God bless you brother.

Since Matt has done such a good job of relating the general theme of the book, I will simply tell how the book was edifying to me.

A week or so before I got the book in the mail I had a conversation with a friend. The result of this conversation was that I was plunged into spiritual depression. The weight of my depravity was crushing in on me. I had feelings of guilt rush in like a flood.

I carried on in this state for about a week. I felt the whole time like a candle that has just been put out. All that was left of my joy in God was like the smoke floating slowly up from the now cold candle wick.

There is no doubt in my mind that Chris giving me this book was providential. The gospel message contained in the book was just what I needed.

As I understood the gospel as laid out in the book, I was reminded of the infinite love of a God who has already welcomed me into the festival of his love and clothed me with righteousness. As the truth of the gospel sank in, I felt the feelings of guilt lift. My joy in God was rekindled. The candle that was once quenched was lit and I felt alive again.

It is amazing how often we Christians need to be reminded of the Gospel. For some reason there is this notion among many Christians that the gospel is what gets people saved and then we live out our Christian lives based on something else taught in the Bible.

The Prodigal God explodes this idea and reminds us all of the importance of having the gospel of God at the center of all that we do.

Thanks Chris for the book. I pray that you are blessed for your generosity. I will do my part to share it with my friends and family.

Tim Keller has, as long as I have been listening to him, heralded the importance of understanding that sin is not so much a matter of breaking these impersonal “Laws”, but that sin is ultimately about idolatry, about humanity’s betrayal of the Living and Loving God. In “The Prodigal God” Keller blows this trumpet once again, loud and clear:

“This attitude is clearly that of the elder brother…He feels like he has the right to tell the father how the robes, rings and livestock of the family should be deployed. In the same way, religious people commonly live very moral lives, but their goal is to get leverage over God, to control Him, to put Him in a position where they think He owes them. Therefore, despite all their ethical fastidiousness and piety, they are actually rebelling against His authority.” p.38

Our young friend could not see the reality that he had sinned against a Holy God, and he would not until he acknowledged that it was not some vague principle or system that he had rebelled against, but rather the Actual person of God Almighty. My young friend does not live in flagrant sin (like the “younger brother” of the Prodigal Son) but rather in the enslaved state of works righteousness that he thinks will suffice in the end (like the “older brother” of the same story).

Preaching/teaching like Keller’s is so essential in our day: there is a profound need, not to give a great exposition of the ways in which sinners need to repent, but rather the awesome, free, unmerited, scandalous love and mercy of the God Who accomplished that which man can only dream of. Sin needs to be properly defined in our pulpits, not as the mere breaking of “Laws” but as rebellion and spite toward God. Good works need to be understood not as something we do to get on God’s good side, earning His favor, but as an outflow of love for the God of the universe Who so freely gives and gives and gives and gives and gives.

I praise God for His ministry through Tim Keller and I pray that the renewed Gospel vision of this book would spread through the Church, into our families and the cities that we live in!

On a separate topic, I read through all your blog posts and was very encouraged by them. I especially enjoyed ‘the forward look’ post. I am blessed to have you in my extended family.

~Amber

Yeah so Matt Zrust is using me to get a book. He sent me here (but I’ve been here before).

Take care old man…

-A