The Son Who Wandered

Luke 15:11-24 ESV

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

I am most certain that all of us, if we have lived for very long, have some regrets over things done and/or said in the past. I know that I do. But we can’t go back into the past and undo those things, can we? At least not in real life. Maybe in science-fiction movies, we can, but not in reality. We can’t change history. What is done is done and what was said was said and we can’t make it disappear, no matter how hard we may try. 

But we can make attempts at righting the wrongs done, where possible, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. We can confess wrongdoing, and truly repent of what we did, and seek forgiveness from those we sinned against in the past… But let me back up for a minute here. Whenever we sin against God or against other humans we should repent (turn away from) our sins and now go the opposite direction, by the grace of God. That is a given!

But repentance, if it is genuine, is not just a change of mind, but it is a change of mind resulting in a change of behavior. It is a lot like making a U-turn in a road. You were traveling one direction, but now you are traveling in the opposite direction. But you don’t keep making U-turn after U-turn and go back and forth between “sin, confess, sin, confess,” etc. But this doesn’t make us perfect or mean that we will never sin again, but true repentance does not stay on a sinful course, repeating the same sins over again.

The beautiful thing about the prodigal son is that he saw the error of his ways and he truly repented of his sins. He came to himself (to his senses), this tells us. But those who continue in their sinful practices have not yet come to their senses, for their past is not really past. They may have short periods of time when they take pauses, but then they continue on in the same deliberate and habitual sins against God and against other humans. No true repentance! No true humility! And just saying, “Sorry,” doesn’t do it.

The beautiful thing about this story is that, even though the man did what was evil in the sight of God, and he wandered and he went his own way, for a time, God, who is represented by the father in this story, received him back with open arms because he returned to the father, and he humbled himself and was willing to become a servant, and he recognized his own unworthiness. But when God forgives, he forgives, and he wipes the slate clean so that we can now walk in victory over darkness and now walk in the light of God’s love and grace.

But his forgiveness of our sins is not free license to continue in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord. The Scriptures are quite clear that if sin is what we practice, i.e. what we keep going back to over and over again, and if obedience to our Lord and holy living are not our practice, that we do not truly know God. We are not in genuine relationship with the Lord Jesus. And we will not inherit eternal life with God unless we truly repent (turn away from) those sins to now follow him in obedience to his commands. 

Now the Lord Jesus put a song in my mind this morning that is a secular song put out by a father-daughter duo who started singing together in 2020 during the Covid pandemic. And they have become immensely popular. They both have beautiful voices. And in the song they are discussing how they are thinking about the future and the past, but how time keeps on turning, and how they keep on learning. And they came to the conclusion that they can’t change the past, and they really don’t know what the future holds for them, and so they would rather be here in the present.

And it is true that we can’t go back in time and undo what was done. And we have only some control over what happens to us in the future. But what we can do in the present is to not continue to live in the past and to not keep repeating the same sins over again. We can make that spiritual U-turn in our lives and now live in the present, in the here and now, by the grace of God, in his power, strength, and wisdom. And we can be someone else, not the same person we were before. We just have to humble ourselves before God and become his servants by making him Lord of our lives. We just have to turn or return to him and he will receive us, like this father did his son.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

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 

Caution: This link may contain ads