Making Sense of God: Finding God in the Modern World

by Timothy J. Keller

We see that our gods have clay feet, and so we must hack away at them in order to save ourselves,

But not everyone can do this because many of us need the lie in order to live.

what is it that we want when we elevate the love partner to the position of God? We want redemption—nothing less.

Needless to say, human partners cannot do this.”39

The Western understanding of identity formation is a crushing burden, both for individuals and society as a whole.

“This view,” argues Taylor, reduces relationships and community to things “purely instrumental in their significance.”

in the modern approach, you bestow significance on yourself, then your individual interests are more important than any social tie.

Human communities become thinned out into “lifestyle enclaves” or “social networks” in which people connect, flexibly and transiently, only to people like themselves.

under the conditions of the modern, individualistic self, social ties and institutions are eroding, marriage and family are weakening, society is fragmenting into warring factions, and economic inequality is growing.43

Isak Dinesen, in Out of Africa,

“Pride is faith in the idea God had, when he made us.”

In other words, the believer in God takes hold of the divine design and calling and finds him- or herself in it, just “as the good citizen finds his happiness in the fulfillment of duty to the community.”

Dinesen

three paths toward identity,

First there are those looking outward. These are the traditional people who look to their duty and role i...

those looking ...

Then there are those who look inward.

those who look inward.

they must rely on competition and shifting fashions to...

a third option—there

something neither traditional nor modern.

What if we were created by a personal God and given a personal mission and calling? Then neither does the individual take precedence over the group (which can lead to social fragmentation), nor does the community take precedence over the individual (which can lead to oppression). What matters is ...

Kierke...

the secular mentality consists simply of such men who, so to speak, mortgage ...

secular mentality...

men who, so to speak, mortgage themselves...

Spiritually speaking, they have no self,

Both the traditional and modern “selves” are inherently insecure.

Kierkegaard looks to a different way to gain a self,

not based on our performance, one based not on the desires of either the individual or the community but on God.

who will be that ultimate source of recognition?

there has to be somebody whom you adore who adores you.

The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.

no human love can meet these standards.

Only the unconditional love of God will do.

Here Paul says, “I don’t care what you or any organized social structure thinks of me,” rejecting traditional identity, yet then, remarkably, he says he doesn’t look within to his own sensibility for an evaluation either.

He refuses to let either society or his own inner consciousness define him. He looks to some other bar for judgment. He

And here we see the richness, complexity, and startling distinctiveness of the Christian approach to identity. Paul can say, “God judges me,” not with alarm but with confidence.

Because unlike either traditional or secular culture, a Christian’s identity is not achieved but received.

Here we come to the heart of the Christian Gospel, and we see the sharp difference between this faith and many religions,

Socrates may cry, “Know thyself!” and that is good advice, but St. Paul cries that in addition it is crucial to be “knowing Christ, and . . . be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith” (Philippians 3:8, 9).

And now in Christ it is literally true that the person we adore most in the universe adores us.

This is neither the traditional nor the modern way with the self.

Your work is still part of your identity, as are your family, your nationality, and so on. But they are all relieved of the terrible burden of being the ultimate source of your self and value.

If you believe the Gospel and all its remarkable claims about Jesus and what he has done for you and who you are in him, then nothing that happens in this world can actually get at your identity.

The sense of worth or value that comes through faith in Christ is arguably more secure than any other. It has several facets to it.

First, there is the worth we have as God’s creations.

In addition, for Christians there is the inestimable worth we have through what the Bible calls our adoption.

also is a dynamic resource for a durable and integrating core sense of self in every situation.

our true self is the self we are before God.