Knowing Yourself
25:05 Share

Welcome to Gospel and Life. Is being a Christian just about moral transformation or a pathway to the good life? Tim Keller looks at the book of Galatians to demonstrate how the Christian life is so much more than that. It's about how Christ transforms us in a radical and life-changing way. Throughout this month, Tim Keller will be teaching from the book of Galatians and how the gospel transforms us. Today's scripture reading comes from Galatians 5, 26 through 6, 5.

Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him greatly. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load. This is the word of the Lord. What is Galatians about? First of all, we know Galatians is an exposition of the gospel. It's a forceful, thorough expounding of and delineation of the essential, the core of the core, the heart of the heart of the Christian message, the gospel.

The second thing we know about Galatians is it written to a group of Christians in a group of three or four or some churches in, or more perhaps, in the land of Galatia. But see, when you put those two together, you realize what that is? This is the maybe quintessential exposition of the gospel in the whole Bible, and it's for Christians. You see, the point of the Galatians is that Christians need the gospel. Christians don't get the gospel.

Christians have to make sure that they are continually understanding and having their lives put in line with the gospel. As Paul says to Peter in Galatians 2.14, he says, you're not in line with the gospel. And so that's what we're trying to do. And when you take a look at Galatians, he's bringing everything in line with the gospel. And today, or tonight, he gets to a subject which is really very, very up-to-date for us in our psychological age. He's talking about self-image. He's talking about self-esteem. He's talking about self-evaluation.

And right away, what I just like to show, since we're doing meditation here before we go to the Lord's table, what I like to show is the unique paradox of the gospel self-image. That Christianity brings you a way of looking at yourself and understanding yourself that is so different than what anything else brings you. There's a paradox, and you can see it right away. Let's just take a look at it right here. It's actually right next to each other in verse 3 and 4.

If anyone thinks he's something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself. Didn't anybody get the bends? You know the bends? You know, evidently when you're down deep in the water and you come up too fast. What is it? You get hydrogen bubbles in the stream or nitrogen? But you can't do that. You can't go from one realm all the way to the next realm. Let me see. And yet that's what happens.

Because in verse 3, we see Paul saying, we're nothing. And then suddenly in verse 4, he says that we should take pride in ourselves. What's the matter here? What's going on here? This is the paradox. Let's take a look at the two sides. First of all, if someone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself now.

This is very blunt. In fact, the way it comes out in English is it almost does not give you the impression that there are some people like this. It's saying, if a person who is a real nothing thinks he's something. But that's not what it's talking about. Donald Guthrie wrote a commentary on Galatians. And here's just a typical remark. He says...

He says, English translations of necessity obscure the emphatic juxtaposition of these two words, something and nothing. The contrast could not be more vividly expressed. There are no grades between. No believer has a right to regard himself as any more than nothing. We're nothing. Now, what have you got to make of that? What are we going to make of that? And this is not the only place where Paul talks about that.

I am nothing. He says, for example, let me show you how bad he is. Let's use Paul's case study on this. In 1 Corinthians 15, 9, he says, for I am the least of all the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle. I'm the least of all the apostles. And

Come on, Paul, the least of all the apostles? Well, it gets worse. In Ephesians 3, verse 8, he says, though I'm less than the least of all God's people. See, now this is, he's not just saying I'm the bottom. You know, there's a bunch of apostles and I'm the least of the apostles. Well, he said, maybe that's false humility, but maybe that's within bounds. But now he says, although I'm less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles. So he's not just the least of the apostles, he's the least of all God's people. But it gets worse. In 1 Timothy 1, verse 15, he says,

He says, here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. Or the Greek word protos, which means I am the most prominent. So he doesn't just say he's the least of the apostles. He doesn't say he's the worst of the apostles. And he goes on and he says he's the worst of all the people of God. But he doesn't stop at that. He goes on and he says, I am the worst of the sinners.

Now, one commentator put it this way. He says this is either unreal at best or pathological at worst. And that does seem to be the only two options. And so let's examine it. First of all, let's consider the possibility that this is just unreal, meaning this is pious exaggeration. This is spiritual posturing. And of course, this is a problem. And this is a problem in the Christian church. There's no doubt about that. I guess you could call it spiritual word inflation, right?

There are people who are always talking about everything is such a blessing and I am such a sinner and there is such a revival of the Holy Spirit going on in this country. And word inflation, everything is so ooh and ah. And it is very much like real inflation. You know, in the old days, if a country inflated, if they printed too many paper bills,

you know, pieces of money. You print too much money. Eventually all the money is devalued and it takes you a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread. And that's exactly what happens with this sort of pious exaggeration. When we talk like this, I'm the worst and you are the greatest and this is the best church and this is the most incredible revival. God is just coming down with the greatest power. And after a while, you know, you need a wheelbarrow full of incredible words just to get people's attention because everything is, oh, is that what Paul's doing? The trouble is,

How often he says it shows that these are considered statements. And especially if you go into the context and look and see that these statements are always linked to all sorts of very important theological expositions. And therefore, these are thought out words. These are carefully chosen words. This is not just fulmination. This is not just sputtering. So it's not unreal. Okay, it's a pathological. Somebody says, this is exactly what I don't like about Christianity.

This is worm religion. This is wretch religion. Worm religion. You know the hymn that says, would he devote that sacred head to such a worm as I? Worm. Or amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Worm religion. Wretch religion. And so somebody says, this is the problem. This idea that we're all such sinners and everybody's so wicked. This teaching of Christianity that we're all so bad. This is bad. This is very bad. Psychologically, this is damaging.

This destroys the confidence. This destroys your sense of who you are. It just works from the inside, and so you're not able to go out in the world. It destroys your boldness and your courage and your confidence and your poise and all that. And many people would say, and that's one of the reasons why I left the church. It's one of the reasons why I left Christianity. But now if this is true, if Paul's not just being unreal, but he's being pathological, here's a question.

Let's use him as a case study. Before we go on and say, well, obviously that's terrible, that's very psychologically unhealthy, let's ask about Paul. If this is true, if this idea, the Christian view that a Christian self-image includes this plank, I am nothing, I am the least. If that's true...

Shouldn't Paul have had a very ineffective career? Shouldn't that have affected Paul? Shouldn't he have been very lacking in confidence and very lacking in boldness? And when we look at Paul's life, is that what we see? Absolutely not.

We see a man. Listen, Paul was one of the most bold and courageous leaders in the history of the world. There's but a handful of people every century, and I think that may be being too generous. There's no more than a handful of people every century that have his kind of power and his kind of authority and his kind of boldness and his fearlessness. I mean, you know, he goes through a little place, a catalog of his life story in 2 Corinthians 1.

Back up in 2 Corinthians 11, he says, "Five times I received 39 lashes. "Three times I was beaten with rods. "Once I was stoned. "Three times I was shipwrecked. "I spent a night and a day in the open sea. "I have been in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, "danger from countrymen, some wimp." Well, somebody says, "Yes, but that's the problem with those people. "With the pathological lack of self-esteem, "they are fearless. "They overdo it. "They're reckless. "They need to prove themselves."

But I would challenge you now. I can't do this in a minute, but I'm going to have to. I would challenge you to read the life of Paul. And you don't see that. This is not a man with a death wish. Not the way in which he finds ways of wiggling out of things. This is not a man either with a martyr complex. Because sometimes when he's, even though he's a Roman citizen, read the book of Acts. Sometimes when he's a Roman citizen, so he cannot be jailed without a trial. And sometimes he says nothing about it. He's beaten.

Other times he says, you're in big trouble, boys, because you have jailed a Roman citizen without a trial and everybody scurries around. Why does he sometimes do it? Why does he sometimes not? It depends on whether it helps the church. It depends on whether it helps the gospel. It depends on whether it helps the Christians in that town. Paul had no death wish. Paul had no martyr complex. This is not just look. Here's a man who says, I am nothing. Is there anything about his career that you don't envy?

Is there anybody in this room who will ever come up to his stature? Well, then you say, well, what's going on here? I'll tell you what's going on. You cannot pit what Paul says about being nothing.

against everything else the Bible says or Paul says about the dignity of human beings and the fact that we're the image of God. We can't just take that and say he's contradicting everything else he's saying about the value of human beings and so on. No, no. What is he doing? Well, see, here's the point. Somebody says, well, maybe that idea that he was nothing, that he's a sinner, maybe that idea didn't hurt his self-confidence but it hurt mine.

Maybe religion didn't destroy his confidence, but it destroyed mine. And that's the reason why I'm not in it the way I am not today. That's the whole point. And Paul, here's the answer. What Paul would say if you said that to him, he says, maybe religion didn't hurt you, but it certainly hurt me. But what Paul would say is, oh, yes, it did hurt me because he did try religion. And when he was in his religious phase, when he was persecuting the church, when he really was driven, his religion...

Listen, his religion kept him from admitting his nothingness. Dear friends, to admit that you're nothing is the end of religion. It's not the beginning of religion. How can we best understand the freedom we have in Christ? What is the relationship between the law of the Bible and the grace that Jesus offers?

In the book, Galatians for You, Tim Keller takes you through a rich and deep study of Paul's letter as he reflects on the amazing grace we have in Christ. Galatians is a powerful book that shows how people can think they know the gospel, but are actually losing touch with it. In this study of the book of Galatians, Dr. Keller helps you understand how this short book in the New Testament can transform your life.

Galatians for You is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the love of Christ with more people. Request your copy today at gospelinlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Since when Paul says I am nothing, he can't mean that I am without any value. I don't have the image of God in me. There is absolutely no dignity. I'm like a rock. I'm like a spit. I'm like excrement. That's not what he's saying. Can't go against everything else he's saying. What is he saying?

A religious person does not say, "I am nothing." A religious person feels like nothing, but won't admit it to him or herself, and is frantically out there trying to convince himself, herself, and the world that I'm really something. A religious person is saying, "I am nothing," but down deep and won't say it out loud.

Instead of saying, I know I'm somebody. Look at how I obey the law. Look at how I obey the Ten Commandments. Look how I come to church. Look at the things that I've done. Look at how I serve people. Look at the wonderful children I've raised. Look at what a good family I've raised. They're frantically going around. And here's the interesting thing. On the other side of Paul saying, I am nothing, he suddenly says, everyone should have pride in himself.

And every place that Paul says one of these worm things, where he says, I am less than the least of all the apostles, the very next minute, he says, however, I'm the most successful. In 1 Corinthians 15. Or in 1 Timothy 1, where he says, I am the worst of sinners. And then he says, however, I'm a pattern. And Paul, who says, I am the worst of sinners, is continually in his letters saying, imitate me. Imitate me. What's going on? The gospel is different than religion. And everybody...

Everybody, in the most fundamental way, is religious. Why? Every single person is afraid that they're nothing. Every single person is afraid that we're really nothing. And so what do we do? We either go to church or we go to our religion and we try like crazy to hide the fact that we're nothing, that fear, and overcome it. Or, you know what we do? Here's what we say. We say, ah, not me. Oh, no, no. I was raised in a little town out in the middle of America.

Where everybody was trying to deal, it was trying to conform to the status quo. But then I moved to New York City. Because I am, I'm not worried about that because I am getting my own self-esteem. I know who I am and I like myself for who I am. And I came to New York City to find people who just appreciate me for who I am. That's not true. What you've really done is you chucked a little circle of people from whom you were getting your self-image back there. It was a little conservative circle. And now you've moved to New York City and I have a little liberal circle.

And they're the ones that you hope will think you're cool. You dress like them, they dress like you, and you are just as enslaved. Paul says, don't compare yourself to others. Paul says, I'm out of that. I'm totally out of that. Because on the one hand, I know I'm nothing, which means, to say I'm nothing means, I know that I cannot merit my salvation. It means without him, you can do nothing. It means that in myself, I would be lost, and therefore, I've stopped trying. I need a savior. And here's the great thing.

What does it mean to be a Christian? What it means to be a Christian is you're willing finally to admit that you're nothing, and when you admit you're nothing and go to the Lord Jesus Christ, when you say, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling, then what happens is his righteousness is transferred into your account, which means a Christian and only a Christian realizes you are nothing in yourself and yet in him everything, which means you see your nothingness and your greatness at once. Everybody else moves on out into the world.

And says, depending on my little circle of people who I'm comparing myself to, and everybody's doing this, unless it's God who looks at you,

And it's God's eyes and God's opinion and God's love for you and God's judgment that is the arbiter of your self-image. Otherwise, you're looking at that very little group and either you feel like nothing if you're not living up to them or you feel like something if you are, but you're never nothing and proud at the same time. But Christians are. There's a sense of nothingness and there's a sense of greatness. And as a result, if you don't understand the gospel, you won't understand the Christian self-image. Look at what Paul's doing.

He says, I'm nothing, but I'm proud of myself. He says, I'm the least of the apostles. I'm the most successful. He says, I'm the worst sinner in the world, but follow me and imitate me. How can you do that? The namby-pamby, prissy world's self-image is very upset. First of all, somebody saying, I am nothing. Oh, you shouldn't talk like that. You see, without the gospel, you don't have the emotional strength to admit the worst about yourself. You've got to believe that you're okay. You can't. It's traumatic material. You'll never...

Have the guts to see yourself at your worst. But on the other hand, when somebody says, obey, you know, God is working through me. Imitate me. The namby-pamby kind of, you know, worldly self-image says, oh, you shouldn't talk like that. That's kind of immodest. You see, you won't be able to ever revel in your greatness or admit your nothingness without the gospel. Martin Luther puts it perfectly in his commentary on the Galatians. He says, this is how a Christian thinks of him or herself.

He says, so now we may certainly think, though I still sin, I don't despair because Christ lives, who is both my righteousness and my eternal life. In that righteousness, I have no sin, no fear, no guilty conscience, no fear of death. And I'm indeed a sinner in this life, but in my own righteousness. Yet I have another life.

Another righteousness above this life, which is in Christ, the Son of God, who knows no sin or death, but he's eternal righteousness and eternal life. Now, let me just apply this because we have to go to the Lord's table. Number one, if you're a Christian, don't you find that in spite of the fact you believe the gospel, you're locked into this sort of namby-pamby middle world? When somebody criticizes you, you don't have the emotional strength because you're forgetting the gospel to say, well, yeah, I'm not.

You toss and turn in bed at night. You're always feeling kind of down on yourself, but you can't admit that you're nothing because you can't, on the other hand, really rejoice. You're not rejoicing significantly in the fact that to him, you are everything. He lost himself. He lost his father. He lost the universe rather than lose you. You'll never be able to admit the nothingness unless you see the greatness. And of course, you'll never be able to appreciate the greatness unless you finally admit, I'm nothing in myself.

Those of us, and I guess it's pretty much all of us who are kind of locked into the middle, always feeling slighted, always getting our feelings hurt, be gone with that. You notice how it says here, a Christian, which one of the beautiful things about this, how is a Christian supposed to actually see progress though? How's a Christian supposed to see progress? Everyone, Paul says, has his own load. A load is not the same as a burden. The word load is like a backpack.

And what this means is when I become a Christian and you become a Christian and we look at each other, we come into the Christian life and we're all equally loved by God. But we all come in with our own load. That means we all come in with a different set of opportunities and flaws and weaknesses and spiritual gifts. And everybody is starting in a different place. Here's a person over here who had a terrible family background. Maybe you didn't.

And this person has a lot of trouble with his or her temper, and you don't. And you both become Christians, and before God, you are equally loved. And yet, the important thing is, it is silly inside the gospel to try to compare yourself and say, that person's got a temper. Not a very mature Christian. How do you know? That person may be 50% down the road that God gave him, and you're 10% down the road that God gave you. Don't you see?

With a gospel self-image, the church should be the most nonjudgmental place ever. You compare yourself with yourself. You get micro-guilt because you're not moving along under your load like you should. But you never have macro-guilt because you know that you are his treasure. And we should be the most unjudgmental place where we do not compare ourselves to each other, but we're comparing ourselves to him. That's what Christians need to learn from this. If you're here tonight and you're not sure what you believe...

Or maybe you used to be a Christian and you've rejected it. Or maybe you don't know, but you're kind of negative about Christianity. I want you to consider something for a moment. It's almost worse to have gotten halfway into Christianity than not to have tried. If you got into Christianity enough to get the do's and don'ts, if you got into Christianity enough to kind of get the trappings of it, just enough to feel your nothingness without ever understanding how greatness comes, of course you feel the way you feel. But here's what I want you to consider.

What's your alternative? You say, well, when I get near God and all this religion stuff, I feel bad. Okay, what's your alternative? You say, well, I don't even know if there is a God. If there's no God, you are an accident. If there's no God, you are chemicals. How do you know? Alistair MacIntyre, a very, very great moral philosopher in the last few years, he's still alive, says there's no way to judge good or bad except through purpose.

He says, is this a good watch or a bad watch? It depends. He says, it's a good watch if you're trying to use it to keep time. It's a bad watch if you're trying to parachute. It's bad for parachuting. Don't try it. It's bad for hammering a nail. Don't try it. It's great for keeping time. So you can't, if I say, is this a good watch or a bad watch? You say, for what? If something is an accident, it is impossible to talk about something being good or bad. It's impossible. If you are an accident, if you just sprung spontaneously into

If you're just going to die eventually and eventually everything's going to rot and civilization's going to rot and we're all going to die in the death of the universe. If there is no God, you are absolutely literally nothing. You are nothing. But you are only nothing. Because in Christianity, you're only partly nothing. And it's not the important part. It's the first part. Without God, you are nothing. You are literally nothing. You're telling me that's a better place to go to get self-esteem?

Your trouble is you came halfway into Christianity, just enough to feel like nothing. Now you're out. And the only reason you don't know you're even a real nothing is because you're not thinking. Come all the way into the gospel. Come all the way into his arms. You'll know you're nothing and you'll be so proud of yourself. Let's pray.

Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you found today's teaching helpful and something you'd like more people to hear, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the hope and joy of Christ's love. Just visit gospelinlife.com slash partner to learn more.

Today's sermon was recorded in 1998. 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.