#103 Book Review: The Prodigal God
It’s the night before I leave for Summer Beach Project at Myrtle Beach, SC, and I am so glad to have stumbled upon Timothy Keller’s The Prodigal God.
It’s his commentary on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, or according to Keller, the Parable of the Two Lost Sons, in Luke 15. Before Jesus, there were two ways to live in this world. (1) Elder-brother-style: obeying God for control, reward, and self-justification; and (2) Younger-brother-style: rebelling against God for self-discovery and instant gratification. Keller does a great job, I think, in going over how each style manifests into our spiritual lives in this world. Keller seemingly makes an argument that Elder-brother-style is worse than the other, but regardless, both lead to not only destruction but also breaking of the father’s heart.
“The targets of this story are not “wayward sinners” but religious people who do everything the Bible requires. Jesus is pleading not so much with immortal outsiders as with moral insiders.”
“Because the elder brother is more blind to what is going on, being an elder-brother Pharisee is a more spiritually desperate condition.”
That’s why Jesus came to offer a third way to live by dying on the Cross.
“It’s not the repentance that causes the father’s love, but rather the reverse. The father’s lavish affection makes the son’s expression of remorse far easier.”
He redefined what sin is through this Parable. This has HUGE implications for Christianity, because the journey of faith begins when an individual’s realizes his/her sin and the supreme moral being that counters sin. If sin is more than just a list of wrongdoings, then living a moral life is insufficient to be saved.
“It is only when you see the desire to be your own Savior and Lord-lying beneath both your sins and your moral goodness-that you are on the verge of understanding the gospel and becoming a Christian indeed.”
But wait wait wait. If the two lost sons are humans and the father is God…where is Jesus in this story? In summing up the objective of this parable, Keller answers the question:
“The point of the parable is that forgiveness always involves a price-someone has to pay. There was no way for the younger brother to return to the family unless the older brother bore the cost himself. Our true elder brother paid our debt, on the cross, in our place.”
It’s not repentance that changes us. Nor is it forgiveness. It’s our conviction in God’s costly grace that should drive our own selflessness, truly reflecting the nature and character of Christ Jesus our Lord. I love this hymn by John Newton (the author of “Amazing Grace”):
“Our pleasure and our duty,
though opposite before,
since we have seen his beauty,
are joined to part no more.”
Keller does not end there, however, as he did not finish going over the parable. The last part, the festival, comprises his last chapter. While it is something I’ve read about before, hence not as refreshing as the book as a whole, it completes his wonderful commentary on the Parable of the Two Lost Sons. After all, I loved the parts when he talked about how “salvation is not only objective and legal but also subjective and experimental.” This is from Jonathan Edwards:
“There is a difference between believing that God is holy and gracious, and having a new sense on the heart of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of its sweetness.”
Another part I loved is when he talked about how the material world matters because salvation itself was materialistic. Christianity is the most materialistic of all religions. It’s because: “Jesus’ miracles were not so much violations of the natural order, but a restoration of the natural order.”
I wrote this review in a real hurry (so that I can go to sleep), so it lacks a more critical reflection. Nonetheless, it’s a book that all Christians should read!!!
