Some of you know of Tim Keller. I expect I’ve quoted him at some point in these writings. I put him up there with C.S. Lewis, Dallas Willard and a handful of others as especially wise and able to communicate complex concepts in relatively simple language.

I just finished reading a chapter in his most recent book, Making Sense of God, the concluding little section of that chapter entitled, “The Humble Will be Exalted.” It struck me that it fits in with this theme I’m exploring right now.

Keller writes,

Jesus contrasted the ordinary, exclusionary identify with that of a life based on grace. He told a parable “to some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else.” (Luke 18:9). There were “two men who went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” Tax collectors were despised in society as greedy and as collaborators with the Roman imperial power.

Jesus continues, “The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “(Luke 18:10-13).

Keller: Here is one identity based on moral self-effort and entailing exclusion to strengthen itself. The other man is seeking a wholly different route, one that acknowledges sin and need but also the reality of God’s free marcy and grace. Jesus’s conclusion: “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14).

Keller: If you believe in Jesus’s message, you believe in truth, but not a truth that leads to exclusion. Many voices argue that it is exclusionary to claim that you have the truth, but as we have seen, that view itself sets up the dichotomy with you as the heroically tolerant and others as villainously or pathetically bigoted. You cannot avoid truth claims and binaries. The real issue is, then, which kind of truth – and which kind of identify that the truth produces – leads you to embrace people who are deeply different from you? Which truth claims lead you to scorn people who oppose you as fools? Which truth claims lead to community? Which truth claims both humble and affirm you so that you’re not afraid of people who are different than you are, nor can you despise them? If I build my identity on what Jesus Christ did for me and the fact I have an everlasting name in him by grace, I can’t, on the one hand, feel superior to anybody, nor do I have to fear anybody else. I don’t have to compare myself with them at all. My identity is based on somebody who was excluded for me, who was cast out for me, who loved his enemies, and that is going to turn me into someone who embraces the Different. (My bold emphasis)

Keller concludes: Christians, of course, so often fail to realize and live out of the resources they have. But the world needs millions of people who have the capacity to do what the Gospel compels and empowers us to do.

For the longest time, I thought I had a somewhat accurate picture of the Gospel message. I realize I did not even have the most basic clue. It is a radical view of reality, yet the most accurate depiction I’ve ever encountered … by leaps and bounds. Nothing else comes close to the fullness of both its message and challenge. As I try to come to grips with the polarizing forces surrounding us, I remind myself of truths expressed in Jesus’s teaching above and in the commentary by those like Tim Keller.