You might think the story of Jonah—a man swallowed by a fish—is about as far removed from our current cultural moment as you can get. But you’d be wrong. We live in a world full of self-righteousness, nationalism, and ethnic rivalry not all that different from Jonah’s day.
In today’s podcast, Maina Mwaura asked TGC vice president Tim Keller why he wrote a book on Jonah and what modern-day attitudes are reflected in the prodigal prophet. Keller points out that Jonah didn’t recognize his own lack of merit before God, which made him reluctant to extend grace to pagan people. “Because he didn’t grasp the gospel of grace in his own life,” Keller says, “he was a terrible missionary.”
Related:
- Tim Keller on a Fishy Story (Matt Smethurst)
- 20 Quotes from Tim Keller’s New Book on Jonah (Matt Smethurst)
- Help Me Teach the Bible: Colin Smith on Jonah (Nancy Guthrie)
- The Difficult Prophet and Tim Keller’s Legacy (Hannah Anderson)
Free eBook by Tim Keller: ‘The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness’
Imagine a life where you don’t feel inadequate, easily offended, desperate to prove yourself, or endlessly preoccupied with how you look to others. Imagine relishing, not resenting, the success of others. Living this way isn’t far-fetched. It’s actually guaranteed to believers, as they learn to receive God’s approval, rather than striving to earn it.
In Tim Keller’s short ebook, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path To True Christian Joy, he explains how to overcome the toxic tendencies of our age一not by diluting biblical truth or denying our differences一but by rooting our identity in Christ.
TGC is offering this Keller resource for free, so you can discover the “blessed rest” that only self-forgetfulness brings.
