The Prodigal God

On Thursday mornings, I am part of a group that has just finished reading through The Prodigal God by Tim Keller.

It has been a great review of the parable of Prodigal Son out of Luke 15. There are many facets of this parable that Tim Keller explores in this book but I will only select a few. First, many see this parable as being all about the younger son who takes the inheretance and goes off and squanders it. He is the major character after all, but it is easy to miss the lesson that is being taught about the older son. The dutiful son. The son who always says "Yes Father" and does all that the Father wants but if you read carefully you will notice how the older son reacts to the younger son and his philandering ways, "The elder brother became angry and refused to go in[to the festival]." (Luke 15:28)

Does that make you pause and think? If not, well it has me. I can often play the part of the older son in my relationships with others, looking down on others who aren't walking with the Lord.

Notice how the Father comes out of the festival to talk and "plead" with the older son. The Father is concerned with both the younger son and the older son!

But another thought occurs to me: which son is it that is forgiven and lives in that forgiveness? You guessed it:
the younger son. Neither of them deserve the Father's love and care but the younger son is willing to accept it but to end of the parable, the older son is mad and refuses to participate in the festival.
Let me encourage you to always stay tender towards your heavenly Father!

In another portion of the book, Tim Keller retells a story about a woman who started going to Redeemer church when he was a  minister there:

"She had never heard the message she was now hearing, that we can be acepted by God by sheer grace through the work of Christ regardless of anything we do or have done. She said, 'That is a scary idea! Oh, it's good scary, but still scary.'
I was intrigued, I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: 'If I was saved by my good works--then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life."
"But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace--at God's infinite cost--then  there's nothing he cannot ask of me." (Page 121)

Do you truly believe you are bought with a price and that you are a slave to God? Or are you a taxpayer with rights?