Here’s how Keller runs it.
from flickr by blakophoto
Quoting Luther’s Treatise on Good Works, Keller says that any breach of the last 9 commandments – that is, any sin – is really at the same time a breach of the first commandment. How? Because any sin is done either out of pride or fear, which is the having of another god before the Lord. In the case of pride, that god is oneself; in the case of of fear, that god is some other created thing. Either way, it is breaching the first commandment.
Of course, for Luther, the first commandment is all about faith. To have no other gods before the Lord is an entrusting of oneself to the living and true God in faith. And so sanctification is by faith in this sense: as I enact the reality that I no longer live out my life in any area in either fear or pride (which are the two forms of idolatry) – that is, as I have only one God, and trust him – so I will sin less and less.
Repentance, therefore, is first and foremost about re-directing trust to where it belongs, and so sanctification is by faith.
Keller gives some fabulous examples of how to preach this, which I’ll listen to today. But for now, has anyone adopted this kind of thing as a method of approaching the question of application in preaching?
Andrew,
Where are these Keller talks available? What are the exact titles of the talks? Did you download them from the Redeemer Presbyterian Website?
They’re on iTUnesU, go to the Universities tab, and then reformed theological seminary, and the RTS Seminars and lecture series and then it’s Preaching Christ in a Postmodern world – Clowney does Expounding Christ, Keller does Applying Christ
I love Luther’s comment where he says “Just pick one or two of the commandments and work on them… that’ll last you an entire lifetime…”
It made me think about what is actually expected in the sanctified life.
I listened to the entire series on preaching, not just the Keller stuff and they were gold. Being as it is that I don’t get to preach that much as yet I haven’t had the chance to put into practice much of the Keller stuff. Likewise there is a lot there, so digesting it to the point where it comes out well in sermons is going to take some time. Having said that, I think the stuff on idolatry is incredibly helpful and helps you get behind why people sin and how you can call them to repentance and not in the usual Pharisaical bootstrap fashion.
It also means that you can preach to both Christians and non-Christians at the same time, because they both have similar idols and similarly need to repent. For the Christian it is seeing Christ again and loving him all the more, for the non-Christian it may be coming to him for the first time. Interestingly enough idolatry was Israel’s big problem as well. I have also read some extremely helpful stuff on this subject in “The Mission of God” by Chris Wright.
I seem to remember you mentioning something similar to Keller several years ago, where you said something to the effect that the way to not sin is to love God more than you love your sin. Or perhaps it was that you need to desire obeying God more than you desire sinning. Anyway, as you can see it is getting close to Keller.
Back onto sermon application, I looked at idolatry in a sermon on identity looking at Mark 8.34-7 last year before I heard the Keller stuff. The application here was finding your identity in Christ rather than other things, which are idols, because only he can give you real and lasting identity. I also referred to Psalm 115 and Isaiah 44. I particularly love verse 20
“He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, ‘Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?’”
In short, it is good stuff, but I haven’t processed it all yet, and I defer to the wisdom of my elders.
Hi Andrew,
I found the lecture notes to these talks.
They can be found at http://thebluefish.org/2008/09/keller-clowney-preaching-christ-to.html
All 189 pages.
Very helpful.
Richard,
thanks for that – sensational!
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