(Luke 15.)
IN the two parts of the parable we have been considering, we see the grace that seeks the lost, while in the third we have
THE GRACE THAT RECEIVES.
This last is as active and positive in its endowment of the returning prodigal, and shows that all is of grace from first to last.
Now a man has body, soul, and spirit. The spirit is the highest part of his being, the seat of the will and the intelligence. The soul is the seat of the affections and desires, which should have been subject to the spirit; but in the fall things were reversed, and the spirit became subject to the soul, which desires other things, and the subservient spiel; plans for the fulfillment of them. For what have we here in the parable of the prodigal? A man who plans deliberately his withdrawal from the Father―unlike the lost sheep who was led astray by his lusts, or the lost piece of silver which tumbled out of the purse: he did not love the Father, nor the restraints of His house; he wanted to enjoy his portion of goods without the Father, and in a few days he gathers all together and takes his journey into a far country, and there dissipated his property, living in debauchery. But at the first step over the Father’s threshold he was morally at as great a distance as when he was wallowing in the sensualism and the iniquity of the far country. At once his back was towards the Father’s house, and his face was towards the far-off country, and the hell that lies beyond. He had exercised his will, had used his intelligence, had laid his plans and had carried them out. It is
LOST MAN
we have here. He had lifted up his eyes to heaven, as a man is constituted so to lift them, but not, alas! to learn God’s will. The difference between a man and a beast is that a beast looks downward, while man was made to look upward; but think of a man looking upward to God like the prodigal, in order to plan his departure from Him, or only in order to defy Him. “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey him?” man says in the pride of his being, dressed in a little brief authority, like Pharaoh of old. Or like the nineteenth-century man who, deliberately refusing His grace, will presently lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment.
This young man readied the far country, and there, away from the Father, wasted his substance in riotous living, and he found the old adage true, which runs―
“‘Tis a very good world that we live in,
To lend, or to spend, or to give in.”
But an end comes to all that, for a mighty famine arises in that land, and he begins to be in want. God often sweeps the scene with the bosom of destruction in order to bring a man to himself, like this prodigal: and then he finds the other couplet true―
“But to beg, or to borrow, or get a man’s own,
‘Tis the very worst world that ever was known.”
Having spent all, he now tries to get satisfaction by going farther away still, and joins himself to a citizen of that country. Now he is in a far worse case, for not only has he lost all he had, but is himself now a bond slave, and finds the rigor of the rule of his master. He finds it a land where no man gave! though it is but swine’s food he seeks now. Dear friend, have you ever found this world a place where no man gives? Not one single desire can be fully satisfied here! So the prodigal found it! All his desires were thwarted and frustrated! “And when
HE CAME TO HIMSELF,
he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger.” The light of the candle had fallen upon the piece of silver; the Holy Spirit had wrought in the heart, the man was born again, had newborn desires, but realized his perilous condition―he was convicted. I perish! he cries. Thus the first effect of being born again is to make a man miserable, to bring a soul to this, “I perish with hunger.” People think, if they were only born again, they would be happy; but this does not follow at once. Now everyone must come to himself at some time or other. Dear friend, you must come to yourself either in time or in eternity. The prodigal came to himself in time, and obtained all we find here.
In the next chapter we have one who came to himself in eternity. Alas! it was too late then! He got not so much as a drop of cold water to cool his parched tongue! That was the elder son—the scribes and Pharisees.
But if you have already come to yourself, I believe I am commissioned of God to present to you all that this young man obtained from his father. Notice his progress from this time on. First, he made
A GOOD RESOLUTION.
“I will arise and go to my father.” People say, “The way to hell is paved with good resolutions,” and there is truth in this. The Old Testament is the record of four thousand years’ broken vows, and broken resolutions! Look at a drunkard for a particular instance; he makes resolution after resolution, and then goes on as before, till that man’s way to hell is paved. He drinks heavily overnight, and awakes with a bad headache, resolving never again to touch drink. No sooner does he leave his house, even before he is over the pavement, than he is met by a boon companion, who says, “Come along, Jim, and have a hair of the dog that bit you yesterday!” All his good resolutions are at once dashed to the ground, and he follows like a sheep led to the slaughter.
But the difference in the prodigal’s case was, that having been convicted of sin by the Spirit, he made his resolution in the Spirit’s power, and carried it out. He said, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants.” But he had not yet gauged the Father’s love. The lad said, I will go; I will make a confession; I will prefer my request, a humble one. But while carrying out his resolution, and making his confession, he could not possibly say his prayer in the presence of the Father’s love., Now, if the Spirit of God has touched you, you will make the resolution this man did, and carry it out; “He arose and came to his Father.” May God help you to do this.
NOW HE WAS CONVERTED.
Conversion means to be completely turned round. His face now was towards his Father, and his back to the far-off country. The Spirit of God has brought him to a sense of his condition and completely turned him round. A man may be converted more than once―Peter certainly was―but he cannot be born again more than once, nor will that new birth be finally ineffectual. Between the far country and the place where he met his Father there was plenty of time for the exercises that souls go through, ―the backing and filling, the doubting and fearing, the hoping and rejoicing; now a momentary gleam of hope and a few steps forward; now as many backward in despondency, as he looks at his filthy condition.
But when he was a great way off the Father saw him. Indeed He had never lost sight of him.
THE FATHER’S HEART
and the Father’s eyes had followed him in all his wanderings. And now that his true condition was forced upon him, He had compassion upon him―that is, He felt for and suffered with him, as though He said, Poor fellow! see there he comes! Not only so, but He ran to meet him also! We do not hear a word of the prodigal running toward the Father, and had it depended upon him, he would have been a long time in shortening the distance that separated them, if ever he accomplished it. But the Father ran to meet him; having compassion upon him. And this is God the Father’s way, bridging at once the whole moral distance between Himself and the returning prodigal. Christ’s work of redemption and seeking is done; the Spirit’s work based upon it, and as sent of Him, has begun in the soul, ―and in these two we have the grace that seeks; and now here we have the Father’s work, which sets forth the grace that receives.
I was once asked to preach on board a Queensland steamer. I did not expect to be asked, so I had not thought about it, but reflecting that it was likely that there was a prodigal on board the steamer I spoke on Luke 15. There was a prodigal right before me, and he was weeping all the time; what touched him most was the thought that the Father had never lost sight of him. I believe that the Lord spoke to him that day. This thought has melted many a stout heart before and since then.
The prodigal had all the rags of the far country upon him; but the Father fell upon his neck, and the warm, glowing kiss of affection was imprinted on his cheek. This kiss is
THE KISS OF RECONCILIATION.
Cannot you feel it now, believer? Does it not thrill you now? Well do I remember when it was imprinted upon my cheek! God sees the returned prodigal in all the value of the work of Christ. He sees also the work of the Holy Spirit in Him. He can kiss him. From this point we get the ministry of reconciliation all the way along as applied to the prodigal. It was not that God was angry, and needed to be reconciled. He needed what suited Himself and has it now in Christ, in whom He sees the prodigal. But I, in the power of that kiss, now come into the joy of this, and am reconciled to Him. When the prodigal felt his Father’s kiss, then his heart was fully reconciled, all enmity is dismissed, for the man who was at enmity is gone, and he is assured there is no want of reconciliation in the Father.
Then good-bye to his fears, his doubts, which were all driven to the winds by that kiss! and even to his proposed prayer to be as one of the hired servants. How could he say this with the Father upon his neck and kissing him! Fathers kiss their sons, not their servants; the Father needs the service of sons, not that of hirelings; and there are thousand thousands who minister to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand who bow before Him. He has plenty of servants, and so now He says to His servants, “Bring forth THE BEST ROBE and put it on him.” If the elder son had been there (which he was not), he: would have said, “Stop! stop!! There is some mistake here. Do not put that robe on him! Look at him!” Had it been so, the Father would have taken no notice, save to say emphatically, Put it on Him! And oil him it went.
THE BEST ROBE.
Now, God clothed all His works with suitable robes. The angels He clothed with strength, the earth with verdure. Satan was the sum of beauty in heaven. Man was His masterpiece and His image down here; but he fell, and God sought him, having in reserve a better robe for him, as thus returning, than any before were ever clad in. Bring it forth God says, and he who was in rags and in ruin now stands before God in righteousness, conscious that all questions have been settled, and in the recognition that he is before God in Another, and well satisfied to have it so. Reconciliation is thus manifest in righteousness. All that man is as man has forever passed away from before God, and the state of the returned prodigal is that of one who ascribes the glory of it all to Christ. He alone is worthy. Thus within and without all is Christ.
G. J. S.
(To be continued.)