Why Should I and How
Timothy Keller

Timothy Keller is a pastor who has a gift for covering a topic in depth and applying it to your life. This book fills a need in the Church in ways I have not seen another book address on the topic of forgiveness that are more helpful.

Keller begins the book by describing the culture in which we live where many people see the lack of justice for those who forgive. They feel it excuses the person for the harm they have done. For some, the forgiveness culture is an old school approach.

He unpacked the longest teaching of Jesus unforgiveness, a parable of the unforgiving servant. He says unforgiveness puts us in our own prison. It does not hurt the person who has offended us. He addresses and examines three approaches to forgiveness in our culture. He comes to the conclusion that we lack a culture of biblical forgiveness.

Keller walks through the Old and New Testaments pointing out everywhere forgiveness appears in the Bible even if the word “forgive” is not used. I found it surprising how much the Bible talks about forgiveness. He explores the Cross as the ultimate demonstration of God’s justice and forgiveness. He describes the basics of forgiveness. The world’s solutions for self guilt fall short. This is where Christianity shines.

He also talks about forgiving others learn how to extend. He gives the importance of living a life of forgiveness. We must learn to forgive others as God has forgiven us. He describes all the ways we can keep ourselves from forgiving others. None of these will help us to learn how to forgive completely. Forgiveness must be genuine.

Keller reminds us that Christians are obligated to forgive others. He walks through Romans 12 and gives five ways on how to overcome evil with good. He ends with a play in which a person receives forgiveness from God and others and has peace with God. Forgiveness is the goal in broken relationships. The book includes appendixes at the end that are very helpful.

I enjoyed Timothy Keller’s teaching on forgiveness because he is comprehensive and goes deep into Scripture and culture. He gives fresh insight to this biblical topic and gives plenty of Life application. I recommend this book to anyone who needs to forgive someone, be forgiven by someone, and understand what God can do in our lives through forgiveness.sIX