The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith

The reason why this book is so effective is because its aim is so simple. Keller begins the book this way, "This short book is meant to lay out the essentials of the Christian message, the gospel" (p. xi). Christianity is certainly not lacking when it comes to the number of books written on a subject. So how can Keller be so successful while writing on something so, well, basic?The answer is in that key word in the subtitle, recovering. Yes, the "heart of the Christian faith" has been lost like a prodigal son over the centuries. Not that Keller is the only one to attempt to recover it in recent days. But he works within the realm of an orthodox, conservative reading of the Bible and shows how many--both inside and outside the church--have failed to grasp the essence of Jesus's message.The first thing one will want to know about this book is why it is entitled The Prodigal God when it is based on Jesus's parable traditionally known as "The Prodigal Son." The answer is twofold. First, the traditional name of the parable does not do justice to the focus of the story. It is not a story about one son, a so-called prodigal, but rather a story about two sons (Luke 15:11). Second, the word prodigal does not simply mean "wayward" but rather "recklessly spendthrift." And so, Keller argues, it is just as appropriate to use it to describe the father in the story (who obviously represents God) as the younger son (p. xv).In the first chapter the author discusses the setting for Jesus's parable. There were two kinds of people who gathered around to listen to Jesus on this occasion, and the two are represented by the two brothers in the story. The "tax collectors and sinners" were despised by the "Pharisees and the teachers of the law" who were the morally upright people in society. But it is to this second group of people that Jesus's teaching in the parable is directed. Their attitude toward the "wayward sinners" is what Jesus is attacking. This is not because Jesus approves of the behavior of sinners but because Jesus disapproves of the moralism of religious people. This parable will not allow either side to claim God's approval!Everyone seems to understand in general that God does not approve of immoral behavior. But when the younger son returns home, the fact that the father does not allow the son to earn his way back into the family demonstrates that "nothing, not even abject contrition, merits the favor of God" (p. 24). God does not demand that sinners become morally acceptable before he will accept them. Instead, we find Jesus here "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" (p. 28).Keller argues that sin is not only rebellion against God's moral commands; it is also pride in one's moral record. At the end of the story, the elder brother loses the father's love not in spite of his goodness, but because of it (p. 35). In other words, all people are in rebellion against God, either through self-discovery or through moral conformity. Both sons in the story wanted the same thing--the father's possessions. They just took different paths to get there. In other words the elder son, who represents the religious elite, was just as "lost" as his younger brother. Keller contends, "Careful obedience to God's law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God" (p. 37) because "sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord, and Judge just as each son sought to displace the authority of the father in his own life" (p. 43).Thus we can see that the path of moral conformity may be even more dangerous than the path of self-discovery because the former is more blind to his soul's condition than the latter. And we can see why many people who have turned their backs on religion generally have no interest in Christianity: the Christian message has been confused with religion. Keller explains, "Everybody knows that the Christian gospel calls us away from the licentiousness of younger brotherness, but few realize that it also condemns moralistic elder brotherness" (p. 67).In Chapter Five, Keller makes what I found to be the most interesting observation in the story. By comparing and contrasting the parable of the lost son with the other two parables in Luke 15, we find amid the obvious similarities one striking difference. In this final parable, no one goes to seek out that which is lost. But someone should have and the answer is quite obvious. The younger son needed an elder brother who understood his responsibility to keep the family intact and so would have, at his own expense, done whatever was necessary to bring his wayward brother home. Instead, the younger son got a Pharisee for a brother who grumbled at the idea that God would receive such sinners. But in the Christian gospel we find that all humanity has a "True Elder Brother."Keller again:"Think of the kind of brother we need. We need one who does not just go to the next country to find us but who will come all the way from heaven to earth. We need one who is willing to pay not just a finite amount of money, but, at the infinite cost of his own life to bring us into God's family, for our debt is so much greater. Either as elder brothers or younger brothers we have rebelled against the father. We deserve alienation, isolation, and rejection. 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." (pp. 84-85)Keller concludes the book by showing how the parable of the lost son fits the larger context of the entire Bible. This is why it is his contention that in this one parable we have the rare opportunity of seeing clearly, all the way to the bottom, of what the Christian gospel is. All of us find ourselves longing for home--we instinctively know that the way the world is now is not the way it ought to be. Indeed the Bible teaches that we feel this way precisely because we have left "home." We were meant for life in the Garden of God but because of our rebellion against the father we find ourselves in a distant land far from home. But we have a "True Elder Brother" who has come to bring us home, to a real, material world absent of evil and disease and suffering where we can enjoy the feast the Father has prepared in celebration of his children who were lost but have been found.The Prodigal God will most assuredly challenge your fundamental beliefs about the Christian gospel, yet it would be hard to be anything but satisfied by what you begin to see more clearly.

"This short book is meant to lay out the essentials of the Christian message, the gospel." So begins Timothy Keller's new book The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. Keller targets both seekers who are unfamiliar with the gospel and longtime church members who may not feel the need for a primer on the gospel.Keller's book, as the provocative title suggests, is built on one of Jesus' most famous stories: the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15). Keller consents that "on the surface of it, the narrative is not all that gripping." But, he contends that "if the teaching of Jesus is likened to a lake, this famous Parable of the Prodigal Son would be one of the clearest spots where we can see all the way to the bottom." Keller has taught from this passage many times over the years, and says, "I have seen more people encouraged, enlightened, and helped by this passage, when I explained the true meaning of it, than by any other text."The book is laid out in seven brief chapters which aim to uncover the extravagant (prodigal) grace of God, as revealed in this parable. Keller shows how the parable describes two kinds of "lost" people, not just one. Most people can identify the lostness of the "prodigal son," the younger brother in Jesus' story, who takes his inheritance early and squanders it on riotous living. But Keller shows that the "elder brother" in the parable is no less lost. Together, the two brothers are illustrations of two kinds of people in the world. "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." Both brothers are in the wrong, and when we see this, we discover a radical redefinition of what is wrong with us. "Nearly everyone defines sin as breaking a list of rules. Jesus, though, shows us that a man who has violated nothing on the list of moral misbehaviors may be every bit as spiritually lost as the most profligate, immoral person. Why? Because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord and Judge just as each son sought to displace the authority of the father in his own life." As these quotes hint, Keller's exposition of the two sons lays the groundwork for a penetrating analysis and critique of both moral relativists on the liberal left and religious moralists on the conservative right, showing that the latter are just as lost as the former. What both need is Jesus, whom Keller presents as "the true elder brother," the one who comes to our rescue at his own expense. Through his grace, we are given hope and invited to the great feast of the Father.As with Keller's preaching, this book is intelligent and winsome, combining thoughtful reflection on both text and culture with searching heart application. Keller's book is effectively illustrated with a liberal use of stories and quotations from literature, movies, and the arts. Most imporantly, the book orients the reader's heart to the hope of the gospel of God's grace revealed in Christ.One more note: for readers who may have felt intimidated by Keller's recent book The Reason for God, don't shrink away from The Prodigal God. It is probably only 1/3 of the length and much easier to read. I highly recommend it to unbelievers, seekers and established Christians.