IT is not now the grace that seeks the lost one, but the grace that receives the repentant one to home and blessing. This is the Father’s part in the wonderful scheme of salvation. The basis of all blessing for men is the atoning blood. This, however, is not the point in the parables of Luke 15, but rather the principle upon which men are blest, which is sovereign grace.
The Saviour now depicts two sons―one profligate, the other self-righteous (Luke 15:11-32). These represent the lawless and the religious classes respectively. The younger son, having obtained his portion from his father, forsook him, and wasted his substance in a distant land. In like manner do the mass of men live in utter disregard of Him whose offspring they are, and squander His rich endowments―health, means, and faculties, in the gratification of their carnal lusts. The first man aimed at independence of God, and the love of this has characterized all his progeny since. When the prodigal had “spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land.” Thus all around him were destitute like himself, so that no man could relieve the pangs of his fellow. Graphic picture of the godless man’s utter inability to assauge the grief and disappointment of his neighbor’s heart. In truth they are all needy together, if they would but confess it.
Presently the wanderer descends to the swine-trough. Penniless and hungry, he is thankful to be permitted to tend swine, and even to share their food. “No man gave unto him.” So says the Lord of all. Let infidelity inform us how many hospitals, orphanages, and other refuges of mercy would be dotted about on the face of the earth if Christianity had never shed its gracious influence into the hearts of men.
Feeding swine giving time for reflection, the prodigal’s mind turned to the father’s house, and its abundant provision. His heart became attracted thither, and he resolved to return and cast himself upon his father’s mercy. This reminds us of Rom. 2:4: “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” But the transgressor made one huge blunder. He purposed to say: “I am not worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.” Conscience should have taught him that he had fallen too low for this, for surely the first requisite of a servant is a good character. Let us take the very humblest place before our God. Such is our state by nature that we are absolutely without fitness for any place whatever in the divine presence. But he who gives up all thought of merit, and casts himself unreservedly upon sovereign grace, pleading only the worthiness of Christ and the efficacy of His blood will find himself forthwith brought into the relationship of son to the Father, with rights and privileges such as even elect angels can never know.
This the sinner of our parable proved. The great God is positively represented as running to meet him with kisses. Soon the best robe was upon him, with ring and shoes accompanying. The best robe is Christ, in whom the pardoned sinner stands complete, and with whose perfections he is henceforward covered in the eyes of God. “And they began to be merry.” Not a hint as to its cessation. The father’s heart finds present and eternal joy in what his love has wrought for the objects of his favor; while these, and all who understand their case, feast and delight themselves in the divine presence for evermore. Truly, it is good to know a Saviour-God.
Our Lord’s religious critics could not fail to recognize themselves in the elder son, whose attitude towards the repentant transgressor, and towards the father also, because of his goodness to him, He so strikingly portrayed (Luke 15:25-32). The elder son has a natural claim; and religionists in all ages have considered themselves in this position in relation to God―in a greater or less degree. But for this very reason they are rejected, “that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Cor. 1:29). It is surely not without intention that the elder son is invariably represented in Scripture as outside divine blessing. Cain, Ishmael, Esau, and Reuben are a few cases in point. It is the confessedly guilty sinner, who has nothing to plead but what he finds in God Himself, who gets the blessing.
“His elder son was in the field.” There was joy within, but he was without. “The field” is the place of labor. The sincere religionist is always a hard worker. He has a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Going about to establish his own righteousness, he does not submit himself to the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:2, 3). Like the elder son, he is “nigh” to the Father’s house, but he never gets inside, and the warmth of the Father’s heart he never experiences. Occupying himself with legal works and religious ordinances, his life is cold and cheerless; so that, like the elder son, who was puzzled by the sound of music and dancing, his heart is a stranger to the fullness of joy which is found alone in the divine presence (Psa. 16:11).
“He was angry, and would not go in: and his father came out, and entreated him.” He need not remain without; the door was not closed to him; he was as welcome as the prodigal to all the bliss of the father’s house. But the whole difficulty lay there. In his self-parade― “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment” ―he made it manifest that he looked for preferential treatment. In his own eyes he was one of the ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance. In his anger he levels a positive complaint against his father: “thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.” Here he tells out his own heart. His nearness to his father had been external only; his toil had proceeded from some other motive than love; his notion of real happiness was to be away from the father and in the company of his friends. Terrible exposure of the religious man’s true state of heart in relation to God.
Hear the father tenderly pleading with the self-righteous one: “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. But it was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost and is found.” As far as this world is concerned, the man who has lived decently and religiously has a distinct advantage over the profligate. Health and fortune remain with him, hence the words, “all that I have is thine.” But what is the value of this if pride and self-righteousness are suffered to exclude the soul from the presence of God forever? Our parable closes with the elder son still outside, angrily objecting to the grace which had been shown to his wayward brother. He is the parent of all those who in this day scorn the idea of being “converted” and “saved,” and who will never consent to the wastrels of earth being labeled “the sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling” (1 Cor. 1:2). The very thought of it touches them to the quick.