One of my favorite Christian writers and thought provokers went home to Jesus recently. Pastor/Author Tim Keller had an amazing ability to synthesize deep and powerful thoughts into a couple of profound sentences. His writings had a deep impact on my grace journey. Tim Keller had the gift of challenging his readers to examine their walk with Jesus honestly. For example, the idea of justice in our culture is constantly debated. Christians often wonder how it should look and how we should respond to the concept. Keller made a pretty simple and convincing argument that Christians should go toward justice consistently and naturally because of one word.

Grace.

“If a person has grasped the meaning of God’s grace in his heart, he will do justice. If he doesn’t live justly, then he may say with his lips that he is grateful for God’s grace, but in his heart he is far from him. If he doesn’t care about the poor, it reveals that at best he doesn’t understand the grace he has experienced, and at worst he has not really encountered the saving mercy of God. Grace should make you just.”

Amen and maybe ouch. Comprehending the depth of God’s gift of grace should result in joyful service to others. And Tim Keller also impacted me with this analysis of how Jesus spent His time.

“While clearly Jesus was preaching the good news to all, he showed throughout his ministry the particular interest in the poor and the downtrodden that God has always had. Jesus, in his incarnation, “moved in” with the poor. He lived with, ate with, and associated with the socially ostracized (Matt 9:13).”

We can talk about the importance of sharing the Gospel with all people but our investment in the lives of others outside of our comfort zone reveals a lot. That last sentence was directed at someone who looks a lot like me.

Tim Keller knew that apart from a miracle of healing that his cancer diagnosis would take him home soon. This is another example of how he differentiates the hope of Christianity from other philosophical approaches.

“While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy.”

No matter what the current circumstances might look like followers of Jesus believe in the coming joy. His health took a major downturn recently and his last public words were incredibly powerful as he faced his death.

“There is no downside for me leaving…”

That may sound crazy to some readers and particularly those who do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. He spent his life and ministry teaching and preaching the power of that event.

“But resurrection is not just consolation — it is restoration. We get it all back — the love, the loved ones, the goods, the beauties of this life — but in new, unimaginable degrees of glory and joy and strength.”

If you truly believe that there is no downside to leaving for a follower of Christ. Of course there is sadness to leave loved ones and to miss events here on earth. But the hope of eternal restoration and joy puts that in glorious perspective.

Tim Keller wrote a lot about where you find your identity and how we often make success and acquiring things an idol. I love how he pointed out that leaving an impact is not about money, power, or fame. You leave a legacy by serving God faithfully.

“Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavors, even the best, will come to naught…Unless there is God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever.”

Tim Keller believed with all of his heart that there is a True Reality in the Gospel message. So do I. How encouraging to believe that every simple deed of kindness and service done in the leading of the Holy Spirit will matter forever. That is leaving a legacy!

In Ephesians chapter 2 Paul writes about God’s plan for you and me to have that eternal impact if we serve gratefully out of His grace. He already has the plan ready to rock. We just need to be willing to jump on the grace train.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

I rejoice today that every small thing I do in response to God’s calling can matter forever.