This morning I reviewed Tim Keller’s new book?Galatians For You? [Galatians for You]. I also wanted to share this quote from the book which is a very useful way for us to understand the four different types of people in the world. Here’s what Keller says:
It’s helpful to see that there are four types of people in the world:
- Obedience to the law.
- Trust in the law These people are subject to the law and are generally very presumptuous.
- Hypocritical and feel superior.
- Outwardly they are very sure that they are fine with God.
- But deep down they carry a lot of insecurity.
- Because no one can really be sure to live up to it.
- This makes them irritable and sensitive to criticism and devastated when their prayers are not answered.
- This includes members of other religions.
- But here I think mainly of people who go to church.
- These people have much in common with the Pharisees of Jesus’ time.
Disobedience to the law, trust in the law These people have a strong religious awareness of the works of justice, but they do not live according to their conscience, so they are more humble and tolerant of others than the “piseos”. above, but they are also much more driven by guilt, subject to mood swings and sometimes very frightened by religious issues. Some of these people may go to church, but they are on the periphery because of their low spiritual self-esteem. Estimated.
Disobedience to the law, not trust in the law These are the people who rejected the concept of God’s law. They are secular or relativistic intellectuals or have a very vague spirituality. They largely choose their own moral standards and insist on complying with them. Paul, in Romans 1:18-20, says that at the subconscious level, they know that there is a God to whom they must obey. These people are generally happy and more tolerant than any of the previous groups. But there is usually a strong and liberal sense of complacency. They attain their own salvation feeling superior to others. It is simply a generally less obvious form of complacency.
Obeying the law, not trusting in the law These are Christians who understand the gospel and live in their freedom; they obey God’s law with gratitude and joy that derives from the knowledge of their ancestry and the freedom of fear and selfishness that false idols had begat. they are more tolerant than number 3, friendlier than number 1 and safer than number 2, but most Christians have trouble living the number 4 and tend to see the world as the first, second and even third persons. if they do this, they become spiritually impoverished.
By Tim Challies. © Tim Challies, 2002-2013. All rights are reserved. Original: There are four types of people in the world
Translation: Let’s go back to the gospel. Original: Tim Challies? There are four types of people in the world.
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