Making Sense Of God - Timothy KellerSample

“The Christian Approach to Identity”

Paul writes: “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Corinthians 4:3–4). Here Paul says, “I don’t care what you or any organized social structure thinks of me,” rejecting traditional identity, yet then, remarkably, he says he doesn’t look within to his own sensibility for an evaluation either.

Just because his conscience is clear, he does not assume that he is in the right. Supporting Paul are the histories of innumerable war criminals who insisted, “My conscience is clear; I was just following orders.” In this move Paul is denying both traditional identity that gives all power to the social and modern identity that gives all power to the personal, to our own limited, individual perspective.

He wants neither the tyranny of the group nor the dictatorship of his own insatiable desires and incoherent impulses. He refuses to let either society or his own inner consciousness define him. He looks to some other bar for judgment. He says, in effect, “I don’t care what anyone else thinks, but I don’t care what I think either. All I care about is what God thinks of me.”

And here we see the richness, complexity, and startling distinctiveness of the Christian approach to identity. Paul can say, “God judges me,” not with alarm but with confidence. Why? Because unlike either traditional or secular culture, a Christian’s identity is not achieved but received.

When we ask God the Father to accept us, adopt us, unite with us, not on the basis of our performance and moral efforts but because of Christ’s, we receive a relationship with God that is a gift. It is not based on our past, present, or future attainments but on Christ’s spiritual attainments.

In the Christian understanding, Jesus did not come primarily to teach or show us how to live (though he did that too) but to actually live the life we should have lived, and die in our place the death—the penalty for our moral failures—we should have died. When we rest in him alone for our salvation, he becomes a substitute and representative for us. On the cross Jesus was treated as we deserved, so that when we believe in him, we are treated as he deserves.

Excerpt from Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical by Timothy Keller

Reprinted by arrangement with Viking Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. Copyright © 2016 by Timothy Keller