Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Death of Jesus

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

At the actual moment of Jesus’ death, an inexplicable, mysterious darkness comes down. From noon to 3:00 PM, it was absolutely dark. This is an inexplicable darkness. A solar eclipse does not create absolute darkness for more than a few minutes. Besides that, a solar eclipse can’t happen during a full moon, and it was Passover, which is a time of a full moon. Beyond that, it was the wet season, so you can’t attribute it to a desert wind storm. This is a supernatural darkness, and therefore it means something. But what? What does it signify? I think we’ll see that it signifies 1) the darkness we have, 2) the darkness Jesus received, and 3) how Jesus’ darkness can dispel our darkness. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 25, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 15:33-39. 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.

As we see in the book of Mark, the days leading up to Jesus' death were filled with betrayal, pain, and mockery. But we also see the grace and love of Jesus on full display. Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller continues to show us how Christ loved us at an infinite cost to himself. After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospelandlife.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll start receiving our quarterly newsletter with articles from Dr. Keller as

well as other great gospel-centric resources. Subscribe today at gospelandlife.com. 2nd night scripture comes from Mark chapter 15 verses 33-39. At the 6th hour darkness came over the whole land until the 9th hour. And at the 9th hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, L.O.I., L.O.I., Lama Sabak Tanai, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When some of those standing near heard this, they said, listen, he's calling Elijah. One man ran, filled his sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink.

Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down, he said. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, surely this man was the son of God. This is God's word.

We're looking at the Gospel of Query to Mark and we get to the end of the near, we're almost at the end. And here we of course come to the actual moment of Jesus' death. Now, all four of the Gospel writers are at pains to show us that all the events of Jesus' death happen in the dark. The betrayal of the denial, mistrial all happened at night of course.

But now we get to the actual moment of Jesus' death and an inexplicable mysterious darkness comes down. At the six-hourhour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. The six-hour was noon. The ninth hour was 3pm. It's from 12 to 3. It was absolutely dark. Now a lot of people, I said it's mysterious and inexplicable because as soon as you say, and a lot of people have tried to say, well there might have been a natural cause. What about an eclipse? Well, first of all, solar eclipse does not create absolute darkness from within a few seconds, actually, or at least a

few minutes, that is. I mean, it may take a while to happen and it may take a while to unhappened, but the actual time of darkness is only a few minutes. And besides that, solar eclipse can't happen but the actual time of darkness is only a few minutes. And besides that, a solar eclipse can't happen on a full moon, at a time of a full moon, and Passover is the time of a full moon. Now, other people have said, well, maybe, maybe it was a Soraco, which is one of those desert windstorms that would kick up enough dust

that it would actually obscure the sun for days at a time, but this was the wet season because it was Passover. Because it was a wet season, you can't attribute it to that. This is a supernatural darkness, and therefore, it means something. But what? It signifies something, obviously.

But what does it signify? I think it signifies something, obviously. But what does it signify? I think it signifies this. First of all, the darkness signifies the darkness we have. Secondly, the darkness Jesus God. And thirdly, how Jesus' darkness can dispel ours. It shows us the darkness we have, the darkness Jesus God, and how Jesus' darkness can actually break open and dispel our darkness. Let's look at this.

First, the darkness we have, the darkness in the Bible represents a physical darkness, represents spiritual darkness. In fact, when Jesus is arrested in Luke, not in Mark, but in Luke chapter 22, this is what he says. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders who had come for him, this is your hour, he says, when darkness reigns. Say, Jesus is using the word darkness here

as a metaphor for everything that's wrong with us, everything that's wrong with the world, everything that's wrong with the human race. Physical darkness is a metaphor for everything that's wrong with us, everything's wrong with the world, everything's wrong with the human race. Physical darkness is a metaphor in the Bible for spiritual darkness and what is that spiritual darkness? Well, let's break it down. First of all, when the Bible talks about spiritual darkness, it's referring to us turning away facing something besides God as the center of our life. Turning away from

God is our true light and facing something else as the center of our life. Now why? God is always likened in the Bible to the Son. The Son is the source of truth because by it we see everything else. And the sun is the source of life because without it everything withers and dives. And therefore God, the Bible says, is the source of all truth and the source of all life. If you orbit around God, if you center on the sun as it were, then your life has truth in it and life in it. But if you center on anything else, if you turn away from God and you make anything else the center of your life, if you orbit around anything else, if there's anything else

more important in your life than God, if there's anything else that you make a source of your warmth, a source of your hope, if your career is more important to you than God, if a relationship is more important to you than God, if your family is more important to you than God, if anything is more important to you than God, you may come to church, you may go to Redeemer, you may go to, you may take notes that the preacher's sermons, you say, you may believe to church, you may go to Redeemer. You may go to, you may take notes

at the preacher's sermons, you say, you may believe in God, but if there's anything more important to you than God, if as the real center of your life, the result of spiritual darkness. Doesn't matter what it is, you're turning away, functionally, in your heart, away from the truth, away from the life,

and the result is a kind of spiritual darkness. Well, what do we mean by spiritual darkness? Well, let's keep on going. First of all, to make anything in your life more important than God leads to, radical disorientation. Darkness brings disorientation. You know, we live in a world in which,

even when you go out into the dark, supposedly, out into the wilderness, there's always towns around with all these electric lights on. We don't really know what real darkness is. If you are in absolute and complete and total utter darkness, so that you can't see anything, you can't see an inch in front of you. You can't put your hand up and you can't even see that.

If you've ever been in darkness, that absolutely total. It's rare. But if you stay in it for any length of time, it can really have a horrible effect on you. To stay in utter darkness for a long time is radically disorienting. I was, you know, Ernest Shackleton, if you heard this story of Ernest Shackleton, if you heard

this story of Ernest Shackleton back in 1914, he was a British explorer and he took a ship to Antarctica, the endurance, and they were going to sail to Antarctica and they were going to walk across Antarctica on foot. Be the first ones to do that. Go by the South Pole, go away across, and they never got there because their ship, the endurance got caught in the polar ice and it was crushed. And over the next number of months, they were just trying to get home and they did survive. It's an amazing story, actually. They all survived.

Fascinating story. But of all the things, I was reading one of the biographers of Shackleton, said of all the things they faced, starvation, incredibly cold temperatures, the worst thing was the darkness. Because you know that the days get shorter and shorter and shorter, of course. But at the South Pole or near the South Pole, in mid-May, the sun goes down and doesn't come back up until late July. There is no daytime. There's no sunlight for three months.

And the biographer said, in all the world, there is no desolation more complete than the polar night, no warmth, no life, no movement. Only those who have experienced it can fully appreciate what it means to be without the sun day after day and week after week. Few on a custom to it can fight off its effects altogether and it has driven some men mad. And if you were an absolute, if you're an absolute darkness for any period of time,

you become radically disoriented, why? Physical darkness and spiritual darkness are similar. In physical darkness, you can't see forward. You don't know where you're going. You can't even see yourself. You don't know where your body parts are. You don't know what you look like. You can see yourself.

And thirdly, you can't tell whether there's anyone around you, friend or foe. You're utterly isolated. See, the dark, you can't see forward. You can't see yourself. You can't see anyone around. Spiritual, if you center on anything but God, the same stuff happens. That's spiritual darkness.

If anything but God is more important to you, first of all, you have a problem with purpose. You have a problem with having a sense that you know where you're going. Living for money, living for career, living for love, for a period of time, it feels like I've got something to live for, but if you actually get it, the worst thing possible, if you actually get the things in your life you're after, you'll suddenly realize it's not big enough, you're soul, you don't, it's not enough.

You start to experience meaninglessness and purposelessness and that's part of spiritual darkness, secondly, when you put your, if you center anything but God, you actually also have a loss of identity. By that, I mean, you have an identity that's fragile, you have an identity that's very insecure because it's based on the things you're center of your life. It's based on human approval. It's based on how well you perform. You don't really know who you are. You're always insecure about who you are. Spiritual darkness means you can't see forward,

you can't see yourself. And lastly, you're isolated. You're so wrapped up in the things that you're living for. They're either scaring you or making you angry or making you proud or making you feel full of self-pity or making you just so driven. And as a result, it isolates you from other people. It removes the relationship of spiritual darkness, radical disorientation that comes from turning

away from God the true light and making anything more important than God in your life. Spiritual darkness finally leads ultimately to disintegration. In the Bible, darkness and disintegration go together. Now part of that comes from just the simple fact, the reason that's part of the image, is because, you know, if you take something away out of the light for long enough time, if you take a plant out of the light for a long enough time, it just dies. You know, it whithers, it falls apart. But the Bible is talking about something more even drastic than that. If you go back to the very, very beginning of time, Genesis 1, Genesis 1 1, Genesis 1

0, it's not really there. But it tells you what Genesis 1 0, Genesis 1 1 tells you what Genesis 1 0 was like. It says darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the earth was without form and void. There was emptiness. There was formlessness. Everything was a chaos. And there was darkness. They all go together. And God said, let there, light triumphed over darkness, order triumphed over chaos, and now God has brought things together. We're just a chaos, just a disintegration. He's integrated them, he's coherent, they're brought together, and that's creation.

But the Bible tells us that when you move away from God, to the degree you move away from God, if you move away from God in any way, spiritual darkness is not just this orientation, it's also disintegration. It's also chaos. You're moving back toward creation. You're moving back toward darkness. You're moving back toward disintegration. I mean, it would be really practical,

instead of being up here. I want to be a good preacher. I want to be a good minister. I every so often got to just use this because it is an example of just to show you how it works in your life. I'll show you how it works in my life. I want to be a good minister.

I want to be a good preacher. You want to be a good whatever. But if it becomes more important than God to me and very easy for that to happen, if how I'm doing as a minister becomes my real source of warmth, my real hope, I real significance, my real security, more important than God and God's love for me in Jesus. I experience disintegration. Criticism comes, that's discouraging, but when it's an ultimate, when my preaching and ministry is an ultimate

and I get criticism, then I'm devastated. Or when I fail to perform, I'm devastated. Decentigration, guilt, inordinate guilt. See, churning inside disintegration. What else does it say? Two people love each other. That's wonderful. But if they love each other more than they love God, if they build their lives more on each other's love

than they do on God's love, then minor fights will become major fights, and major fights will become world-shaking cataclysm, because you can't take the other person's displeasure. You can't take it. You can't take the other person's failure. You can't take it. Your world is shaking because if you put, if you center on anything but God, the spiritual

darkness that comes into your life is not just radical disorientation, but also disintegration. Now, it only happens partially in this life because you go to the beginning of Hebrews chapter 1 and it says, God is still holding this world together with the word of His power. In spite of sin, in spite of evil, in spite of how we're living, He holds things together. The disintegration we experience is only partial, but. But, the Bible says what will happen when God finally gives the human race what it wants? You know what the human race wants?

You know what we really want? We want to be free to live lives as we please. We want to be free from his presence. We want him to leave us alone. And when He finally does that, the disintegration will be total. The book of Exodus tells us about the ten plagues of Egypt. Remember the ten plagues of Egypt? They were just magic tricks.

They were fortace of judgment day. They were fortace of God removing Himself, giving us what we want, and the world going back to Genesis 1, 0. Going back to the horror of uncreation, darkness and chaos. See, when Moses raised the rod of God's justice over Egypt, they began to experience the horror in those plagues, the horror of uncreation. Water didn't work as water, it became blood. The sun didn't work as light. There was absolute darkness.

That was one of the plagues. Lice and gnats and flies and frogs and disease and boils. You see, nature didn't work as nature. And then the first born were all died. What was that? There was the horror of uncreation. It was going back to Genesis, the four tastes of judgment day. And all the prophets say, when God finally

gives the human race what it wants. That's judgment day, it's tomb's day, this is absolutely fair. God will only give us what we want, but what we want, if he pulls away, will be chaos and disintegration, formlessness, emptiness and darkness. Going back to Genesis 1, so for example, Jeremiah 4 talks about the day of the Lord, which is judgment day, and he says this. He's looking, he's foretelling it, and he says, I looked at the earth. This is Jeremiah 4, 23. I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty. And at the heavens, I saw their light was gone. And in Isaiah 13 looking forward to the judgment day, he says, see the day of the Lord's judgment is coming to make the land desolate,

the rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty, and I will humble the pride of the ruthless. I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, and the day of his burning anger. Point one, darkness tells us about the darkness we've got. Point two, verse 34. The darkness also tells us about the darkness Jesus received. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? What is happening there? What's going on there? Now on the one

hand, the darkness comes down because Jesus is experiencing the full range of human evil, is he not? I mean, everything that human beings can throw at somebody, every bit of evil that the world can throw, Jesus has gotten. He's been rejected by his people. He's a man without a country. He's been sacrificed to political expediency by the Roman government.

He's a victim of injustice. He's been abandoned by his closest friends who are trying to save their skin, relational betrayal. He's been tortured and he's being killed. That's everything. He's getting everything that human beings, everything that human evil can throw, but that's not all he's getting. He's not just getting human evil.

We said this was supernatural darkness, not natural darkness. And when Jesus Christ starts crying out, he doesn't say, my friends, my friends, my head, my head, my hands, my hands, my feet, my feet. He says, my God, my God. He's losing God. What is this darkness? What is coming down on Him? I'll tell you what's coming down on Him.

Our judgment day. Our judgment day is coming down on Him. See? The rod of God's wrath has been stretched out and now the plagues, the horror of uncretion are coming down on Him. His blood and His water flow mingled down. He's experiencing the darkness, the cosmic darkness.

It's coming down on Him. He's getting our judgment day. It's falling on Him. In Hebrews 1.2 says, Hebrews chapter 1 says, in God, all things hold together, but Jesus Christ is unraveling. He is being engulfed in eternal darkness. And he is experiencing the absolute infinite disintegration on unraveling of soul and body. This is astounding.

You know why it's astounding? Because Jesus is the maker of the world being unmade. Here's the maker of the world being unmade. Here's the maker of the world. And he comes back. And instead of inflicting the horrors of uncreation on sinners, the horrors of darkness on creation on sinners, he bears them himself. He bears them himself.

And that's the reason we sing that line from the hymn. Well, might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in when Christ the mighty maker died for man the creature sin. Jesus Christ is getting judgment day. He's getting our judgment day. It's coming down on him. Hi, I'm Tim Keller. You know, there is no greater joy and hope possible than that,

which comes from the belief that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 4, although Christ was crucified in weakness, he now lives by the power of God. If you grasp this life altering fact of history, then even if you find things going dark in your life, this hope becomes a light for you when all other lights go out.

With Easter approaching, I want you to know the hope that stays with you no matter the circumstance. The hope that comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In my book, which is entitled, Hope in Times of Fear, the resurrection and the meaning of Easter, you'll find why the true meaning of Easter is transformative, and how it gives us unclenchable hope and joy even when we face the trials and difficulties of this life which can be considerable. Hope and times of fear is our thank you for your gift this month to help gospel and

life reach more people with the hope and joy of Christ's love. You can request your copy today by going to gospelandlife.com slash give. That is gospelandlife.com slash give. That is gospelandlife.com slash give. Thank you so much for your generosity. And as we prepare to reflect on the amazing love of Christ, demonstrated when he went to the cross to save us, I pray you will find a new hope and comfort in the historical fact of his resurrection.

As horribles that is of a spear in your sight, as hard as it is to die of suffocation, as horbles it is to have been tortured and beaten the crown of thorns, nails through your hands and feet. He doesn't say a thing about that. He doesn't say a thing about that because compared to this, that's a flea bite. Jesus is experiencing judgment day. The cosmic horror of uncration coming down on him. The judgment day we deserve. That's point two.

Point three. That's not all there is to this. Because if you go to the very end of the passage, which is actually the climax of the entire Gospel of Mark, aren't you glad you were here for it? After all these weeks, the climax of the Gospel of Mark shows us that the darkness of Jesus can dispel the darkness in our world and heart.

Jesus' darkness can actually break open into spell and remove our darkness. How so? Well, look at these last two verses. So crucial. The curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom and when the Centurion who stood there in front of Jesus heard his cry and saw how he died, he said,

surely this man was the son of God. Now look, first of all, the curtain in the temple. Now in the temple, this great curtain, this huge incredibly thick curtain, by the way, it wasn't a flimsy little veil. It was almost like it was so thick and so hard that it was almost like a wall, and it came down before the holy of holies, and therefore it separated the holy of holies where God's Shakana glory dwelled, where God's Holiness dwelt from the rest of the Tabernacle or Temple. And only the holiest man, the High Priest, on the holiest day, Yon Kippur, the holiest

man from the holiest people in the world, which were the Jews, the holiest man from the holiest people on the holiest day, with a blood sacrifice, could go back there one day of the year. A blood atonement for sins. Only the holy, only the most moral, only the most pure, only one day, and then everybody was seared to death whether he would even survive. But the minute Jesus Christ died, this incredibly thick curtain was ripped, and he was ripped from top to bottom. Just to let you know who did it. And when it was ripped, it was God's way of saying, It was God's way of saying, this is the sacrifice that ends all sacrifices. And now anybody can go in, anybody can see God, anybody can connect to God. You don't have to behold, you don't have to marvel anybody. The barriers gone.

And Mark, to make sure we understand the point of the ripping of the curtain, immediately shows us the first guy who goes in, the centurion. Now, I said this is the climax of the book of Mark. I mean it, because if you remember, if you read through the book of Mark, it's not all that long, and of course we've been spending, actually, goes back to last year, spending quite a long time on it. But the first verse in the first chapter of the book of Mark says, Jesus Christ the Son of God. Mark tells you right up front, Jesus Christ the Son of God. But nobody up to this

point, no human being up to this point has figured that out. Over and over and over again, Jesus does this and he teaches this and he does this and he teaches this. And all along everybody's going, who is this? Who is this? Who is this? And the first man to finally get it is this guy. Now first of all, he's Roman. And when he says, surely this man was the Son of God, the word Son of God for a Roman would only have ever been used for Caesar.

On every single coin, it said, Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, the only person that a Roman would ever say was the son of God would be Caesar, but here this man says, he's the son of God. And I want you to consider who this is. This is Mark's way of showing you what the veil of the ripping of the curtain means,

that now that's a sacrifice, stand all sacrifices, you don't have to be holy, you don't have to be moral, anybody can connect. Because look at who this guy is. He's not a disciple of Jesus, he's not even a Jew. He's spiritually he's dark, why? Because first of all, he doesn't know the Bible, so he's in the darkness of ignorance, but more than that.

Centurions were not aristocrats who were given their papers, you know, for many, many, many years in centuries, and still I'm sure to this day in many places. The officers in an army were aristocrats. They were people who got their commission, you know, because of their connections and because of their status, but and that was the case very often in Rome, but the Centurion was an enlisted man who had risen up through the ranks. And he was an officer now, but a Centurion, therefore, was a really hard character,

incredibly hard, incredibly hardened. A Centurion was somebody who had seen death, had inflicted death to a degree that you and I can hardly imagine. Here's a hard character. Here's a man who was a brutal person. Here's a man who lived in absolute spiritual darkness and yet something penetrated through that darkness. He becomes the first person to confess Jesus Christ.

It's a whole new world now. But here's the question, why? Why? What penetrated his darkness? What went through? Now, when I studied this thing, when I studied the book of Mark 30 years ago, and I was told this verse is the climax of the book of Mark, I've been thinking about it ever since. And I've been trying to figure out why it was that this centurion

was the first person to actually get it. And it tells you, but it's amazing to me. He heard his cry and he saw how he died. Now I have only ever seen one person actually die and one person, I mean there's one person I've actually saw, breath or last breath. And there's one person that I saw just seconds after he died a friend of mine. And I'll never forget that because why?

Because like most of you, most of us today, I don't see many people actually die, but this guy was different. This guy has seen many people die. This guy had seen many people die under his hand, right? He was a brutal man. He'd seen innumerable deaths, but this death was unique. That's the first thing we learn here.

He saw something about Jesus' death that was unlike any other death. And all I can say is the tenderness of Jesus' death must have pierced right through his hardness and the beauty of Jesus' death must have pierced right through his hardness and the beauty of Jesus' death must have pierced right through his darkness. What did he see? Well, I don't know, but I do know this.

We can't know all that he saw. But notice what the text says, Mark is giving you the hint. He heard his cry. And what Mark is trying to say to you is that if you think about what that cry means, my God, my God, why is thou forsaken me, you can see the same beauty, you can see the same tenderness, you can have your darkness lifted, you can have your hardness melted, you can have your life changed just like this man's life was changed.

If you listen to that cry, okay, let's do it. Let's look. Go on, look. My God, my God, why I suffer, say to me. First of all, I want you to see, number one, when he says, my God, my God, he is showing us that this man suffered more than anyone has ever suffered. More than anyone has ever suffered. Notice what he says, my God, that's the language of intimacy.

My God, you've forsaken me. My God, you've forsaken me. Now, I can't think of a better illustration than this, but let me just use that before. Here's the best way I can go. If after this service, one of you comes to me and says, I never want to talk to you again. I never want to see you again.

I'll feel pretty bad. But if today, my wife comes up to me and says, I never want to talk to you again, I never want to see you again, that is a lot worse. To lose a spouse in death or to lose a spouse through divorce, all the psychologists will tell you, it's the most traumatic thing that can happen to you or will happen to you. Because you see the longer the love, the deeper the love, the greater the torment of its loss.

There is no torment like the loss of love. Nothing like the loss of love. Oh, but look, this is the father and the son. They've been loving each other from all eternity. The greatest love between two human beings in the father and the son. They've been loving each other from all eternity. The greatest love between two human beings in the history of the world is nothing compared to this. This is infinitely long, this is infinitely perfect, and he's losing that. That's the reason he's not saying, oh, my hands, my head. None of these things are anything like the loss of love, and no loss of love has ever been like this. He's in hell. No one has ever been like this. He's in hell.

No one has ever suffered like this man has suffered. No one. That's the first thing you see from my God, my God, by a separate second. Maybe the second thing, as you see him saying, my God, my God, why has that, why has that forsaken me, we realize that no one has ever obeyed God like this. No one has ever suffered like this, but listen, secondly, no one's ever obeyed like this. Every other person is ever lived. God has said, if you obey me, you will live.

If you give yourself to me, I will give myself to you. How we at all often feel that way because our life doesn't go this or that way. But that's the promise. And that's every other person in the history of the world before and after. If you give yourself to God, God give themself to you except this one Jesus Christ is trusting God you notice he doesn't say cruel father. No, he says my God my God

While he's being damned He's trusting God while he's being damned. That's never happened before. It'll never happen again. It's unbelievable You know when in Moby Dick when Captain Ahab is actually going down to his watery grave At one point he turns you know He he yells to Moby Dick from hell's heart. I stab at thee from hell's heart. I stab at thee well very dramatic But just rhetoric. He was wasn't in hell's heart, I stab at thee. From hell's heart, I stab at thee. Well, very dramatic, but just rhetoric. He was wasn't in hell's heart. He was going to die, but he wasn't in hell's heart.

But here's someone who really was. Here's someone who really was. But what does he say? He says, from hell's heart, I still love you. No one has ever obeyed God like this. No one has ever been faithful and trusted God like this. Okay, now why? Why is he enduring infinite suffering and why is he accomplishing infinite obedience?

Class, what's the answer to the question? My God, my God, why has thought foraken me? And the answer is for you. There's an answer, it's not an answerable question, for you, for me, for us. You know how many times I said, Jesus Christ has come to do this in our place. That's why He's a Savior. He's come to live the life we should have lived and die, the death we should have died. He's doing both in this cry. He's dying the death we should have died. He's doing both in this cry. He's dying the death we should have died, but we can't. He's paying the penalty of our sins, but he's living the life we should have lived. This is perfect

obedience in our place. And when the centurion, look, the centurion didn't have the theological categories to define this, but he had the Holy Spirit, I believe, and the intuition to grasp the beauty of this. And it ripped through his hardness, and it ripped through his darkness. And if you see the meaning of the cry, my God, my God, why has he offered to say to me, if you see him losing infinite love, out of infinite love for you, it'll melt your hardness. I don't care who you are. It'll open your eyes and shatter your hardness. I don't care who you are.

It will open your eyes and shatter your darkness. I don't care who you are because you will finally be able to turn away from all these other things that are dominating your life. All these other things that are dicting you, all these other things that are drawing you off into spiritual darkness and you'll say this is the one I want. This is the one I've been after all the time. This is the one I've looked for in my work. This is the one I've looked for in romance. This is the one I've been after all the time. This is the one I've looked for in my work. This is the one I've looked for in romance.

This is the one I've looked for. This is it. The great paradox is that Jesus Christ, infinite darkness, can destroy and dispel our darkness. So we have life and we have light and we have softness in the place of hardness and darkness and death. Application, final, that's apply this. Number one, I get just two things to say. If you ever, ever wonder, gee, I wonder whether I could be a Christian or not, but I've done

some pretty bad things. Oh my goodness, that's the, well, you know what the whole point of this? I wonder whether I could be a Christian or not, but I've done some pretty bad things. Oh my goodness, that's the whole point of this. Centurion, Malfioso, hit man. I don't care if you've killed people for a living. And by the way, in New York, who knows who I'm talking to? But it doesn't matter. I don't care.

I don't care. I don't care. He doesn't care. The curtain's been ripped I don't care. He doesn't care. The curtain's been ripped from top to bottom. The barrier's gone. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter whether you've been camping out just inside the gates of hell for years.

It doesn't matter if you've killed people for living. It doesn't matter if you're a prostitute. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter who you are, what you've done. There's mercy for you. Secondly, you say, well, I'm already a Christian here. Okay. Are you suffering? Are you going through something really hard right now?

By the way, if you're a human being, you either have recently, or you will soon, or you're doing it now. So this is relevant for everybody. When you suffer, what do you say? God, why? Why, God, why? Everybody does that. Christianity is the only faith, the only religious faith that says that God Himself actually cried out in suffering, why? And you say, well, what good is that? I think it's of infinite good, I'll tell you why. When you look at the cross of Jesus Christ, in your suffering, will that give you the reason

for why you're going through what you're going through right now? No. Looking at the cross will not give you, will not tell you what the reason is for your suffering. But looking at the cross will tell you what the reason isn't. It can't be that he doesn't love you. It can't be that he has no plan for you. It can't be that he's abandoned you.

He abandoned Jesus so he would never abandon you. I don't know why you're going through what you're going through, but the point is, it can't be because he doesn't love you, he doesn't have a plan or doesn't care. It can't be. You know, even Albert Camus realized, if you look at the cross, no longer can you go through suffering the same way. Camus says this, he says, the God-man suffers too with patience. Evelyn death can no longer be entirely imputed to him since he suffers and dies.

The night on the Galgotha is so important in the history of man only because in its shadows, the divinity ostensibly abandoned its traditional privilege and lived through to the end to spare included the agony of death. Thus is explained the Lama Sabhakthane and the frightful struggle of Christ in the garden. You no longer can talk to God the same way when you realize he's been through it too. And you no longer have to doubt that he's abandoned you or that he doesn't love you, you know he does. And that can be enough to get you through.

One more thing. When you're really in the darkness, really in the darkness, and you're confused, you don't know why things are happening, you don't understand what's going on. The only darkness that can destroy you forever fell into Jesus' heart. And so this darkness, if you believe in Him, is temporary. The only time I ever kind of faced death, sort of, was when I had my thyroid cancer, and they told me from the beginning it was treatable, but you know when I was going under the anesthesia for the

Surgery and I thought well what's what are they fine and what's gonna happen and Believe it or not you say oh what passage of scripture did you think about I didn't I thought of a passage from Lord of the Rings True confessions But it was all about darkness and light and here's what it is It's a place that when everything was so bad near the end and it looked But it was all about darkness and light, and here's what it is. It's a place that when everything was so bad near the end, and it looked really bad, like everything was going to go in a bad way. An evil and darkness seemed overwhelming, and just before, you know, late at night, Sam, one of the heroes, this is what it says. He looked up into the sky, and he saw a star twinkling.

The beauty of it smote his heart and hope returned to him. For like a shaft clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end, the shadow and darkness was only a small and passing thing. There was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. His song back in the tower had been defiant rather than hope for then he was thinking of himself. Now for a moment his own fate ceased to trouble him putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep. But that's just simply saying is this and here's what I remember thinking. It's really true

because of God there is an ocean, an ocean, an infinite ocean of love and joy out there for us, and we're trapped temporarily in a little tiny piece of darkness, microscopic practically. Evil is a passing thing, there's light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach because evil fell into the heart of Jesus, believe in Him, and you don't have to worry about things. It doesn't matter what happens. It doesn't matter what happened in the surgery. It was going to be all right. It's going to be all right.

Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for giving us the assurance that Jesus Christ lived a life we should have lived and died that we should have died, so that the bear between you and us is gone and we can receive you and you can receive us. And we can live life in hope and knowledge that evil and darkness is a passing thing. There's light and high beauty for ever be on its reach. Because of what Jesus Christ has done, we can be assured of that.

We ask that you would help us to have new lives shaped by this assurance and joy. We ask for it through Jesus in his name we pray, Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller on the transformative power of Christ's death and resurrection. We pray that it challenged you and encouraged you to find more gospel-centered resources like today's teaching, you can sign up for email updates at gospelonlife.com. That's gospelonlife.com.

This month's sermons were recorded in 2006 and 2007. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Dr. Keller was Senior Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.