Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Receptive Grace

Episode Date: October 12, 2026

How can you relate to someone whose views and values and practices offend you and distress you? How can we relate to people with whom we deeply differ? Our culture says we need to be tolerant, but I want to show you that Paul says the mark of a supernaturally changed heart is to go way beyond tolerance. It’s something better than tolerance, something greater than tolerance, something I’m going to call gospel-receptivity—a loving, peaceful receptivity toward people with whom we deeply differ. What is this receptivity, this receptive grace? The best way to figure it out is to look at 1) what it’s not, 2) what it is, and 3) how we develop it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 10, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 8:4-11; Romans 15:1-7. 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 Radio. We often assume that being kind, generous, and forgiving is all that matters. But in his writings to the early church, the Apostle Paul offers a challenging truth. Even the greatest acts of love and sacrifice are empty if they're ultimately done out of self-interest. Today, Tim Keller explores how the gospel transforms us completely, even our motivations, making us people who love and serve others in response to God's grace for us. So then, about eating food sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or an earth,

as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from who all things came and for whom we live. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food, they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God.

We are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you Who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple Won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, Is destroyed by your knowledge

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak And not to please ourselves Each of us should please this neighbor for his good To build him up For even Christ did not please himself But as it is written the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us

so that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you,

an order to bring praise to God. Love always protects, always hopes. The word of the Lord. We're looking every week in this series at the marks of a supernaturally changed heart or character. 1st Corinthians 13 gives us a very radical principle, which is that it's possible to do all morally virtuous behavior out of fear, pride, selfishness,

and a lust for power over others. And therefore, it's possible to, without really dealing with the root of the heart, be very moral. So what we're looking at is not the moral behavior that Christianity requires and which, to a great degree, other religions require. But what was said, we're looking at the supernaturally changed heart,

the traits or the characteristics of a new heart that we believe that only the gospel in its peculiar way of, relating us to God can produce. And today the trait we come to is what the world calls tolerance. What the world calls tolerance. It's not an Aristotle's list of moral virtues. I don't think it's on Confucius as I looked.

However, it's big today. Many people would say that tolerance is the only moral absolute left, or put it this way, that the only moral absolute left is to insist that no one's morals are absolute every, virtually every day, certainly every week, since September 11th especially. There are articles that say

that we've got to figure out a way to spread tolerance everywhere. And the question is very, very urgent, and the urgency is this. Here's the question. How can people whose beliefs, practices, and values and views, which deeply differ, distress, and offend others,

how can they live with them? See? How can they live with them? How can we live together? In fact, the question is, how do you, how should you relate, how can you relate to someone whose views and values and practices offend you, distress you? How can we relate to people with whom we deeply differ?

Now, the world says we need to be tolerant. But I want to show you here that Paul says the mark of a supernaturally changed heart is to go way beyond tolerance, something better than tolerance, something greater than tolerance, something I'm going to call, at least at the beginning here, gospel receptivity. A loving, peaceful receptivity toward people with whom we deeply differ, which is different than tolerance. It's better than it. It's greater than. Now, what is this receptivity, this receptive grace?

The best way to figure this out is, first of all, let's treat it like this. What it's not, what it is, and how do we develop it? What it's not, what it is, and then how do we develop it? Now, what it's not, the two texts that Michelle read are from two different letters by Paul to two different churches. Because both in Corinth and Rome, there was a conflict, there were two conflicts, and they were like one another and yet not alike. In Rome, there was a group of Christians who began to say, all Christians need to follow the Jewish dietary laws. And because they said that, they began to withdraw from people who wouldn't eat, according to those of those, laws, and they began to condemn the Christians that didn't live according to those laws.

In Corinth, we had something a rather different issue, and that is there were people there who said, no Christians should ever eat food that had been dedicated or blessed in the name of or dedicated to one of the pagan deities like Apollos or Athena and so on. Now, just as the idea that all Christians should follow the Jewish dietary rules meant that Those people began to withdraw because you couldn't eat with people who didn't believe with you. They began to withdraw from people who didn't share their beliefs, their religious beliefs. The same thing happened in Corinth because virtually all food that was sold in the marketplace every day was first dedicated to one of the pagan deities.

Virtually all public meetings, civic meetings were always, there were always food at them and the presider always dedicated them and blessed, basically blessed the food in the name of some pagan deity. And so at Corinth, too, there was a certain group of Christians that were withdrawing, practically, from all public dealings with people of the world, feeling defiled, feeling polluted by them. They were withdrawing, and they were condemning other Christians

who didn't follow them. Now, Paul says that in every one, each of these two conflicts, there were two parties. And he called these parties the strong and the weak. Now, who were they? The weak. The weak, Paul sometimes calls them the weak in conscience. He sometimes call them the weak in faith.

Sometimes he calls them the weaker brothers. If you take a look at 1st Corinthians 8, verse 7, you have a really pretty good understanding of what it means. If you look carefully, you'll see that the way Paul uses weak in conscience is different than the way we use it, and that's really interesting. He says, not everyone knows, some people are still so accustomed to idols, that when they eat such food, they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it's defiled.

Since their conscience is weak, it's defiled. Now, this is very interesting. When you and I today, today in the English language, when we talk about a person with a weak conscience, we ordinarily mean a person who doesn't feel guilty about things and can do bad things to people because they have a weak conscience of poorly developed moral sense. What's interesting, in Paul's mind, in the Bible, a weak conscience is almost the opposite. of that. What he's saying is a weak conscience is a conscience which is too weak to protect the person from feeling defiled. Too weak to protect the person from feeling always guilty and condemned

and defiled and polluted. In other words, as far as Paul's concern, your conscience is weak if it's not deeply oriented to grace and the love of God. You have a weak conscience of your constantly feeling accused and condemned. Here's who the weak people are. The weak people are people who are temperamentally tight and who need everything evaluated. What that means is they hate gray areas. They want to know what is the right thing and the wrong thing. What is the Christian thing or the non-Christian thing? What is the good thing and the bad thing? In every area of life, they want no gray areas. They want to know exactly what's right or wrong. They want constant evaluation. Everything has to be evaluated. Up, down, good, bad,

in, out. And they have no tolerance for ambiguity. On the other, other hand, you have the strong. And the strong, Paul talks about, for example, verse one of chapter 15, he says, we who are strong. So he's identifying somewhat with the strong. And the stronger people with knowledge. Look at verse four at the very top of the page. It says, so then about eating food, sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing at all. The strong were people who were not superstitious, like the folks with all the scruples and car, and the people. We're and they were not legalistic or moralistic like the people with all the scruples in Rome. They were broad-minded people.

These are people who are temperamentally flexible. These are people who were more well-informed, theologically. And these are people who do not need to make a lot of evaluation. They don't mind ambiguity. They don't mind gray areas. They don't feel like everything has to be evaluated up or down, good or bad. But here's what's interesting and what I didn't see. recently on studying this. In spite of the fact that Paul calls the weak Christians, the weak Christians,

which obviously is a criticism, both Corinthians 8 and Romans 14 and 15 are actually criticisms of the strong. Notice, they're not bearing with the week. That means they're not being patient with the week. Look at verse 7. They're not accepting the week. And this is what it simply means. Paul is saying, it's obvious that moralistic people are intolerant. but there's another way in which broad-minded people who are not making any negative evaluations can be pretty intolerant too they're intolerant of intolerant people

or people they think are intolerant. They're self-righteous, only about self-righteous people, they're judgmental, only a judgmental people. And what's actually happening is neither side is really accepting the other, neither side is really relating to the other, neither side is really respecting the other, they're both just absolutely distinctions,

and there's all kinds of conflict and disunity and division. Now, what do we learn here in the beginning? What we learn here is there is something that looks like the opposite of tolerance, but there's something that's a counterfeit. On the one hand, you have the old moralistic intolerant people. You know what they're like. On the other hand, you have the broad-minded people that say, oh, look, I don't make negative evaluations.

I wouldn't say anything is right or wrong. I accept everything. I accept people. I accept things. But Paul says, oh, do you really? Postmodern theorists have been very wise about exclusion. Today, inclusion is the good. We want to be inclusive.

Exclusion is the problem. We don't want to exclude people on the basis of their beliefs on the basis of their views. We don't want to exclude anybody. But the postmodern thinkers of the last 20 years have been very wise in pointing out that there's three ways to exclude people. The first way is expulsion. Get away from me. Or I'll get away from you. I don't want any relation with you at all.

The second way is subjugation. Okay, if we're going to relate, I'll have the power. You must live in that part of town, the bad part. And we all recognize expulsion and subjugation as exclusion. And this is the way the weak do it. You know, they haul you up on heresy trials. They condemn you. They call you names.

you out. We understand how that works. But postmodern theorists say there is a third approach to exclusion, not expulsion, not subjugation, assimilation. In assimilation, you say, I'd love to have a relationship with you, but you're going to have to be just like me. And don't you want to be just like me? After all, you're wrong, you know. So assimilation, though, the postmodern thinkers are right. assimilation is actually a form of exclusion. And here's how it works. Let me draw this out as an example. In our modern world, we have traditional people who say, we have the truth, and if you don't, get out. But in our modern world, we also have tolerant people. And here's how the modern world defines tolerance. Tolerance is to say, nobody has the truth. Right? Tolerance is the moral absolute that nobody's moral

are absolute. And the modern world tolerance says, look, well, only going to get along is if everybody admits that everything is relative, that truth is socially constructed and personally constructed, that there really are no transcendent moral absolutes by which one person can say this religion is better or this religion is worse, this moral set of moral values is better and moral is worse. So tolerance says, as long as we're all relativists will be able to live together. But what does that mean? Think about it. The traditional intolerance said, you have to adhere to my view of truth

or you're out. A nice naked power play. But the modern tolerance approach is basically saying the same thing. It's saying you can be a member of the democratic civilization if you were willing to be as relativistic and you view of truth as us. But if you think you have the truth, you're dangerous.

You're out of the club. And that's just that's assimilation saying we'd be happy to have all the faiths and all the cultures all come together as long as nobody believes you got the truth in other words as long as you take on our take of spiritual moral and epistemological reality and of course that's every it looks like inclusion in the beginning but it's really a form of exclusion both the strong and the weak don't accept each other the weak says i have the truth and you don't so i'm better than you and the strong says, I don't make any moral evaluations, nobody's got the truth,

and if you think you do, I'm better than you. It's the same thing. It comes out to the same thing. They're both power plays. There's no doubt that one leads to more warfare maybe than the other. And I think that's very, very important.

But Paul is calling us beyond just what the strong are doing, which is not making negative evaluations, but at the same time, disdaining, laughing at, enter into a relationship with the people that they think are bigoted. Paul is calling us to something else. So what he's calling us to, what receptive grace is not, is it's not the old intolerance,

but it's not the new detached tolerance. What is it? Take a look. It's chapter 15, verse 1 and verse 7. Look at verse 7. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God. Accept one another. Now, here's the problem with this translation.

The word except in English now means something rather different than what the Greek word that Paul is using means. And to show you what I mean, the same word is used in Romans 14 verse 1. Now, it's not printed in the bulletin, but let me read it to you. In Romans 14 verse 1, which is basically the same letter talking to the same people about the same conflict, Paul says, accept him whose faith is weak without passing judgment on him.

Boy, now right away we're getting into how Paul is moving us way beyond the modern view of tolerance. Listen, accept him, accept him whose faith is weak without passing judgment on him. See, modern people say, to accept one is to say no evaluation.

No negative evaluation. I'm not going to say you're right or wrong or you're better or you're... But here's what Paul says. Accept your brother without judgment, though he's wrong. He's weak. He's theologically wrong. He's spiritually immature.

In other words, Paul comes in with this very negative evaluation of this person and says, accept this person without being judgmental. Modern people say to be judgmental is to evaluate someone negatively and say, well, your religion is wrong or your religion is weak or something like that. And I want you to know that Paul is actually talking about the opposite, because I've had people over the years in New York say, oh, you believe that Jesus is the way to the father? Great. Every religion's right. Every religion is right. But they don't want anything to do with me. They think I'm narrow-minded. So they won't evaluate me negatively. They won't argue with me. They won't

disagree with me. But they don't want to have a relationship with me. And Paul is saying the exact opposite. Let me show you how radical he's being. He says, I want you to enter into a relationship with someone that you are convinced is seriously, significantly wrong. Wrong about reality, wrong about God, wrong in their beliefs, wrong. Now you say, what do you mean relationship? Well, see, the word except is translating a Greek word proslombano, which means to pull toward you and alongside of you. It means to take in alongside of you. But the most radical example of what I'm trying to say is in verse one. In verse one, says, we who are strong ought to bear with the feelings of the weak. Again, the translation doesn't tell us how radical this is. There's a great commentary on Romans, very, very long, very technical,

lots of scholarship into it by Doug Mu, M-O-O, yep, on the book of Romans. And what he says is, he says this is a remarkable statement. It says, the strong should bear with, and it's a word that means literally, like to bear a burden, it means to enter under something. And he says, it really ought to be translated. The strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak. They ought to bear the weaknesses of the week. Now, what mook, the commentator says, now listen, what can that mean? You're supposed to enter into and bear the weaknesses, like get under the weakness of the week. And he says, that can't mean that you're supposed to become weak. It's like they can't mean that you're supposed to fall into their errors or become as immature as they are and get all their scruples

and get narrow-minded and get strange and all distorted in their thinking. It can't mean that. So it must mean two things. First of all, he says, number one, the strong must enter intellectually into the weaknesses of the weak. That means, this is amazing. You should negatively evaluate a person's position and then do everything you can to understand it. sympathize with it, figure out how the person got to it, see the advantages and the strength of it. But then secondly, the commentators say,

to bear with the weaknesses of the week, which means to enter into the weakness of the week, must mean either, it must mean, on the one hand, to enter intellectually into the weakness of the week, but secondly, don't forget what weakness means here. It means error. It means mistake.

It means, you know, but secondly, it must mean also to personally enter into the weakness of the week, which means to have a relationship. And this is the whole point. What does it mean to exclude somebody? What does expulsion, subjugation, and assimilation all have the same, you know, what are they have in common?

To exclude somebody is to say, I'm not going to change in order to have a relationship with you because you're wrong. I'm not going to let your hang-ups and your mistakes in any way change the way I live. They're going to hamper me. How would your life change if you no longer had to prove yourself to anyone? We often live as though our value depends on our accomplishments, the opinions of others, or whether we're meeting our own expectations, leaving us trapped in a cycle of trying to measure up.

In his short book, The Freedom of Self-Forgatfulness, based on a sermon from 1st Corinthians 3, Tim Keller explains how the gospel offers a completely different foundation for our identity, one that's free from insecurity and pride, and that allows us to rest in God's complete acceptance. This month, as thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life spread the transforming love of Christ with more people, will send you two English copies of the freedom of self-forgetfulness, and one Spanish copy that you can share with a Spanish speaker in your life.

Request your copies today at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. In fact, we have a perfect example of this. Take a look in 1 Corinthians 8, verses 10 and 11. And he says to the strong. Now, each, it says, if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat when he has sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother for whom Christ died is destroyed by your knowledge. Now, here's what's going on there. The strong person is looking at the weak person and saying, you've got all your hang-ups.

You're so superstitious. There is no Apollos. There is no Athena. Get over it. If you can't get over it, I'm not going to stop. You're not going to change me. I'm going to eat when I'm going to eat. I'm going to eat it right in front of you.

Look. And Paul says, the weak brother sits there and says, I don't want to be narrow mind. I don't want to be stupid. I guess it's all right. And they pick up and eat. And here's what interesting about this whole passage. I wish I could go off on a tangent on this, but I won't.

A person's conscience. See, when Paul talks about a weak conscience, he means a conscience which is not oriented to love and grace of Christ. It's too weak to keep the person from feeling condemned and inferior and bad. And you can't just turn that on a dime. It takes education. It takes reflection. It takes worship. It takes growth.

And what Paul is saying, he's given an example of how a strong person says, get over it, cut it out. I'm not going to stop for you. And he goes and he does something. And then the weak brother goes along. and says, well, maybe I can do it too, but they haven't, you know, they haven't progressed, they haven't grown, and they eat and they go home feeling utterly devastated spiritually, utterly guilty, utterly condemned. And what is Paul saying? Paul is saying, you think you're broad-minded, you think you're being tolerant, you're tolerant, he's the

narrow-minded one, what I'm calling you into is a relationship. I call you into, I call you to adjust your life, to change your life, to inconvenience yourself, to create space in your life for somebody who you believe is seriously wrong. There's four ways to do that. Number one, you see, by the way, I forgot to tell you this. Excuse me. The better translation of verse seven is receive one another as Christ perceived you. And look carefully. The model, the model. The model, world says, except one another's beliefs, that's not what Paul says. Paul says, that's silly. You know, in fact, you've got to negatively evaluate things. Everybody negatively evaluates things. Don't be ridiculous. Refusing to negatively evaluate shows you don't want a relationship,

shows you don't want to interact, shows you don't really want to, you know, have a give and take relationship. It doesn't say, receive one another or accept one other's beliefs. It says, accept one another. It says, receive one another. the world says tolerance is accepting the beliefs but living your life the way you want to live it and the gospel says make a negative evaluation and then enter into a relationship with the person that you think is wrong in such a way that you're willing to actually change your life in order to have that relationship what does it mean four ways for example one is you make space for a weak person. That is a person who doesn't believe in Christianity or a person who doesn't

believe Christianity very well or who's, you know, you consider a person with whom you deeply differ, maybe who has views that you find horribly offensive. Number one, you make space in your life by being willing, I already talked about this, to take time to understand them. Secondly, you make space in your life by being willing to change, by expecting to change. If you go into a relationship saying, oh, I'm coming in. because you, poor benighted, blind soul, need the light, and I have the light. So I'm entering into a relationship with you in order to help you to see the light. You haven't received that person.

You're sending, but you're not receiving. You're not receiving. If you don't go in expecting that you're probably wrong in some ways, and if you're really going to listen, you're going to learn from that person. As wrong as they are, you're going to learn. You haven't received them. You haven't entered into a relationship. You're not making space in your life unless you're willing to learn.

from them and expect that you are going to change in some of your beliefs and some of your views and some of your practices. So you make space by taking time to understand them. You make space by being expecting to let them change you and teach you some things. Thirdly, you make space by expecting to be misunderstood. By expecting to be misconstrued. You go in expecting that. And lastly, you go in, you make space by being willing to honor the pace of God in their lives and not try to hurry it up and not try to say you're not moving fast enough. Do you see how difference this is in tolerance? See, modern tolerance says, I don't evaluate you, but you're not going to, I'm not going to let your hangups change the way in which I live. And Christianity says the very opposite. It says, I don't

want you to accept one another. I want you to accept one other's beliefs. I want you to accept one another. I want you to receive one another. You as a Christian, you should take a person with whom you deeply differ and make space in your life for them. Enter in. Go in and disagree with them but without any disdain, without any superiority, completely willing to learn from them, completely willing to understand them, all in an effort to see them become less weak. You know why this is so hard? because at the very root of both the intolerant and the detached tolerant, and even those of us who are trying like crazy to move into receptive grace, let me tell you why it's so hard.

Jonathan Edwards wrote a sermon, preached a sermon years ago in the 1740s, by the way, and the name of it was called, Love is Contrary to a Sensorious Spirit. I love that word. Love is contrary. he said to a censorious spirit. Now we don't use the word censorious anymore. It's an archaism. But it's not too hard to understand it, is it? A censoriousness means the word censor is in there, censorship. And a censorious spirit meant intolerant and judgmental. And in the sermon, the thing they went right through me was Edward said, what makes a person censorious? What makes a person intolerant? What makes a person judgmental? And he says, it is not censorious. It is not censorious. to make a negative evaluation.

He says those are impossible to avoid. See, he's not as naive as modern people who say, well, tolerance means you don't negatively evaluate people's beliefs. He says, what makes you censorious is not a negative evaluation. Listen. He says, what makes you censorious is that you enjoy it. You enjoy reading negative evaluations of people. You enjoy passing along negative reports.

And you enjoy making them. You know, the reason that went through me years ago is because because I tend to be a non-confrontational person, I used to think, well, I'm not a very censorious person. I don't enjoy giving people bad news. But you hear what he said? He said, a censorious heart is a heart that enjoys negative evaluation. Not only to give it, but to read it. Do you ever read the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal or any of the newspapers in which we read about some high-flying, wealthy, beautiful, powerful person. Ah, and they were flying high, and then it came out that they're really a fraud, and they were doing something illegal, and now everything has crashed down around their ears. How do you read that? You go, serves them right. You know what John Edward says? You're enjoying it.

Why do you enjoy seeing a person wrong? Why do you enjoy seeing a person negatively evaluated? He says, because your heart wants power. And when you read that even, not just you. just when you give it, but when you read it, you feel more powerful. Because the unrenewed heart by the Holy Spirit, the heart that has never gotten a hold of the gospel, builds its identity by saying, I know I'm valuable because I'm a professional. See, if you say, I know I'm valuable because I'm a professional, then you have to feel superior to non-professionals. If you say, I know I'm valuable because I'm moral, then you say, I know I'm valuable because I'm moral. Then you have to feel superior to immoral.

You see, the normal way the heart builds an identity and gets a sense of value and gets a sense that bolsters its ego is by enjoying comparison with people who are failing in that same regard, who don't have that identity factor. And therefore, it's just absolutely natural. And this is the reason why it is so absolutely difficult.

It's absolutely difficult. When someone says, I think I can be perfectly tolerant. I am a very tolerant person. I don't know how many of you would think of me. I mean, a lot of you know me would think of me as a pretty tolerant person. Every time I go back and I read that sermon, I realize that I'm not. Do you think you are? I don't know that you know your heart. The postmodern people understood this, that ordinarily the way we function, the way our identity functions, the way we get any sense of being valuable and being special and being good, is by comparing ourselves with the other capital O,

with the ones that don't have what we have, and by saying, that's how I know I'm okay because I'm not them. That's how I know I'm good because I'm not him or her or them. And that makes a censorious heart by nature. Receptive grace, therefore, you see, this kind of tolerance where you say, well, I don't evaluate you, but I stay away from you. Or intolerance, that fits in with an unrenewed heart. But what Paul is talking about here,

when he calls us into the exact opposite of what the modern world says, which is you make a negative evaluation, then you enter deeply into a relationship making space in your life for that person, where do you get the power for that? And that's our last point. And that's our last stop. How do we cultivate this? Do you see why this does not show up,

not only on the ancient virtue lists, but it also doesn't certainly show up, really, in the modern mindset? This is something way beyond tolerance. Where do you get it? Two things. You have to have an understanding, and then secondly, you have to have an experience. Here's the understanding. Who are the weak? It tells you who the week are. It's in verse eight, but food does not bring us near God. We are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. A weak conscience is a conscience that thinks that by my behavior, I can be better. And that's the reason why one commentator on this,

this passage puts it like this. By weak in faith, he says, Paul is not referring to a person who doesn't believe in Christ, but a person who does not understand the implications of justification by faith alone. There it is. You know what weakness is? What spiritual weakness is? Do you know what creates intolerance? Do you know what creates a censorious heart? You haven't understood the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Well, what's that? Well, the whole book of Romans before This passage is about that. That's the reason why Leon Morris is bringing it up. But here's what it is in a nutshell.

Every other religion says you're justified by your works. That means you're made right with God. You're made right with the divine. You made right in the various ways every religion talks about it. By your efforts. You know, Buddha's last words strive without ceasing. Every other religion says, your efforts are what justifies you. But the gospel, Christianity says,

it's not your past but Christ's past, not your record, but Christ's record, not your performance, but Christ's performance. You are related to God because of what Jesus Christ has done. Now, here's what that means. Every other religion says you're either good or you're bad. You're either a good person or you're a moral failure. You're either a godly, holy person, or you're a sinner. But you're never both. But if you're justified by faith, you're not, faith, if you're just by what Jesus Christ has done, not by what you have done. That means that I am completely accepted right now on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done, and yet I'm a failure. I've morally failed in many, many ways. I am simil Justus et peccator. I am simultaneously

just loved, accepted, and sinful. And that's the key to the whole thing that Paul's talking about. I cannot get involved with somebody who I think is wrong and be open to change my views unless I am so, unless I realize I'm not saved, I'm not related to God because I'm right. Christianity, the gospel, creates a group of people who expect non-believers. Christianity, the gospel, leads you to expect non-believers will be better, wiser, nicer, kinder than you. You know why? Because you're not saved by being good, nice, wise, and kind. You're not saved about being right. You don't need to be right to give in to yourself that I know I'm okay with God. You're saved on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done. And what that means is you go out into

relationships not needing to be right. You go out into relationships not needing to be, not needing to feel superior to them. You go out into relationships able to disagree with the deepest respect because I know that in spite of the fact that I think you're wrong in this belief, you're probably a better person than me because I'm not saved by being a good person. I'm saved sheerly by grace. And that is the resource for this. I don't know how else you would do it. I don't need to have the power of the negative evaluation. I'm accepted already. I don't need to believe that I'm right and you're wrong. I don't need to show that to you. I don't need to win the argument. Why don't I need to win the argument? Do you need to win arguments? Are you dashed and you go home with

shame, confusion of face? Do you feel defiled? Do you wonder? It's because you're weak. It's because you're still not understanding the implications of the gospel of sheer grace. Think about this. The overtly intolerant person says, I'm special and valuable because I've got the truth. And those of you who don't get out. And the covertly, the covertly intolerant person says, I'm special because I'm open mind and I know there is no truth. And so I feel superior to those who think there is. I feel superior to the biggest. They can get out. But a Christian is somebody who says, I am special and loved because when I was deeply differing from him, Jesus Christ came and he entered into my reality.

He entered into my weakness. He entered into my flesh. And he didn't wait for me to believe, did he? He didn't wait for me to become a Christian, did he? He radically adjusted his life for me to make space in it for me. He radically adjusted his life to make space in it for me. He entered in, he radically adjusted, and I didn't even believe. see in other words

if you're a Christian here's how you know you're loved your whole life revolves around the fact that Jesus Christ opened himself to you when you were wrong when you didn't believe the right thing how should that make you treat people who don't believe the right

thing who you believe are wrong who you believe are in error who you believe are significantly wrong how should that make you how should that make you live toward them you were saved by somebody who gave himself to you and entered into relationship with you and entered into your humanity when you were wrong what that means is you have got to move out not saying i'll relate to you as long as you change but i'm not going to

change i will relate to you but i'm not going to really change the way i live i will be happy to talk to you but i'm going to have to win the argument you don't have that attitude there's on the cross we have the ultimate example of receptive grace. You can't just know what I'm telling you. You have to experience this. You have to see it. You see, when Paul says, receive one another just as Christ received you.

What's that just as mean? He says, think about it. Think of the details. Think of every aspect of it. Let it hit you. On the cross, Jesus Christ was not tolerant. You know why? When he died,

that was one of the most negative evaluations you've ever received in your whole life, the most negative evaluation in history. Why did he die on the cross? When he died on the cross, he was saying, you're so wicked, you're so lost, you're going to hell, I have to do this. Think about that.

Jesus was not tolerant on the cross because to die is to say to you, you're lost. You're lost. You have no hope. And your situation is so serious that nothing less than the Son of God's death on the cross will save you from hell.

So when he died, he was not being tolerant. Oh, he was being so much more than tolerant. Because he was negatively evaluating you, but he was entering in. He was becoming utterly vulnerable to you. Think about that. Listen to that. There are enormous resources in the gospel. If you build your identity on it for Christians to be not just

tolerant, way beyond tolerant, to be able to disagree with people that we think are utterly different, make negative evaluations, which is real engagement and real interaction, and yet do so without the slightest bit of ill will, without the slightest need to exercise power in those relationships and those friendships. Disagree, sharply disagree. Love, respect, deference, humility, no need for power, no need to win the argument, utterly, utter poise and inner security as you're doing it. we ought to be showing the world the way. I don't know that secularism does not have the ability. Secularism says, let's all be tolerant, our way.

You've got to adopt our epistemology or else you're dangerous. Christianity says, you just have to be alive and we'll receive you. You don't have to come and obey this and do this and this. We'll receive you if you're willing to have a relationship with us. follow him and then let the world see how that reshapes our power relationship so greatly that they're going to start to say what have you got receive one other just as christ received you let's pray thank you father for giving us a time to think about this trait of a gospel changed life we ask how does this work out between Christians and other Christians?

Protestants, Catholics, Pentecostals, non-Pentecostals, we have a tendency to look down our nose at each other. This should totally change that. How does this change the way Christians relate to their friends and their neighbors and the people around them that don't believe at all? This should utterly change that. Show us, Father, how to be more like your son, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Thanks for joining us. here on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, you can find more great gospel-centered content by Tim Keller at gospelonlife.com. And if you'd like to learn about our newly launched translation initiative in which we're translating 500 of Tim Keller's sermons into 30 of the world's most spoken languages, visit theglobalreachproject.com. Again, that's the global reachproject.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 2002. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017. Will Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.