I’m worse sinner than
dared imagine and more loved
than ever dared hope
In the New York Times Opinion Piece / Obit titled, Tim Keller Taught Me About Joy, by David Brooks, Mr. Brooks writes about Mr. Keller:
On the cross, Tim wrote, Jesus was “putting himself into our lives — our misery, our mortality, so we could be brought into his life, his joy and immortality.”
He enjoyed repeating the saying “Cheer up! You’re a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine and you’re more loved than you ever dared hope.”
Another online source explained that last line this way.
The centerpiece and underpinning of Keller’s ministry was his teaching of the doctrine of the gospel, emphasizing the doctrines of total depravity, unmerited grace and substitutionary atonement. This teaching is summarized in his oft-used explanation, “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.“
Mr. Brooks writes that:
He didn’t fight a culture war against that Manhattan world.
His focus was not on politics but on “our own disordered hearts, wracked by inordinate desires for things that control us, that lead us to feel superior and exclude those without them, that fail to satisfy us even when we get them.”
Tim’s happy and generous manner was based on the conviction that we are born wired to seek delight, and we can find it. “
Anybody who has tasted the reality of God knows anything is worth losing for this,”
Tim preached, “and nothing is worth keeping if I’m going to lose this.”
I have written before that I know salvation is to be worked out with fear and trembling.
As I am a worse sinner than I ever dared imagine, how could it be otherwise?
At the same time, bold will I approach the throne of grace through the gift OF grace through Jesus.
As I am more loved than I ever dared hope, how could it be otherwise.
Nothing is else is worth keeping.
I haven’t been much aware of Tim Keller.
Maybe I should have been.
No Haiku For You 