God’s faithfulness through his saints: A tribute to Tim Keller
I led a women’s small group for my campus ministry my junior year of college. As we planned for the year ahead, my co-leader suggested that we do a Bible study by some guy named Tim Keller. I admitted that I had never heard of him. Heck, at that point I hadn’t even heard of covenant theology, good Baptist that I was. And good Presbyterian that she was, she told me, “He’s great. I’ve learned a lot from him. I think you will too.”
As it turns out, she was right.
That semester as we worked our way through Tim Keller’s “Gospel in Life” study, God showed me that the gospel was more expansive, more glorious, more vibrant than I ever knew it could be. It was not merely good news of salvation for the Lost, as I had always believed, but also the only hope for the Found.
Through his gospel, Christ had not just saved me in the past tense, but was saving me in the present tense. And not just me, but he was restoring the entire universe and making all things new until one day he would join heaven and earth fully and finally and forever.
Hearing this gospel from Tim Keller was like stepping out of Dorothy’s sepia-toned house into the Land of Oz. At one point in the study, he said, “The gospel is not moral conformity, which is religion, nor is it self-discovery, which is secularism. The gospel is something else altogether—a grid through which we see the world.”
His view of the gospel was honestly so foreign to me that I questioned whether it could really be what the Bible teaches. Could there be more to the Story than I had realized? Could the news be that good?
As it turns out, he was right. The gospel really is that good. And I get the feeling it’s even better than either of us could fully know on this side of the restoration of all things.
Over the years, Tim Keller’s voice has continued to be one that has guided my vision for how the story of God’s redemption reaches into the deepest corners of my heart and our world, and gives reason for great hope. I’m grateful for this saint, now with Jesus. Today, I’m praising God for his faithfulness to his Church through the gift of Tim Keller’s life.