THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO TIM KELLER
Review:
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Timothy Keller
Penguin Books, 2008 (2018)
310 pp., pb
For over thirty years Dr. Timothy Keller has exercised a remarkably successful ministry at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Founded in 1989, the church has since grown to nearly 6,000 regular attendees, and Dr. Keller has also had a hand in starting more than 300 other new churches around the world. The Reason for God encapsulates Dr. Keller’s basic evangelistic message.
The book is divided into two parts. The first part (chapters 1-7) basically answers the types of objections frequently raised by skeptics: “There can’t be just one true religion,” “How could a good God allow suffering?,” etc. The second part of the book (chapters 8-14) basically presents the gospel itself. Dr. Keller is obviously well versed and he quotes a wide variety of authors. His own book is very readable.
There are some aspects of the book, however, that are a bit peculiar, starting with the title itself, “The Reason for God.” Why would there need to be a reason for God? God is eternal and self-existent; He does not need a reason to exist. The title almost makes it sound as though we invented the concept of God in order to meet a need that we had.
But what is perhaps more peculiar is that Dr. Keller rarely quotes Scripture in his presentation. Instead of giving biblical answers to the various objections to Christian belief, he uses human logic instead, often quoting a human author to make his point. He is especially fond, I this regard, of C.S. Lewis, as well as several other authors. Some of the arguments, however, the reader may find less convincing than others.
But what is perhaps even more disconcerting is that in same aspects Dr. Keller appears to be watering down the gospel itself. At points he seems reluctant to talk about a moral law, human guilt before a holy and righteous God, the death of Christ as a penal satisfaction, and justification by an imputed righteousness. Instead he tends to emphasize the psychological and social aspects of salvation. We are alienated from God and from each other. But God loves us and sent His Son into the world to share our suffering and thereby bring about restoration. As humans we need to change our priorities and learn to trust in Christ. Only then can we find true peace and happiness.
Part of this undoubtedly reflects Dr. Keller’s life-long devotion to social justice, and so he undoubtedly wants to see the gospel as encompassing more than simply the forgiveness of the sins of individuals. Near the end of his book Dr. Keller puts it like this:
“When we look at the whole scope of this storyline, we see clearly
that Christianity is not only about getting our individual sins forgiven
so we can go to heaven. That is an important means of God’s
salvation, but not the final end or purpose of it. The purpose of
Jesus’s coming is to put the whole world right, to renew and
restore creation, not to escape it. It is not just to bring personal
forgiveness and peace, but also justice and shalom to the world.”
(p. 233)
In a sense Dr. Keller is correct. In Jesus’ teaching the gospel is “the gospel of the kingdom,” the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. When the Messiah reigns the nations will beat their swords into plowshares and the Prince of Peace will establish justice throughout the world (Isa. 9:6,7; 11:1-9). The question is, however, how and when will this take place? Would it have been medieval Christendom? Or a future, earthly, millennial kingdom? Unfortunately Dr. Keller does not elaborate on his eschatology in his book.
A strong case can be argued that there is a sense in which the kingdom is “already” and “not yet” – that it exists already as a spiritual entity in the church. In that sense “shalom” should be a very important reality within the community of believers. But it can also be argued that the primary purpose of Christ’s First Coming was to die on the cross and provide an atonement for our sin, and that the universal peace and justice await His Second Coming. For the apostle Paul, then, the gospel, the message he preached to the Gentile world, was the forgiveness of sins. Individual sinners come to repentance and faith, have their sins forgiven and the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to their accounts. “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (I Tim. 1:15; NKJV)
Christians should be concerned about social justice, and it could be argued that much of the success of Redeemer Presbyterian Church is due to their putting Christian love into practice in their local community, thereby letting their light shine before men (Matt. 5:14-16). But the New Testament portrays the world and the present age as fallen and corrupt; and to a great extent the church must stand apart from it, creating a contrast between itself and the world. The church’s primary task, then, is to “make disciples” (Matt. 28:14-16), to call individual human beings to take up their crosses and to follow Jesus; and the church must expect persecution in the process.
One can only have wished that Dr. Keller had focused more on providing biblical answers to the skeptics’ objections, and had been a little more explicit about the nature of salvation. To his credit, though, his New City Catechism does both.
Tribulation Saint 