The Third Way

In The Prodigal God, Tim Keller says that "Jesus uses the younger and elder brothers to portray the two basic ways people try to find happiness and fulfillment: the way of moral conformity (the conservative, religious elder brother) andthe way of self-discovery (the liberal, irreligious, younger brother). Each acts as a lens coloring how you see all of life.... The religious moral conformist says: 'The immoral people... are the problem and moral people are the solution.' The irreligious advocates of self-discovery say: 'the bigoted people... are the problem with the world, and progressive people are the solution.'"

"[But] the gospel of Jesus is not religion or irreligion, morality or immorality, moralism or relativism, conservatism or liberalism. Nor is it something halfway along a spectrum between two poles—it is something else altogether." In an eye opening revelation, Keller says that both religion and irreligion are different forms of self-righteousness.

But the gospel is the third way. It is the way of sheer grace.