NOT most assuredly for the Jew, or the poor worldling, but for the Christian: though most certainly not, in the exuberance of fleshly delight, but in the holy, happy joy of communion with the Father.
Surely this was a time to dance! The father rejoiced he had received his lost one back again, The son rejoiced, because he rested in the father’s love.
Dear reader, do you know anything of this time of dancing? Do you know anything of resting in a heavenly Father's love? If not, I pray you to-day in spirit to enter the Father's house, and join the happy throng of saved ones that are rejoicing in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free. You have heard of God's provision to meet your need—of one now seated at His right hand, who has made a full and sufficient atonement for the sins of the vilest sinner. I want you to-day to take the prodigal's place, and believe that so filthy is your state, so distant your condition from God by nature and by practice, that He had Himself to come forth to meet you; and nothing short of the death of His own Son would avail to provide for you the robe, the ring, the shoes, the fatted calf, and the salvation your case demanded. I want you to believe that these—all these—are your instantaneous and eternal possessions the moment you believe on Jesus the Son of God, the moment you receive the testimony of God that He has done all this for you. I repeat, the moment you confess that so vile was your state, so entirely shut out were you from the presence of God, that God's own Son alone could through death bring you nigh to God, and fit you for His presence, and believe that Christ has done all this for you, that moment are you entitled to take your place among the innermost circle of the dancers in the Father's house; and great as may be your delight in having all the recollection of your sins (not merely the sins themselves, but the remembrance of them) effaced—great as your "joy in having exchanged your vileness for His righteousness, great as your rest and comfort in the shoes of His providing, great as your happiness in wearing the ornaments of His free gift, great as your soul's delight in feeding on the dainties with which the Father's table groans—all your happiness is as nothing to the absolute perfection of enjoyment summed up in the Father, who sees in you the fruit of the travail of His dear Son's soul and is satisfied. He delights to have you there; His eye rests on you with real enjoyment. He, in His own words, "eats" with you—is "merry," and is "glad.”
Would you not delight to gratify Him thus? I feel sure you would. Well, then, as a self-judged sinner—one who can only say, "I am vile"—believe on Him who "bare your sins in His own body on the tree," and joy in Him through whom (being justified by faith, without the deeds of the law) you have now received the reconciliation.