God longs to hear our confession and our repentance. Words help us renounce our
former life of sin, and is a testimony to Satan that we have turned back to our God
and away from him. Words have spiritual power of life, and the right words
spoken in humility bring us back to God’s love. It is noteworthy that the prodigal
said he had ‘...sinned against heaven...’ Having disobeyed and wronged his
father, the prodigal’s sin was not just against man, but also against God who asks
us to honour our father and mother. And so he repented both to God and to his
father. We need to recognize this truth. That God, who created all men and gave
us His guiding Word, expects us to live at peace with all men.
The father saw his prodigal son from far away and was broken inside, overjoyed,
disbelieving yet exceedingly delighted as he had waited and hoped for this
moment since his son left for a place no one knew. The father saw the state of his
returning son and was broken inside, overwhelmed with pity and love for the son
was an unsightly mess; nothing like the stately young man who had left home.
The son was gravely broken, and the father longed just to take him back home,
feed him and mend him to his former graceful self. All that the father wanted to
do was to celebrate with his family and household for the return of his lost and
dead son. So he spoke these poignant words of comfort in Luke 15:22-24:
‘“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a
ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.^ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a
feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is
found.’ So they began to celebrate.”’
These words are very poignant to our discussion today. This is what our heavenly
Father longs to do for us when we repent. When we renounce our life of sin and
return home like the children we are.
Notice the words of the father towards the end: ‘ For this son of mine was dead and is
alive again; he was lost and is found.’ Children of God, it is possible to be lost and
dead, even when we had been made, or born, as sons. But thankfully, it is also
possible to be found, and become alive again, and be reinstated as sons!
God wants everyone he created to be His son, not just His person. Those who have
left home, He longs to receive them back and give them the delights of His house.
All of them. God ‘...desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’