Tim Keller Talks To 4,000 Campus Crusade Staff

Pastor Tim Keller, author of “The Reason for God” and “The Prodigal God”, addressed 4,000 Campus Crusade for Christ staff at the national staff conference in Ft. Collins, CO.

Here are a few highlights from his two talks:

Many people who pray the sinner's prayer don't understand imputed righteousness. They think that their “surrender” or their “giving their life to Christ” is what merits God's approval. We need to be very clear that when God saves us He imputes the righteousness of Christ to us - which is the only merit we have to stand before God.

Free justification is different than forgiveness. Forgiveness is being let go but justification is the allowance to come and partake. Jail analogy: Many Christians act like prisoners who have been set free from jail but then go out and try to get a job and make money to prove themselves – because they forget that Christ has justified them already. There is nothing left to prove.

Christian ministers who haven't had the gospel sink into their hearts fully will forget that they have been justified by Christ. Therefore, they will spend their entire lives trying to produce a successful ministry as a way to justify themselves before God and to the world. If the gospel reality that Jesus is our justification isn't grasped, our motivation for evangelism will always be tainted. We will continue to share our faith to enhance our reputation, not out of gratitude because our names are written in heaven (Luke 10).

The gospel is good news, not good advice. The gospel is about something that has already happened (Christ's death and resurrection which makes us right with God) not advice (this is what you need to do to get right with God). All other religions offer advice, not good news.

Evangelism is no longer an irritation to the culture, it is an offense to the culture. Just knowing how to share our faith isn't going to cut it. We are going to have to learn how to do apologetics for apologetics.

You won't be a good messenger if you are not a good neighbor. The message is what makes us good neighbors because its purifies our motives. We can love and serve our neighbors and cities no matter how undeserving they are because Jesus sacrificed himself for us, the undeserving.