Book Notes: King’s Cross by Tim Keller

One of the assignments in my second semester of preaching at Dallas Seminary was to create an outline of how I would preach through the gospel of Mark.  We were instructed to break down the book into passages for sermons and to develop the key theological principle for each passage.  In 2009, I took that preliminary work and developed it into one of my early sermon series in the life of our church – a series called Disciple walking through every verse in the gospel of Mark. Over the course of 27 weeks, I learned how to preach through a longer book of the Bible with passion and clarity.

I’ve read all of Tim Keller’s published books and many of his unpublished articles, but until King’s Cross, I had never read one of his works on a topic that I had personally studied so extensively.  King’s Cross is a reworking of Keller’s expositional material from the gospel of Mark.  Thanks to the hard work of Keller and his editors, the book doesn’t read as a collection of sermons, but rather as one coherent story about the life and ministry of Jesus.  The title to the book comes from the book’s construction: the first half is about Jesus’ identity as the true, eternal, divine King and the second half is about Jesus’ purpose in coming – his death for sin and resurrection from the grave.

Like Keller’s other works, King’s Cross is clear, insightful, personally challenging, and actually easy to read.  Coming in at 230 pages, the book combines good exegetical work and orthodox theology with illustrations from literature, contemporary news, art, church history, and other writers.  One of Keller’s hallmarks is clearly showing how each passage of Scripture illuminates and connects to the metanarrative of the Bible – the gospel of Jesus.  You would be surprised how easy it is to preach the life of Jesus in a moralistic way – “Jesus did this so we should do this” kind of exhortations.  But Keller keeps the big picture in view throughout the gospel of Mark, and shows us the shadows of the cross and eternal redemption in every passage.  By doing this, Keller challenges us to read familiar passages anew.  Here were a few of his thoughts that I found compelling:

The essence of other religions is advice; Christianity is essentially news.  Other religions say, “this is what you have to do in order to connect to God forever; this is how you have to live in order to earn your way to God.”  But the gospel says, “This is what has been done in history.  This is how Jesus lived and died to earn the way to God for you.”  Christianity is completely different.  It’s joyful news. (pg 15)

If you say, “I’ll obey you, Jesus if my career thrives, if my health is good, if family is together,” then the thing that’s on the other side of that if is your real master, your real goal.  But Jesus will not be a means to an end; he will not be used. (pg 19)

Jesus didn’t just say that the Son of Man would suffer; he said that the Son of Man must suffer.  Jesus must suffer, must be rejected, must be killed, must be resurrected.  This is one of the most significant words in the story of the world, and it’s a scary word.  What Jesus said was not, “I’ve come to die” but “I have to die.  It’s absolutely necessary that I die.” (pg 97)

Moses had reflected the glory of God as the moon reflects the light of the sun.  But Jesus produces the unsurpassable glory of God; it emanates from Him.  Jesus does not point to the glory of God as Elijah, Moses, and every other prophet had done; Jesus is the glory of God in human form. (pg 113)

If you want to be a Christian, of course you’ll repent of your sins.  But after you’ve repented of your sins you’ll have to repent of how you have used the good things in your life to fill the place where God should be. (pg 132)

Jesus was forsaken by God so that we would never have to be.  The judgment that should have fallen on us fell instead on Jesus. (pg 202)

The gospel is the ultimate story that shows victory coming out of defeat, strength coming out of weakness, life coming out of death, rescue from abandonment.  And because it is a true story, it gives us hope because we know life is really like that.  It can be your story as well.  God made you to love Him supremely, but He lost you.  He returned to get you back, but it took the cross to do it.  He absorbed your darkness so that one day you can finally and dazzlingly become your true self and take your seat at his eternal feast. (pg 230)

There are few authors that I read and speakers that I listen to that both know how to communicate creatively and clearly and stir my heart for Jesus.  In King’s Cross, Tim Keller shows that he is a good communicator – he can craft a great sentence and definitely turn a creative phrase.  But more importantly, he shows that he is a good pastor.  How does he show that?  By stirring my love and devotion to Jesus Christ, our Great God and Savior.  Thank you Jesus for coming to our broken earth in humility and grace to sacrifice your life and conquer death.  And thank you Jesus for coming into my broken life with persistent love and abounding grace to bring me eternally into your Kingdom and the presence of Your Father.