Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Self-Substitution of God

Episode Date: July 1, 2024

I don’t think there’s any competition on this: the cross is the single most visible and recognizable symbol in human history. It’s everywhere. But what does it mean? Before Christ came, the cross was a gallows, a firing squad, a guillotine. All the cross meant was that you’d lost. It was not a symbol of strength—it was a symbol of weakness. Galatians 3 is perhaps the most complete picture on the meaning of the cross. Let’s look at 1) why the cross is necessary, 2) what actually happened on the cross, and 3) how the cross makes us different. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 18, 1998. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 3:10-14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. The book of Galatians isn't a very long book, just six chapters, but it holds some of the most transformative truths in scripture. All month on the podcast, Tim Keller's teaching will be from the book of Galatians, a book that is all about the power of the gospel. That is printed in your bulletin. It's Galatians 3. We're moving through the book of Galatians. Galatians chapter 3, verses 10 to 14. All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written,

Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith, on the contrary, the man who does these things will live by faith. The law is not based on faith. On the contrary, the man who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit." This is God's Word. Now the cross.

You know the cross is, I don't think this is controversial, unless you can think of a, I don't think there's any competition on this. The cross is the single most famous and recognizable visual sign, visual object, insignia, symbol. It's the single most visible and recognizable and familiar symbol in all of human history. It's everywhere. And the real question, of course, is what does it mean? Now, that is the question. Does it mean what Constantine thought it meant? Maybe you've heard the story. Constantine was the emperor, the Roman emperor, who in the fourth century AD converted to Christianity, I guess, or supposedly, I mean, who's to say? But there's plenty of people who doubt that, including me. But the story of his conversion is quite interesting.

He created, or I should say, he declared, essentially, the Western civilization to be a Christian civilization. He essentially declared Roman civilization to be a Christian civilization when he converted to Christianity. But it happened this way. He was before a battle and he was scared and he decided to pray to the great supreme God and he looked to heaven and he was scared and he decided to pray to the great supreme God and he looked to heaven and he had a vision. And the vision was, up above the noonday sun, a huge cross

he saw in the sky, along with these words. The vision, there was a cross and there were these words by the cross and the word said, in this sign, conquer. And he put the first two letters of Christ's name on the shields of his soldiers, the Cairo, and they went into battle and he won. And he said, okay, I'll become a Christian. Is that what the cross means? All we're Christian soldiers, marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before. Now, before Christ came, the cross meant the cross was a gallows, the cross was a

gas chamber, the cross was a firing squad, the cross was a guillotine, and it did not mean at all strength or conquest. All the cross meant was not that you'd won, but that you'd lost. The cross was not a symbol of strength, it was a symbol of weakness. The cross was not a symbol of conquest, of conquering, it was a symbol of having been conquered. And when Christ comes along, it's a symbol of having been conquered. And when Christ comes along, it's astounding that the Bible would take the cross of all things, it was a familiar symbol in the ancient world, and turn it into the most recognizable and familiar symbol in the history of the

world. Something like that. Now, what does the cross mean? And John Stott, and he has a great little book, by the way. It's not a little book, but if you have ever heard of it, I recommend it. If you haven't heard of it, I recommend it. It's a book called The Cross of Christ. And in it, he says this about these five verses, about Galatians 3, 10 to 14. He says, these verses constitute one of the clearest expositions of the necessity, meaning, and consequences of the cross. Paul expresses himself in such stark terms that some commentators have not been able to accept what he says. A.W.F. Blount says his language is startling and shocking.

The New Testament scholar, Yerameus, spoke of its offensiveness. Nevertheless, Paul meant every word of it, so we have to come to terms with it." It's pretty interesting. Stott says that this is perhaps the most, the clearest exposition of the necessity, meaning, and consequences of the cross of anywhere in the scripture. And when I looked at it, I saw he's right, and then I immediately got panicky. I said, how in the world do I do justice to a passage like this? And then I said, I can't. And I relaxed, and wrote my sermon and I'm bringing it to you now. Now, but it is here. It's very complete and I think it's probably more important that we look at the completeness,

the picture, then we go into depth and detail and bring out all the riches which we cannot do. He is right in saying there's really almost nowhere clear, there's one other passage that is sort of tied for first on the meaning of the cross. The other passage is 2 Corinthians 5.21 and this particularly, Galatians 3.13. But first of all, let's take a look. The necessity. Why of the cross? What and how? The why is why it's necessary. The what is what actually happened. What happened there? What actually happened on the cross? This passage tells us in a way that very few others really do. And then what are the results?

How does that make us different? So you have the why and the what and the how. Does it make you different? The necessity? Okay, now take a look at a couple of phrases here. One of the things that I think is overlooked is this, in the very beginning here, in verse 10 and 11, it tells us the central issue, from the Bible's point of view, the central issue of life, the main thing we need, what life is all about. And it's right there in that little phrase in verse 11, no one is justified before God. Now, that's what we need. That's the question. How can we live before God? That term is a very pregnant term. There's a lot of places in the Bible, in the Old Testament, there's places where God says, I'm the Lord thy God, walk before me. To walk before, you

know, this is a, this is metaphorical. We talk about going behind my back, you know, and what does that mean? Walking before. What it's referring to is this. To walk before someone is a relationship of utter transparency. To walk before them means out where you can see them and they can see you. Complete transparency, no shame, nothing to hide. Looking him in the eye, him looking you in the eye. No shame, nothing to hide, complete transparency. Sartre said, hell is to be observed. You know, he said hell is other people, but if you look at his works on that, he says the idea of being observed, to have people see you and to know who you are and to look at you, that's hell and that's true in our present condition.

And Genesis 3 says that's our present condition, that we feel the need to hide. But there's another part of us that desperately wants to be known. And we want to live that kind of life of transparency. And how can we do it? So that's the issue. How do you do that before God? If...how do you live a life of self-forgetfulness? How do you live a life where the end of self-consciousness, not worried about how you look, not at all

hiding at all? This is what we want. You know, one of the reasons, and I know this is hard to explain, I'm not trying to do a little analysis of myself. One of the main reasons I never went anywhere as a musician, I think I may have told you this before, I was a trumpet player and I played with the idea of doing that. But you know what? When nobody was watching or when I was in an orchestra, when I was in a big orchestra, when I was in a big band orchestra, I played very, very well, but I could not handle auditions. I couldn't handle it. I could hardly keep the mouthpiece on my lips. I would be trembling that much. I couldn't stand being before the experts. I couldn't handle it. I was just scared to

death. I couldn't take it. And what we're talking about here in this little phrase, before God, is to have the kind of life in which you are not afraid to live before him and therefore you're not afraid to live before anybody. In other words, you're never trembling, you're never scared, you're not afraid before anyone at all. You have nothing to worry about, nothing to hide, okay? And so that's the point. Therefore, that's what life's about. If you had this, your problems would be over. If you had this, you'd have what life's about. However, we don't. Why not? Well, verse 10, all who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for

it is written, curse it is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. Okay, now as I said, I'm trying to give you completeness, and there's this great danger to dive in every one of these pools all the way down and then find out that I spent all my time on one point. But this is a very important passage. It says that the law of God has a curse attached to it. And this is, if you know the Old Testament, you know this is covenantal language. The law of God has a curse attached to it.

And through here, Paul quotes twice Deuteronomy. See up here, this is, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. That's a quote from Deuteronomy 27. And then, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. That's also a quote from Deuteronomy. And if you go back to Deuteronomy, you'll find it's a very interesting book. If you look carefully, pardon me, if you look at first sight, it looks like a series of laws. Lots

of things that God wants them to do. Do this, don't do that, thou shalt, thou shalt. But then at the end, in chapter 27 of Deuteronomy, we have a set of curses, long set of curses. If thou doest these things, cursed shall thou be, cursed shall thou be. I will bring this curse and I'll bring that curse and I'll bring that curse. And when you get to chapter 28, it says, but if you do this law, this blessing and this blessing and this blessing, what's it all mean? In the Bible, law is never abstract. Law is always covenantal and therefore relational. Bear with me, okay? Bear with me. I have to say this a few times before it starts to sink

in. The law of God is never given just to be obeyed. The law of God always forms the stipulations, the basis of a relationship. And that's the reason why there's curses and blessings. The curses is always the loss of relationship. The blessing is always the intimacy of relationship. See, at the heart of every relationship is law. And at the same time, the purpose of law, really, within God, is relationship. Now, let me give you an illustration to show you what I mean. It's going to be a little funny. It makes it obvious, though. Let's just say a guy, a man and a woman, they're dating and they're getting serious. And they might, you know, they're thinking about each other, thinking about, you know, marriage. So, one night they

sit down and they said, let's really find out what our passions are and what's really important to us. So, she begins to pour her heart out, let's say, and she says, let me tell you three things that are very important to me. Some of them seem trivial, but first of all, I can't stand smoke. I can't stand cigarette smoke. My nose, my eyes, I just can't be in the same room. I'm just in a lot of trouble with it. I just can't stand it. Can't be around it. You need to know that. And he says, okay, well, I just can't stand it, I can't be around it, you need to know that." And he says, okay, well, I'm going to smoke. I'm going to smoke three packs a day, I'm going to smoke all the time, I'm going to smoke in bed, I'm going to smoke when we eat, I'm

going to smoke. I'm glad you told me about that, but I'm going to smoke. She says, well, let me tell you something else, she says. Well, she says, I feel very, very strongly, you make a lot of money and I make a lot of money and together we're going to make a lot of money, but here's what I believe. I feel very strongly that we should set our living expenses significantly below those which we could afford. And I would like to be deliberately and creatively and intentionally and significantly generous with our money. I would like to be very intentional in finding causes and charities and things that we can be involved with and we can give our money to insignificant proportions. It's very important that we do that." And he listens and he says,

well, no, he says, what I want to do, I would like to buy three or four homes and condos in luxurious places and I will go into debt if necessary in order to afford that. And she says, oh, let me tell you one more thing. I would like to live in an interracial neighborhood. I believe in cross-cultural relationships. I think that's very, very important. He says, oh no, for goodness sakes, you can't trust those people.

I would have to lock all my doors. Oh no, no, we're not gonna do that at all. And then he says, now, I'm so glad we had this little talk. This is wonderful. And now let's get down to business. Honey, will you marry me? And she would go, no. Now what is she doing?

At the heart of every relationship is law, without which you can... Now what is the law? Well, if you're in love and you want to have a loving without which you can... Now, what is the law? Well, if you're in love and you want to have a loving relationship, you can't live any old way you want. You have to get to know the passions and the convictions of the person that you love. And the only way to possibly for you to have that love relationship is to honor that.

You can't just live any old way. You can't just trample. You see, on the, in a sense, the laws of love, the passions of the heart. And if you, listen, now there are some people, well, here's what I want to say. In the Old Testament, whenever there's a relationship between a man and a woman in marriage, between God and a human being, between kings, between peoples, it's always covenantal. What they do is they said, we can have a relationship, but we won't have a relationship unless there are some rules, unless there are some commonalities. And we honor that.

And if we honor it, blessing, love, embrace. But if we do not, curse, which is always to be cut off. Sorry, we can't have a relationship. Now, there are people who love without any covenantal structure at all. We call them codependent people. That's what we used to call them. Now we call them people without boundaries. I don't know what you call them now. But what it means is I enter into a relationship and I don't care whether you trample on everything. I don't care

if you smoke. I don't care if you trample on my values. I don't care what you do to me. I still love you. I'll still be in a relationship. I'll just let you walk all over me." See, no covenantal structure. See, nothing that you hold the other person to. No real blessing, by the way, frankly. There's no real intimacy in that kind of relationship. And of course, no curse. You never cut them off. You never... Okay, now, here's the difference. When you enter into a relationship with a man or a woman to get married and it looks like you start to enter in and there has to be a cutting off Because the other person will not honor you know like that and that's a funny illustration. Okay, that's painful Here's the problem. God is different than any other hurt any any other person this tells us that your relationship with God is not optional

I don't have to marry you. I don't have to be your friend, but I do have to have a relationship with God, because I was built for that. And that's the reason why it says in verse 12, what does it say? It says, the law is not based on the...the man who does these things, the law, will live by them. And what that means is, unless you're willing to hear the law of God and commit to that, unless you're willing to obey that, you're cursed. It's like any other relationship.

God says, I'm holy. God says, do not lie, do not steal, do not be selfish. The golden rule, He tells you these things and if you don't do that there has to be a curse God's not codependent But here's the problem Like so many of us are but here's the problem without God we die we die forever We cannot live unless we fulfill the Covenant We cannot live if we're cut off from him. We cannot live We've got to have him but Paul says we don't we're cut off from him. We cannot live. We've got to have him. But Paul says, we don't.

We're under a curse. That's why something has to be done. How can we best understand the freedom we have in Christ? What is the relationship between the law of the Bible and the grace that Jesus offers? In the book Galatians for You, Tim Keller takes you through a rich and deep study of Paul's letter as he reflects on the amazing grace we have in Christ. Galatians is a powerful book that shows how people can think they know the gospel but are actually losing touch with it.

In this study of the book of Galatians, Dr. Keller helps you understand how this short book in the New Testament can transform your life. Galatians for you is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the love of Christ with more people. Request your copy today at gospelinlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now, secondly, what was done? That's why we need the cross. But what actually happened? What did the cross do? And what we have is verse 13, He redeemed us in order that the blessing given—oh, pardon me, verse 13. Yes, my eyes. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

Now, don't be too distracted by that, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree for a second. If you go back into Deuteronomy, you'll see that a person who was hung on a tree was ordinarily stoned to death. And instead of buried, instead of given, instead of the way ordinarily it would happen if somebody died, come into the family, and the family lovingly buries the body and so forth. But instead, what happened, if there was a curse, if there was blasphemy,

if the person died as a response to covenant breaking with God, the person was not just executed, but hung on a tree. And this is not all that unusual. This was a very ancient practice. You hung your enemy on the wall. You hung the enemy on a spike, on a pike as a warning. But of course, it was also degrading. It was also a curse. It was a curse.

And Paul points out that in the Old Testament, when someone was executed for covenant breaking and to show that the execution was a form of curse, instead of being immediately buried, they were hung on a tree. And Paul, of course, is lighting that to Christ. He says, Christ was hung on a tree. Christ was hung on a tree because he took the curse. Now, here's what that means. This is the place where John Stott says, commentators are scared. They're outraged. They move away away. Now we aren't because we don't think about it, but commentators, that's their job, they think. And it is amazing, after I read Stott,

I went around and it's true. So many of the commentators just will not admit that this is what it says, and I don't tell you why it says it and what it means it and all the Greek and all that, but here's what it says. It doesn't just say he was cursed, it says he became a curse. What does that mean?

That's enormously strong. It doesn't say he just was cursed. It says he became a curse. Now, the only other place that we have something like that is in 2 Corinthians 521, where it doesn't say he was just punished for sin. What does it say? It says, God made him be sin. Same thing. It's, well, just metaphorical. This is what all the commentators want to say, and stop shows why the Greek doesn't allow you to do that,

and I'm not going to get into that. What does it mean to say not just that he was cursed, but he became a curse? Well, okay, three things. First of all, it teaches us, number one, of course, that he was punished. I mean, he received, when I say, of course, it means he was punished, it simply means, of course, that he actually did get a terrible infliction. And you see, it says he was punished for us, in our place. But now that's not all.

It doesn't just say that he did get a punishment, the curse is a punishment. But secondly, it tells us what the punishment was like and what it actually affected. What it was like means, well see, remember this is covenantal language. Well so what is a curse? When you think of the word curse, I mean, you've got all these stupid, you know, B-grade movies in your mind, The Curse of the Mummy. You have all these, you have the, and, you know, the curse can be anything,

but don't, this is covenantal language. The curse is always the loss of relationship. And now you know what happened to Jesus on the cross. And now you know what happened to Jesus on the cross. See, Jesus Christ, his curse was not the nails in his hands. It was the hole in his heart where God used to be. Now, again, I'm doing this for completeness, not for effect tonight. But sometimes you may have heard me say this. The level of pain in the loss of a relationship

completely depends on the level of relationship. That when an acquaintance says, I hate you, it doesn't hurt as bad, though it hurts, as when a friend says, I hate you, and that doesn't hurt as bad, though it hurts, as when your best friend says, I hate you, and that doesn't hurt as bad, as when your parents says, I hate you. And that doesn't hurt as bad as when your parents says, I hate you.

And that doesn't hurt as bad as when your spouse says, I hate you. Don't you see? But you see, when you get to the relationship of the father and the son, we're way beyond even our imagination. I mean, people are always being devastated by the loss of relationship.

Counselors see this in their office, pastors see it, and if you're just a friend, you just know people who have never gotten over a rejection, never. I mean, this is worse. This is worse than being branded. This is worse than bamboo shoots under the fingernails. This is far worse. This ruins your life. But when it comes to what Jesus experienced on the cross, and even before

that, you know, Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon, The Agony of Christ, is about why was Jesus sweating blood in the garden? And this is surmise, but it's probably fair. And Edwards says, probably Jesus Christ sat down in his whole life, he had this perfect relationship with the Father, He had an incredible prayer life. But he sat down in his moment of greatest need and he turned to God and maybe, just maybe, hell opened up. He turned to the Father and where the Father had been there was nothing. The Father rejected him. The Father cursed him. See now what it means?

Now, this is a little hard for us to get into because somebody says, well, he knew just three days. No, no, no, it couldn't be. It must mean, when it says he suffered for us, it must mean that he experienced in his heart what we would have experienced in hell forever and ever having lost God. See, even the people here on earth who think they have no God, they've got God. They've got God everywhere.

The Bible says in Him we speak and live and move and have our being. In Him all things hold together. But when we actually lose God, everything will fall apart forever. Our ability to love, our ability to have joy, everything will fall apart forever. We'll be howling misery. We'll be totaled. We'll be hell. And yet, we've never, none of us ever have had and never will have the relationship with

the father that the son had. And as a result, what Jesus experienced there, he experienced the loss of the father, he experienced the curse, as far as he knew he was gone forever, he would have felt that way. And it would have been a hell infinitely greater than all our hells in this room, all of our hells in the whole world, all put together. See, Jesus Christ, whenever he ever talked about the Father or referred to the Father, always called him Father.

Our Father, Holy Father, your Father and my Father, only once did he call him God. He was on the cross when he lost the Father. So the second thing it tells us is what he experienced. But here's the third thing it tells us, and this is the reason why it's so outrageous, and this is the key to the text. Why would it say he wasn't just punished for sin, but he became sin? Why would it say he was not just punished with a curse, but he became the curse? What does the word became mean?

And here's the quick answer. It cannot mean, it cannot mean that he actually became sinful on the cross, right? Now, how do we test that? I mean, did he actually become selfish? Did he actually become angry? Did he actually become rebellious? Did he actually become, you know, wicked? Did he actually become evil on the cross?

Of course not. When the thief turned to him and says, oh Lord, you know, remember me when you come to your kingdom, you know, he didn't turn and say, may you rot in hell. He didn't do that. He was not, well then then how can Paul say twice, he became sin, he became a curse.

He wasn't just cursed, he became, and the answer is, he legally became. The answer is he was treated, he was treated as if he was that blasphemy. He was treated as if he was that blasphemy. He was treated as if he was Peter, the denier. He was treated as if he was Judas, the betrayer. He was treated as if he was Moses, the coward. He was treated as if, he was treated as if he was all these terrible things.

Now, why is that so radical? See, that's beyond saying he got our punishment for us, because if it just says that, he got our punishment for us, then you know what it means when you believe in him? What do you get? Forgiveness. That's all.

All you get is forgiveness. And you know what? Most, I wouldn't say most, but probably the average Christian thinks that that's what you get. And you know what that means? It means the pressure is still on. It means that you blew it, and now Jesus Christ forgives you, and now you're back

on the truth. You're back on, and you better be good. You see? And maybe when you blow it, then you can go back to God, and you can get forgiveness again, then you get back on, you know? And so, people are always in and out of, you know, the fellowship with God. See? He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me. We don't know. But if it's true that he became a curse, if it's true that he became sin, what does it mean when both places, in 2 Corinthians 5, it says, he became the curse so we could receive the blessing?

What does it mean when it says in 2 Corinthians 2, 5, 21, he was made sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. What does that mean? It can't mean that the minute you relieve, you become actually righteous, any more than it means that the minute he was dying on the cross for you, he became actually wicked. It means that God treated him as if he was an absolute evil person. He didn't just get cursed, he became the curse. God treated him as if he was evil itself, see?

But on the other hand, it must mean that the many who become a Christian, you don't just get forgiveness, you get treated as if Jesus was treated as if he was you, you're treated as if you were him. On the cross, the thing that happened was he was treated legally as sin. And that means that when you become a Christian, you don't just get forgiveness, you are put beyond probation. Now there's no condemnation. You're treated as absolutely holy.

Now here's what you've got to realize. When you take a look at the Satan tempting Jesus in the garden, the thing that he comes after is the thing that he does everything he can to stop. He doesn't try to get Jesus to go back to heaven. He doesn't say, I don't want you here. He says, make these stones into bread. Now what is he saying? He says, use your divine power. Don't, don't come and live a normal human life. Why was Jesus living a normal human life? Why did he come here and not use his divine power, but he suffered and he obeyed? Why did he get baptized? He comes to John the Baptist and he says, baptize

me. John the Baptist says, wait a minute, I should be baptizing you. "'You should, I mean, you should be baptizing me, "'I shouldn't be baptizing you.'" And what does Jesus say? "'It is necessary that we fulfill all righteousness.'" What does that mean? See, John the Baptist doesn't realize he came not to be an example, but to be a substitute.

Jesus Christ did not come to save us by saying, "'Be like me.'" Jesus Christ came to become us. He says, baptize me because this is what every human being should do. He comes in and he lives the perfect life. He's the only one who actually obeys everything. The man who does these things will live by him.

He's the only man who did those things. He's the only man who did it. He loved God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind. He loved his neighbor as himself. He did it all. He was baptized. He did it all. And Satan is desperately trying to get him to be like every other founder of every other religion. He says, don't do that. Get the kingdom through me, not through suffering. In other words, don't come and live as a human being. Don't come and identify with him. Don't do that.

He says come and teach. Come and be an example, but don't come and be a substitute. Now why is Satan doing that? Because Satan knows then we're stuck. Because if Jesus Christ is an example, all we're ever gonna do is always be upset feeling like I haven't lived up Jesus Christ is a substitute then we can be utterly and absolutely confident So for example, let me ask you something. Have you been going through some suffering lately? I mean has bad things happened to you now. Are you starting to say I guess I'm not a Christian

I mean, why would God do this to me? I mustn't be living right Are you mad at God? Are you mad at yourself? You know what you're doing? You're forgetting that Jesus is a substitute, and you're treating him like an example. Do you see what that... In other words, you're not acting as if, you're not acting as if God looks at you and says,

I love you as you are, and therefore, nothing I would ever bring into your life anymore could possibly be punishment. It all fell to Jesus. It's all on Jesus. You're acting as if he's an example, not a substitute. That's what the devil will always want to do to you. And that's the reason why we always have the problems we do. We think all Jesus did was give us an example, or all Jesus did was give us forgiveness, but that's not true. He gave us his righteousness. He gave us His righteousness. He gave us His name.

He gave us a God who says, in you I am well pleased. The same spirit that came down on Jesus, that says, you are my beloved child and you I'm well pleased, comes down on us when we finally get the principle of substitution Our problems come because we forget the radical nature of what actually comes to us It's not just forgiveness and it's certainly not just an example It's the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. Do you see that?

Now you see I was complete but boy we You could go into absolutely everything. That is why we need it, that is what happened, and that is the difference it makes. There are Christians who are willing to say, I'm forgiven, I think, you know, and then they're trying to live their very best. They sort of go back on probation and they're constantly feeling like, I haven't done a very good job. Then there are Christians who live with that transparency, with that confidence. They're really before God. They're not afraid of looking him in before God. They're not afraid of looking

Him in the face. They're not afraid He's always punishing them. They're not always noticing anything that goes wrong in their lives as if, oh my goodness, He must be punishing me again, because they understand the self-substitution of Jesus is what happened on the cross. Actually, I put a great quote from John Stott about this very passage in the front. He says, the concept of substitution is then to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. This is the essence of the Christian religion. The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.

Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be. God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only God deserves to be, God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God only, God accepts penalties which belong to man only. That's it. There's this funny place, funny place, I think, in Luke chapter 10 verse 20, where Jesus gives his disciples some... He shows them how to cast out demons and heal people, and he sends them out. And they come back, and he says, how was it? And he says, I mean, paraphrase, okay, they say, wow, Lord, even the demons are subject to our name. And he says, rejoice not that the demons are subject to your

name, but that your names are written in heaven. Now what he's doing, he says, the essence of power is not to have had a great day. They came back and said, we did something. We got something done for Jesus. Now we know that. He says, you're going to have a bad day tomorrow. Tomorrow, you're going to try to cast out a demon

that's gonna jump on you. You know, remember the seven sons of Siva? You know, they cast out demons. At one point, they tried to cast out a demon, and the demon says, Jesus we know, Paul we know, but who the hell are you? And jumped on them and beat them. Do you remember that?

We'll get to that. I'm gonna preach on that someday. That's in the book of Acts. But you see, Jesus says, you had a good day. Don't you dare rejoice in it. Now, that's a command. Don't rejoice in following his example because tomorrow, I mean, rejoice, what is he saying? Don't boast in it.

Don't make that, it doesn't mean you can't be happy. Of course you can be glad. If you do something for him, something he's asked you to do, something like Him, of course you can be glad. But Jesus is saying don't rejoice in it. He says here's your basis, here's your bottom, here's your bottom line, here's your foundation, that your names are written in heaven.

See, that we're in covenant with you, that your names are written on the breastplate of the high priest, Jesus Christ, as He stands before the Father. Then when the Father sees you, you see... In other words, rejoice in your status, rejoice in who you are in Christ. Be very, very, very careful about taking all of your joy or all of your sorrow or taking your very identity through your achievements. See him as a substitute. Recognize what he's done for you. That's the reason why Paul can say, you see, that he boasts in the cross, in the cross of Christ's alone eye glory,

through whom the world is crucified to me and out of the world. We're going to get to that because that's in Galatians 6. The cross makes everything superfluous. Nothing has any power over you, any, any more. Now, this is the meaning of it all. And now see, as we go to the Lord's table, what are we doing? We're going back and saying, it's the cross. You became a curse. You were broken. You were poured out.

So that I could be whole. That's the meaning of the gospel. Rejoice not in whether you had a good day. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Let's pray. Father, we're going to confess our sin, but the sin beneath all of our sins is listening to the devil who wants us to look at Jesus Christ, not as our substitute and as our righteousness, but as nothing more than really just a teacher and as an example, to forget that we're your children.

We pray, Lord, that you would keep us now through this Lord's Supper, a deeper memory of that. We always forget who we are in Christ. Let us remember now as we take the bread and the cup. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Tim Keller. If you have a story of how the gospel has changed your life or how Gospel in Life resources

have encouraged or challenged you, we'd love to hear from you. You can share your story with us by visiting gospelinlife.com slash stories. That's gospelinlife.com slash stories. Today's sermon was recorded in 1998. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel In Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.