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What Is Wrong With the World?: The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid
Beloved pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller offers a hope-filled answer to the question beneath every devastating headline and personal loss: What is wrong with the world?
Everywhere we look, we see brokenness--wars, cruelty, and heartache. We feel it in the world around us and in our own lives. How did it get to be this way?
During his tenure as founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller explained on a weekly basis how the Bible provides the most comprehensive and sophisticated response to the fundamental questions of life. In What Is Wrong with the World?, based on a series of teachings given at Redeemer, Keller answers the title's pressing question by revealing that the only thing that can account for the world's pain and chaos is what the Bible calls sin. This clear-eyed and ultimately hopeful book reveals how sin is not simply a "bad" thing we do but something much more subtle and complex, affecting our relationships, our thinking, and every aspect of our existence. And only when we recognize sin for what it is can we find the profound, life-transforming answer our souls long for. What Is Wrong with the World? is for anyone who:
Feels overwhelmed at the state of the world
Battles with repeated mistakes and poor choices
Desires more than pat answers to difficult questions
Wonders how to know joy while still acknowledging pain
Wants to understand how God's love gives hope even in the hardest of places
Today's battles across the globe and in our own hearts are not the end of the story. As Keller writes, "If we stand any chance of answering the question of what is wrong with the world . . . we must begin with understanding the complexity and multifaceted nature of sin, and end with understanding the unfailing love of a God who chooses to save us from it. This book will show you how."
Everywhere we look, we see brokenness--wars, cruelty, and heartache. We feel it in the world around us and in our own lives. How did it get to be this way?
During his tenure as founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller explained on a weekly basis how the Bible provides the most comprehensive and sophisticated response to the fundamental questions of life. In What Is Wrong with the World?, based on a series of teachings given at Redeemer, Keller answers the title's pressing question by revealing that the only thing that can account for the world's pain and chaos is what the Bible calls sin. This clear-eyed and ultimately hopeful book reveals how sin is not simply a "bad" thing we do but something much more subtle and complex, affecting our relationships, our thinking, and every aspect of our existence. And only when we recognize sin for what it is can we find the profound, life-transforming answer our souls long for. What Is Wrong with the World? is for anyone who:
Feels overwhelmed at the state of the world
Battles with repeated mistakes and poor choices
Desires more than pat answers to difficult questions
Wonders how to know joy while still acknowledging pain
Wants to understand how God's love gives hope even in the hardest of places
Today's battles across the globe and in our own hearts are not the end of the story. As Keller writes, "If we stand any chance of answering the question of what is wrong with the world . . . we must begin with understanding the complexity and multifaceted nature of sin, and end with understanding the unfailing love of a God who chooses to save us from it. This book will show you how."
240 pages, Hardcover
Published October 21, 2025
About the author
Timothy J. Keller
454 books5,908 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Timothy Keller was the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which he started in 1989 with his wife, Kathy, and three young sons. For over twenty years he has led a diverse congregation of young professionals that has grown to a weekly attendance of over 5,000.
He was also Chairman of Redeemer City to City, which starts new churches in New York and other global cities, and publishes books and resources for faith in an urban culture. In over ten years they have helped to launch over 250 churches in 48 cities. More recently, Dr. Keller’s books, including the New York Times bestselling The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, have sold over 1 million copies and been translated into 15 languages.
Christianity Today has said, “Fifty years from now, if evangelical Christians are widely known for their love of cities, their commitment to mercy and justice, and their love of their neighbors, Tim Keller will be remembered as a pioneer of the new urban Christians.”
Dr. Keller was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and educated at Bucknell University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary. He previously served as the pastor of West Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Hopewell, Virginia, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, and Director of Mercy Ministries for the Presbyterian Church in America.
Timothy Keller was the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which he started in 1989 with his wife, Kathy, and three young sons. For over twenty years he has led a diverse congregation of young professionals that has grown to a weekly attendance of over 5,000.
He was also Chairman of Redeemer City to City, which starts new churches in New York and other global cities, and publishes books and resources for faith in an urban culture. In over ten years they have helped to launch over 250 churches in 48 cities. More recently, Dr. Keller’s books, including the New York Times bestselling The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, have sold over 1 million copies and been translated into 15 languages.
Christianity Today has said, “Fifty years from now, if evangelical Christians are widely known for their love of cities, their commitment to mercy and justice, and their love of their neighbors, Tim Keller will be remembered as a pioneer of the new urban Christians.”
Dr. Keller was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and educated at Bucknell University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary. He previously served as the pastor of West Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Hopewell, Virginia, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, and Director of Mercy Ministries for the Presbyterian Church in America.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
October 12, 2025
Phenomenally insightful. Based on one of my favorite Keller sermon series from the early 1990s, “The Faces of Sin.” So glad this is now in print.
December 12, 2025
4 stars for content but 5 stars for nostalgia. I never thought I would read another new Keller book, but God graced us with this book through his wife Kathy editing a sermon series on sin from the 90s. Each chapter looks at a different aspect of sin, its nature, and what it does in and to us. And, of course, each chapter looks how the gospel can bring forgiveness, freedom, and real change to the effects of sin in our lives. In a world that increasingly avoids the idea of sin, this book brings welcome honesty, conviction, and clarity to what is ultimately wrong with the world.
While the problems we face today are different than those of the 1990s (which is the greatest decade in American history by the way...don't @ me), there is nothing new under the sun. Sin has been humanity's core problem since the garden and Jesus alone can bring the healing, joy, and hope that we all long for.
"If there is a lack of joy in your life today, if the thought of Jesus dying for you does not transfix and transform you, if you're not able draw power out of the thought of what he has done for you on the cross, then you don't understand the enormity and power of sin. You haven't really seen how much of a debt Christ paid for you. You don't know how far he has brought you. You don't know the magnitude of what he has done. And you don't know the seriousness and depth of your sin that led him to do what he did." - Keller
I am forever grateful for this man's legacy and ministry.
While the problems we face today are different than those of the 1990s (which is the greatest decade in American history by the way...don't @ me), there is nothing new under the sun. Sin has been humanity's core problem since the garden and Jesus alone can bring the healing, joy, and hope that we all long for.
"If there is a lack of joy in your life today, if the thought of Jesus dying for you does not transfix and transform you, if you're not able draw power out of the thought of what he has done for you on the cross, then you don't understand the enormity and power of sin. You haven't really seen how much of a debt Christ paid for you. You don't know how far he has brought you. You don't know the magnitude of what he has done. And you don't know the seriousness and depth of your sin that led him to do what he did." - Keller
I am forever grateful for this man's legacy and ministry.
December 9, 2025
This is a book based on a sermon series Keller gave in the 90’s called “the Faces of Sin” and it’s a collection of sermons on sin. It was strange to me at first that this was edited and published posthumously with Kathy Keller’s help, but when I read it I could see why they did. It’s Keller at his best and most incisive. There are some really incredible sermons in this book, especially the first half.
Honestly, if you want to round out your thinking about sin and the remedies for addressing it in yourself and others, this was an edifying and pretty exhaustive treatment of it.
Honestly, if you want to round out your thinking about sin and the remedies for addressing it in yourself and others, this was an edifying and pretty exhaustive treatment of it.
November 27, 2025
Excellent. From a sermon series Keller preached in the 90s titled “Faces of Sin.”
I have heard from several people now, though no one who actually holds this position, that Keller is known by some as being “soft on sin.” I guess I can understand the position; while some Christian writers focus their position on sin as committing cosmic treason against a holy God, Keller often chooses to write on sin as idolatry. But what could be more treasonous than rejecting God’s covenant to make one with something else; what could be of greater evil than to give our hearts over to something other than God himself, exchanging God-worship for creation-worship, God covenant-making for creation covenant-making?
Several very good chapters in this book that I would recommend everyone to read.
I have heard from several people now, though no one who actually holds this position, that Keller is known by some as being “soft on sin.” I guess I can understand the position; while some Christian writers focus their position on sin as committing cosmic treason against a holy God, Keller often chooses to write on sin as idolatry. But what could be more treasonous than rejecting God’s covenant to make one with something else; what could be of greater evil than to give our hearts over to something other than God himself, exchanging God-worship for creation-worship, God covenant-making for creation covenant-making?
Several very good chapters in this book that I would recommend everyone to read.
January 14, 2026
Another great offering from Tim Keller. I’m not sure, but I get the impression that when Keller died in 2023 he left quite a few unpublished writings and sermons and now his wife is sorting through them to share with us. If so, I’m grateful she’s taking on that work. As expected, there is great insight and Biblical wisdom here, and each chapter is an excellent example of expository preaching.
Here are the chapter headings:
SIN AS PREDATOR
SIN AS SELF-DECEPTION
SIN AS LEAVEN
SIN AS MISTRUST
SIN AS SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS
SIN AS LEPROSY (PART 1)
SIN AS LEPROSY (PART 2)
SIN AS SLAVERY
HEALING OF SIN: TRUE REPENTANCE
HEALING OF SIN: INTIMACY WITH GOD
Here’s a passage from the chapter “Sin as Leprosy (Part 1)”:
‘The only way you can say, "There are many paths to God," is by saying, "Good works are really what will get you to the top." You have to deny the concept of grace itself. And these beliefs also contain a hidden exclusiveness in them. They attempt to make salvation inclusive, and yet they reject anyone who doesn't fit the speaker's standard of morality, goodness, and truth.
If any "good person" can make it to heaven, what about the morally disabled? What about the person who has made a mess of their life and is now on their deathbed? What about the misbehaving child? Even this seemingly tolerant worldview has a bias toward the strong and the good over the weak and the bad. By contrast, the gospel says that anybody can come—good and bad, strong and weak—as long as they're humble. The exclusivity of Christianity is the requirement of humility.’
And here’s a passage from the chapter “Sin as Slavery”:
‘We know what we should do but we don’t do it.
‘How can we explain that? The Bible's explanation is that human hearts are sinful. But more than that, the Bible tells us that we have become slaves to sin. The Bible says sin is not just an action; it's a power. Every sinful action has a destructive power on the faculty that chose that action. For example, when you sin with your mind, that sin shrivels your mind's rationality. When you sin with your heart, that sin shrivels your heart's emotions. When you sin with your will, that sin dissolves your willpower and self-control.
‘Sin is the suicidal action of the self harming the self.’
Here are the chapter headings:
SIN AS PREDATOR
SIN AS SELF-DECEPTION
SIN AS LEAVEN
SIN AS MISTRUST
SIN AS SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS
SIN AS LEPROSY (PART 1)
SIN AS LEPROSY (PART 2)
SIN AS SLAVERY
HEALING OF SIN: TRUE REPENTANCE
HEALING OF SIN: INTIMACY WITH GOD
Here’s a passage from the chapter “Sin as Leprosy (Part 1)”:
‘The only way you can say, "There are many paths to God," is by saying, "Good works are really what will get you to the top." You have to deny the concept of grace itself. And these beliefs also contain a hidden exclusiveness in them. They attempt to make salvation inclusive, and yet they reject anyone who doesn't fit the speaker's standard of morality, goodness, and truth.
If any "good person" can make it to heaven, what about the morally disabled? What about the person who has made a mess of their life and is now on their deathbed? What about the misbehaving child? Even this seemingly tolerant worldview has a bias toward the strong and the good over the weak and the bad. By contrast, the gospel says that anybody can come—good and bad, strong and weak—as long as they're humble. The exclusivity of Christianity is the requirement of humility.’
And here’s a passage from the chapter “Sin as Slavery”:
‘We know what we should do but we don’t do it.
‘How can we explain that? The Bible's explanation is that human hearts are sinful. But more than that, the Bible tells us that we have become slaves to sin. The Bible says sin is not just an action; it's a power. Every sinful action has a destructive power on the faculty that chose that action. For example, when you sin with your mind, that sin shrivels your mind's rationality. When you sin with your heart, that sin shrivels your heart's emotions. When you sin with your will, that sin dissolves your willpower and self-control.
‘Sin is the suicidal action of the self harming the self.’
January 11, 2026
Hadde ikke trodd at jeg skulle lese en ny Keller-bok igjen etter hans død i 2023, men her har kona og andre lagt en bok basert på en taleserie i tillegg til notater han la igjen. Taleserien handlet om syndens mange ansikt, mens boken kalles «What is wrong with the world», noe jeg ser på som et lurt valg, da spørsmålet om hva som er galt med verden er noe flere kan kjenne seg igjen i.
Keller har en egen evne til å treffe meg, og denne boken er intet unntak. Hvert kapittel tar utgangspunkt i en bibeltekst, så skriver han om hva teksten sier om synd.
Noe av det beste med boken er at den ikke bare får frem hvor alvorlig og komplekst synd er, men at han skriver håpefullt om Jesus som den eneste løsningen på alt som er galt med verden.
Det eneste jeg savnet var at han også kunne skrevet noe om naturlig ondskap - hvorfor også skaperverket er preget av syndefallet og hvordan Bibelen viser at Jesus er løsningen også mtp det.
Keller har en egen evne til å treffe meg, og denne boken er intet unntak. Hvert kapittel tar utgangspunkt i en bibeltekst, så skriver han om hva teksten sier om synd.
Noe av det beste med boken er at den ikke bare får frem hvor alvorlig og komplekst synd er, men at han skriver håpefullt om Jesus som den eneste løsningen på alt som er galt med verden.
Det eneste jeg savnet var at han også kunne skrevet noe om naturlig ondskap - hvorfor også skaperverket er preget av syndefallet og hvordan Bibelen viser at Jesus er løsningen også mtp det.
January 23, 2026
I loved it! A refreshing and in-depth read.
December 16, 2025
Eeekkk! I think this is my first written review on Goodreads!
What’s Wrong with the World by Timothy Keller was profoundly convicting in a way I wasn’t fully prepared for but deeply needed. I didn’t grow up with a clear understanding of sin or how deeply it affects both the world and the human heart. I was first really introduced to that reality in college, and now, walking through a particularly complicated season of life, this book resonated with me on a much deeper level.
Keller doesn’t allow the reader to remain distant or merely intellectual. Again and again, I found myself having to pause, go back, and read the passages of Scripture for myself. What followed was uncomfortable but holy; genuine reflection, conviction, and humility.
There was a moment where I could only describe my response as learning to truly hate my sin but not in like a hopeless or condemning way, but in a way that drove me toward repentance and grace. It stripped away self-justification and left me laid bare before God. I don’t know how else to explain it except to say the Holy Spirit was clearly at work haha.
This is not a light or casual read for me at least. Keller writes with clarity, theological depth, and pastoral wisdom, inviting the reader into deep self-examination while never losing sight of the hope found in Christ. I’m grateful for how this book humbled me, challenged me and ultimately pointed me back to the gospel… again and again. Gosh and people think Keller is “too soft” on sin. Reminds me I’m in need of Christ more than ever!
What’s Wrong with the World by Timothy Keller was profoundly convicting in a way I wasn’t fully prepared for but deeply needed. I didn’t grow up with a clear understanding of sin or how deeply it affects both the world and the human heart. I was first really introduced to that reality in college, and now, walking through a particularly complicated season of life, this book resonated with me on a much deeper level.
Keller doesn’t allow the reader to remain distant or merely intellectual. Again and again, I found myself having to pause, go back, and read the passages of Scripture for myself. What followed was uncomfortable but holy; genuine reflection, conviction, and humility.
There was a moment where I could only describe my response as learning to truly hate my sin but not in like a hopeless or condemning way, but in a way that drove me toward repentance and grace. It stripped away self-justification and left me laid bare before God. I don’t know how else to explain it except to say the Holy Spirit was clearly at work haha.
This is not a light or casual read for me at least. Keller writes with clarity, theological depth, and pastoral wisdom, inviting the reader into deep self-examination while never losing sight of the hope found in Christ. I’m grateful for how this book humbled me, challenged me and ultimately pointed me back to the gospel… again and again. Gosh and people think Keller is “too soft” on sin. Reminds me I’m in need of Christ more than ever!
February 17, 2026
This sermon-series-turned-book on the topic of sin was a solid 4-star all the way until the end, when the last two chapters rocketed it up to a life-changing read I'll reference again and again.
Up until then, it was still a great book. One of Tim Keller's strengths, for me, is how he shows that Old Testament people, who for me can feel too ancient and foreign to be relatable, are very human, struggling with the same heart we all have. He's also great at picking up those little threads in the OT that seem weird at the time...but actually are pointing to Christ. The Naaman chapters were standouts in this regard, probably worth the whole book to read.
But the last two chapters, teaching repentance using Psalm 51 and Thomas Watson's Doctrine of Repentance, were stellar. Succinct and wise, they shifted my thinking in subtle but immediately effective ways. They were hard-hitting, but caring and pastoral. I'm going to make copies of the last chapter and hand it out to anyone who tells me they're struggling with besetting sin. Seriously.
Up until then, it was still a great book. One of Tim Keller's strengths, for me, is how he shows that Old Testament people, who for me can feel too ancient and foreign to be relatable, are very human, struggling with the same heart we all have. He's also great at picking up those little threads in the OT that seem weird at the time...but actually are pointing to Christ. The Naaman chapters were standouts in this regard, probably worth the whole book to read.
But the last two chapters, teaching repentance using Psalm 51 and Thomas Watson's Doctrine of Repentance, were stellar. Succinct and wise, they shifted my thinking in subtle but immediately effective ways. They were hard-hitting, but caring and pastoral. I'm going to make copies of the last chapter and hand it out to anyone who tells me they're struggling with besetting sin. Seriously.
May 20, 2026
“We follow Jesus because he’s the One who taught us that the repenting soul is the triumphant soul, that to lose our lives is to find our lives, that we behold his grace and glory in the dark valley, not on the mountaintop. Let us find his light in our darkness, his joy in our sorrow, his grace in our sin, and his riches in our poverty. This is the way to be healed of our sin.“
February 22, 2026
It's hard to think that a book on sin could be good, but this one was, without a doubt. The ten chapters were taken from sermons preached by Keller and as I read one per morning, it felt like he was preaching to me. It's an easy read, but it isn't easy - be ready to be convicted again and again.
January 15, 2026
When Tim Keller died, I grieved for a whole range of reasons - one of them being that I have habitually read his books for spiritual refreshment while on annual leave. As I finished his book 'Forgive', I felt like I had come to the 'end of an era' that had lasted for many years.
So when I heard that some of his sermon series would be released as books posthumously - edited by Kathy Keller, no less - I was ecstatic.
And this IS a good book. But... it didn't feel quite the same. I'm not sure if it's because it was 'sermons-turned-into-a-book' (by someone other than Tim himself), or whether it felt like the same thoughts I've heard before and just re-shuffled into a new format... I can't put my finger on it.
It IS a good book. But I suspect his posthumous books will never be as good as the ones that came from his own pen.
So when I heard that some of his sermon series would be released as books posthumously - edited by Kathy Keller, no less - I was ecstatic.
And this IS a good book. But... it didn't feel quite the same. I'm not sure if it's because it was 'sermons-turned-into-a-book' (by someone other than Tim himself), or whether it felt like the same thoughts I've heard before and just re-shuffled into a new format... I can't put my finger on it.
It IS a good book. But I suspect his posthumous books will never be as good as the ones that came from his own pen.
November 9, 2025
A phenomenal spiritual successor (or predecessor, depending on how you look at it) to Counterfeit Gods.
December 30, 2025
Probably the best Tim Keller book that I have read. Simple and concise, yet very powerful, convicting, and thought provoking.
March 7, 2026
Insightful, encouraging, challenging. The church misses Keller greatly.
January 6, 2026
Good read, very convicting!
Good, convicting read about the way we live life.
The notion of “we need to want God more than anything else” is something I need to carry with me.
Good, convicting read about the way we live life.
The notion of “we need to want God more than anything else” is something I need to carry with me.
February 3, 2026
This is a great book about sin and how we too often don't even know how to think about it. The way Tim Keller writes is so readable for anyone, so don't let the complicated topic of sin keep you from reading this. This isn't a preachy book. And best part of all, he never points to the sins of other people. His goal is to get us to examine our own lives.
It's very short, very readable, no filler just straight to the point. 10/10
It's very short, very readable, no filler just straight to the point. 10/10
March 1, 2026
Excellent book all about sin and the different manifestations of it in our lives! This book is a collection of some of Tim Kellers sermons that his wife edited after his death and I could not recommend it enough. Tim Keller takes simple ideas such as sin being like leaven, leprosy, and slavery and communicates so clearly about it. I loved the ending about how we have true repentance and intimacy with God. Could not recommend enough!
November 15, 2025
sin (according to the Bible and in this book explained by Keller from a sermon series in the 90's) is a predator, self-deceiving, leaven, mistrust, self-righteousness, leprosy, slavery, and yet there is healing of sin: with repentance and intimacy with God
officially my new favorite Christian author
officially my new favorite Christian author
December 2, 2025
How could 6 hours of Tim Keller's sermons and notes be anything but 5 stars?! Well put together and something I should probably return to at some point. Would be better to read on paper where I could highlight and notate and things..
February 3, 2026
It’s weird reading a posthumous Keller book, but the last two chapters on killing sin and repentance are gold.
March 7, 2026
Ugh so good.
May 19, 2026
So good for growing in understand of the nature and nuances of sin, what true repentance looks like, and learning to rest in God’s grace and chesed, unfailing love.
October 23, 2025
So amazing. I really hope Kathy will edit more of Tim’s sermon series into books.
November 24, 2025
Convicting, compelling and filled with sobering reminders
December 31, 2025
On my shelf to revisit as a resource. Practical and compelling.
February 5, 2026
Excellent.
May 29, 2026
I loved this book. So much so that I read through it in one day (which means a lot since I am typically a fairly slow reader).
For my own future notes:
Sin is:
- Predator
- Self-Deception
- Leaven
- Mistrust
- Self-Righteousness
- Leprosy
- Slavery
Introduction - “If there is a lack of joy in your life today, if the thought of Jesus dying for you does not transfix and transform you, if you re not able to draw power out of the thought of what he has done for you on the cross, then you don't understand the enormity and power of your sin. You haven't really seen how much of a debt Christ paid for you. You don't know how far he has brought you. You don't know the magnitude of what he has done. And you don't know the seriousness and depth of your sin that led him to do what he did.”
Page 6 - “What's going on here? Cain and Abel both came to God with an offering. The word translated "offering" is important in understanding this story. There are a number of Hebrew words used to describe an offering, but the one that's used here, minhah, specifically means a gift or tribute offering.
A gift offering is not the same as a sin offering. Cain and Abel are not going to God for forgiveness here. Instead, they are taking something that belongs to them and giving it to God as a symbol that everything they own really belongs to him, including their whole selves.”
Pages 7-8 - “We may come to worship and give God all our prayers and money and offerings, but unless we back it up with our life, it's not love. It's not worship. It's bribery. It's a way of saying, "I would like God's favor, but I want to live my life my own way."
That's what Cain does here. How can we tell? Many people over the years have looked at the Mosaic law and its references to blood offerings and concluded that the problem that Abel brings sheep while Cain brings grain. They say the issue in this passage is Cain's failure to bring a blood offering.
But that's not the issue here. To make a gift or tribute offering in those days, you brought something that symbolized whatever you did to make a living. Cain is a farmer; he brings produce. Abel is a shepherd; he brings sheep. There is nothing wrong with the form of the offering, with what each brought. The problem is something else. First John 3:12 gives us a clue. It specifies that "[Cain's) own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous." Why is that? The problem is what lies behind Cain's offering, with the state of his heart.
Cain's problem is that he is halfhearted, not wholehearted.”
Page 14 - “The same is true of hate. If you hate, the hate grows. You want more of it. This is why C. S. Lewis argued that, at first, the Nazis killed the Jews because they hated them, but even-tually, they hated them because they were killing them. Do you see what he means? When we misuse somebody because we're mad at them, we find ourselves compelled to stay mad at them to justify what we've done. It becomes a cyclical habit that we can't simply slip out of. Before we know it, the behavior has overtaken us. Haters are eaten up by hatred. Liars are eaten up by lies.”
Page 19 - “It's tempting to wonder, "What if Cain had repented?" But let's turn the question back to ourselves. What if we repent?
What if today we finally say, "You know what? My problems are because of my sin. The main problem in my life is my sin, not what has been done to me." What will happen? God will take you to a pool of blood too—a pool of blood that's crying out but it won't be Abel's. And this is where hope is found.
Abel was only the first in a long line of wholehearted people who were killed or persecuted because they challenged, convicted, or showed up their halfhearted brothers.
When somebody comes along who's wholehearted and pure, we hate them because they make the rest of us look bad. They're the smartest student who performs well on the test and kills the grading curve for the rest of us. Abel was the tirst to do this. Joseph was another hated by his brothers and persecuted. David was despised by Saul and persecuted.
Stephen was a great religious leader killed by the other religious leaders.
But the ultimate Abel was Jesus. He's not just like Abel; he's the ultimate Abel. He wasn't just good. He was pertect. He didn't just die by our hands he died, voluntarily, for our sin.”
Page 28 - “At first I thought, "Why in the world would self-deception be such an important concept for scholars?" Then I read more and found out why. Consider someone who has a problem with alcoholism. What is it that truly hurts them more: their addiction to alcohol or their denial of being addicted to alcohol? It is arguably the latter, if only because denial enables all kinds of other problems. Self-deception may not be the worst thing we do, but it's what makes us capable of terrible things.”
Page 37 - “Elisabeth Elliot, a twentieth-century missionary and author, tells a story about this type of behavior. When she was a young girl, her mother told her little brother Tommy (who grew up to become the highly regarded theologian Thomas Howard) that he was allowed to play with all the paper bags that were underneath the counter in the kitchen. He could spread them all out and do whatever he wanted with them, but he had to put them back. He couldn't leave the kitchen without cleaning them up.
One day Tommy spread them all out and didn't put them away. He left the kitchen to listen to his father play the piano.
When his mother came into the kitchen and saw the mess, she told him to come pick up the bags.
Tommy replied in his small voice, "But I wanna sing
'Jesus Loves Me.'"
His father said, "It's not good singing God's praises if you're being disobedient. To obey is better than sacrifice."
Pages 52-53 - “Why does Jesus call sin leaven, or yeast? What does using that metaphor teach us, and how can we "watch out" for it? First, let's keep in mind that there are a lot of good things about yeast, while there's nothing good about sin. All metaphors fall apart eventually, but here's what the ancients knew about yeast: They knew if you put it into dough—even just a little lump of it-it spreads throughout the mixture.
The dough rises, and as long as you bake it soon enough, the bread will be good. But they also understood that the longer the yeast is in the dough, the sourer it becomes. If you leave the dough to set for too long, the yeast sucks all the sweetness out of the loaf and makes it inedible.
Today we know that yeast is a living thing. It's a microorganism that digests the sugar in the dough and breaks it into two parts: alcohol and carbon dioxide. The alcohol evaporates, but the carbon dioxide remains in the bread and makes it rise. However, if you allow the yeast enough time, it takes all the sugar out. Yeast will eventually destroy whatever it's in by making it bitter.
Jesus's audience knew this. They knew that yeast works in a hidden way, unseen. They knew it spreads rapidly. And they knew it sucks the sweetness out of bread. And because they understood these characteristics of yeast, they understood Jesus's point: The way yeast works in bread is the way sin works in us.”
Pages 68-69 - “The first tree in verse 6 is nothing more than a naked bush. The word arar is related to the Hebrew word for "naked," drawing attention to its location in a bare and stripped land. By contrast, the other tree is flourishing by a river, large and full and green. The difference between the two trees arises from where their roots are located. It's not even so much that the roots are different; it's the location of the roots that determines everything about the tree—its leaves, its branches, its trunk, everything.
Why is that? Because roots exist to do two things. First, they anchor the tree into the ground so neither the tree nor the soil blows away. Second, the roots draw nutrients and moisture from the soil and absorb them. The nutrients are important for growth, but the moisture, if the roots go deep enough to access it, allows the tree to survive during drought conditions.
These two functions are extremely important to remember when we consider the concept of sin. Sin, this passage teaches us, is planting our roots in something other than God.”
Page 71 - “The English bishop William Temple is often said to have phrased the positive test like this: "Religion is what you do with your solitude." When you're not busy with anything - when you don't have to think about your work or your responsibilities or anything else - where does your mind go to get refreshed? What does your mind try to draw nutrients from? Where do you go to get joy? Where do you turn for consolation?”
Page 73 - “Let me show you how radical of an analysis of sin this passage from Jeremiah is. He goes so far as to say in 17:7, "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LoRD, whose confidence is in him." Why does he add that second clause? The English translation masks how powerful this statement is. In the original phrasing, the same Hebrew root is used for the English translation of both "trust" and "confidence" here. It's really saying, "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord." Why would it need to read like that?
Because it's possible to trust in the Lord without making the Lord our trust. Let me explain.
In a sense, there are three kinds of people. First, there is the irreligious person, whose underlying attitude is I'm going to live life my own way. Then there is the religious person who does the things God asks but does them to get something from God. That person is trusting in the Lord for something else— which means their real trust is in that something else. The third person puts their trust in the Lord, and their trust is the Lord.”
Page 95 - “If you feel like nothing after you lose something, it means that the thing you lost was your everything.”
Page 145 - “The weakness and defeat on the cross became the great triumph. The somebody became nobody so that we nobodies could become somebodies. That's the gospel.”
Page 162 - “This is the pattern of addiction. Not all addictions are sin, but the Bible shows us that all sin is addiction. Every sin, whether it's bitterness, envy, materialism, laziness, or sexual impurity, becomes an addiction.”
Page 179 - “The caption for Psalm 51 in my Bible reads, "A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba." The story is well-known. Uriah the Hittite was one of David's truest and best friends, one of the thirty-seven men who went out into the wilderness with David when Saul was trying to kill him
(2 Samuel 23:39). They risked everything to protect David, who would certainly have been killed without them. David owed Uriah and those men his life.”
Page 184 - “The way the Puritans used to identify the four principles of repentance was by saying you have to see your sin, you have to confess your sin, you have to mourn your sin, and you have to hate your sin. You have to see, confess, mourn, and hate.
The first two—seeing and confessing sin—are intellec.-tual, cognitive matters. They are disciplines that, in many ways, have nothing to do with feelings. They require us to think. Then, if you do the first two right, the second two-mourning and hating sin-will bring about an earthquake in your life: a powerful shaking up of your emotions that results in a transformed life.”
Page 190 - “The third step necessary for repentance is to mourn your sin. David says to God, "Against you, you only, have l sinned" (Psalm 51:4). Do you notice the doubling language?
He doesn't just say, "You only." He says, "You, you." In the Semitic languages, one effective way to get across intensity of emotion is repetition. So, for example, when his beloved son dies, David cries, "O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Samuel 19:4.) The repetition is a reflection of intense emotion. Here, in the psalm, he says, "Against you, you only." The repetition expresses his deep sorrow for, his mourning over, his sin.”
Pages 210-211 - “You have to cut all the way down to get the tumor out.
Repenting solely from a fear of punishment and saying, "O Lord, I need to obey you or you're going to reject me," doesn't get under the tumor. David's repentant attitude says this:
Why was there an incredible pull in my heart toward Bathsheba? Why was I willing to murder for her? Because before I committed physical adultery, I had already committed spiritual adultery.
When he says in Psalm 51:12, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation," we tend to think, "Oh, he lost the joy of his salvation because he sinned." That's true, but that's not all. There is more to it. He sinned because he lost the joy of his salvation. We only ever sin because we've lost the joy of our salvation.
David forgot God's unfailing love. He wasn't ravished by it deep in his heart.
In Psalm 51 he sees that the reason he sinned against Uriah and Bathsheba was because he stopped being excited by God. He stopped enjoying him. He stopped being moved by his unfailing love and sacrifice. Until we see that we sin for the same reasons, we won't cut ourselves deep enough to remove our sin. We'll never truly repent.”
For my own future notes:
Sin is:
- Predator
- Self-Deception
- Leaven
- Mistrust
- Self-Righteousness
- Leprosy
- Slavery
Introduction - “If there is a lack of joy in your life today, if the thought of Jesus dying for you does not transfix and transform you, if you re not able to draw power out of the thought of what he has done for you on the cross, then you don't understand the enormity and power of your sin. You haven't really seen how much of a debt Christ paid for you. You don't know how far he has brought you. You don't know the magnitude of what he has done. And you don't know the seriousness and depth of your sin that led him to do what he did.”
Page 6 - “What's going on here? Cain and Abel both came to God with an offering. The word translated "offering" is important in understanding this story. There are a number of Hebrew words used to describe an offering, but the one that's used here, minhah, specifically means a gift or tribute offering.
A gift offering is not the same as a sin offering. Cain and Abel are not going to God for forgiveness here. Instead, they are taking something that belongs to them and giving it to God as a symbol that everything they own really belongs to him, including their whole selves.”
Pages 7-8 - “We may come to worship and give God all our prayers and money and offerings, but unless we back it up with our life, it's not love. It's not worship. It's bribery. It's a way of saying, "I would like God's favor, but I want to live my life my own way."
That's what Cain does here. How can we tell? Many people over the years have looked at the Mosaic law and its references to blood offerings and concluded that the problem that Abel brings sheep while Cain brings grain. They say the issue in this passage is Cain's failure to bring a blood offering.
But that's not the issue here. To make a gift or tribute offering in those days, you brought something that symbolized whatever you did to make a living. Cain is a farmer; he brings produce. Abel is a shepherd; he brings sheep. There is nothing wrong with the form of the offering, with what each brought. The problem is something else. First John 3:12 gives us a clue. It specifies that "[Cain's) own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous." Why is that? The problem is what lies behind Cain's offering, with the state of his heart.
Cain's problem is that he is halfhearted, not wholehearted.”
Page 14 - “The same is true of hate. If you hate, the hate grows. You want more of it. This is why C. S. Lewis argued that, at first, the Nazis killed the Jews because they hated them, but even-tually, they hated them because they were killing them. Do you see what he means? When we misuse somebody because we're mad at them, we find ourselves compelled to stay mad at them to justify what we've done. It becomes a cyclical habit that we can't simply slip out of. Before we know it, the behavior has overtaken us. Haters are eaten up by hatred. Liars are eaten up by lies.”
Page 19 - “It's tempting to wonder, "What if Cain had repented?" But let's turn the question back to ourselves. What if we repent?
What if today we finally say, "You know what? My problems are because of my sin. The main problem in my life is my sin, not what has been done to me." What will happen? God will take you to a pool of blood too—a pool of blood that's crying out but it won't be Abel's. And this is where hope is found.
Abel was only the first in a long line of wholehearted people who were killed or persecuted because they challenged, convicted, or showed up their halfhearted brothers.
When somebody comes along who's wholehearted and pure, we hate them because they make the rest of us look bad. They're the smartest student who performs well on the test and kills the grading curve for the rest of us. Abel was the tirst to do this. Joseph was another hated by his brothers and persecuted. David was despised by Saul and persecuted.
Stephen was a great religious leader killed by the other religious leaders.
But the ultimate Abel was Jesus. He's not just like Abel; he's the ultimate Abel. He wasn't just good. He was pertect. He didn't just die by our hands he died, voluntarily, for our sin.”
Page 28 - “At first I thought, "Why in the world would self-deception be such an important concept for scholars?" Then I read more and found out why. Consider someone who has a problem with alcoholism. What is it that truly hurts them more: their addiction to alcohol or their denial of being addicted to alcohol? It is arguably the latter, if only because denial enables all kinds of other problems. Self-deception may not be the worst thing we do, but it's what makes us capable of terrible things.”
Page 37 - “Elisabeth Elliot, a twentieth-century missionary and author, tells a story about this type of behavior. When she was a young girl, her mother told her little brother Tommy (who grew up to become the highly regarded theologian Thomas Howard) that he was allowed to play with all the paper bags that were underneath the counter in the kitchen. He could spread them all out and do whatever he wanted with them, but he had to put them back. He couldn't leave the kitchen without cleaning them up.
One day Tommy spread them all out and didn't put them away. He left the kitchen to listen to his father play the piano.
When his mother came into the kitchen and saw the mess, she told him to come pick up the bags.
Tommy replied in his small voice, "But I wanna sing
'Jesus Loves Me.'"
His father said, "It's not good singing God's praises if you're being disobedient. To obey is better than sacrifice."
Pages 52-53 - “Why does Jesus call sin leaven, or yeast? What does using that metaphor teach us, and how can we "watch out" for it? First, let's keep in mind that there are a lot of good things about yeast, while there's nothing good about sin. All metaphors fall apart eventually, but here's what the ancients knew about yeast: They knew if you put it into dough—even just a little lump of it-it spreads throughout the mixture.
The dough rises, and as long as you bake it soon enough, the bread will be good. But they also understood that the longer the yeast is in the dough, the sourer it becomes. If you leave the dough to set for too long, the yeast sucks all the sweetness out of the loaf and makes it inedible.
Today we know that yeast is a living thing. It's a microorganism that digests the sugar in the dough and breaks it into two parts: alcohol and carbon dioxide. The alcohol evaporates, but the carbon dioxide remains in the bread and makes it rise. However, if you allow the yeast enough time, it takes all the sugar out. Yeast will eventually destroy whatever it's in by making it bitter.
Jesus's audience knew this. They knew that yeast works in a hidden way, unseen. They knew it spreads rapidly. And they knew it sucks the sweetness out of bread. And because they understood these characteristics of yeast, they understood Jesus's point: The way yeast works in bread is the way sin works in us.”
Pages 68-69 - “The first tree in verse 6 is nothing more than a naked bush. The word arar is related to the Hebrew word for "naked," drawing attention to its location in a bare and stripped land. By contrast, the other tree is flourishing by a river, large and full and green. The difference between the two trees arises from where their roots are located. It's not even so much that the roots are different; it's the location of the roots that determines everything about the tree—its leaves, its branches, its trunk, everything.
Why is that? Because roots exist to do two things. First, they anchor the tree into the ground so neither the tree nor the soil blows away. Second, the roots draw nutrients and moisture from the soil and absorb them. The nutrients are important for growth, but the moisture, if the roots go deep enough to access it, allows the tree to survive during drought conditions.
These two functions are extremely important to remember when we consider the concept of sin. Sin, this passage teaches us, is planting our roots in something other than God.”
Page 71 - “The English bishop William Temple is often said to have phrased the positive test like this: "Religion is what you do with your solitude." When you're not busy with anything - when you don't have to think about your work or your responsibilities or anything else - where does your mind go to get refreshed? What does your mind try to draw nutrients from? Where do you go to get joy? Where do you turn for consolation?”
Page 73 - “Let me show you how radical of an analysis of sin this passage from Jeremiah is. He goes so far as to say in 17:7, "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LoRD, whose confidence is in him." Why does he add that second clause? The English translation masks how powerful this statement is. In the original phrasing, the same Hebrew root is used for the English translation of both "trust" and "confidence" here. It's really saying, "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord." Why would it need to read like that?
Because it's possible to trust in the Lord without making the Lord our trust. Let me explain.
In a sense, there are three kinds of people. First, there is the irreligious person, whose underlying attitude is I'm going to live life my own way. Then there is the religious person who does the things God asks but does them to get something from God. That person is trusting in the Lord for something else— which means their real trust is in that something else. The third person puts their trust in the Lord, and their trust is the Lord.”
Page 95 - “If you feel like nothing after you lose something, it means that the thing you lost was your everything.”
Page 145 - “The weakness and defeat on the cross became the great triumph. The somebody became nobody so that we nobodies could become somebodies. That's the gospel.”
Page 162 - “This is the pattern of addiction. Not all addictions are sin, but the Bible shows us that all sin is addiction. Every sin, whether it's bitterness, envy, materialism, laziness, or sexual impurity, becomes an addiction.”
Page 179 - “The caption for Psalm 51 in my Bible reads, "A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba." The story is well-known. Uriah the Hittite was one of David's truest and best friends, one of the thirty-seven men who went out into the wilderness with David when Saul was trying to kill him
(2 Samuel 23:39). They risked everything to protect David, who would certainly have been killed without them. David owed Uriah and those men his life.”
Page 184 - “The way the Puritans used to identify the four principles of repentance was by saying you have to see your sin, you have to confess your sin, you have to mourn your sin, and you have to hate your sin. You have to see, confess, mourn, and hate.
The first two—seeing and confessing sin—are intellec.-tual, cognitive matters. They are disciplines that, in many ways, have nothing to do with feelings. They require us to think. Then, if you do the first two right, the second two-mourning and hating sin-will bring about an earthquake in your life: a powerful shaking up of your emotions that results in a transformed life.”
Page 190 - “The third step necessary for repentance is to mourn your sin. David says to God, "Against you, you only, have l sinned" (Psalm 51:4). Do you notice the doubling language?
He doesn't just say, "You only." He says, "You, you." In the Semitic languages, one effective way to get across intensity of emotion is repetition. So, for example, when his beloved son dies, David cries, "O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Samuel 19:4.) The repetition is a reflection of intense emotion. Here, in the psalm, he says, "Against you, you only." The repetition expresses his deep sorrow for, his mourning over, his sin.”
Pages 210-211 - “You have to cut all the way down to get the tumor out.
Repenting solely from a fear of punishment and saying, "O Lord, I need to obey you or you're going to reject me," doesn't get under the tumor. David's repentant attitude says this:
Why was there an incredible pull in my heart toward Bathsheba? Why was I willing to murder for her? Because before I committed physical adultery, I had already committed spiritual adultery.
When he says in Psalm 51:12, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation," we tend to think, "Oh, he lost the joy of his salvation because he sinned." That's true, but that's not all. There is more to it. He sinned because he lost the joy of his salvation. We only ever sin because we've lost the joy of our salvation.
David forgot God's unfailing love. He wasn't ravished by it deep in his heart.
In Psalm 51 he sees that the reason he sinned against Uriah and Bathsheba was because he stopped being excited by God. He stopped enjoying him. He stopped being moved by his unfailing love and sacrifice. Until we see that we sin for the same reasons, we won't cut ourselves deep enough to remove our sin. We'll never truly repent.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2026
Tim Keller's practical and challenging Bible teaching lives on. Adapted from a sermon series, the messages are very accessible, so easy to read and as always the application is laid out clearly. Such a good expose of what sin is and how we deceive ourselves. The last two chapters on repentance challenge our superficial dealings with sin in our lives.
January 9, 2026
This resonated with me and the illustrations were great too.
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