Pride in Our Good Deeds Versus Remorse Over Our Bad Ones

I have been reading this amazing book for a couple of weeks written by Pastor Timothy Keller (who is one of my all-time favorites). Like Billy Graham, “I thank God for him.” This book is titled The Prodigal God, and as you have rightly guessed, it is about the infamous parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:1- 3, 11-31. Sit with me while I share a few things that I’ve been learning with you (I'm not finished with the book yet).

Two groups of people always came to listen to Jesus’ teachings: the Pharisees and religious teachers of the law who had dedicated their lives to studying and obeying the law, to prayer, and to worship. The other group of listeners was the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and the societal outcasts who had rejected traditional ways of life and values. Keller explains that these two groups, the Pharisees and the sinners, are representations of each brother in the parable. The keepers of the law representing the elder brother, and the sinners crew representing the younger brother. Note that there was a flux of the sinner’s crew coming to hear Jesus’ teachings, which always puzzled the teachers of the law. Why weren’t those sinners coming to learn from the real teachers of the law? Why were they flocking to Jesus? Surely, he must be telling them what their itchy ears wanted to hear!

Most of us tend to sentimentalize this prodigal son parable and focus on how the father’s love reaches out to his wayward son (nothing wrong with this), but that makes us lose sight of what Jesus was actually trying to point out in this teaching because, “The targets of this story are not wayward sinners but religious people who do everything the Bible requires. Jesus is pleading not so much with immoral outsiders as with moral insiders.”

The younger son tore his father’s heart open when he rejected his love and protection, demanding his share of the estate (while the father still lived, defying tradition) and going on to a far place to live recklessly. “His relationship to the father has been a means to the end of enjoying his wealth.” Since his father wasn’t dying anytime soon, he wanted out---with his share of the property. He wasn’t a part of the family anymore. Fast forward to when all the money had been spent, the younger son realized that he had sinned and wasn’t worthy to be a son. He comes back to his father and begs to become a hired servant, learn a trade, and earn a wage---in order to start chipping away at his enormous debt. He would work to pay off his debt until death took him (and even then, there would be no way he could ever repay a debt of that magnitude in his lifetime). While he was still far off, his father ran out to him…even throwing a welcome home party for him.

The elder brother, on the other hand, who did not have a list of bad behaviors, was infuriated and refused to even enter the party. How dare his father reward the younger brother by restoring him back into the family! Not to mention the party? Yet. He was equally lost! He only obeyed his father out of duty---to be "on the good list" and get whatever he wanted. He didn't know that his father never even kept a record of wrongs. The father’s love wasn’t based on how good or bad his children were. He loved them because he was their father. Meanwhile, the elder brother (Pharisees, Sadducees, Teachers of the Law) had been living out a fear-based compliance, devoid of joy, outside of grace.

“The prerequisite to receiving the grace of God is to know you need it.”

Although he physically remained with his father, he was further away than even the younger brother in the “far-away country.” This is one of my favorite quotes in the book: "As long as you are trying to earn your salvation by controlling God through goodness, you will never be sure that you’ve been good enough for Him. You simply aren’t sure God loves and delights in you." Pride in your moral record gets you nowhere with God.

True repentance isn’t only about acknowledging out loud a list of sins you committed and asking God for forgiveness. No, it is also about not glorying in our good works. True repentance involves us repenting “of all the reasons we ever did anything right.” It is confessing our self-righteousness.

The solution to our sin is not by being good through obedience to biblical principles. It is by accepting that in and of ourselves, we are powerless to save.

Only God can save us when we accept His invitation to enter into the salvation banquet prepared for those who need saving. Hand in hand, he will show us the way; then and only then can we please him while delighting in Him.

*All direct quotes are from The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy Keller.