• Pastor Tim Keller got up and preached to a crowd of 5,300 people in Chicago Tuesday about the epic story of the Israelites’ crossing of the Red Sea and showed how it deepens the New Testament’s salvation story.

The Manhattan megachurch pastor’s message offered a practical example of how to preach Jesus and the gospel using the Old Testament – the theme for this year’s Gospel Coalition national conference.

Using the passage Exodus 14, Keller made the case that the Old Testament story about crossing the Red Sea teaches Christians three important points about their salvation through Jesus Christ: what we are getting out of it, how we are getting out of it, and why we can get out of it.

Keller’s address was aptly titled “Getting Out.”

“If there is one Old Testament passage that the New Testament invites us to read christocentrically, invites us to see it as a paradigm of Christ’s salvation, it’s this one,” said Keller.

Like the Israelites, Christians are getting out of bondage, out of slavery. But there are many layers of bondage. So like the Israelites, Christians are likely still trapped in other forms of bondage.

The first layer of bondage is objective – God’s law and wrath, which the Israelites were freed from when they crossed the Red Sea and for Christians when they accept Jesus Christ as their savior. But despite being freed from the law objectively, people can still be in bondage subjectively when they go back to a form of works righteousness.
Another layer is the bondage to our sin nature, through which our sinful habits can control us despite us already having received salvation. And the last layer of bondage is to idols, which are anything that we love more than God.

Redemption is about getting out of bondage, but this has many layers, noted Keller.

One of the key aims of the talk on Tuesday in front of fellow pastors, theologians and students was to show how the Old Testament passage can help Christians better understand the meaning of grace. Keller pointed to Exodus 14:13, where Moses instructed the Israelites to “stand firm” or stand still and “see the deliverance of the Lord.” This means, explained the pastor, that the Israelites did not need to do anything in order to be saved. Likewise, there are no works for Christians to do in order to receive salvation.

“This is one of the reasons why we have a religion that is absolutely, utterly different than any other religion,” said Keller. “Every other religion is like building a bridge.”

In every other religion, adherents are continuously trying to build a bridge to reach the other side, whether that be enlightenment or salvation, but they never really feel they are there. But in Christianity, there is no process; salvation happens immediately when you believe.

Read More: http://www.christianpost.com/news/tim-keller-makes-it-clear-youre-not-saved-by-works-49814/