Book Review: The Prodigal God

Jesus’s purpose is not to warm our hearts but to shatter our categories.” With that, Tim Keller reminded me that I am just as much in need of a Savior in my Christian school, evangelical church, holy huddle comfort zone as those who have been convicted of the most astonishing crimes our society has ever seen.  The Prodigal God is an incredible look at the parable of the prodigal son from Luke 15.  For far too long, Christians have looked down their religious Pharisaical noses at the younger brother, failing to realize their own shortcomings as the elder brother.  I have been guilty of this for far too long and am reminded anew that there isn’t anything that I have to do to “become”, instead, I “already am” based on the work of Christ on the cross.

Here are some thoughts I highlighted while reading…

  • Jesus is showing us the God of Great Expenditure, who is nothing if not prodigal toward us, his children.  God’s reckless grace is our greatest hope.
  • The parable of the two sons takes an extended look at the soul of the older brother, and climaxes with a powerful plea for him to change his heart.
  • Jesus is pleading not so much with immoral outsiders as with moral insiders.
  • Jesus’s purpose is not to warm our hearts but to shatter our categories.
  • Jesus himself was the temple to end all temples, the priest to end all priests, and the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.
  • The best robe in the house would have been the father’s own robe, the unmistakable sign of restored standing in the family.  The father is saying, “I’m not going to wait until you’ve paid off your debt; I’m not going to wait until you’ve duly groveled.  You are not going to earn your way back into the family, I am going to simply take you back.  I will cover your nakedness, poverty, and rags with the robes of my office and honor.
  • Jesus is redefining everything we thought we knew about connecting to God.  He is redefining sin, what it means to be lost, and what it means to be saved.
  • Jesus uses the younger and elder brothers to portray the two basic ways people try to find happiness and fulfillment: the way of moral conformity and the way of self-discovery.
  • Careful obedience to God’s law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God.
  • There are two ways to be your own Savior and Lord.  One is by breaking all the moral laws and setting your own course, and one is by keeping all the moral laws and being very, very good.
  • Elder brother self-righteousness not only creates racism and classism, but at the personal level creates an unforgiving, judgmental spirit.
  • Elder-brother obedience only leads to a slavish, begrudging compliance to the letter of the law.
  • The heart’s fundamental self-centeredness is not only kept intact but nurtured by fear-based moralism.
  • There are many people today who have abandoned any kind of religious faith because they see clearly that the major religions are simply full of elder brothers.
  • Everyone knows that the Christian gospel calls us away from the licentiousness of younger brotherness, but few realize that is also condemns moralistic elder brotherness.
  • The father’s lavish affection makes the son’s expression of remorse far easier.
  • To truly become Christians 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.
  • Mercy and forgiveness must be free an unmerited to the wrongdoer.
  • You need to be moved by the sight of what it cost to bring you home.  The key difference between a Pharisee and a believer in Jesus is inner-heart motivation.
  • When we see the beauty of what he has done for us, it attracts our hearts to him.
  • Our life-long nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation.  -C.S. Lewis The Weight of Glory
  • The message of the Bible is that the human race is a band of exiles trying to come home.  The parable of the prodigal son is about every one of us.
  • The solution to stinginess is a reorientation to the generosity of Christ in the gospel, where he poured out his wealth for you.

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