Straight Talk: 3 of 4

Was Jesus Religious?

Scripture

Romans 7.14-25

Gen 11

Luke 9.23-24

 

Quotes

“The gospel is not so much concerned with what as it is concerned with why.”

Religion: building your identity on moral achievements
Irreligion: building your identify on any other secular pursuit

Religion: Salvation through moral effort
Christianity: Salvation through grace

Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

“I resolved in my future conduct to redeem the past; and I can say with honesty that my resolve was fruitful of some good. You know how earnestly, in the last months of the last year, I labored to relieve suffering; you know that much was done for others…[But as] I smiled, comparing myself with other men, comparing my active goodwill with the lazy cruelty of their neglect…at the very moment of that vain-glorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most dreadful shuddering…I looked down…I was once more Edward Hyde.”

Tim Keller, The Reason for God

“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued and that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself or less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”

 

Resources

Reading

Keller, Tim: The Reason for God

 

Sites

www.podcast.billmesaeh.com (download or hear the series again)