"Most people in the world believe that if there is a God, you relate to God by being good. Most religions are based on that principle, though there are a million different variations on it. Some religions are what you might call nationalistic: You connect to God, they say, by coming into our people group and taking on the markers of society membership. Other religions are spiritualistic: You reach God by working your way through certain transformations of consciousness. Yet other religions are legalistic: There's a code of conduct, and if you follow it God will look upon you with favor. But they all have the same logic: If I perform, if I obey, I'm accepted. The gospel of Jesus is not only different from that but diametrically opposed to it: I'm fully accepted in Jesus Christ, and therefore I obey." pg 39
"The gospel of Jesus Christ is an offense to both religion and irreligion. It can't be co-opted by either moralism or relativism.
...The moralist says, 'The good people are in and the bad people are out--and of course we're the good ones.' The self-discovery person says, 'Oh, no, the progressive, open-minded people are in and the judgmental bigots are out--and of course we're the open-minded ones.' In Western cosmopolitan culture there's an enormous amount of self-righteousness. We progressive urbanites are so much better than people who think they're better than other people. We disdain those religious, moralistic types who look down on others. Do you see the irony, how the way of self-discovery leads to as much superiority and self-righteousness as religion does?
The gospel does not say, 'the good are in and the bad are out,' nor 'the open-minded are in and the judgmental are out.' The gospel says the humble are in and the proud are out. The gospel says the people who know they're not better, not more open-minded, not more moral than anyone else, are in, and the people who think they're on the right side of the divide are most in danger.
Jesus himself said this to the Pharisees earlier when he told them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners' (Mark 2:15-17). When Jesus says he is not coming for the 'righteous,' he does not mean that some people don't need him. The clue to what Jesus does mean is his reference to himself as a physician. You go to a doctor only when you have a health problem that you can't deal with yourself, when you feel you can't get better through self-management. What do you want from a doctor? Not just advice--but intervention. You don't want a doctor to simply say, 'Yes, you sure are sick!' You want some medicine or treatment.
Jesus calls people 'righteous' who are in the same position spiritually as those who won't go to a doctor. 'Righteous' people believe they can 'heal themselves,' make themselves right with God by being good or moral. They don't feel the need for a soul-physician, someone who intervenes and does what they can't do themselves. Jesus is teaching that he has come to call sinners: those who know they are morally and spiritually unable to save themselves.
Because the Lord of the Sabbath said, 'It is finished,' we can rest of religion--forever."
pgs 46-47
-Tim Keller
Keller, Timothy. King's Cross: The Story Of The World In The Life Of Jesus. New York: Penguin, 2011.
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