Dr. Timothy Keller

Your humor has a lot to do with how you regard yourself. Many people use humor to put down others, keep themselves in the driver’s seat in a conversation and setting, and remind the listeners of their superior vantage point. They use humor not to defuse tension and put people at ease, but to deliberately belittle the opposing view. Rather than showing respect and doing the hard work of true disagreement, they mock others’ points of view and dismiss them without actually engaging the argument. 

Ultimately, sarcastic put-down humor is self-righteous —a form of self-justification— and that is what the gospel demolishes. When we grasp that we are unworthy sinners saved by an infinitely costly grace, it destroys both our self-righteousness and our need to ridicule others. This is also true of self-directed ridicule. Some people constantly and bitterly mock themselves. At first it looks like a form of humility, or realism, but really it is just as self-absorbed as the other version. It is a sign of an inner discomfort with one’s self, a profound spiritual restlessness. 

There is another kind of self-righteousness, however, that produces a person with little or no sense of humor. Moralistic persons often have no sense of irony, because they take themselves too seriously or because they are too self-conscious and self-absorbed in their own struggles to be habitually joyful. 

The gospel, however, creates a gentle sense of irony. Our doctrine of sin keeps us from being over-awed by anyone (especially ourselves) or shocked by any behavior. We find a lot to laugh at, starting with our own weaknesses. They don’t threaten us anymore, because our ultimate worth is not based on our record or performance. Our doctrine of grace and redemption also keeps us from seeing any situation as hopeless. This “ground note” of joy and peace makes humor spontaneous and natural. 

In gospel-shaped humor, we don’t only poke fun at ourselves. We also can gently poke fun at others, especially our friends, but it is always humor that takes the other seriously and ultimately builds them up as a show of affection. We are not to be “perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously— no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.” (C.S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory, p. 46).

So how do we get such a sense of humor? That’s the wrong question. The gospel doesn’t change us in a mechanical way. To give the gospel primacy in our lives is not always to logically infer a series of principles from it that we then “apply” to our lives. Recently I heard a sociologist say that, for the most part, the frameworks of meaning by which we navigate our lives are so deeply embedded in us that they operate “pre-reflectively.” They don’t exist only as a list of propositions and formulations, but also as themes, motives, attitudes, and values that are as affective and emotional as they are cognitive and intellectual. When we listen to the gospel preached, or meditate on it in the Scripture, we are driving it so deeply into our hearts, imaginations, and thinking that we begin to “live out” the gospel instinctively. I have definitely seen the gospel transform a person’s sense of humor, but it would be artificial to say that there are “gospel-principles of humor” that we must apply to our lives. It just happens as we believe the gospel more and more. 

Copyright © 2008 by Timothy Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church.  

We encourage you to use and share this material freely—but please don’t charge money for it, change the wording, or remove the copyright information.

My facebook news reel informs the world that I have now arrived, because...

The above picture is Dr. Keller trying to remember who I am and why he just accepted my friend request. :)

Click here to download:

gospelvsreligion.pdf (3134 KB)

A big, huge HT Matt Stephenson!

Finally, Tim Keller is on iTunes with many archived sermons to enjoy. This is great news! Click here to subscribe.

This is a quote from Tim Keller's book, Counterfeit Gods, that provides encouragement for those of us who are being so well loved by our Father that he is tearing our idols away from us (and usually without anesthetic).

Sometimes God seems to be killing us when he's actually saving us... The Bible is filled with stories of figures such as [Abraham and] Joseph, Moses and David in which God seemed to have abandoned them, but later it is revealed he was dealing with the destructive idols in their lives and that could only come to pass through their experience of difficulty... We can't know all the reasons that our Father is allowing bad things to happen to us, but like Jesus did, we can trust him in those difficult times. As we look at him and rejoice in what he did for us, we will have the joy and hope necessary—and the freedom from counterfeit gods—to follow the call of God when times seem at their darkest and most difficult.

I began reading Keller's Counterfeit Gods over the weekend. In a word, profound. Another word, convicting. And still another couple words, gloriously hopeful. The book is about idolatry. In the first chapter, Keller defines idolatry by alluding to comments on American culture penned by Alexis de Tocqueville, who in the 1830s said that there "is a strange melancholy that haunts the inhabitants... in the midst of abundance" because "the incomplete joys of this world will never satisfy [the human] heart."

Keller asks, "What is the cause of this 'strange melancholy' that permeates our society...? De Tocqueville says it comes from taking some 'incomplete joy of this world' and building your entire life on it. That is the definition of idolatry."  Usually, idolatry takes place when I take a good thing (an incomplete joy) and make it an ultimate thing (like planting a church, or winning a game, or making an income, or whatever). It is that thing that, if I lost it or failed at it, would cast me into despair.

Of course, the gospel offers us that which can truly satisfy, which is to know the God of grace who pours out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given to us. The Spirit who enables me to cry out "Abba, Father," and to be convinced that I am fully forgiven and completely accepted sons. Reconciliation without fear. That is what my heart longs for, and that is what we receive through faith in the promises that are bound to the cross of Jesus. Embracing the ultimate thing as the best thing.

It is the power of the gospel that breaks the power of idolatry and brings genuine peace, joy, hope and soul satisfaction. It enables me to possess something and lose it, to pursue something and fail at it, and to remain sane—even sanctified, possibly sorrowful, but not despairing—in the process.

Creekstone's reason for being, or mission, is simple and focused:

Creekstone Church exists to glorify God by helping people come alive to the wonder of the gospel.

Our mission is focused on the gospel because it is the grace of God that is the power that reconciles people to God and motivates and empowers the entire Christian life. We agree with Tim Keller, who says, “The gospel is not just the ‘A-B-C’ but the ‘A to Z’ of the Christian life... The key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the continual re-discovery of the the gospel.” As a result, spiritual life and continued vitality hinges on the Spirit of God bringing a conscious wonder of His grace alive in our hearts through faith. We want to be facilitators in that process. Therefore, helping people come alive to the wonder of the gospel is at the very heart of our vision to glorify God.

I am in a group of about 50 other pastors/church leaders who are reading material by Tim Keller and then discussing it via video chat. It is called the Coach K Reading Group. : )  Anyway, tonight is our first meeting, and in preparation I've been reading Keller's article, The Centrality of the Gospel, where Coach K emphasizes that the gospel (biblical Christianity) is utterly different from what we think of as "religion," a term he uses to refer to any human system that focuses on human performace as the criteria of acceptance before God. His "big idea" is that in order for someone truely to be a Christian positionally and experience progressive, deep and lasting change, one has to enter into a relationship with God that is based on truth and grace. As he is famous for saying, "Not only am I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe" (truth/law), but also, "I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope" (grace/gospel). While the religious person sets truth over grace and the relativist sets grace over truth, Jesus came in grace and truth. As he says, "Truth without grace is not really truth, and grace without truth is not really grace." This is why the gospel is set against both irreligion and religion. Tertullian called these two theives of the gospel– libertinism (no truth) and legalism (no grace). With that grid in mind, Keller uses Paul's rebuke of Peter in Galatians 2 to show how all of our problems essentially stem from a failure to believe and act upon the gospel. In the words of Richard Lovelace,

"Most people's problems are just a failure to be oriented to the gospel."

That phrase helps me: a gospel orientation (since I find myself so disoriented so much of the time). In light of this common disorientation, what both liberal relativists and conservative religious people need in order to experience true conversion, and then continual renewal and spiritual growth, is a continual re-discovery of the gospel through exposure to and faith in the fullness of God's truth and his grace as it has been revealed in Jesus through the cross. The question is: will I be re-oriented to the gospel today? Will I be devestatingly real with the truth and will I rest completely and unreservedly in God's grace? That is the path of renewal. For the good of my family, my own joy and the glory of God, please pray that I would be on that path today.