The Lord took another one of his faithful servants all too soon. We all know time is a mist and passes more swiftly than we have the ability to convey or comprehend, but that doesn’t make the end of it any easier to convey or comprehend, or accept, but we have no choice. Death sooner or later comes for us all, and all of us feel it comes way too soon no matter when it comes, at one or one hundred-and-one. As Christians, though, our encounter with the Grim Reaper, for us and the ones we care about, is different than those who don’t trust Christ. As the Apostle Paul says in I Thessalonians 4:
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Paul gives us further Christian perspective in Philippians 1 on this most unpleasant and unnatural fact of life when he tells us about his own inevitable coming encounter with death:
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.
How many of us can say, honestly, we are “torn between the two.” I’ll confess, I’m not terribly torn, although I pray to learn how to be as that encounter comes ever closer. When contemplating my own departure, my “falling asleep,” I always go to Jesus’ words to Martha at the tomb of her brother Lazarus whom Jesus would bring back to life only moments after he said these words (John 11):
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
I do! The word for believe in Greek is trust, and trust requires faith. All human beings live by faith, or trust in some things and some ones, and it’s a requirement for daily existence for finite human beings. For ultimate things, as well as our everyday mundane life, Christians trust in our Almighty sovereign Creator God, and that makes all the hardness a little less hard.
Speaking of trust, I often think of the father in Mark 9 whose son was possessed by an evil spirit when he asked Jesus if he could do anything to help heal his son. Jesus’ response was priceless and speaks to our natural lack of trust in God’s almighty power on behalf of his people: “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” I love how Jesus gently rebukes him, although it’s impossible to know the tone of the rebuke when he gave it. He’s basically saying, you can trust me! If you do, anything is possible. Yet the man knows his weakness and with tears pleads with Jesus (in the poetic King James version): “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” I love that! It’s so hard to trust, but I so badly want to trust!
For those who know me, I attended Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia where I met my future wife, Sarah. It so happens that Tim Keller was a professor there at the time, and prior to our getting married he was our premarital counselor. I still remember, and recite to others, little gems of marital wisdom he gave us in those sessions. The most common and often repeated by me are the very first words he spoke to us after we sat down for our first session: The only sinner bigger than the one you’re marrying is you! That’s a hard one to forget because it is so obviously true. How many marriages have failed because one spouse thinks the other is the bigger sinner? A lot!
But it isn’t just that personal connection that makes Keller’s life special to us. His theological and apologetics teaching over the years has been a profound help in us maturing in our Reformed faith. It’s a testimony to his vision and persistence that he could go into the heart of the secular Christian hating Gotham and build not only a successful church (he preferred the word fruitful), but a world-wide church planting movement. I’ll never forget visiting New York City for a business trip in 2016 and visiting one of his churches. I was hoping to see him, but Redeemer Presbyterian didn’t advertise which church he would be preaching at, so I attended one closest to my hotel. The sermon by another pastor on the righteousness of God by faith in Romans 3 brought me to tears and the amazing depth of God’s grace for me. It didn’t surprise me coming from a Keller led church because the gospel of God’s good news of unmerited favor in Christ was his north star. Even though I had a problem with his thinking and writing on political and cultural engagement in recent years, he will be sorely missed.
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