A PREACHER in China once asked a Chinese artist to draw a picture of the prodigal son returning to his father. He told him to read the story from the fifteenth chapter of Luke. The artist took the Bible and went home to draw the picture.
Some days passed, and the artist returned. When the preacher looked at the picture he had drawn, what do you think he saw? There was the poor prodigal kneeling at the father’s feet begging for mercy, and his father was beating him with a big stick!
“That is not what the story says,” said the preacher.
“I know it isn’t,” said the artist, “but that is what he deserved.”
Was the artist right? Yes, he was. The guilty boy deserved to be punished for his willfulness, but, thank God, he did not get what he deserved.
We all deserve the judgment of God for our many sins, but just as the father received the guilty boy and pardoned him, so God offers a full pardon and a free salvation to all who come to Him. He can do this righteously because His Son bore the punishment we deserved on the cross of Calvary.
Messages of God’s Love 1/16/1955