| Title | : | The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0525950796 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780525950790 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 139 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2008 |
Taking his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity, Keller uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable. Within that parable Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way.
Look out for Timothy Keller's latest book, The Songs of Jesus, coming from Viking on November 10, 2015.
The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith Reviews
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If you think something is wrong with today's Christianity, and you can't exactly put your finger upon the specific problem, then this may very well be a book that provides profound insight. If I had more time I would try to draw out the distinctions between authentic Christianity and its impostors, but let me share a single quote to give you the flavor of this book:
The gospel of Jesus is not religion or irreleigion, morality or immorality, moralism or relativism, conservatism or liberalism. Nor is it something halfway along a spectrum between two poles - it is something else altogether.
The gist of the book is that the elder son in the parable, the one who faithfully followed the father's directions was just as selfish, sinful and self-centered as the spendthrift younger son who demanded his inheritance early and squandered it in licentious living. There is not only one lost son in this parable, but two. Each son rebelled, one by being very bad, the other by being very good. You can be alienated from God either by breaking his rules or keeping all of them diligently. It is a shocking message, but timely. -
I didn't get on with this at all. It started with the title and although someone tried to persuade me not to get distracted by it, it is on every page! Choosing a less offensive title, however, wouldn't have made this a better book.
Keller dissects the parable of the prodigal son. He introduces the subject as if he has some new and profound revelation, but actually most of the material has been documented before. The things that were new have, in my opinion, been found as a result of Keller reading far more into the parable than was intended by Jesus. John MacArthur once mentioned that numerous preachers had spent a lot of time considering what various characters in the parables may have been intending/thinking. He points out that none of them were thinking anything because they were fictional! Sometimes, it's best just to take the story at face value. It can be worth looking at the cultural context but going beyond that and seeking hidden meanings can lead to some dubious places.
Keller reintroduces a lot of the material found in Desiring God by John Piper. I didn't rate this book either. He focuses on affections as being triggered by an emotional response to God/Jesus. He makes this an essential part of salvation. He doesn't back this up with Scripture. In fact, I found that a lot of what he said wasn't backed up convincingly with Scripture....He does talk about obedience but fails to mention that we are told in John 14 vs 15 "If you love Me, you will obey My commands." There is nothing in this verse or elsewhere about manipulating emotions or affections.
Someone else commented in their review that Keller is trying to get us to worship God for Who He is. Obviously this should be our goal, but the reviewer pointed out that God encourages us to look for eternal rewards. (Store up treasure in heaven etc) He points out that if the hope of eternal life was removed then it would leave people desperately trying to force themselves to worship God with no expectation of reward. How can any of us be expected to do that especially with fallen hearts....? I think Keller may be setting a lot of people up for disappointment when they can't find the experiences or emotions they have been told to seek...
A pastor I know once said that he thought Keller was a dangerous man. Now, I can see why. He has enough intelligence for his opinions to be adopted and to become mainstream. I will stick to the likes of MacArthur who quote Scripture throughout. He has also written a book on the prodigal son which I highly recommend; A Tale of Two Sons. -
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. -
Livro lido em ebook (Scribd) e depois também escutei o audiobook (Pilgrim).
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For such a relatively small tome, the impact it's left on me has been tremendous.
*prod-i-gal/prodigel--adjective
1. recklessly extravagant
2. having spent everything
(The duality of that definition never occurred to me before I got a hold of The Prodigal God.)
This book dissects one of the most oft-recited parables in all of Jesus' ministry: The Prodigal Son. Though the author is quick to point out that the story Jesus used as a teaching illustration wasn't named that by Him...he simply started out by saying: “There was a man who had two sons.” Keller suggests that instead of focusing on the lost son, as so many reading or teaching this parable are prone to do, we consider looking at it as a story of TWO lost sons. And from there, he lays out a studious argument for why both sons were in fact equally lost in their own destructive ways. One went off in overt rebellion and in-your-face dishonor/selfishness, while the other suffered from a more insidious heart condition—one masked by legalism and pride. Both were equally wrong. Both grieved their father.
It took until I was well into adulthood before I grasped the actual context of this story. Jesus was hanging out with a crowd of what Jewish society at the time would have considered the most 'undesirable' people—tax collectors and other all-around sinners. The uber-religious folk of that time/culture (Pharisees and teachers of the law) were of course watching and muttering amongst themselves about the poor quality of company Jesus was keeping. It was in the midst of this setting that Jesus told not one but three parables, culminating with the one The Prodigal God focuses on.
If I let myself highlight everything that struck me as poignant in this book, there would be more highlighting than not. >.< But here are a few favorite/illuminating quotes:
*"Religion operates on the principle of “I obey—therefore I am accepted by God.” The basic operating principle of the gospel is “I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ—therefore I obey.”
*"The key difference between a Pharisee and a believer in Jesus is inner-heart motivation. Pharisees are being good but out of a fear-fueled need to control God."
*"If, like the elder brother, you believe that God ought to bless you and help you because you have worked so hard to obey him and be a good person, then Jesus may be your helper, your example, even your inspiration, but he is not your Savior. You are serving as your own Savior."
Keller also brought to my attention this critical point I'll admit I somehow overlooked for my almost entire life: It was the wild younger son who ultimately repented and reconciled himself to his father...but we're left not knowing if the self-righteous elder son did or not. (Jesus may have invented the cliffhanger ending. >.>)
If I've not realized the depth and significance of such a small piece of scripture, I have to wonder how very limited my understanding of the rest of it must be. And I'm both humbled and inspired to spend more consistent time in studying that which my tiny mind can never fully comprehend—the mysterious and boundless nature of God. -
It is hard to imagine a person who loves God, or a person considering the existence of God, not benefitting from reading this beautiful exposition of the parable of the two lost sons (aka, the prodigal son). The book is simultaneously short and simple, deep and profound. It is one that I will return to again and again. God used this book to penetrate my soul deeply resulting in personal confession and worship.
Quotes:
If, like the elder brother, you believe that God ought to bless you and help you because you have worked so hard to obey him and be a good person, then Jesus may be your helper, your example, even your inspiration, but he is not your Savior. You are serving as your own Savior.
It’s not the repentance that causes the father’s love, but rather the reverse.
Repentance is not less than that, but it is much more, because the list approach isn’t sufficient to address the condition of the elder brother.
To truly become Christians we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right.
The key difference between a Pharisee and a believer in Jesus is inner-heart motivation. Pharisees are being good but out of a fear-fueled need to control God.
Rather, he is saying that the inevitable sign that you know you are a sinner saved by sheer, costly grace is a sensitive social conscience and a life poured out in deeds of service to the poor. Younger brothers are too selfish and elder brothers are too self-righteous to care for the poor.
Religion operates on the principle of “I obey—therefore I am accepted by God.” The basic operating principle of the gospel is “I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ—therefore I obey.” -
Short treatise on the parable of the prodigal son. Excellent points about not only what we often think of as the point of the story, the son who goes astray 'the prodigal', but also a great point about the dangers of being the 'elder son', but the best thing of all about the book is a short look at the word 'prodigal'.
It is God who is the lavish giver in this parable. He lavishly gives to his undeserving sons, both of them.
prod·i·gal
/ˈprädəɡəl/
adjective
1.
spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.
"prodigal habits die hard"
synonyms: wasteful, extravagant, spendthrift, improvident, imprudent, immoderate, profligate, thriftless, excessive, intemperate, irresponsible, self-indulgent, reckless, wanton
"prodigal habits die hard"
2.
having or giving something on a lavish scale.
"the dessert was crunchy with brown sugar and prodigal with whipped cream"
synonyms: generous, lavish, liberal, unstinting, unsparing, bountiful; More
noun
noun: prodigal; plural noun: prodigals
1.
a person who spends money in a recklessly extravagant way. -
A balm to my soul. A compassionate, joyful, fleshed out reminder of the Gospel. I can see why Keller is compared to a modern Lewis. This was my first book of his but it won’t be the last. And you cranky people can put that in your pipe and smoke it. ;)
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2011: I finally read my first Tim Keller book! Excellent, very engaging. His main point -- there are two brothers in the parable, not just one. And thus, moralism is just as bad as the behaivour we normally call sin. Which means that both the 'sinful' person and the 'moral' person are both far from the Father, because neither is relying on his grace to meet their true need. I also loved the chapter on hope, where he presents the biblical theme of exile and homecoming. This chapter was where I most agreed with the comparisons I've heard between Tim Keller and CS Lewis.
Read again 2019: Even more compelling. -
Quick read. Small book (both physically and in its 148 pp). Whole thing is based on the parable of the prodigal son. Most of us just think it's about forgiving Rowdy Roddy (#2 Son), but Keller spends 150 pp. telling us, "Nope. Wrong." Nicely, I mean.
For him, the parable is about equally bad bros -- both the prodigal who burns through Dad's money and then comes back as a penitent AND the elder, who resents the fact that his father welcomes Rowdy home. Guess who comes out smelling like a Biblical rose? Yep. Dad.
Anyway, Keller first divides much of mankind between "elder brother" and "younger brother" types -- the tow-the-rope, self-described pillars of society and religion and the free spirits who go off and blow it off. They're equally sinful, in their way, and Keller equates religious zealots who judge others as being guilty of the elder son's sin. Cool. He takes it beyond that, drawing in a few literary references along the way, and finishing with a rather open and refreshing view of religion (Christianity started as an anti-religion, if that helps).
Easy, thought-provoking stuff. Atheists who dismiss believers are in here too. Guess what? Elder son sorts. Just like the Pharisees. Go figure.... -
Nearly every Christian knows, in an obvious way, that he most repent of his rebellious sin and loose living. But, repenting of good works? This is almost completely foreign. Good works are what Christians are supposed to pursue, right? How can they be a bad thing?
In this book, Tim Keller excellently demonstrates how good works without a proper gospel foundation are damnable before God. Keller elaborates on what he calls "Elder Brother-ness," referring to the elder brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15:11-32. After breaking the parable into two acts, Keller examines the root heart issues in each brother's story and how each desperately needs God's grace, grace which God dispenses prodigally on his children.
This book is for church people, and I know many church people who need it. From the super-rigid Reformed folks to the light-hearted Charismatics, all believers have much to gain from reading Keller's work. I was both encouraged and convicted through the entire read. Definitely a winner here. -
Took me ages to actually finish this, so the start is a little far back in my memory but it finished really string likening the parable to the entire history of the world. Highlights some super interesting and vital truths about our desire for home, which will never be satisfied in this life. Super encouraging 🎉🎉
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The title of this book intrigued me. We normally entitle the story from Luke 15, the "Prodigal Son." However, Keller names his book, "The Prodigal God." And in the first part of the book, he defines the word prodigal. It means "recklessly extravagant, having spent everything." And then he drops the hammer - that is our God when it comes to the grace and what He offers! He is and has been recklessly extravagant (who would give their only Son to die for wicked sinners?) and spent all that He had.
He then names the parable differently then you might expect. He entitles it, "The Parable of the Two Lost Sons" and shows that both of these sons show two different types of people and the way they attempt to gain favor with God. They are both wrong but he shows with extraordinary tenderness and skill that the "elder brother" type is so much more dangerous due to it being so much more difficult to detect.
I must admit, God convicted me throughout the book. He also showed me that one of the major reason that young people are fleeing our Bible-believing churches in droves today is due to the "elder brother mindset." We look at disdain at the "younger brother" types and are often angry and upset with them instead of acting like the father acts towards them. Oh the conviction!
Thank you Lord for sending this book my way - it is what I needed! -
Keller has been called the C.S. Lewis of our day, and I agree they are similar in clarity of thought and expression. (Keller's work is not as dense or full of useful illustrations as Lewis'.) In this book, he discusses the parable usually referred to as the prodigal son, but focuses on the "prodigal" (reckless) love of the father in the story, which of course is really about God's reckless, pursuing love of us. He talks a lot about the older brother and how we might be more like the older brother than the younger, but how God pursues him, too, in all his curmudgeonly religiosity.
April 2018: What stood out to me the most in this reading of the book was Keller's discussion of spiritual homesickness--we are all longing for our heavenly home and will experience glimpses of it here. I appreciate the way he creates contrast, such as between the two lost brothers, but then introduces a 3rd option we hadn't thought of, like Jesus as the elder brother who pursues us in our state of lostness. And although I said his work is not as full of useful illustrations, he does give plenty of apt examples and illustrations from other works, from Amadeus to Babette's Feast. -
Sometimes big things do come in small packages. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Tim Keller is one of those “big things.”
Keller tackles the Parable of the Prodigal Son. His approach confronts the typical interpretation that fixates on the sin of the younger brother in Christ’s parable – the prodigal son. Keller does not minimize the sin of the younger brother. Rather, he emphasizes the heinous nature of his sin and explores the sin of the older brother as well – whose sin that is no less evil than his wayward brother.
The two brothers and their father not only set up the framework for the parable; they provide the basis for Keller’s assertions. The younger brother is the rebel; the one who sinfully squandered his inheritance. The older brother despised the act of mercy and grace demonstrated by the father toward the wayward son. The younger son tries to find happiness and fulfillment through self-discovery. The older son tries to find happiness through moral conformity. Keller adds, “The message of Jesus’s parable is that both of these approaches are wrong.”
The remaining sections of the book redefine sin, lostness, and hope – all based on the parable under consideration. Keller implies that all people gravitate toward one of the two brothers. He explodes traditional categories and offers fresh encouragement to rebel types and Pharisee types. At the end of the day, readers are challenged to repent of the sins of self-discovery and/or moral conformity.
The Prodigal God is a reaffirmation of the biblical gospel set forth in categories that are understandable to believers and unbelievers alike. I plan to utilize this resource as an evangelistic tool. I also plan to read this little treasure from time to time to remind myself of the gospel realities that emerge in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. -
If you don't understand the gospel, this book is for you! I was humbled and repented for my elder-brotherliness! Humility and love echoes in this book. This is the gospel.
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I had heard from at least three people who read this book that it changed their lives. I was curious. I don't like Timothy Keller's books and have to say that this one didn't give me warm fuzzies about him either. The preface and first chapter set it up like he knows this great new way of looking at the prodigal son.
I am one who believes that Jesus gives parables to those who have ears to hear. He says Himself in Matthew 13 that there would be some who persisted in unbelief. The purpose of the prodigal son (some Bibles have "the parable of the two sons" as a heading to this chapter so this idea that both sons needed saving is not a new concept unique to this book) was to show along with the lost sheep and lost coin the great joy that comes to God when someone repents and turns to Him.
I am not super impressed by the claim on the front jacket "he uses one of the best-known Christian parables to reveal an unexpected message of hope." He writes a lot of things I haven't heard written or spoken of when I hear or read this parable taught. For example:
"he is especially upset about the cost" (the fatted calf) the elder brother is jealous, not concerned about how much the party costs! I have lived long enough to know that what was burning in his heart when the younger brother returned was not about how much money the father spent but pure jealousy because bad behaving brother is getting a party and good behaving brother is not. It is human...Cain and Abel / Jacob and Esau.
"the bad son enters the father's feast but the good son will not"... we actually don't know what happened to the older brother. The story ends with the father affirming his love for the older brother without his response. We don't know that for a fact because that was not the point of the parable Jesus taught.
"because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior" so, this is Keller's big reveal...a new definition of sin. Not so much. There is nothing new about this. There is no 2nd grader that leaves my Sunday school class after a year with me who doesn't know that sin is putting something else or our own self before God. For another example of how this is not some new revelation that we are hearing, you can turn to Exodus 20 where God gives commandment number 1 to Moses (and I learned it in the old King James early in my life) "Thou shalt have no other God's before Me" That is pretty clear. The 10 commandments have been around a long time.
Keller talks about a pattern that the elder brother is in "it may be that the elder brother, to bolster his own image of himself, needed a chronically wayward sibling to criticize, and the smug older brother only made it harder for the younger to admit his problems and change his life." WHAT? So when the younger comes home and the father welcomes him he writes "the elder brother realizes that the pattern is being broken and his fury is white hot." This is taking the passage way out of context. If this isn't pop psychology injected into God's word at its finest, I don't know what is.
TK spends time talking about our natural desire to be home, the nostalgia of the home we remember and then he compares the nostalgia with the longing of the younger brother to go home. The truth is, the younger son was penniless and had no food. It is clear from Jesus' words that he was looking for a way to survive. He was going to settle being his father's servant rather than starve. It doesn't sound like nostalgia, it was survival.
All in all I could pull many examples of Keller reading a lot more into this parable than Jesus intended. Just studying the context. Yes he was speaking to Pharisees and sinners, yes there are many Christians today that are operating out of the Pharisee handbook and may have heard something that was for them. The point is, Jesus gave parables to those who have ears to hear.
I felt that as he wrote of the "True Elder Son" the message was weak. There was so much more in the book that was speculation and reading into the parable than actual hope. He claimed to share new insights to the parable and indeed he did. I am just not so sure that the sweeping generalizations of younger son and elder son will resonate with everyone. It didn't for me.
For those stuck in legalism and those in rebellion against God there may have been some good points they could ponder but the Bible says we shouldn't be adding to or taking away from His written word. Keller says numerous times that this parable was aimed primarily at the Pharisees. They didn't have an ear so I would have to disagree because of what Jesus says in Matthew 13. Maybe it planted a seed or two in a couple of people but Jesus wants us to know His great joy when a sinner repents...the lost is found.
I will end with this. On page 81 we read "Jesus knew His Bible thoroughly". I don't know what stopped me there other than the very thought that who would think He wouldn't? I question Keller's theology in that Jesus IS the WORD. He IS the Bible, and because of that very fact I bow down before Him. I worship Him, I read His word knowing that He will change me through it. I can't do anything myself...there are a lot of places where I read in this book that "we have to..." works. He does it in us and it starts with right interpretation of scripture.
You can find the lessons Keller is trying to pull out of this parable many other places in the Bible. I found stuffing all of this into this one parable, like the whole Bible revolves around this one story a little exhausting. God is an extravagant God, there is not doubt but the fact of this parable is this...no matter what your sin, Jesus saves anyone with extravagant grace who will come to Him, believing in their hearts and confessing with their mouths that He is Lord. From the highest of heights arrogance to the lowliness and filth of the pig trough. -
A very interesting and convicting book with a new look at the parable of the prodigal son…
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Gives new meaning to a well known New Testament parable. Very much enjoyed this one
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A compelling sermon drew this book to my attention. Much of Keller's commentary on the Parable of the Two Lost Sons (aka The Prodigal Son) has crept into evangelicalism in the almost decade since it's publication. But his insights into the sanctimonious legality of the older brother and licentious profligate adventures of the younger brother remain convicting. In the spirit of confession, I acknowledge that I am firmly in the older brother's camp of pharisees.
Yet the broader, tougher teachings of the parable remain misunderstood and do not seem to be internalized to the same degree by the evangelical community. How do we older brother types embrace the cost of welcoming the younger brother back? How do we respond with joy to the Father's incredible generosity to all people - even those that have hurt us? (I remain surprised that the parable of the generous vineyard owner was not included, and found myself wondering how Keller would expound on the passage of Matthew 20, culminating with verse 15 " Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?") How do we work through the longing for home that will only be satisfied in heaven? It was the broadening of the parable to examine themes that run through the Bible, and the exposition of the longing for home, both it's pervasiveness and elusiveness, that particularly challenged me in the pages of Chapter 6. In this chapter, Keller makes reference to the first chapter of C. Plantinga's "Engaging God's World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning and Living (Eerdmans, 2002), a book that made my to-read list.
"...we have been living in a world that no longer fits our deepest longings...story after story contains the pattern of exile. The message of the Bible is that the human race is a band of exiles trying to come home." (Keller, The Prodigal God, page 108-109)
Part of what makes Keller so approachable --and so celebrated--is his use of cultural references, particularly those from literature and film, to expound Biblical truths without overshadowing them. I found his discussion of the movie Amadeus, which I watched when much younger, compelling to the point that I would like to watch it again with the wisdom of age and the insight of Salieri as a co-suffering older brother. Explored alongside Christian classics such as CS Lewis' "The Four Loves" and "The Weight of Glory" and works by Luther, Bonhoeffer and Tolkien, Keller also weaves in the more secular "East of Eden" by Steinbeck, Knowles "A Separate Peace," and Dineson's "Babette's Feast" demonstrating two truths: 1) Good writers read, and 2) Good writers evoke further exploration by their readers.
Finally, Keller's breezy, pastoral style examines these Biblical truths and cultural confluences in a mere 150 pages, making this an excellent book to share with both "curious outsiders and established insiders of the Christian faith, both to those Jesus calls 'younger brothers' and those he calls 'elder brothers' in the famous parable." (Keller, The Prodigal God, xvi). I highly recommend this book for personal and group study, as well as a small gift for loved ones both resistant to or convinced of the gospel message.
Other books from Christian living include:
The Green Letters, Stanford, 1981
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... -
Within our book group this threw up lots of topic for conversation. We spoke about serving the Lord. How we should feel about that service. We spoke about religiosity. How going to church no more makes you a Christian the same way as a mouse that lives in a biscuit jar doesn’t become a choco-chip cookie! What should a proper elder brother have done? Wouldn’t he have searched long and hard to find his brother and try and bring him back to the family? How far do we go as individuals to bring people to the Father? But perhaps the conversation that stands out most for me was how its all about our heart for God. We can all talk the talk from time to time, but God knows our hearts. Within the group we all explored how we sometimes think, how we act and speak. How these things can not only create barriers for ourselves with God, but what impression do we give to others who are watching how we live our lives as Brothers and Sisters in Christ. It really wakened us to our own elder brother characteristics.
This was a really challenging and though provoking read, and I would recommend it for anyone, no matter where they are on their journey! -
Keller's little book does an excellent job at expositing the Parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15. The first thing he does is to correct the error in how we've titled this parable. The Prodigal Son is only half of the story as Keller, more accurately names the parable as "The Parable of the Lost Sons" as the second son is as much a part of the story as the first who leaves his father and wastes his money. Keller defines the two lifestyles as shown in the story between the two brothers as the aesthetic, immoral lifestyle for the younger brother and the ethical legalistic lifestyle of the older brother. People generally will choose to live by one of these two lifestyles and Keller points out that the purpose of the parable was for Christ to show us that the gospel cuts through both as our heavenly Father desires for both types of people to enter into his feast and to live by the grace of God and now by the selfish choices we often make. This is an excellent little book that shows the grace of Christ and how each and every one of us need to analyze whether or not we are living our lives as either the younger or older brother .
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A Fresh Look at the Parable of the Prodigal Son
As many times as I have looked at this Parable, I now know that I did not see it completely or clearly. It demonstrates that God’s words are so rich and deep, and we help each other to understand it completely. -
Absolutely beautiful. Keller captures much of what I find hopeful and inspiring about Christianity. Keller discusses the radical ways in which the parable of the prodigal son redefines 'sin'. His ideas echo and add color to some of my favorite thoughts regarding sin from Adam Miller (see chapter on sin from "Letters to a Young Mormon") and Terry Warner (see "The Bonds that Make Us Free"). Christian concepts of sin and redemption infuse me with love and compassion for others. Keller's ideas certainly heightened my desire to love more. To abandon self-righteousness and to appreciate Christ intimately and freshly. I highly recommend.
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Exceptional. A fairly quick read through the parable of the prodigal son, but per usual Tim Keller infuses a cultural context for today with many readers in identifying as a 'younger son'--those who are free spirited and want no other control in their life but their own, and the 'elder brothers' many people who may in fact be practicing Christians, but are relying on their moral performance and control of their own lives to save themselves.
In the end Tim brings us back to the gospel...whether we struggle with either brother's mentality, we still need God to transform our lives :)
Highly recommend for current Christians or those who are curious about Christianity -
I already believed that the parable of the prodigal son was one of the most beautiful illustrations of the human condition in light of the gospel that there ever was. Now I am more convinced that I thought I could be. My mans Timmy K is an absolute baller. Would recommend to anyone.
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The book is an exposition of the parable of the Prodigal Son in the gospel of Luke. Keller is warm-hearted as he focuses attention on the older brother who he takes to be overly conservative Christians who look to a self-salvation through works, not realizing that they too, are in need of a Savior.
Keller, not surprisingly, picks out a third way between the two, pointing to Jesus as the better older brother. He concludes by pointing to salvation through Jesus as the motivation for good works such as feeding and clothing the poor, and caring for those in the community.
Though I sometimes find Keller’s Third-wayism tiresome at times, here it does illuminate an important distinction between seeking our own salvation via two means—following the law or following our own lusts. He does draw out a brief criticism of those who defend the right worship of God which I would disagree with, as it could be seen as a denial of the regulative principle or the means of grace. A charitable reading would instead see this as attacking those who might see a person moving through the motions and trusting that for salvation, rather than Christ, such as that type of worship that is often found in the Catholic church or modern evangelical worship. This would fit more in line with the theme of the book and I think expresses the intention of the author.
The book’s title belies probably the main issue with the book. The idea that God “bankrupted heaven” or was “reckless” by sending Jesus to earth is misguided at best. This may make for a good emotional pull, but the thought that an infinite God is reckless is dangerous as it implies that God is not thinking or caring of the consequences of his actions. God is “most pure spirit, … incomprehensible, … most wise, most holy, most free … working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will.” WCF 2.1.
In the end, it is a book challenging to those outside the church and a call to those inside the church to examine our own hearts for where we may be trusting or loving ourselves instead of Christ. -
(Referring to the third and final parable in Luke 15)
“The hearts of the two brothers were the same. Both sons resented their father’s authority and sought ways of getting out from under it. They each wanted to get into a position in which they could tell the father what to do. Each one, in other words, rebelled—but one did so by being very bad and the other by being extremely good. Both were alienated from the father’s heart; both were lost sons.
Do you realize, then, what Jesus is teaching? Neither son loved the father for himself. They both were using the father for their own self-centered ends rather than loving, enjoying, and serving him for his own sake. This means that you can rebel against God and be alienated from either by breaking his rules OR by keeping all of them diligently.
It’s a shocking message: Careful obedience to God’s law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God.”
I was definitely wrecked by this short, powerful book. Lord, may you help me find the Gospel way of not being like the elder brother nor the younger brother. Guard me against both selfishness and self-righteousness. -
Un kurš no dēliem esi Tu?
Īstajā laikā, īstajā vietā.
