The Work of God

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Tim Keller

In this episode of the Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast, Tim Keller explores Ephesians 2:1–10 to highlight the transformative power of grace in Christian

Key takeaways

• Christian conversion is a momentous change—a 'continental divide'—not just gradual moral development.
• Spiritual death means being blind to spiritual realities like sin, grace, and heaven; only through Christ do these become real and transformative.

Main topics

• Spiritual death before Christ
• Grace as the foundation of salvation

Notable quotes

"Once upon a time in our world, in a little stable, there was something that was bigger than the whole world."

"You go from death to life. You go from bondage to freedom. You go from children of wrath to seated with Christ in heavenly realms."

Conclusion

The episode concludes with an urgent call to embrace the reality of grace,

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:03) Welcome to Gospel and 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. Speaker 2 (0:33) 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... Speaker 2 (1:09) 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. Speaker 2 (1:31) 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, Speaker 2 (1:53) 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, verses 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 Speaker 2 (4:02) To the west of Pikes Peak, a 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. Speaker 1 (4:23) And the same thing is true of being a Speaker 2 (4:24) Christian. Speaker 2 (4:27) 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 in many parts a painful process. It's even true that 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 sometimes. And yet there is a point at which the Bible says you cross from death to life. Speaker 2 (5:12) 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. Then secondly, that we satisfy the cravings of the sinful nature. And thirdly, that we're by nature children of wrath. Speaker 2 (5:36) 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. Speaker 2 (6:37) Verses 1, 2, and 3 were told before Christ, dead in sin. Speaker 2 (6:44) obeying the drives of the sinful nature, secondly, and thirdly, by nature, children of wrath. What we've read here in verses 4 through 7 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 recall them and rejoice in them. 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, unsensing? 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? Speaker 2 (8:52) 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? 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. Speaker 2 (9:20) 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. Speaker 2 (9:45) And you see, when you meet Christ, what happens is that even though things that you didn't believe in at all or you believed 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 have to have these things they drive you After you become a Christian you have a freedom by 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, when I'm getting anxious, I ask 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? Speaker 2 (12:25) What am I