The Prodigal God (book review)

Title: The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
Author: Timothy Keller

Like many people, I assumed the word prodigal meant "wayward or wasteful." So when Timothy Keller's book first hit the book shelves, I remember looking at the front cover, noticing the "NY Times Bestseller" sticker on the label and thinking to myself, "Bah, this must be another self-help 'spiritual' book about a god who wants to be in a relationship with man in order to bless him but needs some help finding his way." But after noticing this book under the arms of men whose faith I admire and seeing it distributed with the Angel Tree gifts our church sent out last Christmas, giving the book further investigation seemed like a wise choice.

Keller's book starts out by clarifying the definition of prodigal—1) recklessly extravagant, and 2) having spent everything—which gives understanding for the book's title, The Prodigal God. He then puts the story in context with the rest of the chapter of Luke, noting that this parable is Jesus’ response to the grumbling Pharisees and scribes around him and that Christ starts the story by saying, "There was a man who had two sons." By the end of the first chapter, I realized that Timothy Keller's careful handling of Biblical exegesis would not allow this book to just be another dry re-hashing of a wayward son who wound up gnawing on pig feed because of his disobedience to God, and the reader can come away with more than just the knowledge that God is rich in mercy and grace no matter what we've done.

Keller goes on to lay a solid foundation to the story by drawing attention to the fact that the older brother does not enter into the feast at the end of the parable. So what we have is two lost sons; the moralistic older brother who follows all the rules, trying to merit his father's good graces, as well as the wayward and reckless younger brother. These are two personalities everybody can identify with; and apart from walking in God's grace, these two brothers represent the way in which man alienates himself from God.

Our society is divided into two cultures, as Keller points out. The culture of the "older brother" is the conventional moral conformist, commonly known for "stability" as well as striving to please authority figures. The "younger brother" culture lives by their own rules, walking a path of self-discovery. Every person gravitates to one of these two categories, and some combine the two. Both cultures proclaim, "If those people would follow our example, the world would be a better place." Our problem is that, no matter what side of the cultural divide we land on, we still play the role of the two lost sons, alienating ourselves from the Father by a self-centered focus on either keeping all the rules or breaking them all.

Within every person's heart is a hunger for home. The Prodigal God seeks to show us there is no satisfaction in our own efforts and pursuits to fill that longing with the things of this world since they are only here to serve as signs and reminders pointing to the feast—Christ's saving work. If you want a deeper understanding of how we live next to the feast without entering or wander far from it, and if you want a better idea of what this feast looks like, then I recommend reading this book.



Book Reviewed: The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy Keller (2008) Dutton Adult, 160 pp. For more information and resources, including access to the sermon series, visit www.theprodigalgod.com

edited by Erin Smith

"What must we do, then, to be saved? To find God we must repent of the things we have done wrong, but if that is all you do, you may remain just an elder brother. To truly become a Christian we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right. Pharisees only repent of their sins, but Christians repent for the very roots of their righteousness, too. We must learn how to repent of the sin under all our other sins and under all our righteousness – the sin of seeking to be our own Savior and Lord. We must admit that we’ve put our ultimate hope in both our wrongdoing and right doing we have been seeking to get around God or get control of God in order to get hold of those things.

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 becoming a Christian indeed. When you realize that the antidote to being bad is not just being good, you are on the brink. If you follow through, it will change everything—how you relate to God, self, others, the world, your work, you sins, your virtue. It’s called the new birth because its so radical”

– Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God pp 77-78

When God Repents (When God Changes His Mind)

Exodus 32:14 "And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." ~KJV
Exodus 32:14 "And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people." ~ESV
Exodus 32:14 "So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people." ~NASB

1 Samuel 15:29 "Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind."

So how do we reconcile these "furious opposites" as G.K. Chesterton would refer to them? How do we settle this issue of an immutable (unchangeable God) that changed His mind? Well, when C.H. Spurgeon was asked how he reconciled certain "furious opposites" of Scripture his reply was that he didn't need to reconcile close friends.

Let's see what Spurgeon was getting at by taking a step back and looking at Exodus 32:14 in context. In 32:9 the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you." And so it seemed that God would break His covenant with Israel to bring them up from Egypt to the promised land and make a great nation of Jacob's children. It seemed that the Lord's irrevocable call (Romans 11:29) was about to be revoked. He seemed to leave the matter in the hands of Moses... but whose hands was Moses in?!? And so Moses couldn't help but appeal in verses 11-14 to what God swore to do for His servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (v.13).

For further understanding we can look at 2 Chronicles 30 where King Hezekiah seeks repentance for Israel, that they might turn once again as a nation to the Lord.

v.9 For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him." When we see conditional responsiveness of God to man's choices the natural tendency is to make a *"philosophical conclusion" as John Piper would refer to it, by reasoning that God's response depends on what man chooses. We stare at the "if" and claim it as ours. But if the Holy Spirit humbles our mind and heart so that we may abstain from adding the reasoning of man to Scripture and simply let scripture speak for itself we will find what God's response really hinges on. In verse 12 it is revealed "The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD." So let us rather rest on the "biblical conclusion" that it is God's hand that works through it all.

An analogy I like to use is a windy road that ends at a southern destination. At times the road bends (repents) and heads north for a while, but the final destination and the road there have already been predetermined, the bends are all part of the path to getting us to the final destination.

You see, the greatest fruits of the truths of Scripture are not in the high and lofty branches where only the mightiest intellectuals may obtain them, rather they grow near to the ground where a child can reach them but only the humbled would dare to stoop.

Unlike Philip Yancey I do believe Scriptures life principles reduce to a logical consistency (just not the logic of man [Isaiah 55:8]) if we allow the Word to dictate that logic to us. The simple truth here is... God keeps His promises.


"I have observed that all the heresies and errors
have arisen not from Scripture's own plain statements,
but when that plainness of statement is ignored, and men
follow the Scholastic arguments of their own brains." ~Martin Luther


*Proverbs 28:26 "Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered."

References for further study:
The Immutability of God
"Taste and See" by John Piper Daily Meditation #19 'Beware of Common Sense!'

"Let the one who desires take the water of life without price."

Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him"

"Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites by keeping them both and keeping them both furious." G.K Chesterton.

Ezekiel 33:11 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'

Psalm 37:13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.

Matthew 23:37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

Acts 3:19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;

Ephesians 1: v.4 "even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world," v.5 In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will" v.11 "In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according the the counsel of His will" 2:4-5 "But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together in Christ" v.8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God"

Acts 16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved

1 Cor. 2:14 the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.


"In a memorable phrase that became the virtual cornerstone of his theology, G. K. Chesterton said, 'Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites by keeping them both and keeping them both furious.' Most heresies come from espousing one opposite at the expense of the other. Uncomfortable with paradox[antinomy], Christians tend to tilt in one direction or the other, usually with disastrous consequences. Read the theologians of the first few centuries as they try to fathom Jesus, the center of our faith, who was somehow fully God and fully man. Read the theologians of the Reformation as they discover the majestic implications of God's sovereignty, then strive to keep their followers from settling into a resigned fatalism. Read the theologians of today as they debate the intricacies of written revelation: a Bible that expresses God's words to us that is nonetheless authored by individuals of widely varying intelligence, personality, and writing style.

"The first shall be last; find your life by losing it; work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you; he who stoops lowest climbs highest; where sin abounds grace abounds more—all these profound principles of life appear in the New Testament and none easily reduces to logical consistency. 'Truth is not in the middle, and not in one extreme, but in both extremes,' 19th-century British pastor Charles Simeon remarked. With some reluctance, I have come to agree.

"Inside every person on earth, we believe, the image of God can be found. Yet inside each person there lives also a beast. Any religious or political system that does not account for both extremes—furious opposites, in Chesterton's phrase—will sorely fail (surprisingly, the utopians' failures bring down more catastrophe than the cynics'). As a rabbi put it, 'A man should carry two stones in his pocket. On one should be inscribed, "I am but dust and ashes." On the other, "For my sake was the world created." And he should use each stone as he needs it.'" ~Philip Yancey, Reaching For The Invisible God

"The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again."—C. H. Spurgeon

THE comPASSIONate humor OF THE CHRIST

Prelude:

As Jesus grew up into His ministry He became well acquainted with Scripture and would most certainly be familiar with the passages of scripture that talked about the Exodus in which mixed multitudes accompanied the Israelites out of Egypt and sojourned with them(Exodus 12:38, Numbers 15:16). No doubt he read from the scroll of Isaiah (ch.56) where salvation for foreigners is clearly mentioned.
But what Christ had to work with was a culture steeped in ethnocentric religion. The Israelites of the time had perverted Scripture so much they believed salvation was exclusive for themselves, not that their "chosen race" status was to bring light to all nations. Jews did not interact with Gentiles unless it was necessary. Killing a Gentile (foreign dog) was no great crime for an Israelite of the time. To turn a blind eye to a foreigner, even in a life-threatening situation, was common practice (which explains why the story of the "Good Samaritan" shocked Jesus' audience). Christ had to keep pounding the idea that God loved more than just Israel(John 3:16) into the thick-headed Jews over and over again throughout His ministry. In Luke 17 He encounters ten lepers. After they all receive healing only one returns to give praise to God... "this foreigner?"(v.18) as Christ points out to those around Him.

Perhaps one of the humorous passages of scripture is Mark 7:24-29

Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And He was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs." And He said to her, "Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter."

Haha! Did you get it? Do you see the witty banter in the passage? Do you see that Jesus and this women are having a laugh at the expense of the ethnocentric Jews? Not many people do. In modern times we've been trained up to think of Christ as "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild." But the "seeker-friendly jesus" who panders to and seeks favor with every man is an invention of culture and not the Jesus of Scripture. Christ was not crucified for appealing to the fragile sensibilities of fallen man but rather offended and openly mocked (Psalm 37:13)the practices of religious types (i.e. scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees) so much that they determined to kill Him.

Christ didn't spend all day just droning on about precepts as some pastors do. He wasn't crucified for boring people to death as a sallow stoic. He delighted to see the faith in those who were created in the image of His Father. He liked to party with sinners because He enjoyed giving mercy to those who would accept it (Luke 7:34).