Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Politics of the Kingdom

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

We sometimes think becoming a Christian is something that has to take a lot of time and effort. As we consider what we believe, it can be easy to feel as if we’re somewhere between “not a believer” and “someone saved by Christ.” But the Bible gives us a different interpretation: we are either strangers to this world and God’s kingdom, or we are fully citizens of it. And when we profess faith in Christ, we undergo a wonderful, instant change in this identity that doesn’t depend on how smart, experienced, or moral we are. Let’s look at how 1) until we believe in Christ, we are alienated to God’s world, and 2) becoming a Christian is a change in our citizenship. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 16, 1993. Series: Salvation From the Outside In. Scripture: Ephesians 2:19-22. 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. Behind every worldview is an attempt to answer life's biggest questions. Who are we? What gives our lives meaning? And is there hope for the future? Today, we continue Tim Keller's extended series of teachings from the book of Ephesians as he takes a deeper look at how the Christian faith offers the only identity, purpose, and hope that can sustain us through every season of life.

Before we go to the Lord's table, we're going to look at, for the last time, the last few verses of chapter two of Ephesians. Ephesians 2 talks to us about what the nature of the church is. And we read there, Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. This is God's word. We've been looking at the passage, and we say there's a number of metaphors that Paul uses to explain what the church is. and therefore what kind of lives we have in connection with Christ. We've been spending most of our time on the longer metaphor, which has to do with the idea that Christians, that the church is God's dwelling place, a holy temple.

But tonight we take a look at the first of the metaphors in this sentence, in this paragraph. Consequently, you are no longer strangers, or is the translation we have here, you are no longer foreigners or aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people. What is that teaching us? There's a lot of profound teaching here, and this is what it is. It makes a negative, then it makes a positive statement.

Negatively, it says you are no longer foreigners and aliens, positively fellow citizens with God's people. What does it mean? It means this. you are no longer xenoy. The first word is xenophobia from. It's the word we get our word xenophobia from,

which of course means the fear of foreigners. And it really has to do with the personal aspects of being in a foreign culture. Many of you understand this. In a place like New York, you really understand this. In fact, if you're not born and raised in New York and you've moved to New York,

you experience to some degree some of this. You know what it's a place. like to be a xenoy. To be a foreigner, this is referring to the fact that there's such a thing as culture shock. When you move into a new culture in which you are not accustomed and you don't really fit at first, it's tremendously exhausting. You don't know the language. And so expressing yourself and understanding what other people are saying takes a great deal of work. Far more work than the other people around you are having to expand in order to make basic transactions.

You also don't maybe know many of the customs. You may not like the food. And the studies that have been made of culture shock simply say that it's a draining experience. What happens as a result of culture shock are these, isolation. You find it very difficult to pour yourself out. You feel isolated. Secondly, fragmentation.

That means you work real hard to have a public life in which you're working in the language of the dominant culture, and you're working to some degree to adapt to the customs of the dominant culture. It's a difficult thing to do. It's very draining. And your public life and your private life are different. And so you experience fragmentation. You experience disorientation and you experience exhaustion. This is what it means to be Zenoi, strangers, foreigners, people that don't fit in the culture.

Very exhausting, very difficult. Then the second word, Paroioi, which is translated aliens, has to do with the legal side of being a foreigner. Zeno has more to do with the personal side. This word alien means you are not a citizen. It means you're legally disenfranchised. If you're a citizen in a country, you can vote. If you're a citizen in the country, you can run for office. If you're a citizen in a country, you have certain privileges and rights.

And you can redress wrongs because you've got certain rights. Paul was a Roman citizen, and therefore he had the right to a trial. And when it was discovered in Philippi that he had been imprisoned without a trial, and he was a Roman citizen, they realized what they'd done. His citizenship brought a privilege. He was enfranchised. He was empowered by a citizenship, but an alien has none of that. An alien doesn't have a legal status.

An alien doesn't have all these rights to redress wrongs. So when Paul's saying you're, it's talking about Zenoi and Paroicoy, when it's talking about strangers and aliens, it's talking about people who are disenfranchised legally and in cultural shock emotionally and personally. What's he mean? he's talking about this. He says, you became Christians and now you are no longer strangers and aliens. No longer strangers. What is he saying? He's saying two things. First of all, and this is a very

profound teaching, he is saying that until you are right with God through Christ, until you believe in Christ, until you've got that connection with Christ, you experience alienation in God's world. It's extremely important and extremely profound, and I'll tell you, it explains things. Until you understand this, you cannot understand the world around you. You can't understand your own experience. The Bible says God built us and put us into a world, and we were built to obey him. Look at his law. His law tells you about lying and honesty. When you, you, you lie, you become alienated because you are going against the fabric of the universe and your nature as it was created. You experience breakdowns. It's like putting milk in your car instead of

unleaded gas. It doesn't work. You experience breakdowns. It's like trying to grind diamonds instead of coffee in your coffee maker. It doesn't work. There's laws against, of lying and dishonesty. There's laws of sex and purity. There's laws that have to do with generosity. There's laws that have to do with forgiveness versus bitterness. There's laws that have to do with service versus selfishness. And until you are submitted to him, until you're rightly related to him, until you're in a relationship of harmony with him,

you're experiencing alienation. You are experiencing culture shock. You're a stranger and you're an alien. modern literature is full of this. Hemingway and Faulkner and Sartre and Kamoon, all the greats of the middle part of the 20th century, all of their literature is dominated by the plain fact. When you read it, you just know it's true.

We don't fit. We live in a world like that. The book, Nausea by John Paul Sartre, is all talking about, it's in the form of a diary of a man who finds the more he opts for freedom, the more isolated and fragmented he feels. But then if he pulls back and starts to give himself to people and serve people, you see, and try to make do for people and be committed to people, he feels used. If he tries to be nice to people he's used, if he tries to be independent and selfish, he feels isolated.

What the word nausea means is alienation. I'm alienated. I'm a stranger in an alien. I don't fit in the world. Why not? because the world was built for obedient sons and daughters of the king. And if you're not one, you don't fit. George Whitfield talks about it.

He says, you know why the animals screech at you, why they bark at you, why they fly away and they growl at you when you come near? They know you have a quarrel with their master. And that's his very picturesque and very metaphorical and not exactly accurate. way of saying we don't fit in the world. We experience alienation. Look, a brilliant young French scientist named Philippe was in love with a girl named Francois. And they often talk to a pastor about Christianity, and they had rejected Christianity. They fell in love, but they discovered, they decided that to get married or even to be committed to each other didn't make sense.

first of all, when you get committed to one another and you try to be faithful to each other, it's bound to create problems. They saw it. We can find, when we're with each other, we'll sleep together. When not, we can find, and we're at some other place, we can find other people to satisfy our sexual needs. Besides that, marriage and commitment would be tough on our careers, and so they decided not to do it. But they'd experienced tremendous trouble in their heart. hearts over it. And at one point, Francois wrote to his pastoral friend, and he said this. He says,

I don't know why it's so hard to live without a permanent commitment. My scientific understanding of human nature is that we are the result of a chance happening in the universe, that our desires are the results of genes, instincts, and hormones. So love is an illusion. I never realized how my ideas, however, have drained life of its joy. Now listen, my lover Francois and I can't live on the basis of our own views, even though we're absolutely sure they're true. It's as if we don't understand who we are. What's he experiencing? Exhaustion, fragmentation, isolation, alienation. He says, I believe that loves an illusion. I believe that this need for marriage and commitment is a silly thing. And yet I find as I reject it, I can't really live on the basis of my own views.

He's experiencing alienation. Until, Paul says it. He says, until you're rightly related to God, you're a stranger and alien here. You don't fit. You're out of place. You experience attention. You experience nausea. That's the reason why, you know, when he says, I can't live on the basis of this view, he's saying, I'm a Zeno. I'm a stranger. I'm out. I don't fit in the universe I believe in. I experience fragmentation. That's the reason the psalmist says, Oh, Father, unite my heart to fear thy name. The fear of the Lord unites the heart where there's a fragmentation. Okay. So that's the first thing.

Paul is saying you will experience this isolation, this nausea. You will experience this sense of being out of place, of not having your deepest needs met. you will experience culture shock, disenfranchisement, until you become a Christian. I wish that some of you would see, yes, your problem has psychological effects. Your problem has sociological effects, but your problem has a theological cause. That's why you feel the way you do. That's why you're experiencing the things that you do.

So the first thing Paul is saying here is before you're in Christ, your natural condition is alienation. Secondly, second thing. But the essence then of becoming a Christian is a change and a shift in a legal status. Citizenship is a wonderful metaphor. You either are a citizen or you're not. you may prepare for citizenship you may do a great deal of work in order to get ready for citizenship

you may do a tremendous amount of legal work and language work and all sorts of other things to get ready for citizenship but there is a moment in which you're not a citizen and then there's the vow and then you are there's no in between Aristotle said that there can be no mean between two opposites

and when it comes to this you either are or you're not now You know, every analogy breaks down. Some of you say, well, what about, you know, aren't there various sorts of visas and so on. But you understand what Paul's saying. You read, a legal status is something you either are or you're not. There's no middle ground between zero and the first possible numeric value.

What is in the middle between something and nothing? There can't be anything in the middle between something. It's either you're something or you're nothing, but you can't be something between something and nothing. It's impossible. What's in the middle between a vacuum and a non-vacuum? If there's one molecule of air in the vacuum, it's no longer a vacuum. So there's nothing in the middle between a vacuum and a non-vacuum.

You either are or you're not. And by Paul using this metaphor, he is trying to push home a radical idea. You are either a Christian or you're not a Christian. Becoming a Christian happens in an instant. You're either dead spiritually or a lie. spiritual. There may be a lot of preparation. There may be a whole there may be a lot of struggling. There may be a lot of learning. There may be a long process getting up to that point.

But the fact of the matter is right before the moment that you're become a citizen, you're still 100% not a citizen. And the minute you take the value are 100% you are a citizen. And that's what Paul is trying to get across here. There's no middle ground. You're either a Christian or you're not. Because the essence of being a Christian, the essence of becoming a Christian is a change in legal status. Now, people don't like that. And I'll try to show you why. A lot of people tremendously resist this. They hate this idea that there's no middle ground. You ask many people this, are you a Christian? And what they'll say is, I hope so. I'm trying, but who can be sure? You know, now that's a, you know why that answer sounds so plausible? Not because it's logical,

but because it's widespread. Are you a Christian? I hope so. I'm trying. But who can be sure? Paul dashes this whole idea. What if I asked you, are you a citizen? What if I asked you if you were married? Same thing.

There's a long process coming up to the minute of being married. But until you take those vows, you're 100% not married. The minute you take your vow, you're 100% are married. That's the way it is with legal status changes. What if I said, are you married? and you said, I hope so,

I'm trying, but who can be sure? What would you, if you heard somebody say that, what would you conclude? You'd conclude A, they don't know what marriage is, and B, they're not. What if I said to you,

are you a citizen of this country? And you said, I hope so, I'm trying, but who can be sure? Wwoven into our slogans, songs, and social media feeds are the stories that our culture tells us about life's biggest questions, like, what gives my life meaning? Can I have a happy and fulfilling life? And why is there so much suffering in the world? We don't really choose these stories,

but our culture is telling them to us every day. So what are these stories our culture tells us about who we are? And do they actually deliver what they promise? Tim Keller and his son Michael Keller explored this in a brand new book, The Stories We Live By. Tim began this book before his death, compiling hundreds of pages of notes and collaborating with Michael before giving it to him to complete. In it, they explore some of our culture's most prominent narratives about topics like identity, freedom, happiness, and progress, unmasking how these narratives shape our lives. They examine why these stories resonate with us so deeply, and yet how these narratives ultimately aren't able to help us through the hardships and sufferings of life.

The stories we live by offers a challenge to skeptics and to Christians alike to examine the underlying narratives that drive our lives, and an invitation to discover a story that's big enough to make sense of the beauty and the brokenness of the world. When you give to Gospel in Life during the month of September, we'll send you this new book, the stories we live by, as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the love of Christ with people all over the world.

So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give, because the gospel truly changes everything. Now, you know, I remember once talking to a pastor who was very, very, and some of you may feel the same way. And it's perfectly understandable because of the way in which Christians have sometimes used this doctrine. I understand your problems. This man once said to me, he hated any talk about being converted. He hated this idea of conversion, this idea that a Christian is someone who goes through a conversion experience.

He said, look in your average church, and you will see Christianity is a way of life. And people are at all different stages of becoming Christians and being Christians. And nobody, you can't say this person is definitely a Christian, this person is not a Christian. Everybody is subject to degrees. Some people are more Christian, some people are less than Christian. Don't talk about conversion. Nobody's perfect. Don't talk about this idea that you have to become a Christian.

This person isn't and this person is. I hate that idea. Now, here's why. That's wrong. Paul insists that Christianity is not essentially a matter of morality and goodness. That well-meaning pastor, who was so upset with any discussion and talk of conversion, did he see as understandings it sounded, as as flexible and as open-minded as it sounded, nobody, who knows who's a Christian? Everybody's at a different point.

What he was doing was assuming that Christianity. was a matter of morality. And if Christianity is essentially a matter of goodness and morality, then he's absolutely right. That's a matter of degree. But here's the problem. If that's the essence of being a Christian, one of the great problems we all have is the fact that there's lots of folks that completely reject Christianity, completely reject the teachings of Christ, completely reject, and are very good people. Self-controlled.

Wonderful people. And then over here you've got, you know what you've got. People that adhere to the Christian message and profess faith in Christianity and seem to be very dedicated to all the teachers of Christianity, and they lack the self-control that the anti-Christian has. And they lack the goodness and morality of the anti-Christian. And it's so perplexing. Here's why it's so perplexing.

My grandfather moved here from Naples. And like all around the year 1900, And like all people who come from another country, he experienced a lot of culture shock. And he had a lot of trouble making himself understood. And he spoke in broken English. And he had a lot of trouble participating in all of the, you might say, the institutions of the new country because he was unfamiliar with him. And at one point, he became a citizen. He wasn't a citizen.

He wasn't a citizen. And then he was. He wasn't an American. He was 100% not an American. And then he was naturalized and he was American. But he still spoke funny. And he still found the customs difficult. And he still really, in many ways, had not learned how to participate in American society.

But don't you see the point? Was he an American or not? Of course he was. He didn't know how to talk American very well. And he grew his entire life. There's illegal, and then there's the actual. But what made him an American was illegal. And what Paul is trying to say,

is of course to live a Christian life means you want to be good. Of course to live a Christian life means you want to come along and you want to be more like Christ and you want to live an honest life and you want to live a selfless life and you want to live a compassionate life and so on. But the essence of becoming a Christian

is to take that vow. And when you take that vow, you cross over the line and that is what makes you a Christian. You may not act as much like a Christian as you look. That's a process. just like my grandfather, you see, there was a process of becoming more and more American in his thinking and his way of participating in all that and speaking the language and so on. But there was a moment in which he crossed over from alienation to citizenship. And that's the spot.

And Paul says the essence of becoming a Christian is that legal change. There is a spot where you have to decide to take the vow. There's a spot where you've got to bring it to closure. There's a spot in which you've got to say, I'm a Christian, I identify as a Christian, I put him first. I rest in him alone for my salvation. I make him my Lord. There's a line at which you've got to come. You know, the illustration we've used.

You might be in Texas and you might want to go to Canada. You can travel 3,000 miles maybe, I don't know, and you get right up to two inches from the Canadian border. You are just as much, not in Canada there as you were in Texas. You've come a long way. You've struggled long and hard. You've spent a lot of money on gas. but you are completely out until you cross that line. Same thing with getting married.

Getting married is, you know, getting up to the moment where you actually get the vow. Boy, there can be an awful lot of blood, sweat, tears, weeping and gnashing of teeth. It can be, there can be wrestling and struggling. And all of that may be necessary, but the fact is, until you take that vow, you're still 100% not married. Because the essence of what makes you married is not the relationship, but the willingness to get up before all. see, all of the authority structures of church and state and family, and take that vow and bind yourself in. And frankly, people say, well, it doesn't really matter whether you take that vow

as long as you love one another. And I say, why don't you take that vow? And they say, well, you know, you want to keep your options open. Oh, in other words, you don't love each other enough to take that vow. Don't tell me that the vow is not related to the love. You're not married. And the reason you're not married is because you don't want to make yourself that vulnerable with that person.

And therefore, you will not change your legal status. Don't tell me you love somebody, just as much as a person who gets married loves them. Don't tell me that. If you're that afraid, that means, I love this person, but I'm not going to make myself vulnerable to them. That means you're not as committed to them. What's the application?

There's a lot of you that are wrestling with Christianity, that want to come near to Christ. You want to see Christ. You want Christ to improve your life, and yet you're afraid to bring it to closure. you're afraid to cross that line you're afraid to say i'm committed this is it it means i obey christ if it costs me a friend it means i obey christ if people are going to laugh at me i cross the line i make myself vulnerable you've got to do that there's no way to become the

american citizen you see without actually cutting some bridges there's no way to get married without cutting yourself all from all kinds of possibilities the essence of becoming a christian is the change in that legal status. You are or you are, and it comes when you cross a line. Not only that. The other thing Paul is showing us here, and this is what's great. The essence of being a Christian means not just that you make a commitment, oh no, but that God makes a commitment as well to you and changes your status.

See, look, my grandfather didn't make himself a citizen. The United States government made him a citizen. He came and he committed himself, and then the government changed the status. You now can vote. You now are enfranchised. What it means to become a Christian is not, I fill my heart with so much love and commitment that now God says,

ah, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into thy kingdom. No, what he says is, because you have decided to rest on Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, I now impute to you his record. I accept you. I change your status.

I pardon your sins. them away. When Martin Luther was studying the book of Galatians and Romans, he was absolutely astonished with the uniqueness of Christianity. What's the uniqueness of Christianity? It's the fact that the essence of being a Christian is this change in status that happens once for all. The government, the kingdom of God, God himself, comes to you when you make that commitment and changes your status completely and legally. The way Luther put it is a Christian, he used Latin of course, a Christian is simulustace set peccator, which means simultaneously, righteous and yet sinful. He understood that that's what Paul's talking about.

My grandfather continuing to speak broken English automatically, immediately totally became a Christian. I totally became an American. Becomes an American, and yet he's not totally an American. And Paul, see, what Luther's saying, Paul is saying is, when you make that commitment and say, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling, I stop trusting in what I have done, and I rest completely in what Jesus has done. Father, accept me because of what he has done. What happens? There's a change in status.

You are made liable legally for everything Jesus has done. just as he on the cross became liable legally for everything you have done. Oh, Lord Jesus, says Martin Luther every morning when he gets up, you took upon yourself what was mine and you set upon me what was yours. You became what you were not so I could become what I was not. The essence of being a Christian is a legal status. God changes it. You've got to come to that place where you close up and God comes and changes it.

Now, just briefly, even though he doesn't mention it here, see what it means to be a Christian? It means you get a new status of citizenship. Think about what are the rights and privileges of a citizen. A citizen has right of appeal. If there's been an injustice, you can go to the court and you can go above that to the next court and go back to that to the Supreme Court, you have the right of appeal. You know what it means to be a Christian? If your status has been changed, look at the people. When the blind men called out to Jesus, Lord have mercy on me.

And everybody came and said, stop bothering the king. What right do you have? You, trash, to bother an important thing, a man like the king. Stop bothering the king. You don't have any right to go to the king, but the king turns around and says, what do you want? Again and again, the children try to come to Jesus. Don't bother the king. The woman touches the hem of his garment.

Don't bother the king. But this king, when he confers citizenship on you, says you have right of access, The Lord of the universe is concerned about your problems. Come and pray, come and appeal. And I'll tell you what else. You've got the right of protection. Any of you ever hear the War of Jenkins' ear? 1739, a Spanish ship attacked a British ship,

and the Captain Jenkins had his ear cut off during the battle. Captain Jenkins took his ear, put it in a bottle of liquor, and sent it to Parliament and with a note about what had happened to him. in parliament one of the MPs lifted up the ear read the statement and the parliament immediately declared war on Spain

I am not using this illustration to support British foreign policy in the 18th century I am not using this illustration to say that was a just grounds for war I'll tell you what I'm saying Jenkins and himself was nothing but as a British citizen the kingdom knew that he was part of the kingdom

and when he was attacked the kingdom was attacked and all of the power and the glory of that kingdom was brought to bear to protect him. When Paul was on the road to Damascus and God leveled him, and Jesus appeared to him because, you know, Paul was persecuting the Christians. What does Jesus say? Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute who? Why dost thou persecute me? Hey, Saul, when you attack my citizens, you attack me.

the Bible doesn't say that God protects you if you're a Christian by keeping you away from trouble oh no if you're part of Christ Christ suffered quite a bit what he says is I will use all my glory and power to arrange your life so that no matter what bad happens to you it will work out for your benefit all things work together for good to those who love God remember Joseph says to his brothers God you meant it for evil God meant it for good all the power of the kingdom is brought to bear to protect you to bring you home, to grow you. You've got access. You've got right of protection. Let me end this way. Are you a citizen living like an alien? A lot of you are.

I know you are. You know why? If you're a Christian and you don't think that God could listen to you because of your problems, you don't think that God's protecting you and working out everything in your life for the good, if you feel like you're so unworthy and God couldn't love you.

You know, you're a lot like my grandfather. You still sound like you're from the old country. You've got to start living as if you've got to live out actually what you are legally. You're loved. You're accepted. You're liable for the record of Jesus Christ. And you're not living that way. You're not acting as if God really loves me.

God's really protecting me. God really cares about me. You're not living love. Look at how irritable you are. Look at how defensive you are. afraid you are. It takes time to actually live as you legally are. You're citizens living like aliens. Don't be anymore. And lastly, some of you are aliens living like citizens. You know what that means? You're saying, why isn't God answering my prayers? Why isn't God working things out for me?

Why hasn't these blessings fallen into my life? And yet you have not been willing to take the vow. you're not willing to marry him. You want to live with him. You want him to always be there for you. You won't be vulnerable to him. You won't bring it to closure. You won't sign up. You won't say, I take you to myself and I forsake all others.

Till death do us part. For richer, for poor, for better and worse. Yeah. And you want to live like a citizen when you're an alien. Are you a citizen living like an alien? Are you an alien living like a citizen? Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that because of your son, we are no longer strangers.

Forgive us for continuing to live like strangers. Thank you for the fact that the alienation can be over. The alienation can be gone. We pray that you would help us who are citizens to live like citizens, and we pray that those here tonight who see that they need to come to you will be enabled by your spirit to do that. 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 and Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps connect people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelinlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelandlife.com slash partner.

Today's sermon was recorded in 1993. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.