Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Work of God

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 29, 1992. Series: Salvation From the Outside In. Scripture: Ephesians 2:4-10. 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. A common perception of Christianity is that its main emphasis is on living a morally good life. Yet, the Bible tells a very different story. The most important thing isn't what we do, but what God has done for us. Today, we continue Tim Keller's series from the Book of Ephesians, exploring the foundational truths at the heart of the Christian faith, and how they shape our understanding of who we are, why we're here, and where we find hope for the future.

Look at tonight this passage we've been looking at for a while in Ephesians. Partly because it's a holiday weekend, as you can see we have a little more time than usual, I would like to indulge in some summarizing. Not only for the benefit of people who don't come every single week, or for guests and visitors, but also for those of you who are here every week, because the advantage of going through a book of the Bible in as detailed a way as we have, the advantage is it shows you how rich the scripture is, it shows you how important each word and phrase can be,

in some ways it gives you some idea about how to interpret and study the Bible, and it shows you the richness of every word. You know, C.S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles, his fairy tales for children. In the last novel, the last story, there's a little phrase that says, once upon a time in our world, in a little stable, there was something that was bigger than the whole world. When Jesus was born in the stable, inside the stable was something bigger than the world. Sometimes you feel that way when you're looking at a phrase or a verse of the Bible. Sometimes you take a passage, you take a verse, you take some words, divinely inspired words, and you look into them and you look into them and you feel like you're falling into

them. And you feel like somehow you've fallen into something very little, which is bigger than the whole world and bigger than your whole life, something you could swim in forever, something you could eat from forever. Those are all the advantages of going through the scripture at a snail's pace as we've been doing over the months here in the evening service. But the disadvantages of it is that sometimes you lose, I mean, it's pretty clear that probably when Paul was writing the letter, he expected the people who were reading the letter to get broad themes. And not simply look at all the little words that he was writing down

to get every little bit of truth out of them. Because he's a divinely inspired apostle, we can do that. But he was always after certain broad themes. and sometimes we need to stand back and see what we've been seeing. So if you don't mind, I'm going to do a little bit of that, as well as push forward our progress a bit. Ephesians 2 versus 1 through 10 is a before and after picture of a Christian. Ephesians 2 1 to 10 is trying to show us the momentous change that Jesus makes

when you had an encounter with him as a living person. I'm glad how many people are surprised and stunned and changed and helped by looking at this passage. Many of you see Christianity as being a kind of round of duties or a process and you don't realize until you look at this, that Paul expects that meeting Christ makes this momentous change, a watershed, a continental divide. Becoming a Christian, meeting Christ is sort of like Pike's Peak. Because one inch, To the west of Pike's Peak, little raindrop goes all the way to the Pacific Ocean. That's what they tell me when I go there.

And one inch on the other side, that little drop of water goes all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. The least possible difference is the greatest possible difference at the continental divide. And the same thing is true of being a Christian. There is a lot of process involved in being a Christian. We say that being a Christian, of course, growing in Christ, is a process. You can't hurry it up, I'm afraid. It's a long process. It's a, it's in many parts, painful process. It's even true the conversion itself. Conversion itself can be a long and painful process because conversion is something that we do. It's a turning. And sometimes we,

because we're so stubborn, we turn so fitfully and in such stages, and we wrestle for so long. And God is after us. And we say, no, no, let me alone for months, for years. And we're sometimes. And yet there is a point at which the Bible says you cross from death to life. And at that point, you have the continental divide and everything changes. And that's what we've been looking at here. And verses 1, 2, and 3, we're told that we're dead in sins before Christ. And secondly, that we satisfy the cravings of the sinful nature. And thirdly, that we're by nature children of wrath. But then that's the before picture. Afterwards, we have this that's printed here in your bulletin. Let's read it and proceed tonight. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in

mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages, he might show us. the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves. It's the gift of God so that no one can boast,

for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Let's break it down. Let's do a little summarizing. Versus one, two, and three, we're told before Christ, dead in sin, obeying the drives of the sinful nature, secondly, and thirdly, by nature, children of wrath. What we've read here in verses four through seven is the exact opposite. Paul is so concerned to show us that becoming a Christian is a continental

divide, having Christ in your life changes everything, that he brings each one of the three things he mentions in verse 3, 1, 2, and 3, into contrast in verses 4, 5, and 6, and 7. So you see, for example, we were dead in trespasses, verse 1, and now it says, he made us alive. Secondly, we were obeying the sinful nature. We were in bondage. We were obeying its commands, we said literally. That's what it says in the Greek. Here it says, God raised us up. and seated us with him in the heavenly realms. So we've gone from bondage to freedom. Then thirdly, we were told that we were by nature children of wrath.

But here, and we looked at this somewhat last week, it says we've already been seated in the presence of God. Already seated. Legally, we're in his presence, acceptable to him. Those are the three great changes. Let's just take a moment to record. call them and rejoice it. And this is Thanksgiving. It was hard for me to even look back over the passage last night trying to prepare for today without myself starting to just rejoice and give

thanks for these three great changes. The first one is from death to life. We're given new life. We talked about this. All just to remind ourselves, what does it mean to be spiritually dead, blind, uncensing? Before you become a Christian, spiritual things make no sense to you at all. You're blind to them. You're unsensing them. Things like, what is sin? What is grace? What is heaven and hell? What is truth? What's mercy? Until Christ comes into your life, those things you are blind to, you're dead to them. You're spiritually dead. You're unable to sense them. Remember that? Do you remember what that means? It means either, before you find Christ, you either don't believe in those things at all,

you're a skeptic, you're an agnostic or something, or you believe in them, but they're nothing but intellectual abstractions. They're not solid realities. You're not alive to them. In other words, either those things like grace and heaven and hell and sin and mercy and truth, those things, either you don't believe in them at all, or else they're just abstractions to you. I call that downtown and uptown unbelief.

Downtown, we don't believe in all that stuff. We don't believe in Christianity. We're all agnostics. Uptown, we believe, but that doesn't mean much. And you see, when you meet Christ, what happens is that even though things that you didn't believe in at all or you believe they were just intellectual abstractions, now they become realities to you, they change you.

They're the things that you build your life on. They become solid. You go from death to life. Then secondly, the second change is you go from bondage to freedom. I was thinking a great deal about that this week too. Before it says, you are satisfying the commands of the sinful flesh and afterwards, you're now raised and seated. You're free. You go from being in a state of slavery to being in a state of authority. To be seated at the right hand, to be seated in the heavenlies is to go to a place of authority. What does that mean? Recall with me. The Bible tells us that the sinful flesh is not, the essence of the sinful flesh is that your heart takes good things like

work, money, comfort, relationships, intellectual pursuits, takes good things and makes them your life. makes them your gods, makes them the things that give your life meaning. And as a result, you're in bondage to them. The other day I was reading Psalm 63. And I've been actually thinking about that psalm for a couple of weeks, and there's a great line in there where the psalmist says, Because thy steadfast love is better than life, I will praise thee. Thy steadfast love is better than life. Let me tell you how this new freedom works.

if you're not a Christian, you've got to have these things. You've got to have the work. You've got to have the money. You've got to have the popularity, the relationships. You've got to have the looks. You've got to have the intellectual integrity. You have to have these things. They drive you.

After you become a Christian, you have a freedom. Thy steadfast love is better than life. Whenever I want to exercise my freedom, now as a Christian, I don't do it. Often. I often live below my position. I often live below my rights as a child of God, and so do you.

I know, because I know so many of you. But when I'm exercising that freedom, this is what I do. When I'm depressed, when I'm getting upset, what I'm getting anxious, I asked myself this question. I was talking to one of you about this an hour ago. I asked myself this question. What am I afraid of losing? What am I afraid of losing? What am I afraid of losing here? And once I identify that,

I look at it and I do exactly what the psalmist does, only I don't do it like I should. What the psalmist does is he looks at these things and says, you know, thy steadfast love is better than money. Thy steadfast love is better than popular. Thy steadfast life is better than relationships. Thy steadfast love is better than life. And what I have to do is I have to look at these things. things that I'm afraid of losing and I have to say, you know, I care about you. You're a good thing, but you're not my life. My life is hid with Christ and God. You're not my life. Now, some of you, if you've been around me, this is how I try to pastor people. People say, how do I get over the fear? How do I get this freedom? There's really no easy way. You have to look at the things that you're

afraid of losing and look them in the eye and say, you know, you're good, but you're not my life. and when you say that and to the degree that you can say that, you begin to get the freedom. You see, satisfying the commands of the sinful flesh, raised and seated in a position of authority, by steadfast love is better than life. My life is it with Christ and God, and when Christ who is our life appears, we shall appear with Him in glory. Do you understand that freedom? That's what Paul's talking about in Philippians 3. when he says, I had confidence in the flesh. I had my pedigree, circumcised in the eighth day,

of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee. See, he had scholarly attainments. He had moral attainments. He had family attainments. He had great pedigree. He had everything. And he said, I count all those things, which I once thought were my prophet, as a great pedigree. He had everything. He had everything. And he said, I count all those things which I once thought were my prophet as loss that I might know Christ. That means he identifies the things that he tends to make his life. And he, with his mind and the discipline, he counts them as loss. He says, these things aren't my life. These things couldn't get me where I want to go.

And what he does is he gets the freedom. He counts them as loss to know Christ. Nice and simple. very hard. See, growing as a Christian is simple but hard. There's plenty of things that are simple but hard to do. They're not complicated. We move from death to life, first of all. Secondly, we move from bondage to freedom. And thirdly, children of wrath to raised and seated. That's the thing we talked about last night. Now, you know, if any of you were around before today, one of the somebody, I don't remember, this is the problem when you read things and you don't take notes.

I plagiarized like crazy. I've got all these illustrations. I have no idea where I got them from, but I know I didn't think them up. And in one of the illustrations, and it's not Francis Schaefer, honest, one of the illustrations was I read somebody who said some years ago, I said, the way to find out what you really believe in your conscience about right and wrong is to listen to what you tell other people they ought to do. Now, you know, I've used this illustration of the years, and I used it this morning, if you had a tape recorder that could record only what you told other people that they should be doing, or better yet, if it only recorded your gossip, if you only recorded what you said other people ought to be doing when they weren't there,

then you really know what you believe. And if at the end of your life, you could somehow listen to that tape recorder, you would be condemned by it because no one, no one, no one lives up to their own standing. And as a result, everybody knows what Paul says in verse three. We are by nature children of wrath. That's not talking about our wrath, not our anger. It's saying we are condemned. We deserve the wrath of a judge.

We're condemned. And all of us know that we do not live the life we owe. That's what we were saying before today. Everyone in their heart of hearts in their deepest of deeps knows that they do not live the life they owe, and everyone has a sense of the wrath on them. Everyone has a sense of condemnation. We do tremendous things to get rid of it. We do hypnosis.

We do self-help therapies of all sorts. We read all kinds of self-help books that talk about how you can change negative thinking about yourself. But we all are by nature children of wrath. And then we're told, and we looked at this last week, when you become a Christian, it doesn't say we will be raised and seated in a heavenly place, is that we would understand. But it actually says we are raised. What could that mean? It means that legally we're there. When it says God made him sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God and Him, it doesn't mean God made Jesus an actual sinner, a horrible, wicked, selfish, rebellious person, it made him illegally a sinner. So he had the place of a sinner. He took the place of a sinner. And he was legally subject. And that must also mean that when you receive Christ, just as his sins are thrown legally, our sins are thrown legally on him, so his righteousness is thrown to us. And we don't become actually righteous the minute we are saved. We become legally

righteous. You still got your faults and you know it. You still got your brokenness. You still got your brokenness. But what happens is Paul has the audacity to put all this in the past tense. We have been raised. We have been seated. It means that when you believe, the moment you believe, the love and acceptance that God gives you is so great, it's possible to talk about you virtually already being seated and his presence. He already sees you as seated. He's already sees you as perfect. He already sees you as righteous. Your condemnation is gone. How else do you explain such traumatic and radical language? It doesn't say a Christian will be seated in the heavenly places. It says you are. Three massive changes. New life when you were dead. New freedom when you

were in bondage. New position when you were condemned. New righteousness. Now the question, comes down and here's where we want to advance. That was the summary. Very important to see those three wonderful things. Christians, do you understand what you've got? Those of you who don't know your Christians, and there's plenty of you always at these services, do you see what you need? New life, new freedom, and a new record. That's what the gospel offers. Now, that's what we've been looking at. That's the summary. That's the overview. Now, the question that comes up, why is God giving us these things? Why would he do it?

What's his motives? What are his purposes? Why would he give us these great, great things? And the answer is in verse 7, and all I want to do is spend the rest of our time looking at feeling the weight of what it says. You see, in order that, he's made us alive, he's raised us, he's seated us, He's given us new life.

He's given us new freedom. He's given us new status and record. In order, this must be the reason. This is the point of it all. This is why he's done these great things in our lives, Christian friends. This is why, in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed to us in Christ Jesus. In order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,

in us. This means, now I'm going to come back to this, but I'm going to say it here. This means God's purpose for doing all these great things is for all eternity he wants us as trophies of his grace. There are going to be not only angels, but probably lots and lots of other inhabitants of other planets who have never fallen into sin. The stupidest thing in the world, the stupidest thing in the world is all the science fiction and stuff that just assumes that whenever you meet another planet, everybody in the other planets have science in common but no religion. We all agree on science, but everybody's got their own religion. What an unbelievably biased way to, what an unbelievably biased way to look at the

universe. The way a Christian looks at the universe is whenever we, if we ever meet anybody from another planet, they probably haven't fallen. They're probably all going to be believers. And as a result, it probably means that there's going to be millions and billions of people, in the kingdom of God, but we're going to be special. We are going to be like living laser light shows of His grace for all eternity. People are going to come and say, look at the incomparable riches of God's grace. Look at this. Look at her.

Look at him. God wants the entire universe to sing about His grace for all eternity, to never get over it. and he's going to do it through us. In other words, the purpose of everything he's given you is so that the whole world might understand God's grace. Christianity is all about God's grace. The purpose of history is about God's grace.

Everything he's doing is to show forth the riches of his grace. So all we can do at this point is if we're going to understand his purpose for the universe, if you understand that what God wants for you tonight more than anything else is that you understand the incomparable riches of his grace. He knows that if you're able to feel the weight of that, if you're able to get down on your knees, if you're able to weep about it tonight, you're going to be more fulfilled and satisfied and happy and more human than any, through any other agency, any other way.

That's what you're built for. That's what the universe is about. That's what history is about, that people would see that God's a God of grace. Now, what's grace? How do you praise God for his God, unless you see? Well, in these last verses, which we'll look at in the coming weeks, we'll look at facets of it. But I'd like to, again, this is a summary night. Let me tell you what I'm going to tell you in the next few weeks.

An act of God's grace is not just love. In love, you're doing good to somebody. You're doing something that they need. But in grace, grace is, number one, doing good. number two doing good to someone who deserves the opposite and therefore number three grace is always expensive to the giver shocking to the observer and traumatic to the receiver why does god allow suffering in the world how can one religion be right and the others wrong hasn't science basically disproved christianity tim keller addresses these questions and many more in his book the reason for god Drawing on literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning, this book will challenge you to gain a deeper understanding of the Christian faith.

Whether you're a believer seeking to understand your faith better, whether you're exploring Christianity yourself, or whether you're reading it with a friend who's searching for answers. When you give to gospel in life during the month of August, we'll send you two copies of the reason for God, one for you and one to give to a friend. It's our hope that through reading the book with a friend, you can have conversations about the claims of the Christian faith. To receive your two copies of the reason for God, as our thanks for your support, simply make a gift at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Thank you for partnering with us. Your gift helps the message of Christ's love go out all over the world because the gospel truly changes everything. Five aspects to the grace of God, and it's all in there.

See, first of all, it says, by grace you're saved, not of works. That tells you that what grace is is God's doing good to you, but doing good to you who deserve the opposite. As I'm going to try to show you here, modern people understand love, but they do not understand grace, because nobody feels undeserving, really. We talk about love, we love God's love, we love to talk about God's love, but since since we're so full of self-pity, whenever we get any of it, we never see ourselves as recipients of grace. Because we very often so much feel like victims, that when God does something good,

instead of being transformed by his grace, we just think of it as an act of his love. But you see, grace is love shown to someone who deserves the opposite. It's not an experience of love, the Bible says it transforms you. It's the experience of grace. Doing good to someone who deserves the opposite. That's what the Bible means by grace. it's not even like if I'm out here on the street and I woke up to somebody and I say oh my gosh I've lost every penny I have I can't even get home could I have a subway token and a person on the streets of New York if he gives me or she gives me a subway token that's still not grace admittedly they don't owe me anything they might be looking around maybe this is a scam they're not under obligation so if they give it to me I'll be delighted I'll be grateful and I'll think of it as a favor but

that's not what the biblical meaning of grace is. Grace means not only showing love and doing good to someone who you don't owe it to, but to someone who you owe the opposite. Someone who deserves the opposite is for you to give tenderness to someone who deserves toughness, to give an open hand to someone who deserves a fist. Grace is doing good to someone who deserves the opposite, and as a result, grace is always expensive to the giver, shocking and unpredictable. one surprising to the watcher and traumatic to the receiver. Now, can I explain that to you? The only way to explain it is to give you a couple of examples.

One, I think, of the greatest examples, it's a good one for me to use. It's a great novel, but it's also been made into a musical that a lot of people in New York have seen, so it's a good one to use. Victor Hugo wrote the book, Le Miserab. And in the book, he gives us two examples of grace. and he gives us and shows us all five of those biblical qualities of grace in the two examples. The first one, those of you know, those of you who may not know, I've got to at least work it out so that you understand the illustration. The first one was, the first act of grace was given to a man named Jean Valjean.

Now, John Valjean was a man who was originally put into prison over an injustice. But of course, eventually he becomes a criminal indeed. Because he is so embittered in his heart by the abuse he gets, by the bias, by the opposition, by the bigotry, by the injustice of life, that he develops into a criminal indeed, and his is his attitude. Everybody else has hurt me and misused me, so I'll hurt you and misuse you. And I think a lot of us, though we may not be criminals, can identify with that. That's the state in which we meet John Valjean. when he's taken in, as an ex-convict, he's taken in by a bishop.

The bishop brings him into his home out of the goodness of his heart, and when the bishop's back is turned, John Valjean steals the silver cutlery from the bishop's dining room and runs out through the garden, and the police catch him and find this beggarly-looking man with all this extremely valuable silver. they immediately figure you must be on the run and they bring them back to the bishop,

they know that's the bishop silver, and they bring him into the presence of the bishop, and all it will take is one word from the bishop. All he has to do is say, thief. And Valjean is back into prison forever, or at least for years and years and years. Instead, you know what he says? It looks at Valjean and says,

well, of course I gave them this silver, but my dear friend, I gave you the candlesticks too. Why didn't you take them? Here. And then he looks at him and says, now go in peace, and I want you to know that you're always welcome here. So the police say, oh, that's weird, but he's free.

Now, this is what Hugo says. Victor Hugo, like most great artists, I don't know what his theology was, and yet because he understood the nature of things, He supports everything the Bible says about grace. Listen, this, Hugo, what you have here is a perfect example. First of all, this was the bishop doing good to someone who deserve the opposite. This is grace.

This is a perfect example. It's not just that he doesn't owe Jean Valjean anything, but he owes him punishment. But instead, he gives him grace, though he deserves the opposite. And as a result, A, it's very, very expensive to the giver, right? Look at what he lost. Number two, it's completely shocking, completely unpredictable, completely unlooked for by the watchers. But three, it's traumatic to the receiver. Here's the thing that you may not understand. Here's the thing I want to drive home. Grace always is traumatic. It's always humbling. That's the reason that Paul says here,

by grace you've been saved through faith and that not of yourself it's the gift of god lest any one should boast if you have received the grace of god it's humbled you into the dust it's radically changed your life when you're offered grace it brings you to a moment of decision you have two roads in front of you it's radically threatening do you know that this is what victor hugo says. When John Valjean suddenly realized what the bishop was doing, quote, Valjean could not say if he had been touched or humiliated. At first, in opposition to this celestial kindness, he summoned up all the pride he could. He dimly felt that the priest's pardon was the hardest assault, the most formidable attack he had ever sustained. See what Hugo's saying?

Grace is always radically threatening because it threatens the very basis of the way in which you've been doing business with life. Listen, Valjean felt that his hardness of heart would be complete if he could just resist this final kindness, that if he yielded and gave into it, he would have to renounce the hatred with which the acts of others had for so many years filled his soul, and in which he had found so much satisfaction, that in the face of this assault, he must conquer or be conquered. You see, Jean Valjean had for years been getting satisfaction out of feeling righteous in his crime. He had let the injustice of the world fill him with so much hatred that he felt justified in everything he was doing.

and he realized at this point that if he would receive this grace and admit that he needed it, it would change the way in which he did everything. He said if he yielded to it, he would have to renounce the hatred with which the acts of others had for so many years filled his soul, the acts of others had for so many years filled his soul, and in which he had found satisfaction.

A person who's really understood that God has not just given you love, but a completely undeserved love, at incredible cost himself, for you to receive grace means that you will have to stop hating. John Valjean understood that, do you? And he realized that it would mean losing control of his life. You see, if the bishop had sent him back to prison, it would have been harsh, but what a relief, because he could have gone on feeling self-righteous, living a life of a criminal and staying in charge of his life. Because he could constantly say, I owe no one anything.

I don't know anybody anything. I'm paying my way. I have a right to hate. I have a right to stew. But if he gives in to the grace, he has to renounce the hatred. And here's why. Because at the heart of us all, as we often like to say, there is, in your heart, there is a tremendous self-righteousness that goes like this. It says, I want to owe no one anything. I will pay my way, no matter how big my debt, no matter how impossible it is, no matter what I've done wrong, no matter how much I've failed, I don't want mercy from anybody.

I don't want grace from anybody because then I'll owe them, and I no longer can be in charge. I've got my pride, I've got my dignity. I'd rather die. I'd rather be crushed. I'd rather go back to prison than have to admit that I owe anybody anything. To admit that I'm a sinner. To admit that I'm bankrupt. To admit that I owe anyone anything. Then I can't stay self-righteous. Then I can't look down my nose at other people. And John Valjean understood that. What did he do? He realizes that he'll be changed forever, but he sees it. This is what Hugo writes. Jean Valjean's heart swelled, and he burst into tears. The first in 19 years, he could see his life now in a light he had never seen before.

He could see his soul, and it seemed frightful. There was, however, a gentler light shining on that life and soul as well, and he was no longer the same man. You see, here's the problem with grace. It's insulting. It's insulting. If somebody comes to you and says, here's your Christmas present, and it's a makeover book, you can say,

why, thank you, I guess I am pretty mousy-looking. If somebody comes and gives you a book for Christmas, and the book says, you know, do it yourself, personal finances for people who really don't know how to do them, and you say, well, thank you.

It's true, I am a financial disaster area. I can never balance my checkbook. You see, when someone gives you grace, there's no way to receive it without saying, yes, I'm in need. It's insulting. And in many cases we say, as soon as I receive that, as soon as I take that book, it's to admit that I need help. And the minute I have to admit that I need help and I'm indebted to somebody else, I lose some control. And as soon as as Valjean gives in, he does lose control. You know, in the musical version of this, at one point he thinks back to that moment, and what does he say?

He says, my soul belongs to God, I know. I made that bargain long ago. What it means is, he says, at that moment, I could no longer be my own person. I belonged to him. I had to stop hating. I had to give up the self-righteousness that enabled me to do it. I had to say, I'm a sinner saved by grace alone. Now, you know, the other example in Le Miserab, of course, is not Valjean but Javert. And Javert, we don't have to go into much detail on him because he's the sad one. He is different, though, than Valjean.

He is the gendarme. He is the policeman who's been after Valjean all of his life, hunting him down, trying to bring him to justice. Now, what's interesting about Javert is he's just as self-righteous as Valjean, only he's got the winner's self-righteousness, not the loser's self-righteousness. Do you know the difference? See a loser's self-righteousness we call low self-esteem, but it's just a form of legalism in which you say I failed, but other

people have abused me and so I want to feel because I'm so messed up and because other people have messed me up so much, I have a right to do anything I want, to live any way I want, to do whatever it takes to make, give me at least a little bit of comfort in life, and to treat people the way I want. That's called low self-esteem. But it's a little bit of comfort. But it's It's actually loser's self-righteousness. You can stay in control of your life and go on hating, go on feeling like a basket case, go on feeling sorry for yourself, but you are still the master. And then there's winner's self-righteousness.

Now, a winner is somebody who's lived up and has done well and succeeded. That's Javert. And winner's self-righteousness looks at life this way. There's the good people and the bad people, who's the winners and the losers. Losers need grace, but not us. You see? Losers need a hand out. Losers need help, but not us. There's the good and the bad and never the twain will meet. The bad stay bad and the good or good, and that's just the way things are. And I'm one of the good ones. And unfortunately for Javert, there's a place at which he finds Valjean. Valjean is in a position where he could kill Javert, but instead Valjean lets him go, gives him his life. And Javert is in the same position of having to receive grace. First of all, he does not want to. He cannot keep his nice, neat little self-righteous universe anymore, because he cannot be in a position where he owes a loser anything. He can't be in a position

to owe anyone anything. He shouldn't need anything. He's strong. He's tough. He's moral, he's decent. But this is even worse. He's not only, not only is he now indebted to another strong person, but to a loser, to a wicked person. But worse than that, he's amazed to look into the eyes and to the face of this so-called loser and see a nobility there and a loving compassion he knows isn't in his own heart and suddenly his world is turned upside down and in order to receive the grace he's going to have to change everything he's going to have to lose control he's going to have to admit that he's a sinner he's going to have to admit that he's bankrupt and he won't do it because you see at the heart of both the winner's self-righteousness and the loser's

self-righteousness is a heart that says, I'm paying my own way, I'm paying my own way. I don't need anybody, and I don't want to be indebted to anybody. And Victor Hugo knows that if you stay with that, it's suicide, eventually. And so Javert, rather than take in the grace, kills himself. Now, look at yourself. God comes to every human being who's ever heard. heard of Christ. And he says, you, you winners, doing real good, invited, you know, to all the right clubs, getting into all the right graduate schools, living a kind of nice designer life,

everybody a size eight, you know, you're the winners, the losers, there you are, there you are, you haven't made it, you know, after 10 years, you shouldn't be at this position in your career. Why does anybody love you? You're no different. Underneath it, the reason you're miserable is you. Both of you are sure that you can do what you cannot do. Neither of you are living the life that you should live. Neither of you, Valjean or Javert, neither of you. Neither of you are living the life you know you owe. Neither of you are capable of the love or the compassion or the integrity. you're wicked sinners and you're so wicked that only the death of the son of God could possibly save you. And if you're willing to admit that, you can be saved and your debts paid for.

Now, I want to know what you think of that. You're a wicked sinner. You deserve to be lost. But Jesus Christ has died, has lived a life in your place. And if you believe on him and receive this grace, you can be accepted, seated in the heavenly places. What do you think of that? Now, there's got to be some people here who are saying,

I can't believe that someone in the middle of New York City in the 1990s with more than a fourth grade education would say such a thing. How primitive, how psychologically unhealthy, blood atonement, wrath of God stuff. Yeah, people believe that a hundred years ago, but come on, this is a modern place. Look out. Underneath all of your intellectual objections that you got in Religion 101, might be a heart that sees the real threat is grace itself. If you think it's beneath you to admit that you're so sinful that Jesus, only the son of God's

death could possibly save you, if you think that's demeaning, if you think that's primitive, if you think that's beneath you, look out, isn't there, underneath all the intellectual objections, a heart that's saying, I can pay my own way. Who are you to say that this is true of me? The problem with grace is though it does, it's wonderful, it's threatening. It's costly to the one who gives. It's shocking and surprising to the one who receive. But it's also deeply threatening because the minute you receive it, you know your life has changed forever. I made that bargain long ago.

My soul belongs to God. I know I made that bargain long ago. Your soul won't belong to you anymore. You'll owe everything to him. If you do not know where you stand with Christ, you've got to understand that. And if you are a Christian tonight, you still got to understand that. Because one of the, you know, the freedom we were talking about, where does it come from? It says in Philippians 3, Paul says that I count all those things that I used to boast in as lost, as lost, so I can receive the knowledge and experience of the power of Christ.

Here it says, faith is grace, it's the gift of God, lest any man should boast. Unless you remember how little you deserve, unless you remember what Jesus has done, unless you remember that everything in your life is all of grace from first to last, every part of it, everything, every asset you have, every mercy you enjoy, is all of grace. You're going to find yourself boasting in other things, and those other things will strangle you. they'll start to they'll start you'll lose your freedom to them let me close this way why has god given you new life why has god given you the new freedom why has god given you a new status and a new record it's all in order that in the ages to come you might become trophies that show forth

the incomparable riches of his grace can you live in accordance with that i'm trying to live realizing that that is God's highest goal for me. He wants me to live in such a way that people look at me. He wants you to live in such a way that people look at you and say, no explanation for that person's life and demeanor and character and quality other than that person has got a great God,

a God of glory and a God of grace. I want for you tonight that more than anything else. I want people to be able to look at you and say, I cannot explain the humility and the boldness. I cannot explain the gentleness and yet the conviction. I cannot explain the moral beauty. I cannot explain this person's life other than this person must have a great, glorious and gracious God. God wants you to be a laser light show for his grace for the rest of eternity. what a great thing

live in accordance with that live in the light of that live with a gratitude that that's what he has appointed you and me to be let's pray Father we ask now that you would help us to understand your grace better help us to drink it in help us to live out in accordance with it

help us to remind ourselves about it help us to sing about it help us to get the greatness of heart and soul that comes from knowing that we are trophies, trophy cases, display cases of your grace. Father, there may be some people here tonight that realize that the thing that is most insulting about the gospel is its grace. And I pray, Lord, that you would enable them to see to make the choice that receives the grace and changes rather than the choice that rejects the grace and hardens.

Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the gospel to your life and share it with others. For more helpful resources from Tim Keller, visit gospelandlife.com. There, you can subscribe to the Life in the Gospel Quarterly Journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles,

sermons, devotionals, and other great gospel-centered resources. Again, it's all at gospelandlife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 1992. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017, will Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.