Religion vs. Gospel - According to Tim Keller

Religion	Gospel
I obey – therefore, I’m accepted.	I’m accepted – therefore, I obey.
Motivation based on fear and insecurity.	Motivation is based on grateful joy.
I obey God in order to get things from God.	I obey God to get God – to delight and resemble him.
When circumstances in my life go wrong, I am angry at God or myself, since I believe, like Job’s friends that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life.	When circumstances in my life go wrong I struggle, but I know all my punishment fell on Jesus, and that while he may allow this for my training, he will exercise his Fatherly love within my trial.
When I am criticized I am furious or devastated because it is critical that I think myself as a ‘good person’. Threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs.	When I am criticize I struggle, but it is not critical for me to think of myself as a ‘good person’. My identity is not build on my record or my performance but on God’s love for me in Christ. I can take criticism. That’s how I became a Christian.
My prayer consists largely of petition, and it only heats up when I am in a time of need. My main purpose in prayer is control of the environment.	My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. My main purpose is fellowship with him.
My self-view swings between two poles. If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. If and when I am not living up to standards, I feel humble but not confident. I feel like a failure.	My self-view is not based on a view of myself as a moral achiever. In Christ, I am simul justus et peccator – simultaneously sinful and lost – yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad.
My identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard I work, or how moral I am – and so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral. I disdain and feel superior to ‘the Other’.	My identity and self-worth is centered on the one who died for his enemies, who was excluded from the city for me. I am saved by sheer grace. So I can’t look down on those who believe or practice something different from me. Only by grace I am what I am. I’ve no inner need to win arguments.