Splitness - Timothy Keller Sermons

tonight's scripture reading is on page 9 in your bulletin and it comes from Romans 7: 1-9 and then 18 through2 or do you not know Brothers for I am speaking to those who know the law that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage accordingly she will be called adulter if she lives with another man while her husband is alive but is if her husband

dies she is free from that law and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress likewise my brothers you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God for while we were living in the flesh our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death but now we are released from the law having died to that which held us captive

so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the spirit What then shall we say that the law is sin by no means yet if it had not been for the law I would not have known sin I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said You shall not covet but sin seizing an opportunity through the Commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness apart from the law sin lies dead I was once alive apart from the law but when the Commandment

came sin came alive and I died for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out for I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing now if I do what I do not want it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right evil

lies close at hand for I Delight in the law of God in my inner being but I see in my members another law Waging War against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members Wretched Man that I am who will deliver me from the body of death thanks be to to God through Jesus Christ Our Lord this is God's word he said last week that when I first became a Christian there were some things in my life that profoundly needed changing but they weren't changing

and then I read two uh authors John Owen and John stot and in their books they as it were led me to Romans 6 s and 8 and when I began to grasp what was taught there that's when change real change change began in my own life and so I want to take you there for this brief series on Romans 67 and 8 and ask the question how does change really happen in somebody's life how does Christ how does uh faith in Christ very concretely and practically lead to change last week we looked at Romans

6 as a whole and we saw some principles this week we look at Romans 7 at a as a whole in which we have in very starkly shockingly realistic terms a depiction of the human heart what we really have here and then when we get to Romans 8 Romans 6 is the principles Romans 7 is the uh heart that principles have to be applied to in Romans 8 will take two or three weeks looking at the more practical aspects of how do you apply the principles to the heart so as to bring about change now

tonight I'm going to move from the be the end of the beginning we're going to look at the last part of the passage the middle part of the passage and then the first part of the passage and when we look at Romans 7 like that I think we'll learn three things what our biggest problem is what won't work against it and what will what our biggest problem is what will not address or solve that problem and what will number one what's our biggest problem and Paul very classically puts it in verse 18 19 when he

says I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out there it is I can Aspire and envision the right but I don't find in myself the power to actually execute and do it why the answer is what we'll call here the deep split of the human heart the split because in verse 20 he says now if I do what I do not want it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me what a statement he says there's me and then there's something in

me and he says it's sin in fact notice a minute in verse 19 he talks about evil there's evil and sin residing in him residing in us now notice that word dwell very very important evil and sin is not something that just acts upon us from the outside nor is it something that comes into US temporarily and camps out and if you know what you're doing you can Sho it away it it's it is at home in US it dwells in US it resides in US us it's deeply rooted in us and as a result

there's this deep split about us of uh good and evil now the classic uh depiction of this in the uh in in literature is Robert Lewis Stevenson's book The Strange Case of Dr Jackal and Mr Hyde now it's have you ever really read the book I bet you haven't because what we do is we see movies and and plays and I like to work off the book and it's not very long it's like 80 Pages it's pretty pretty short book but a fascinating book and you know basically the narrative Dr Jackal came to realize that

he was what he called quote unquote an incongruous compound of Good and Evil of of of conscience and coveting and he felt that uh because of this his bad nature held his good nature back and so he could aspire to do things but he could never follow through on them just like Romans 7 but he comes up with an idea a potion he's going to concoct a potion that will separate the two Natures out from each other and he intends to drink the potion at night to let his bad side out but during the day

when he's doing his work he'll be his good self and his good self will now be unencumbered it will be uh free from the influence of the evil and will be able to realize all of its goals nice Theory but when he takes the potion and his bad nature side comes out to his shock he's far more evil than he ever dared believe he was that's the problem and he says in the narrative in the book he says I knew myself at the first breath of this new life to be more wicked tenfold more wicked

than I had thought and the thought braced and delighted me like wine this being Edward Hyde was inherently malign his Every Act and thought centered on self his Every Act act and thought centered on the self why is his bad side named Edward Hyde do you know why first of all because he was hideous it's the hideousness but also because he was hidden he was hidden even from Dr Jackal had no idea he was this evil and so when Edward Hyde here's how the narrative goes on Edward Hyde comes out he's far more evil than

Dr Jackal ever thought he would be and he starts doing terrible things including murder and finally uh we'll get back to second Dr jaal says I'm going to try to stop it then I'm going to try to repress this evil side but Edward Hyde more and more gets the upper hand and more and more uh uh is in control and when Dr Jackal realizes he's about to lose complete control and not even become Dr Jackal anymore but Lo permanently become Edward Hyde he kills himself very very disturbing narrative but right out of Romans 7 because

Romans 7 is saying and what and what Robert Le Stevenson are saying are the same thing and that is number one even the best people even the most brilliant and decent Dr jackals were Apostle Paul's see even the best people have at the core of their being a hideousness an evil a capacity for incredible self-centeredness because notice Robert Le Stevenson actually in a very biblical way defines what was so hideous about Hyde absolute centering of every thought on the self and it's that self-absorption and that self-centeredness and it's me me and my needs and my

interests and my desires that incredible ability to Center on the self is what leads to the evil so even in the very best people there's a core of evil a capacity for doing terrible things Way Beyond what you believe it to be far greater far worse than you ever imagine it's hidden from you but sometimes there are certain situations that act as a potion stress Temptation marriage to difficult [Music] person and the real wickedness the real capacity for evil that incredible hideousness that enormous almost endless capacity for self-centeredness self-absorption self-will self-indulgence comes out and then

you're dead do you believe this that the very best person is capable of of such awfulness and that you almost certainly no matter what we're being taught here is you're assessment of your own capacity for evil and sin is way too small way too small sufan Stevens he's an indie rock artist some of you know has a song called John Wayne gasy it's a song about a serial killer John wi gasu killed 30 people and hid them under the floorboards of his house and sufan sings about this serial killer and the last two lines of

the song are absolutely astounding in fact even the Village Voice was blown away by the art critic the music critic there because at the very very end he's singing about this serial killer how awful what a terrible person incredible serial killer and the very last lines go like this but in my best behavior I am really just like him look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid he says look beneath the floorboards of my life and you will see the capacity to do terrible things do you believe that do you really do you

believe what Stevenson is saying what sufan Stevens is saying Robert Lewis Stevenson what Paul is saying that in you you've got a capacity for hideousness and selfishness and evil Way Beyond what you really think you're capable of but at some point you might find some situation bringing it out and then you're dead so if that's the case and it's important to understand and that is the case what do we do about it point two the main solution that most people try to bring to bear on it Paul says doesn't work what is that it has

to do with the moral law now when we see in here Paul talking about turning to the law and turning to the moral law he's thinking of the Mosaic law he's a Jew and he's thinking about the Ten Commandments in the Mosaic law but what he says here really fits it really really holds true across all the cultures at the very end of Cs Lewis's book the abolition of man he has an appendix which is incredibly valuable and in that appendix he Compares uh the uh the moral law of of Confucianism and Hinduism and Buddhism

and Islam and Christianity and and and Judaism and he shows a remarkable convergence and a remarkable consensus about what the basic requirements that God has uh of us what the basic requirements are of a moral life and the moral law therefore we do understand we do know what it is and across all of the cultures and across all of the religions what most people do about the fact that we have a bad nature is we take the moral law and with an enormous exercise of willpower we apply that moral law to our bad nature in

other words we try to wipe out our hide with our Jackal we try to uh deal with our Edward hide by just in being incredibly jeal incredibly good incredibly obedient we form moral communities in which we read the mor moral law and uh every week and we we applaud it and we obey it and we instruct our children in it and we say by applying the moral law of God to people's lives that is how we're going to overcome our hideousness that selfishness that Pride that self-centeredness that destroys people that's how we're going to overcome

it and Paul says it won't work in fact Paul says in verse 5 something absolutely amazing look at verse 5 he says while we were in the flesh our sinful p passs aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death aroused by the law our sinful passions aroused by the law Paul says the law has a greenhouse effect on what's wrong with us it doesn't shrivel it it aggravates it it prospers it it grows it you say what now how could that be he's saying that applying the law of

God through willpower just insisting and bringing the law of God to bear on somebody's life and saying this is what you have to do this is what you have to do this is what you have to do doesn't make you a better person it makes you worse it brings out it aggravates what's wrong with you how could that be well at one level nobody talks about this better than St Augustine by the way St Augustine in his famous book uh the confessions reflects on an incident in his youth in his youth at one point he

broke into a private Orchard and stole some pears off a tree that weren't his of course and later on he reflected theologically and very profoundly actually on that incident and he thought back on it he said why did I steal the pears a I wasn't hungry B if I was hungry I would I didn't like pears you after he stole the pears he threw them to pigs he didn't he didn't even like pears but he went and stole the pears so I said why did I steal the pears I didn't even like pears and the

answer is I stole the pears because somebody told me that they were forbidden in other words someone says Thou shalt not take those pairs and he says until someone said Thou shalt not I had no interest in the pairs but once they said don't take those pairs I wanted them there is something about the heart deep inside the heart there's an aspect of our hideousness of our self-centeredness of that self-absorption that said says nobody tells me how to live now there's a lot of people that that is right on the surface of your life because

there's a lot of people who walk around talking like that all the time nobody tells me how to live my life you see but the rest of us a lot of us oh we don't say like we're very nice but deep inside us deep inside you Mr and M jackals is a a a a part of our heart that absolutely hates being told how to live that's part of what's wrong with us and when you bring the moral law to bear on a child or bring the moral law to bear on people bring the moral

law to bear on people instead of it shriveling up that aspect of our beings it actually aggravates it and people do things because they're forbidden but there's more to it than that how does the Law act as a greenhouse uh on what's wrong with this Paul actually says in verses 8 and nine uh or Paul actually gives us a little autobiographical sketch of how he moved from being a legalistic Pharisee into being a Christian and it's not an easy sketch to grasp it's very very sketchy well he says I was alive apart from the law

but then one of the Ten Commandments Thou shalt not covet came home and slew me what's that mean now here's what I think it means Paul was saying I was alive now what does that mean I was spiritually alive what does it mean well you know we talk talk about a a team is still alive if it's in the running for the pennant you know and what Paul was saying is when he looked at his life he was a Pharisee he was a pretty good person and he felt like I'm in the running I'm alive

spiritually alive I'm a pretty good person I've got a real chance to be saved I got a real chance to get to heaven I got a real chance for God's blessing I'm really good and the reason he felt alive and like a good person was because he tended to look at the law of God uh the way most of us do and that is he read The Ten Commandments in terms of external behavior only so he would go down the list and he could tick it off he said okay I don't bow down to any

statues okay that's good I uh I call my mother and father once a week from New York City and uh so I'm I'm honoring my parents okay and I I'm not committing adultery and I'm not stealing and I don't kill anybody at least I haven't killed anybody really important you know that's Paul now I killed a few Christians but they had it coming and so he goes down he was alive he said hey I you know I went as long as he was looking at the law in terms of external Behavior he said hey I'm

I'm okay but then the tenth commandment and the problem with the tenth commandment is there's no way to read it uh in terms of behavior it's about motives it's about your heart it's about your intentions Thou shalt not covet you know what the opposite of coveting is contentment and he realized it was saying that if you really love God if you really were resting in God if you really had God then you would you you the Commandment is Thou shalt love God enough to be content but when he looked inside his heart he saw all

kinds of coveting he saw all kinds of stuff he saw he saw anger because he was killing people who didn't agree with him you know he was persecuting the church he saw Fury and self-righteousness and envy and and uh comparing himself to other people he he he saw the inside he was a mess and he says it slew me and you know what that means I realized I was as spiritually dead as the Lawless people that underneath all my morality and underneath all my goodness I realized that the law was actually creating something inside it

was creating all this insecurity creating all of this problem creating all this anger creating all this en Envy what is he talking about why would he say I'm just as lost I'm just as dead spiritually as the immoral people out there Robert Lewis Stevenson in Jackal Hyde has a FAS fasinating passage I when I read it I was I was blown away by it and I realized it never comes out in any of the kind of horror you know films and plays and Things based on the story when Dr Jackal realized that Edward Hyde was

killing people he made a resolution what first of all he said no more potion okay I'm not taking that again I'm never going to take the potion because that's how you became Edward Hyde so I'm not taking the potion and secondly I'm going to live such a good life I'm going to be more good more moral more generous more kind more upright than I've ever been than anyone's ever been and I'm going to with an act of my will see I'm going to obey the moral law and I'm going to actually squeeze out and repress

Edward Hyde so he never shows up again and he does a very good job but we're told this here's the passage he says I resolved in my future conduct to redeem the past and my resolve was fruitful you know how earnestly in the last few months of this last year I labored to relieve suffering you know how I lived you know how much was done for other people but on one fine clear January day I was sitting in the sun in Regent Park and I reflected and smiled comparing myself with other men comparing my Act

of Goodwill with the lazy cruelty of their neglect of their fellow man and at the very moment of that vain glorious thought a qualm came over me a horrid nausea and Dreadful shuttering and I looked down and I was once more Edward Hyde without the potion and see this is this is the turning point this is the beginning of the end because when he became Edward Hyde without the potion he knew he was cooked but why would he have become Edward Hyde without the potion and the answer is not in spite of his goodness but

because of his goodness did you hear the what what he said you hear what the passage said it was as he was thinking about how much better he was than everyone else as he was thinking about how how other people are cool other people are living selfish lives and I'm not I'm living a very good life I'm caring about everybody at that moment he became Edward H without the potion why he became Edward Hyde through his goodness not in spite of his goodness why because there's two ways to be self-centered you know one is by

being very bad and Breaking All the Rules but the other is by being very good and becoming a self-righteous Pharisee there's two ways to be your own Savior and Lord rather than God and trample on other people one is by saying I'm going to live my own life nobody tells me how to live my life I'm going to break all the moral laws of I want so that's being your own God right but see if you say I'm going to be so good that God's going to have to bless me and take me to Heaven

you're being your own savior right you're not letting God be your savior and even though there's all kinds of moral behavior in your life inside you are filled with self-righteousness and cruelty and bigotry and you're miserable because you're always comparing yourself to other people and you never are sure you're good enough see and what does that mean it means that you can't deal with your hideousness you can't deal with that self-centeredness you can't deal with that self-absorption by trying to be a good person and by just bringing the moral law to bear so that you

can say now I'm going to be a really really good person that can just make you worse you don't deal with your hideousness with an act of the will you need a complete transformation of the very motives of your heart or you're dead so that's our problem and that's what will not solve our problem but what will not just application of the will to the moral law not just application of the moral law to your heart through an act of the will what will what will really solve it and the answer is up in verses

1 to 1 to 7 the very beginning of this passage is kind of weird when you first read through it did you notice that you really couldn't figure out what was going on in the beginning and as time went on you sort of figured it out that first part is very weird and here's why Paul is dealing with a question he actually poses it in verse 7 he says okay then considering all that we've been talking about that the law doesn't really sanctify us the law doesn't really make us any better the you know the

law of anything is a greenhouse effect on what's wrong with us then he says What then shall we say that the law is bad that the law is sin shall we just throw the law out and say oh when you're a Christian you don't have to listen to the law is that what he's saying no he says by no means he says if it wasn't for the law I wouldn't know what's wrong with me I wouldn't know how I should live and so every indication in verse seven is as a Christian you should follow the

law you do need to obey it you do need to to let it sift through you and and and guide you as to how you should live your life you do but then what is he saying we shouldn't do and that is he's saying in verses 1 to4 especially we should obey the law we should follow the law but we mustn't be married to the law married to the law now you miss that unless you read rather carefully and the metaphor is a little bit odd in verse 1 2 and 3 he's talking about a

woman who's married and he is saying well you know if you're married and there's a death if you're married and one of the spouses dies you're free to remarry marriage is binding he says and you just can't go off and do anything you want but if there's a death see if one spouse dies then the other spouse is free to remarry right that's what he's saying in two verses 1 and two and three then he suddenly shows what the metaphors all about in verse four he says so you must die to the law to belong

to another and then what he means by that is up to this point we're married to the law we're in the arms of the law what in the world would that mean why would he talk about being married spiritually speaking to the law of God how does what does it mean to be married to the law of God well marriage think about it when you first become married uh not only does your entire life revolve around around your spouse but so does your self-image and self- program I mean here's what I mean by that your

self- appreciation your self-regard your self- understanding is massively reprogrammed by your spouse uh your your self-image is the product of what everybody says about you you know your parents have said things about you your siblings have said things about you your friends your parents uh your teachers your coaches people have been saying things about you all your life and they say you're good they say you're bad they and you know you you you cull out of that a feeling of who you are what you're good at what you're bad at but when you get married

because of the power of the relationship of marriage you can look into the face of your spouse and your spouse can overturn what everybody saying about you in the face of your spouse you can have your entire self-image reprogrammed in other words if everybody calls you ugly but your spouse looks at you and says you're beautiful you feel beautiful your spouse has that kind of power to massively reprogram your self- understanding your self-image your self-worth what does it mean to be married to the law it's it's not just you follow the law to please God

that's fine you have to do that or you follow the law in order to uh serve your neighbor that's fine you have to do that to be married to the law means you're getting your very self from your performance you're looking into the face of the law and you're saying because I'm good because I'm obedient OB because I'm moral because I'm religious because I read the Bible because I pray because I do all these good things now I know I'm a good person that Pro you're trying to prove yourself to God or to other people

or to yourself by your moral performance and if that's the case you're married to the law and verse six goes beyond that and says you're a captive to the law you're a slave to the law you know why because the dominant motive in your life is fear you may be incredibly good you may be incredibly moral but the Domin motive the dominant motivational structure of the heart is fear so for example if you're married to the law and you're a very good person you tell the truth do you not you tell the truth you don't

lie why do you tell the truth because you're scared you tell the truth because you're scared God will get you he'll condemn you he'll send you to hell you're well you're afraid or maybe you went to Harvard Law School and you took an ethics course and you're scared because it'll ruin your profits but see everybody in this culture everybody in this culture whether it's inside the church or outside the church gets you to be good through fear you don't want to be like those awful people you don't want people to find out you don't want

uh you know to be caught you don't want God to uh punish you fear fear fear and you know what if you are therefore trying to in a sense earn your salvation earn your self image through your performance you're driven inside you're always comparing comparing yourself to other people you're crushed by criticism you're Furious and condescending toward people who don't have your beliefs you can't handle failure and if you try to deal with your fear and fear is basically self-absorption you know what fear is fear is thinking of yourself fear is what about me what

about me what about me how am I doing how am I looking how are people treating me fear is incredibly self-absorbed and you cannot deal therefore with self-absorption and fear by saying I'm going to be really good and then God will have to bless me and people will really see that I'm a good person and it just makes it worse oh wretched people that we are who will deliver us then from this body of death thanks be verse four says you can die to the law that you belong to another who you need to become

the spiritual spouses you need to have someone else's love you need to have someone else's face that you're looking into in order to find find out who you are you die according to verse 4 to the law and you belong to another through the body of Jesus Christ through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross see at the end of Jackal hide Jackal kills himself and you know why because Justice is at the door Edward Hyde had murdered people but he was never having to pay for his sins because the police couldn't find him

because he kept becoming dror Jackal but when Jackal realized that he was becoming Hyde permanently he realized that he was going to to be caught by the police he was going to have to pay for his sins Judgment day was at hand so he killed himself anyway and it's quite a metaphor is it not for judgment no matter how hard you hide no matter how often you put it off eventually your sins will find you out there will be a judgment day your hideousness will be revealed and there's nothing you can do to stop it

Judgment Day Will Come well wait a minute there is something Isaiah 52 and 53 talk about Jesus Christ The Suffering servant who comes to save us and this is what it says about him they were appalled at him his appearance was disfigured beyond that of a man and his form marred Beyond human likeness he had no beauty or Majesty to attract us to him nothing in his appearance that we should desire him he was despised and rejected by men like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not but

he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed did you hear this we were appalled at him he was so hideous we couldn't look upon him we turned our faces from him what does it mean when 2 Corinthians 5:21 said God made him sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him God made him sin treated him as Pure Evil Jesus Christ became the Hideous one and he took our judgment day

and he died for us while we were hideous Ephesians 5 husbands love your wives as Christ loved us and gave himself for us that he could present us to himself pure beautiful without spot or blemish the only thing that is going to silence that self-centeredness that fear at the center of your life that black hole that's making your life miserable and everybody else's that says oh my gosh oh my gosh my my gosh me me me me I've got to have this I've got to do that you know there's a moral version of that I'm

afraid that God's going to get me so I better be good and there's an mrl version of that I'm afraid that God's going to oppress me so I got to live the way I want to live but only Jesus Christ as your new Heavenly spouse who has given himself for you unconditionally when you were hideous to make you beautiful only Jesus Christ looking at you in the face and saying I love you I love you unconditionally I love you only that if you look in his face and see that only that will destroy eventually the

fear in this in the heart of your your being that is just driving you into the ground that fear I've got to do this I've got to do that Jesus Christ says I got a new motive for you gratitude security and love tell the truth to resemble me and to please me and to Delight me and to become like me out of GRA gratitude not because it you'll be condemned because now there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because of what he did tell the truth give your money to the poor out of

love out of joy out of gratitude and that's the only motivation that won't drive you into the ground let the spousal love of Jesus Christ completely reconfigure the motivational structures of your heart lay your deadly doing down down at jesus' feet stand in him and him alone gloriously complete let us pray thank you Father for uh giving us this very dark message it's a dark chapter but it ends on a note of Joy oh Wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death thanks be to Jesus Christ through him we

die to our old spouse the law and die to the fear because of your reassurance and we look into the face of our new Heavenly spouse and we hear him say I love you and I died for you and now there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and we ask that you would help us apply this to our own lives through your Holy Spirit we ask it in Jesus name amen [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music]