The Gospel and Success

The Gospel confronts the way we pursue the praise and admiration of others through our accomplishments. Pastor Tim Keller explains the futility of such a pursuit: “Many people pursue success as a way to overcome the sense that they are somehow ‘outsiders.’ If they attain it, they believe, it will open the doors into the clubs, into the social sets, into relationships with the connected and influential. Finally, they think, they will be accepted by all the people who really matter. Success promises to do that, but in the end in cannot deliver.”

Both the irreligious and the religious are guilty of selfishly pursuing worthiness through our accomplishments. The irreligious use their success, which was made possible by the gifts given to them by God, not to bring him praise but themselves praise. And the religious do the same thing in a different way. They use their good deeds not to bring praise to God but rather to receive selfish praise from him and the Christian friends around them. The bad news is that in the end God will turn away those who either use their success to rob God of praise or use it to earn God’s praise. This includes even good religious people (Matt. 7:21-23), for “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6) when we try to make ourselves worthy enough for God with them.

But, the good news is that when we admit our failures, God offers forgiveness (1 John 1:9). In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the son returns home and says, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Then the father clothed him with his robe and threw a huge feast (Luke 15). This is an illustration of what happens when we admit our sinful failures to God and are covered by the success of Jesus. The greatest accomplishment we could ever receive was not earned by us, but was purchased through the blood, sweat, and tears of Jesus. Keller says, “...the salvation of the world came not through climbing the success ladder, but through surrender, service, sacrifice, and death.”

Jesus’ death on the cross is where our success begins. It was there that our failures were placed on him and his righteousness was imputed to us (2 Cor. 5:21). The power that success has over us is broken when we realize that we have been made worthy by Jesus and have nothing left to prove. When we have nothing left to prove, we can live sacrificial lives that look “unsuccessful” to the world around us and climb down the ladder to help those below us.

Heaven will not be filled with people who have the most impressive resumes. Rather, it will be filled with people who cast the crown of their successes at the feet of Jesus crying out "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power” (Rev. 4:11).

This content was taken from a gospel-centered bible study series that I'm working on called Gifts of God. To download the Success study and others go to: http://t-zach.com/giftsofgod/

What Are Your Idols?

“Beloved children, keep yourself from idols.” – 1 John 5:21

Tim Keller says, “An idol is anything which occupies God’s place – it is anything upon which you will base your life. It is what you look to for your sense of meaning, happiness, and validation. When something becomes your idol, you will give it your unquestioned loyalty. You will let it run your life, determine your choices, and govern the use of your money and time. You will give yourself to it effortlessly.”

What are your idols?

Scott Sauls, in his article “Building a Christ-Centered Message and Ministry Culture” lists and expounds upon some of David Powlison’s idolatry diagnostic questions:

1. What do people feel they cannot survive or function without? In other words, what do they feel they have to have in order to enjoy life, or to be acceptable as a person? What are the things that they are terrified of losing?

2. Where do people spend their time and money with the least amount of effort? We always, without exception, will give our time and resources effortlessly to the things that give our lives the most meaning.

3. What do people tend to think and talk about the most? Another way to frame this question is to ask, “Where do their thoughts go when they are driving alone in the car, when they first wake in the morning?” What does this say about where the utmost treasures of their hearts are residing?

4. Which biblical commands are people the most hesitant to obey? This is always going to be the most revealing questions about the nature of a person’s particular idols. Whenever we choose to disobey a command of God – any command of God – at that moment in time our hearts are treasuring something or someone more than Him.

5. When do people become most angry? What kinds of people, things, or circumstances irritate them the most, and what is it about these people, things, or circumstances that give them such power over their hearts? What, if it happened, would tempt them to become angry with God?

6. How would people fill in the blank? “I cannot be happy unless ____.” Whatever is on the other side of the “unless” is the idol.

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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.

God Saves Both Irreligious and Religious

“Most people in our culture believe that, if there is a God, we can relate to him and go to heaven through leading a good life. Let’s call this the “moral improvement” view. Christianity teaches the very opposite. In the Christian understanding, Jesus does not tell us how to live so we can merit salvation. Rather, he comes to forgive and save us through his life and death in our place. God’s grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge their need for a Savior.”
– Tim Keller (The Reason for God)

I would submit that there are three types of people in your fraternity or sorority: religious, irreligious, and gospel-centered Christians.

The Irreligious

Whether these people claim to believe in God or not, they live how they want to live. They are on the throne of their life. External sins are easier to spot in this crowd – getting drunk, sex with whomever, stealing, verbally or physically abusing someone, etc. Everyone will practice external sins to varying degrees – so don’t think that someone who “isn’t that bad” is not irreligious. They key here is that they are on the throne of their life and that they don’t see a need for a Savior.

The Religious

These people claim to believe in God and practice regularly in a religious denomination – trying hard to devote themselves to the teachings of that religion. Their sins are not as easy to spot as the irreligious because they are mostly internal – greed, selfishness, envy, judgment, jealousy, and most of all – pride. These people are climbing up the ladder of morality trying to become better people. Yet, at the same time, they have a sense of pride that they are much further along than everyone else. This leads to judging others who aren’t as religious as them. They think that if they keep up their performance, then they will have a better chance of being accepted by God. Rarely does a religious person see sin in his life, and if he does, he tries to hide it.

Gospel-centered Christians

These people recognize that they are deeply flawed and broken. They realize that the gospel says that we are all sinful and in need of a Savior – which means that the irreligious and the religious are all in the same boat. No one is better than the other. Instead of spending their time rebelling and doing whatever they want (like the irreligious) or trying to earn God’s favor and judging the people who aren’t like them (like the religious) - they are confessing their brokenness daily and asking God to save them and restore them.

What do I need to do?

If you are living irreligiously, it is not too late to ask God to forgive your sins and to put Himself on the throne of your life. 1 John 1:9 says that He is faithful to forgive you if you simply ask in humility.

If you are living religiously, you need to realize that you are way more sinful than you think and that all of your efforts to earn God’s approval are useless. Ask God to give you a bigger awareness of your sin so that you can have a greater awareness of God’s mercy through Jesus’ death and resurrection. And as you experience this great mercy, you’ll be able to extend it to your fraternity brothers or sorority sisters instead of pride or judgment.

Social Justice and the Non-Christian

When Tim Keller was in college, he kept asking himself: “If [some say that] morality is relative, why isn’t social justice as well?” He’s alluding to the fact that some people think life is gray when it comes to issues of morality but very black and white when it comes to issues like poverty and oppression.

To stand firm on the idea that giving money to the poor is a “duh” black and white issue but that having sex before marriage (for example) is a gray issue – is inconsistent and contradictory.

Someone might reply to this by saying that pre-marital sex is controversial, but giving to the poor is not. They would point out that giving to the poor is known worldwide as a “good” thing. It is not relative. It is just a fact. Pre-martial sex however is not.

Let’s break this down a little more. Because there is a consensus in our culture or country that giving to the poor is a good thing, doesn’t mean it is a fact. There have been billions of people scattered through many cultures and countries who have disagreed with the idea of social justice. There has been much injustice and oppression and murder since the beginning of time by various nations. So which cultures are right? Who gets to claim that they have a better grasp of the truth?

If anything, the people who have practiced injustice are more logical than anyone. If no God exists and a “survival of the fittest” is in play, then giving to the poor would be counter-productive to us staying on top of the food chain. If we are going to survive, then moving to the suburbs, ignoring the poor, and holding onto our money is the most rational option!

However, we all know that there are millions of people who don’t believe in God, yet they want to give money to the poor. Why? Is it because the reasoning behind social justice is logical? No, it is rather more illogical if God doesn’t exist.

It we are here because of a random natural act, then everything is up for grabs. Everything is relative. However, if Creator God uniquely created and shaped the world and the people in it, then our passion for every human to have dignity and value seems very "black and white".

Everyone Has a Religion

Everyone in the universe has a religion – whether they are a Christian, Muslim, or Atheist.

Religion is simply defined as “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe.”

Even people who don’t call themselves religious have an opinion on why we are here and how we should live our lives. What is the key implication here? Exclusivity.

Non-religious people usually attack religious people because religious people claim to know why we are here and how we should live our lives. Religion appears to be arrogant and therefore the non-religious preach tolerance of all views.

They rebel against the religious for “evangelizing” the world with their exclusive views on the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe.

However, as you look at the life of a non-religious person, you’ll see that they are religious by the way they live their lives.

Every time someone says, “You should do this…” or “You can’t do that…” to anyone (child, neighbor, family member, etc.) - they are evangelizing their beliefs about the how the universe is wired. They are trying to impose a belief system on someone else. Therefore, every action that anyone takes is a religious one.

So the ultimate question is not “Should I be religious?” BUT “Which religion (belief system) should I put my trust in?”

If there really is an ultimate reality, a universal truth by which we should live – then it REALLY will be the best way to live – compared to all the other imitations out there.

All of us have a religion – full of beliefs that we think are superior to others. Therefore, pastor Tim Keller asks in his book The Reason for God, “Which [religion in the world today] will lead their believers to be the most loving and receptive to those with whom they differ?”

The answer is [authentic] Christianity. Jesus ushered in a movement that was defined by love – a love without conditions. Jesus loved his enemies and even died for them. Can you think of a better belief system than that?

Christianity is EXCLUSIVE (there is only one truth, one belief system by which we must live) but is also INCLUSIVE (Jesus will accept anyone at any time regardless of what they have done – if they put their trust in Him and His work on the cross for them).

Once again, can you think of any other belief system better than that?

A Restful Kind of Work

*cliff notes and musings on Tim Keller’s sermon on work

Rocky Balboa couldn’t sleep the night before the big fight. He told his wife that he didn’t even need to win, but that he just wanted to go the distance. He simply said that he didn’t want to be a bum.

Madonna, in Vogue magazine said, “Every time I accomplish something I feel like a special human being, but after a little while I feel mediocre and uninteresting again. I find that I have to get past this again and again. My drive in life is from the horrible fear of being mediocre. I have to prove that I’m somebody.”

Harold Abram in the movie Chariots of Fire said, “I got ten seconds to justify my existence.”

What do these people have in common? They are all proving that there is something behind the work. They aren’t just working for money. They are working to find meaning and approval.

Steven Jay Gould, an atheist says, “We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a 'higher' answer - but none exists…this explanation, though superficially troubling, if not terrifying, is ultimately liberating. We, therefore, have to construct any meaning ourselves.”

The big question is: How are we going to find meaning in this life without a God in our worldview? Answer: through our work.

The problem with this answer is that if anything goes wrong with our career, then we don’t have meaning anymore.

You see, there is work, and then there is a work behind the work.

The “work behind the work” is the grueling pursuit to find approval and significance from others in this world. And since others’ approval is not sustaining, we are on this tiring pursuit our whole lives.

But a restful kind of work is being offered to us.

The reason why God’s work is so different is because it is a work that flows out of rest - a rest that is freely given and is the result of His approval and acceptance and love for us.

When we have value and purpose and acceptance before we go to work, we can work restfully. We can go about our work with joy, using the gifts God’s given us, truly desiring to help other people, because we are not thinking about having to make a name for ourselves.

May you fall into God’s rest by trusting in the fact that Jesus died on the cross, wiping away your sins, so that you can have acceptance and approval and meaning and value – even before you wake up in the morning and start working.