Don't Be Jealous!

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” (Luke 15:25-32 ESV)

Now, earlier this morning I read the story of the prodigal son from Luke 15:11-24, and I shared what the Lord taught me through it in a writing called, “The Son Who Wandered.” This is a continuation of the same story, only now this is talking about the response of the brother who did not wander. He was the faithful son who remained with the father and who served and obeyed him. But he was not without fault, for he was jealous of his brother. And he thought that he had gotten a raw deal, and so he refused to celebrate his brother’s return to the father. And that in itself is sin.

For whom are any of us to deserve God’s grace and mercy? We are not! We are all born into this world with sin natures, in the image of Adam, the first man to sin against God. And not one of us can come to faith in Jesus Christ of our own accord. We can only come to faith in Jesus Christ if God the Father first draws us to Christ, i.e. only if he persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness and of our sinfulness and of our need to repent of our sins and to humble ourselves before God and to now walk in his ways. And then we can only change because of the change God creates in our hearts.

For example, someone may reject Jesus Christ his whole life, not necessarily in words or in profession, but in action. For how we live speaks volumes as to what we truly believe. For true faith in Jesus Christ, because it comes from God, and it is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of man – is going to align with God’s will and purpose for our lives. So faith that is genuine will result in us dying with Christ to sin, not just once, but daily (in practice), and in us walking in obedience to our Lord’s commands, also in practice, not necessarily in absolute perfection.

So someone may live his whole life for self and in sin, but at the very last breath of his life may surrender his life to the Lord and may be welcomed into heaven. And that is fair! And that is just! Because God is fair and he is just, and he is the one who determines who gets into his heaven and who does not. And it is not based in our own goodness of our own flesh. We can do nothing within ourselves to ever be good enough to be acceptable to God. It is only by God’s grace and by God drawing us to himself that any of us can be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God.

What God requires of us is that we humble ourselves before him, that we repent of (turn from) our sins and that we now follow him in obedience and in surrender to his will, even if that is only for a very short period of time before we die. But we should never take God’s grace for granted or presume upon God that we can just ignore him and that at the last minute we can make that decision to believe in Jesus and to die to sin and to live to his righteousness. We may not be given that “last minute” to change our minds. 

But the point here is that none of us are deserving of God’s grace and mercy, and it is not by our own human efforts nor by our own goodness in our flesh that any of us are saved. So even if any of us have lived most all of our lives in service for the Lord, and even if we never wandered, which sadly I did, for a time, we have no right to think we are more deserving of God’s grace than those who have waited much longer to finally repent. For none of us are deserving of God’s grace. 

But this is not to say that God’s grace does not have requirements of us. It does! For God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, trains us to renounce (say “No!” to) ungodliness and worldly passions (lusts) and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. And his grace doesn’t just forgive us our sins, but it delivers us out of our slavery to sin so that we can now serve the Lord with our lives in walks of obedience to his commands, in his power, strength, and wisdom. But if we should choose to continue in deliberate sin, we do not have eternal life with God.

So, the moral of this story is that we should not be prideful and think we are deserving of God’s grace because of a long history of walks of obedience to the Lord whereas those who have wandered most of their lives are not. And we should not be jealous when others who have wandered finally turn or return to the Lord when the Lord now blesses them and uses them for his purposes and for his glory, even though they have tainted pasts. I know well that I am not worthy, in myself, to be used of God in the way he is using me because of things I did in my past. But that is why this is called “grace.”

But, again, God’s grace is not permission to keep on in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord. For if we don’t truly repent, and if we don’t truly make that spiritual U-turn in our lives, but if we keep going back to our vomit over and over, God’s grace does not cover that. And his word is firm on this issue that we will not have salvation from sin nor eternal life with God. So if you are wandering, make that spiritual U-turn now, and by the grace of God stay the course from now to eternity. 

And if you have been faithful to the Lord in service, don’t be jealous of those who God now approves because of their repentance, but who perhaps wandered most of their lives. Rejoice with them and celebrate with them that, although they were once dead in their sins, that now they have been made alive in Jesus Christ, our Lord. They were once lost in their sins, but now they are found by God and by his grace and so their lives are now being transformed and made into the likeness of Jesus Christ. All glory to God!

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-21; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Colossians 1:21-23; Colossians 3:1-11; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]   

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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