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You can avoid Jesus as Savior by keeping all the moral laws. If you do that, then you have “rights.” God owes you answered prayers, and a good life, and a ticket to heaven when you die. You don’t need a Savior who pardons you by free grace, for you are your own Savior. – Tim Keller
My wife and I have just finished reading Tim Keller’s Prodigal God as part of our early morning time together. Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, is one of my favorite authors and communicators. Over the years I have been blessed to read, watch and observe him in person. I have been deeply impacted by his insights and understanding of the gospel. Some would consider Keller as the C.S. Lewis of this generation and I would be hard-pressed to argue.
Prodigal God takes Jesus’ well-known parable in Luke 15 about a man who had two sons and draws out the essential message of the gospel to all people. It serves to help both those who are new to the things of faith as well as those who have walked as Christians for years. The parable is often known for its emphasis on the younger brother, who having squandered his father’s wealth on wild living, in a moment of repentance returns to his father and is received with open arms. Many of us know this story by its title, “The Prodigal Son.”
Yet Keller proposes another look at the story and declares that the real emphasis isn’t on the younger brother but his older sibling. “There was a man who had two sons” (Luke 15:11). While we easily identify the willful disobedience of the younger son and see his profound confession and turning from his wicked ways, we often fail to see that older son is also very lost. As you understand the context that Jesus is speaking, you realize He has been confronted by religious leaders who are upset that this man “received sinners and eats with them” (verse 1). They cannot fathom why Jesus would spend His time associating with people they perceived to be apart from God.
So to illustrate His point, Jesus tells three stories about things that are lost and then recovered (sheep, coin, son) and then leaves His listeners scratching their heads as His third tale ends with an elder son standing outside a wonderful celebration with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. Keller asserts that Jesus is pleading with the moral insiders to see “their blindness, narrowness, and self-righteousness, and how these things are destroying their own souls and the lives of the people around them” (p. 10). So whether you are irreligious or religious, all of us are alienated from God and in need of a Savior.
This book hit home for me in so many different ways as I can connect with the elder son. Being the oldest in my family, I have walked the straight and narrow for most of my life, adhering to the moral code, doing the right thing, and often lauded for my behavior and character. I do not have a younger brother tale to tell and find it difficult to relate to a past of rebellion and lawlessness.
Yet I know and recognize I have often been far from the Father, alienated from His grace and love because of my own self-pride in my own moral conformity. I have far too often stood in judgment, with my arms crossed and a large scowl toward others, including those closest to me. I have served with a sense of duty instead of a heart of thanksgiving. I have failed to see that my Father wants me to enter into His celebration, and instead, I decline the offer.
I must confess that I am the older brother more often than I want to be. This book has brought this to light and caused me to repent of this sin that keeps me from truly enjoying all that the gospel has to offer. I want to be humble and contrite and return to my Father so that He, “filled with compassion for him, ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” (verse 20). His love delights, galvanizes and consoles me. That this God would love me and receive me, in spite of my pride and arrogance is astonishing. My prayer is that all of us, no matter where we align ourselves (younger brother or older) would allow God’s prodigal grace to transforms us.
“I’m sorry you’re mad because you just found out the world doesn’t revolve around you. Here, let me pour you a tall glass of get over it.”