In Chapter 7 (“The Feast of the Father”), the concluding chapter of The Prodigal God, Timothy Keller describes four ways to experience a feast that correspond to ways our lives are shaped by the gospel message of Jesus. The first way is discussed today.
1. Salvation is experiential. At a feast our appetite and senses are filled up. Thus, the author states, our “salvation is not only objective and legal (since Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins, we are “not guilty”) but subjective and experiential.” For example, the Bible calls us to “taste and see” that the Lord is good, not merely to agree and believe it. Jonathan Edwards described this in his famous sermon entitled “A Divine and Supernatural Light”:
“The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of its sweetness.”
Pastor Keller adds that when we believe in and rest in Jesus’s work for us, He becomes real to our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit. We will be lifted up and freed from fear. As we focus on Jesus’s dazzling majesty through the eyes of our heart rather than merely believing that He is in control of history, we will know that Jesus has things well in hand.
Today’s question: How has your desert, transition time enabled you to experience God’s blessing and provision in new ways? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The Father’s feast- Part 2
