Tim Keller writes:
...here is the way you can tell whether you are a Christian or just a moral person. A real Christian is a person who says, "it is an absolute miracle that God's loves me. "It's just a miracle that I am a Christian." This is actually an acid test; let me just lay it on you here at the end. There are two kinds of people that go to church: there's religious people and real Christians. And the way you can tell the difference is that a Real Christian is somebody who sees everything that comes as a gift. In other words a real Christian sees that you are totally in debt to God, but a religious person is someone who is working hard and making an effort and trying to be good, going to Bible studies and just saying "no" everywhere, and denying themselves a lot of pleasures, and so forth, and a religious person is someone who is trying to put God in their debt. That is the difference. A religious person is someone who is trying to save themselves through their good works. A religious person is somebody who thinks they are putting God in their debt since they have tried so hard. A Christian is somebody who sees themselves as in God's debt.
Here is the acid test: If you are a Christian you have a spirit of wonder that permeates your life. You are always saying "how miraculous", "how interplanetary", "how unreal". You are always looking at yourself and saying, "me a Christian ... incredible, miraculous, unbelievable, a joke!!! " but a person who is trying to put God in their debt - there is none of that spirit of wonder at all.
...If you ask a religious person who does not understand the grace of God. you say, "Are you a Christian?" They say "Of course I am a Christian, I have always been a Christian. Sure I am a Christian. " My friends, if you are a Christian there is no "sure" about it and there is no "of courseness" about it, not a bit.
You can read the rest of his notes here.
6 comments:
How would you guys go about presenting that truth to a friend of yours who you know is a religious person but not a Christian? I don't think just forwarding them on this would be very well received.
I don't think the article was meant for a religious non-Christian audience.
How could this article be meant for anyone but a religious, non-Christian?
"here is the way you can tell whether you are a Christian or just a moral person."
And if you are right (that it is written not to the "religous non-christian" and instead to the regenrated, saved, believing christian), surely the intention of Tim Keller's article is to encourage us to address these "religious non-Christians". If all he was doing was writing an article to teach his congregation of real Christians that they are real Christians then whats the point? To look at the "religious non-Christians" and just pity them?
If all he was doing was writing an article to teach his congregation of real Christians that they are real Christians then whats the point?"
Maybe his congregation has an issue with assurance. As do many real Christians. 1 John is dedicated to the topic. Maybe a pride issue as well.
Again, I don't think this is meant for non-christian audience, it's mainly for a Christian audience. I think the article asks us to to look at tendencies in our own lives and examine our appreciation for what God did through Christ.
He wrote, "Christians, to the degree that you behold the free grace of God, to the degree that you meditate on it and you let it become a holy fire in your heart, to the degree you experience and behold the love of God, to that degree you are going to find that to difficulties you will be able to say "oh well, my Father must have a purpose here because He loves me, and besides that, He does not owe me a good life. He owes me a far worse life than I've got."
"To look at the "religious non-Christians" and just pity them?"
If by pity you mean to "just" feel bad for them. Then no. But here is how pity is defined.
Pity- sympathetic or kindly sorrow evoked by the suffering, distress, or misfortune of another, often leading one to give relief or aid or to show mercy.
So I think pity is an appropriate response.
Hey Alex, thanks for you thoughtful response. I don't often think of pity in that way. I've probably misunderstood pity for a long time.
You're certainly correct, if it was intended for the Christian, it was intended to address assurance or pride.
But still, that brings me back to my original point in my first comment. If we are to pity (a sorrow often leading to relief, aid, or mercy) the unsaved, our pity must include communicating this message to those unsaved people.
So my original question remains, how do you communicate to your unsaved friends that they arent christians?!
I don't know. What worked on me was that someone invited me out to church.
If I find any good articles on that I'll post them. If you have something, send me a link.
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