The God You Can Know

The Prodigal God

A Third Way to Live

One of the books that has been a great encouragement to me the past several years is the book "Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller.   Dr. Keller pastors a church in New York City called Redeemer Presbyterian Church and he has written and taught extensively on the centrality of the gospel as the foundation for the Christian life and the Church.  His book Prodigal God has blessed me and challenged me because of my innate sense of legalism.   As Martin Luther once said, legalism is the default mode of the human heart and this is certainly true of me.

When I placed my faith in Christ my senior year of college at UW-Eau Claire, there was a lot of things going on my my life that I would just as soon forget.  Without mentioning them all, some of the patterns in my life were easy to break and some were hard.  While living a life far separated from God in college, it was as though my life was a car and I had the left tire of my car stuck in a rut.  Coming to Christ enabled me to live a healthy life and pull the tire of my car out of the rut. Yet after coming to Christ, sometimes it felt like I overcompensated and swerved into the rut on the right side of the road of legalism.  In some ways it was hard to turn from my old life, yet in my new life it was easy to be condescending and judgmental toward those that did not put forth my same effort and fortitude.  If Luke 15 and the prodigal son story is a paradigm, I spent my college years as a prodigal son but some significant years after that living as an elder brother who could be condescending, loveless, judgmental and toiling.  As Tim Keller writes, those who live in  the moral performance narrative use sarcasm, self-righteous put down humor and an "unsmiling concentration upon Self".  Ouch!  Reading this book has helped me focus on the central tenant of Christianity...the good news that I am continually loved and forgiven based on Christ's effort, not my own.  When we are secure in our position in Christ because of Christ's merit, we are neither rebellious nor self-righteous.  When I understand the dimensions of Christ's love, I am faithful and generous, "not as a redoubled effort to follow moral rules. Rather, all (heart) change comes from deepening (my) understanding of the salvation of Christ and living out of the changes that understanding creates in (my) heart.  Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, self-understanding, our identity, and our view of the world.  Behavior compliance to rules without heart change will be superficial and fleeting." Prodigal God, page 118.



You can purchase copies of Prodigal God for $5 in the church lobby and find small groups during the week that you can join as you engage with others about who God is, what did Jesus accomplished on the cross and what it means to find a "third way to live"...repenting of the sins of rebellion like a younger brother, but also repenting of self rigtheousness that so characterize the older brother in Luke 15.  I hope this book liberates and frees your spiritual life, as it did mine.