Recently through prayer, the Lord has shown me another facet to the story of the story Christians have come to call the prodigal son. The account, and I'm convinced it happened, can be found in the 15th chapter of Luke.
Luke 15:11-32 (NKJV)
11 Then He said: "A certain man had two sons.
12 And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his livelihood.
13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants." '
20 And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
21 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
22 But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;
24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry.
25 Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
27 And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.'
28 But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.
29 So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.
30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.'
31 And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.
32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found".
The older son that stayed home and labored is a type of the old covenant of the law. He reckoned that he was due good things from the father because of his works. Though it would be denied, the religious that practice good works for the wrong reasons, would secretly feel that they had blessings due them for their righteous acts.
The younger son that left home just walked away from the father. Later, after hardships and time to reconsider, he came home again. This son is a type of the new covenant. Grace by faith in Jesus Christ. He was aware that he was not worthy of forgiveness and had no right to expect anything of the father. The father loved both these. Those that tried to obtain righteousness by works of the law and those that knew they could never be good enough or do anything to earn the grace of the father.
That certainly was me. I never would have imagined that God cared about me and wanted to forgive and save me. This was beyond my comprehension. Yet it was true. Now I too sit at my father's table. Forgiven for those wasted years, knowing that I could never be or get good enough to earn one thing.
Luke 15:14
14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
God the Father will see to it that a famine of some sort arises in our
Life. It comes for a reason. It comes that we may be forced to really look for the first time at God, at Jesus and what He's done for us. After we are blessed to discover the emptiness and futility of the world and our flesh we look elsewhere for real meaning. As a last resort we turn to God. The Lord knows the perfect time to deal with us.
The angry older brother
Luke 15:28 (NKJV) But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.
When the older brother heard that the younger had returned home and his father had forgiven him he was very angry. He was not glad for his brother but resented him. He set his own self righteous works far above the condemnation he felt toward his brother. This is exactly the way that religious, dead works legalistic practitioners see those who have fled to God the Father for His freely given grace. Free but not cheap we know.
The older brother's self righteousness
Luke 15:29-30 (NKJV)
29 So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.
30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.'
First thing in verse 29 the older son does is tell the father how good he is. Then he begins to complain of the things the father hasn't done for him. He is likely dumbfounded to hear that he could have had wonderful things all along. He never supposed that the father really cared for him. This reminds me of the scripture "you have not because you ask not" - James 4:2. Next in verse 30 he voices his resentment of his younger brother and brings accusations against him that he has no knowledge or proof of.
These two brothers represent two groups. Religious people, who may or may not actually be saved, and resent those that seem to easily receive God the Father's grace as a complete gift. Then there are those that are as innocent children accepting God's unmerited favor in simple faith. Martin Luther was shown a single scripture by the Lord that stopped him in his religious tracks.
Habakkuk 2:4 KJVS
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the JUST SHALL LIVE BY HIS FAITH.
The Lord, in a moment of time, wiped away every bit of the religious dead works and lies that the Roman catholic church had taught him by rote. Luther was transformed from the older self righteous brother into the tearful, grateful young prodigal. Living by faith in God did away with the terrible burden of unkeepable laws.
The second comparison group is the Jews. Those yet laboring under the impossible yoke of the law in a vain attempt to stand righteous before God by their own efforts. They deny that the savior, the messiah has come. They see those that have accepted and proclaimed Jesus as the Christ as deluded and walking in error. Reading the testimony of one particular Jewish Holocaust survivor is worthy of a shout.
Freida Roos, a Dutch Jew, and her sister, hid from the Germans for four years by moving from one place to another. A friend, Elizabeth, was trying to show Frieda Jesus through the Scriptures in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. One day Frieda was reading those words and something happened.
Elizabeth had asked Frieda to read Isaiah chapter 53 and Psalm chapter 22 in her free time.
“And so I kept reading and then I came to the sixteenth verse and there it says, the second half it says ‘they pierced my hand and my feet.’ And I just let out one big yell that’s Jesus! I was all alone in a little room, there was nobody there to twist my arm. I just ‘boom’ I just saw that that was Jesus. I sat down and I said, “How could I have lived like that, all these years without that.” It was something like coming out of a dark hole into the light. I never knew that He was called the Light of the world, I knew nothing. Then I went to Isaiah 53 and then, it was just like that, I’d understand every word. So I called Elizabeth and she raced over and then we went over Isaiah 53 and the 22nd Psalm and she expounded to me more what it all meant and so. I just was instantly saved, just like that.” Frieda Roos is 90.
Being translated from the works of the law to the realization that you can never ever warrant salvation and complete forgiveness of your sins by your own efforts is a wonderful incomparable experience. Like Frieda we too can shout "that's Jesus" as we see that He was and is the fulfillment of the covenant of laws. God has removed our shoulder from the burden of the covenant of laws.
After Paul was saved, after his Damascus road awakening, he reflected upon the his own experience with trying to fulfill the law. He says of this;
Romans 7:7 KJVS
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, THOU SHALT NOT COVET.
Just as scores of other Jewish attempted keepers of the law had failed, Paul also had not seen that the tenth commandment, "thou shalt not covet" or "thou shalt not have ever wanted to do any of the above", is an impossibility. The law was only our schoolmaster to bring us to Jesus.
We were all the prodigal coming home to God our father.
Luke 15:11-32 (NKJV)
11 Then He said: "A certain man had two sons.
12 And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his livelihood.
13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants." '
20 And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
21 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
22 But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;
24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry.
25 Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
27 And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.'
28 But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.
29 So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.
30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.'
31 And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.
32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found".
The older son that stayed home and labored is a type of the old covenant of the law. He reckoned that he was due good things from the father because of his works. Though it would be denied, the religious that practice good works for the wrong reasons, would secretly feel that they had blessings due them for their righteous acts.
The younger son that left home just walked away from the father. Later, after hardships and time to reconsider, he came home again. This son is a type of the new covenant. Grace by faith in Jesus Christ. He was aware that he was not worthy of forgiveness and had no right to expect anything of the father. The father loved both these. Those that tried to obtain righteousness by works of the law and those that knew they could never be good enough or do anything to earn the grace of the father.
That certainly was me. I never would have imagined that God cared about me and wanted to forgive and save me. This was beyond my comprehension. Yet it was true. Now I too sit at my father's table. Forgiven for those wasted years, knowing that I could never be or get good enough to earn one thing.
Luke 15:14
14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
God the Father will see to it that a famine of some sort arises in our
Life. It comes for a reason. It comes that we may be forced to really look for the first time at God, at Jesus and what He's done for us. After we are blessed to discover the emptiness and futility of the world and our flesh we look elsewhere for real meaning. As a last resort we turn to God. The Lord knows the perfect time to deal with us.
The angry older brother
Luke 15:28 (NKJV) But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.
When the older brother heard that the younger had returned home and his father had forgiven him he was very angry. He was not glad for his brother but resented him. He set his own self righteous works far above the condemnation he felt toward his brother. This is exactly the way that religious, dead works legalistic practitioners see those who have fled to God the Father for His freely given grace. Free but not cheap we know.
The older brother's self righteousness
Luke 15:29-30 (NKJV)
29 So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.
30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.'
First thing in verse 29 the older son does is tell the father how good he is. Then he begins to complain of the things the father hasn't done for him. He is likely dumbfounded to hear that he could have had wonderful things all along. He never supposed that the father really cared for him. This reminds me of the scripture "you have not because you ask not" - James 4:2. Next in verse 30 he voices his resentment of his younger brother and brings accusations against him that he has no knowledge or proof of.
These two brothers represent two groups. Religious people, who may or may not actually be saved, and resent those that seem to easily receive God the Father's grace as a complete gift. Then there are those that are as innocent children accepting God's unmerited favor in simple faith. Martin Luther was shown a single scripture by the Lord that stopped him in his religious tracks.
Habakkuk 2:4 KJVS
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the JUST SHALL LIVE BY HIS FAITH.
The Lord, in a moment of time, wiped away every bit of the religious dead works and lies that the Roman catholic church had taught him by rote. Luther was transformed from the older self righteous brother into the tearful, grateful young prodigal. Living by faith in God did away with the terrible burden of unkeepable laws.
The second comparison group is the Jews. Those yet laboring under the impossible yoke of the law in a vain attempt to stand righteous before God by their own efforts. They deny that the savior, the messiah has come. They see those that have accepted and proclaimed Jesus as the Christ as deluded and walking in error. Reading the testimony of one particular Jewish Holocaust survivor is worthy of a shout.
Freida Roos, a Dutch Jew, and her sister, hid from the Germans for four years by moving from one place to another. A friend, Elizabeth, was trying to show Frieda Jesus through the Scriptures in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. One day Frieda was reading those words and something happened.
Elizabeth had asked Frieda to read Isaiah chapter 53 and Psalm chapter 22 in her free time.
“And so I kept reading and then I came to the sixteenth verse and there it says, the second half it says ‘they pierced my hand and my feet.’ And I just let out one big yell that’s Jesus! I was all alone in a little room, there was nobody there to twist my arm. I just ‘boom’ I just saw that that was Jesus. I sat down and I said, “How could I have lived like that, all these years without that.” It was something like coming out of a dark hole into the light. I never knew that He was called the Light of the world, I knew nothing. Then I went to Isaiah 53 and then, it was just like that, I’d understand every word. So I called Elizabeth and she raced over and then we went over Isaiah 53 and the 22nd Psalm and she expounded to me more what it all meant and so. I just was instantly saved, just like that.” Frieda Roos is 90.
Being translated from the works of the law to the realization that you can never ever warrant salvation and complete forgiveness of your sins by your own efforts is a wonderful incomparable experience. Like Frieda we too can shout "that's Jesus" as we see that He was and is the fulfillment of the covenant of laws. God has removed our shoulder from the burden of the covenant of laws.
After Paul was saved, after his Damascus road awakening, he reflected upon the his own experience with trying to fulfill the law. He says of this;
Romans 7:7 KJVS
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, THOU SHALT NOT COVET.
Just as scores of other Jewish attempted keepers of the law had failed, Paul also had not seen that the tenth commandment, "thou shalt not covet" or "thou shalt not have ever wanted to do any of the above", is an impossibility. The law was only our schoolmaster to bring us to Jesus.
We were all the prodigal coming home to God our father.
