Tim Keller on the Christian Life

Matt Smethurst has researched an impressive amount of content for this book: sermons, books, papers, courses, articles, and unpublished conversations. He found resources even I wasn’t familiar with, and he has produced a work of scholarship that will long stand as the most thorough examination of the biblical themes that animated all of Tim’s ministry.

Few pastors have demonstrated a multilayered, multifaceted understanding of how the gospel of Jesus Christ transforms everything like Tim Keller did. Matt Smethurst has done a wonderful job organizing Tim’s teaching on the gospel in everyday life—in a way that is engaging, practical, and heart and life changing. May this gospel continue to transform us and everything our lives touch. Read and reread this book!

Imagine sitting with Tim Keller in his living room and asking him whatever is on your mind about the Christian life. Well, my friend Matt Smethurst has opened the door to that room in this book. Flip its pages and you’ll receive compelling wisdom from this beloved pastor, which will help you practice your faith within your family, job, or community. Tim Keller on the Christian Life is particularly timely, as many of us are struggling to make Christ-honoring imprints on our skeptical culture. But by the last chapter of this remarkable work, you’ll grasp what it means to truly embody the gospel in all your spheres of influence. Thank you, Matt, for giving us the very best of Tim Keller.

The way the ministry of Tim Keller and Redeemer Church penetrated the secularized culture of Manhattan drew the attention of a surprised media. Remarkably, this was based not on an ever-changing pragmatism (‘whatever works’) but on an intelligent, clearly articulated, and winsomely expounded Christ-centered biblical theology. Tim Keller on the Christian Life explores the manifold ways this theology shaped Tim’s understanding of how the gospel restores and transforms. Those who heard Tim will be understandably eager to read these pages, and all readers will find a stimulating exploration of the impact of gospel grace. Congratulations and thanks are due to Matt Smethurst for this groundbreaking study.

You don’t need to agree with everything Tim Keller said to recognize that God gave him uncommon wisdom that can benefit the church and your own discipleship. Matt Smethurst has done an impressive job distilling this wisdom, spread across many books and countless sermons, into ten engaging chapters. Think of it as a ‘Keller’s Greatest Hits’ volume. It’s a remarkable and grace-giving work, one that I’ll certainly encourage my family members and church members to read.

What a blessing to read a book by a friend, about a friend’s wisdom on the Christian life. I got to watch Tim Keller practice what he proclaimed, especially while battling terminal cancer. No matter your familiarity with Tim’s body of work, Matt Smethurst’s distillation will prove an aid and blessing. He puts his finger on themes and emphases that will enrich your engagement with our brother’s enduring ministry. Matt has told me what a spiritually rewarding exercise it was to write this book. You will find it spiritually rewarding to read.

I was eager to open this book to better appreciate Keller’s pastoral legacy and to see how Smethurst would tell the story. I found exactly what I’d hoped for: a wise pastor curating the wisdom of another wise pastor. The result is a treasure—a study about our Father’s love to us, which awakens our love for him and for others. The beautiful fruit of the heart-transforming gospel.

Tim Keller had a knack for presenting Christ and what it means to follow him in ways that I, as someone who had spent my whole life absorbing Christian teaching, had never heard before. It often stopped me in my tracks. It challenged my deeply ingrained understandings and interpretations. But most importantly, it enabled me to see the beauty, necessity, and sufficiency of Christ in ways that moved and changed me. This book enables those familiar with Keller’s teaching to be reminded of its core truths—and those who know little of it to get to its essence in summary fashion.

There will never be another Tim Keller—a man uniquely raised up by God to teach a generation of believers to treasure the gospel and to teach a generation of skeptics to consider the gospel. Matt Smethurst takes us into the genius of Tim’s ministry, drawing from its breadth to synthesize and distill the key insights for how Jesus Christ changes us from the inside out. This is a deeply edifying read.