Luke 15
Jesus said, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.” In this chapter, then, we see God, even the Father, revealed in the Son—revealed to a sin-burdened soul beyond all human thought. Nay, it was even offensive to the religious Jew to see the Holy One receiving sinners, and eating with them. No question but that it is truly marvelous, that He, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, can find His deepest joy in receiving, and in forgiving the vilest of sinners.
Let us take a case; and how many are there! Think of a person groaning in secret, or openly sunk in the shame and loathsomeness of sin; he has willfully departed farther and farther from God. Sunk in misery, he feels himself too vile to live. He tries to drive away the thought of his wretchedness, but only increases it. He tries to serve God, and give up his sins; but he finds he has no strength or power to do so. The devil, fashion, and companions hold him fast in the entangled grasp. He remembers the happy days of his childhood, and wishes he had never been born. He cannot forget his sins; and the burden becomes too heavy to be endured. Drink, or the faded pleasures of this world, afford no relief. He tries the law, and hopes to be better; it can only curse him, for he is guilty. He tries the sing-song religion of the day, but he finds it empty mockery, and gets no relief. He is still the wretched slave of sin. One word expresses his condition, and that word is, “lost.” He is a lost, helpless sinner, drifting fast down the stream of life to endless and deserved perdition. Now, let such a lost soul turn with us to Luke 15.
In this touching parable there are three persons in one parable, just as there are three Persons in the one Godhead.
The Shepherd goes after the sheep which is lost, until he finds it. Is not this the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep—the Son of man, who came to seek that which was lost? All this is of God. He “so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Poor, lost slave of sin, is not this wonderful, that God, the eternal Son, should become a man to seek thee? All the creation-glory of the universe He had made could not satisfy His heart—God must be glorified in thy salvation—He must come and seek thee, and find thee, and save thee; and in all this have His joy. “And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” Yes, He says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.” It is not the sheep that says so, it is Himself. However vile, however far off, no one can question the Shepherd’s joy in thy repent-since. Oh, turn, and look up in that face of joy as thou tellest out all thy sins in repentance before Him. And what a giving up of self, to be carried on His shoulder, kept by His strength, right home, not half-way! “And when he cometh home”—oh, joyful day, so near, when all the lost ones, saved, shall arrive at home! Yes, such was the love of the Shepherd, that He died for the sheep, that the Father might be righteous, yea, glorified, in seeking, saving, justifying, and bringing safe home the lost, vile, loathsome sinner. All this is wonderful, and it is entirely of God.
The Holy Ghost.
But lost man could never have understood all this, and therefore never would have believed this wondrous grace of God, had not the Holy Ghost been sent down from heaven. Thus, in the parable there is now another person, after the work of the Shepherd who died for the sheep.
A woman, having lost a piece of silver, “If she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it?” Yes, she seeks it until she finds it; and when she has found it, she says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost.”
Was not that amazing grace, that when men had, by wicked hands, crucified the Son of man, the Lord Jesus, who came to seek the lost, even then the Holy Ghost was sent to seek diligently, with the light of the gospel, that which was lost? Oh, sinner, you have given God up; but He could not give you up. The Holy Spirit has sought you, until—it may be by this little paper—He with joy shall find you. A letter lies before us, telling how He sought a poor sin-convicted prisoner; how He used a little tract in giving peace and joy to that sin-crushed heart. Jesus, the Shepherd, the Savior, has returned to heaven, and sent down the Holy Ghost to seek diligently until every lost one given to Him shall be found. As we write these words, we feel deeply impressed with the fact that none are found but by Him. He may use what He will as a candle, but He seeks, He finds, He rejoices, and says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost.” What a fact this is, that God the Holy Ghost now on earth finds His joy in seeking diligently for lost souls! As Abraham’s servant said to Rebecca, Give me of thy pitcher to drink; and as Jesus said to the woman at Sychar’s well, “Give me to drink,” so God now finds His joy in seeking and receiving the lost sinner.
And now, if God the Son has had His joy in seeking the lost, and God the Holy Ghost has His joy in finding every lost one, what is the joy of the Father in receiving the once degraded son?
It is important to notice the simple, yet correct, order of this parable. The work of the Son must take place first. He must needs suffer, and rise again. He must glorify the Father about the whole question of sin. He must descend to the depths into which the lost soul is found—“made sin for us.” He must be delivered for our iniquities; He must be raised from among the dead for our justification. All this must be accomplished before the Holy Ghost could come down from heaven to bear witness that eternal redemption was finished. All this has been done to the glory of God. Now the Holy Ghost has come down, and reveals the glory of this grace to the vilest sinners on earth. Every barrier has been removed. The Holy Ghost is thus free to act in awakening the conscience, and bringing the sinner, however far off, to God the Father.
We will now see how He acts in doing this. The light is applied to the conscience. Man has departed from God. Oh, how far has he gone astray! And, lest any should despair, an extreme case is given, and yet a sample case, for all have sinned—all are guilty before God. If He should mark, or impute sins, who could stand before Him? All may not have done the deeds to the full length of the prodigal, but all have the same nature in its deepest depths. The first effect, then, of the Spirit acting on the conscience is this, “He came to himself.” He finds sin has made him morally insane. What a fool Saul saw himself to be, when he found he was a hater and persecutor of the Lord of glory! What a fool the prodigal found himself to be in the far country, feeding swine! All the father had given him, every natural advantage, lost and gone through sin. Is not this man’s a wretched condition? He gave up all the pleasures of Eden, he joined himself to Satan. And what is the result? What empty husks, what an unsatisfied, restless, weary, guilty heart and conscience! The riotous living ended in a mighty famine in that land. See a man sinking in the depths of despair! Would he fain seek satisfaction in the loathsome husks of sin? His heart sinks within him in disgust. “And no man gave unto him.” No man in Satan’s country can give such a one a drop of comfort.
Mark the effect of the first ray of light from the candle. He looks right away yonder to the father. Very dimly at first. Why, he says, my father’s servants are far better off than I am here—they have plenty to eat, and I perish with hunger. The awakened sinner says, Why, yonder servants of God are far better off than I am, poor miserable slave of the devil; the more I have served him, the worse I find it for me. They do get what they earn, whilst I perish. Very confused the first awaking thoughts, but they are, though far short, yet in the right direction. It is like the first touch of the magnet, but the power of the magnet will soon show itself. “I will arise, and go to my father.” How like the magnet, we say. Blessed light of the candle, or lamp. Such is every one that is born of the Spirit. He repents. The way is open to the Father. He comes direct to Him. “I.... will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.” This is wrought in the conscience by the Holy Ghost. This is the revelation of the way a sinner is brought to God, from the very lips of Jesus. Jesus places no priest between the sinner and God. He says, I will go to my Father Himself—direct to Him. How deeply he felt his folly and guilt before God. He says, I will tell it all out to Him. There is the attraction of the magnet, as we said, but not yet the full sense of grace: “And am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.”
Before we look at the father’s greeting and welcome, we would ask the reader, Has that light ever reached your conscience and heart? Have you learned the folly and degradation of the slavery of Satan? Is your eye lifted off to the Father’s house? Do you feel the drawings of the Spirit to lead you in full confession of all your folly, sins, and iniquity to the Father? If this work be of God the Holy Ghost in your souls, you will find eternal profit in looking further, with us, at the Father’s reception of the lost son.
The Father.
The question, then, now is this: How will the most holy God meet a loathsome sinner, fully con-scions, and owning the vileness, of his conduct? Bearing in mind always that redemption has been accomplished by the Son for the lost sheep, and the Holy Ghost has been sent down from heaven to make this known; to a really awakened soul this is a tremendous question. Feeling in his inmost soul he deserves eternal wrath—the wrath of God against in—can he come direct to God, or does he need the intervention of priests and sacraments? Does he need the intervention of departed saints, or apostles, or angels? Or, does he need days, weeks, or years of penitence and self-improvement, before he can be at all fit to come into the presence of the Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty? We name these things, because such are the thoughts of millions who call themselves Christians. And, further, because of the unspeakable horror that sin gives to a soul truly awakened by the Spirit of God. Then Satan whispers, You have gone beyond all hope. Then the deep shame of guilt, the utter madness of spending all in sin, and for such a master. Sin so great, and against such a God of love, yet a God of infinite holiness. The trembling, anxious soul says, How shall I meet God?
Let Jesus lift the veil, and show how God can now meet the lost sinner who has come to himself. None but He could thus reveal the Father. “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” What a comfort, however far off, the Father sees you; yes, He knows all—your whole character is known to Him, so that you could not tell it to any person living on earth. Does He impute the sins of the poor guilty one? Does He manifest the wrath due to them? No, He “had compassion.” This is that blessed God “who commendeth his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Perhaps you might be afraid to look in the face of any one that knew you as the Father knows you; but see in His face the tender compassion you could not find in man. Christ has died—he needs no other intercessor. Does He spurn the lost, vile sinner? Oh, drink in those two sweet words, “and ran.” Yes, the Father ran, it was not the poor prodigal. He ran. If you have been brought up in dark superstition, and have been shown hosts of intercessors to help you to approach God, oh, see Him run past them all straight to you! Yes, God thus meets you—thus meets us. “And fell on his neck, and kissed him.” No wonder this half choked the poor sinner, and that he could only get out half of what he had to say.
He said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven;, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” Full self-judgment and full confession direct to the Father on his neck; this was right, it must be. But, as we said, he was either so choked with the sense of the amazing grace, or right down ashamed to talk of being a hired servant. We are assured that those who do take the place of the servant, and think they shall only enjoy the Father’s favor so long as they deserve it by works of law, they never have known the embrace of infinite grace. Such unmerited favor as this is enough to choke a returning sinner.
It is God that is revealed by the Son—the same unchanging God and Father. Yes, it is Himself. How did He treat this poor sin-stricken soul? Did He say, You must be exposed in all your rags and filth before all my household? Did He say, Long must you do penance amongst my more righteous servants? God, who is righteous in justifying the guilty by the propitiatory death of His Son, immediately said to His servants, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.” Ah, none knew the Father but the Son, and none but He could thus reveal Him. Here we see the riches of His grace. The self-righteous brother was shocked at this grace, and if he did not understand it, well he might.
Not so the Father. Would He bring him into His house covered with rags? Would He expose his sins to the servants? No; upon that repentant sinner, who has confessed to Him, on that delivered sinner, He would have placed to view, not his sins, but the Father would have him in his sight, and put upon him the best robe, the righteousness of God, that righteousness which is unto all, and upon them that believe. Not a mere doctrine, but upon him, accounted righteous before God, fit for His holy presence; no longer in the position he had hoped for—a servant—but on his hand the ring of everlasting relationship. And as the work of the shepherd was to bring the sheep home, so we immediately find the once lost prodigal in all the joy and feast of the father’s house. Oh, wondrous grace! it is the Father that says, “and let us eat and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.”
How little do we enter into this joy of the Father! It is so entirely of God, and worthy of the finished work of His beloved Son. We thus see the work of the Son, and His joy in coming to seek and to save the lost. Then the diligent work of the Holy Ghost in seeking and finding the lost. And, lastly, the Father’s unbounded joy in receiving, clothing, feasting the lost one found. And all this from the lips and heart of Him who is the way, the truth, and the life. Yes, this parable is the exact representation of God’s way of receiving sinners. It is the revelation of the Father. Are you groaning in secret over the heavy burden of sin? It may be sins of early life, prodigal sins—sins that fill your soul with increasing horror. Satan may be trying hard to drive you to remorse and despair. Why not arise, and come straight to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? You have the authority of Jesus in this parable to do so. Come just as you are. Oh, come and tell Him all. “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Hearken, He speaks to you: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Yes, white as snow. Covered with the best robe. Meet for the Father’s house, and welcome there, in the everlasting relationship of a child! Ah, the poor Jews could not believe this wondrous grace; they went about to establish their own righteousness, they would not submit to the “best robe.”
Oh, sin-harassed soul, drink at this fountain of infinite, divine love. Oh, look at that once lost, guilty, ragged prodigal. See him clothed in the righteousness of God, and seated in perfect peace at the Father’s feast. Is not this the happy place of all who have been brought to Him in real self-judgment and confession of sins? Had the Lord intended that sins should be confessed to a priest, He would not thus have revealed the readiness, yea, the joy, to receive and pardon the sinner Himself. Here is the great and important truth, that sins confessed to God are sins forgiven by God, even the Father. And, oh, precious words! He says, “and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Oh, come then, weary one, to the embrace, the kiss, the welcome of the Father. You will find that God is still love. Let not Satan hinder. Let not the remembrance of sins, however sad, hinder. To whom can you come but to God, thus revealed in Christ?
One word, however, of warning. The prodigal did not excuse his sins, or seek to continue in them. We know of nothing so terrible as to use the very grace of God as a cover to continue in the practice of unrighteousness. This is distinctly of the devil. (1 John 3:8.) To say, “Yes, I know, but everybody does so; this conduct in business is quite common.” Thus to excuse evil in oneself, or in others, is the very opposite of the conduct of the welcome prodigal. Oh, infinite and needed grace to the repentant soul! All, all is worthy of the God of all grace. “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love.” (1 John 4:16.) C. S.