm of the Lord. So often, the best things that happen in life are because of through weakness and suffering and trouble and difficulty. Until the cross is the joy of your life, life won't make sense to you. Until the cross makes sense, life won't make sense. And then, not only is it true that the cross will make sense of your life, the cross then becomes the pattern. your life. Here's what's so wonderful. You feel so rich, if you understand the cross,

that you start to live like Jesus. You basically say, not your life or mine, my life for you. You spend yourself. You know what's interesting about this? Suffering and oppression, he is oppressed. He is the victim of injustice. He's cut off from the land of the living. He's the recipient of a violent debt. Most of us in this room are never going to experience. any of, and that kind of injustice. Oh, what's so great about this is this. If you don't believe in God, injustice and suffering is a horrible problem.

You know why? It's a tremendous mystery. It's a mystery why you're upset. Because, you see, if there is no God, then the strong eating the weak is utterly natural, totally natural. And what warrant have you got for insisting it should be some other way?

This is the way it is. So suffering and injustice is a terrible problem if you don't believe in God. But if you do believe in God, then it becomes this terrible problem because why doesn't he stop it? But of all the gods that we have and all the different religions

that are at least presented to us, there's only one God who's been involved. See, when any other God says, I've got good reasons, you know, it sounds pretty hollow, but when you have a God who actually was the victim of injustice, you better trust him.

And you better start living your life for other people who have been through the same thing. My life for yours. This is the essence of being a Christian. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this great survey. In some ways, it's a great way to start a service, a community,

a worshiping community in a new place. We see the essence of what the gospel is, the essence of what sin is, and the essence of salvation, and the essence of how we are to live now. We thank you that we have the only, God, who was the victim of injustice, not the perpetrator. A God who then makes us so rich that we can spend ourselves for other victims.

A God who has become weak so that we can see the way in which weakness is strength. Father, we pray that you would help us to understand these things and work them into our lives, not just as individuals, but as a worship and community, here in this place. we thank you, Lord. And we ask that during the rest of the services, we pray to you, as we offer these things to you, you might shape us and mold our hearts more in the image of what we have just seen, that of the great servant, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. In his name we pray. Amen.

Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel on Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the Gospel Center teaching, and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Your partnership allows us to reach people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelandlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelandlife.com slash partner. Today's sermon was recorded in 1999. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor,

Redeemer Presbyterian Church.