Sunday---Finally----How To Get That Transformed Sense of Self Like the Apostle Paul

FINAL EXCERPT OF TIM KELLER'S  THE FREEDOM OF SELF-FORGETFULNESS:

THIS IS GOSPEL HUMILITY, blessed self-forgetfulness. Not thinking more of myself as in modern cultures, or less of myself as in traditional cultures. But simply thinking of myself less.

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HOW DID PAUL GET THIS BLESSED SELF-FORGETFULNESS? He does tell us---but we have to look carefully. First he says, 'I don't care what you think, but I don't care what I think.' In other words, he does not look to them for the verdict nor, does he look to himself for the verdict. Then he says 'My conscience is clear but that does not make me innocent.' The word translated 'innocent' comes from the word 'justify.'..... Here Paul is saying that even if his conscience is clear, that does not justify him.

What Paul is looking for, what Madonna is looking for, what we all are looking for, is an ultimate verdict that we are important and valuable. We look for that ultimate verdict every day in all the situations of people around us. And that means that every day, we are on trail. Every day, we put ourselves back in the courtroom. But do you notice how Paul says that he does not care what the Corinthians think of him or what any human court thinks? It is odd that he is talking about courts---after all the Corinthians are not a court.

Paul is talking metaphorically, I think. And he is saying that the problem with self-esteem---whether it is high or low---is that every single day, we are back in the courtroom. Every single day we are on trial. That is the way every one's identity works.  In the courtroom, you have the prosecution and the defence.  And everything we do is providing evidence for the prosecution or evidence for the defence.  Some days we feel we are winning the trial and other days we feel we are losing it.

But Paul says that he has found the secret.  The trial is over for him.  He is out of the courtroom.  It is gone.  It is over.  Because the ultimate verdict is in.

Now how could that be?  Paul puts it very simply.  He knows that they cannot justify him.  He knows he cannot justify himself.  And what does he say?  He says that it is the Lord who judges.  It is only His opinion that counts.

Do you realize that it is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance?  The atheist might say that they get their self-image from being a good person.  They are a good person and they hope that eventually they will get a good verdict that confirms they are a good person.  Performance leads to the verdict.  For the Buddhist too, performance leads to the verdict.  If you are a Muslim, performance leads to the verdict.  All this means that every day, you are in the courtroom and on trial.  That is the problem.

But Paul is saying that in Christianity, the verdict leads to performance.  It is not the performance that leads to the verdict.  In Christianity, the moment we believe, God says This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Or take Romans 8:1 which says Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.

You see, the verdict is in.  And now I perform on the basis of the verdict. Because He loves me and He accepts me, I do not have to do things just to build up my resume or that make me look good. I can do things for the joy of doing them.  I can help people to help people---not just so I can feel better about myself, not so I can fill up the emptiness.

With every other form of identity---other than with Christ---and every other badge or accolade we might award ourselves, it is always a case of the verdict coming from the performance.  We might find security in labelling ourselves a good person, a free person, a religious person, a moral person.  Whatever it is, it is always the same:  the performance leads to the verdict.....But the verdict never comes.  Madonna said so and she should know.  Madonna has done things that you and I are never going to do----and it is still not enough.  Madonna has heaps of talent, she has tremendous guts.  But even Madonna, despite everything she has done, says that she has still not found the ultimate verdict she is looking for..  Our performance never gets the ultimate verdict.

But in Christianity, the verdict can give you the performance.  Paul is out of the courtroom because Jesus Christ went on trial instead. Jesus went to the courtroom and was on trial.  It was an unjust trial in a kangaroo court---but he did not complain.  Like the lamb before the shearers, He was silent.  He was struck, beaten, put to death.  Why? As our substitute.  He took the condemnation we deserve;  He faced the trial that should be ours so that we do not have to face anymore trials.
 
So I simply need to ask God to accept me because of what the Lord Jesus has done.  Then, the only person whose opinion counts looks at me and He finds me more valuable than all the jewels in the earth.

How can we worry about being snubbed now?  How can we worry about being ignored now?  How can we care that much about what we look like in the mirror?.......

Maybe you believe in the gospel; maybe you have done so for years.  But, and this is a big 'but'....everyday you find yourself being sucked back into the courtroom.  You do not feel you are living like Paul says.  You are getting sucked back in.  All I can tell you is that we have to re-live the gospel every time we pray.  We have to re-live it every time we go to church or read the Word. We have to re-live the gospel on the spot and ask ourselves what we are doing back in the courtroom.  We should not be there.  Court is adjourned.

Like Paul, we can say,  I don't care what you think.  I only care what the Lord thinks. And He has said, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and You are my beloved child in whom I am well pleased.

Live out of that.

---Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness