Luke 15:21, commentary and pictures

The verse is the returning younger son's confession that he has sinned against God and his father and is no longer worthy to be called a son. It follows his awakening to his degradation and want in the far country, when he resolves to return and ask only for a servant's place. The father represents God, who waits and yearns for the sinner and receives the penitent with compassion, forgiveness and love without reproach or contempt. He does not grant the servant's place but restores the undeserving son to full sonship, covering his rags and bringing him into the house with honor and feasting. That welcome requires believers to treat the fallen and returning with tender pity, encouragement and forgiveness rather than coldness, censure or contempt like the elder brother.

Parable Story and Setting

This confession belongs to the parable of the younger son, who rejected his father's care, demanded his share of the estate before the time, and left to live by his own wishes and desires, and that self-serving freedom led him into sin, loss, and bondage. He squandered his portion in riotous, sinful indulgence until he became destitute and enslaved in a far, strange country. There he was left friendless, clad in rags, perishing with hunger and longing even for the refuse fed to swine, and in that condition he is to be regarded as an object of compassion needing to be brought to saving truth.

His separation from his father pictures sinners who turn from God and waste the gifts and years of life in self-service. The parable shows God's pitying love for those who have strayed from Him, for even when they turn away and suffer He does not leave them in misery. He remains kind, tender, and loving toward those exposed to the tempter's influence and temptation.

Christ drew the story from facts of life and daily surroundings familiar to His hearers to illustrate immortal truth, gathering spiritual teaching from nature and ordinary experience. Told in this way it links the seen with the unseen and the spiritual, brightening and uplifting the daily task with constant reminders of the unseen. It has something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart, touching the heart and awakening sympathies and commending truth to the conscience, while leaving hearers free to accept or reject it. The parable also represents God's loving, fatherly relation to Israel, over whom Christ's heart still yearned and grieved even when Israel resisted the mercy offered to it toward the destruction coming upon Jerusalem.

The prodigal's departure pictures a person ruined by selfish indulgence who has lost his former standing and needs tender sympathy, including one who had once loved and served the Lord but went astray. Jesus is yearning after those who are acting as the prodigal while claiming to keep the commandments yet breaking the law, unthankful and unholy. They flatter themselves that they are Christians while using entrusted talents to work against God, with no light in them and an influence that does not lead to sanctification or holiness, and He longs to do them the good He would delight to do but cannot because of the perversity of character. Those entrusted with influencing souls through sanctification of the truth must use that talent for its given purpose and not become conformed to the spirit and principles of worldlings to exert influence on Satan's side, or they will be called to give an account before God for retaining the form of godliness while denying its power in practice. Parental indulgence, neglect, and lack of restraint at home can lead children into such prodigal, destructive ways.

Confession of Unworthiness

The words are the returning son's confession that he has sinned against heaven, against God and his father, and is no more worthy to be called a son. It expresses repentance, penitence, guilt and recognition of unworthiness, the penitence required of every sinner who returns to the Heavenly Father. The confession follows awakening to sin and degradation, after his own disobedience and sin brought him to want and separation from his father. He decides to return and asks only to be treated as a hired servant.

His sense of unworthiness and his awareness of ingratitude deepen when his father receives him with tenderness, love and forgiveness. His humble confession reflects that deepened awareness after being met with compassion rather than reproach. His plan to seek a servant's place shows how little he understands his father's love. The father does not allow it but restores him with the honor and care of a son, bringing him into the house and home and keeping him close, though he does not deserve it. His confession does not earn the welcome, for the past is treated as forgiven and forgotten and repentance is met not with contempt but with embrace.

The words show the true mourning for sin that shall be comforted. God reveals guilt so the sinner flees to Christ to be set free from the bondage of sin and to rejoice in the liberty of the sons of God, coming in true contrition to the foot of the cross to leave burdens there. They mean the humble, lowly way of return God requires of one who has been a prodigal, separated from God and stayed away long in sin. Return is by confessing sin and unworthiness and laying hold upon Christ to be pardoned, cleansed from sin, given life and accepted even now with all transgressions pardoned, because serving sin and the flesh and the devil brings only poor wages and ends in perishing in sin and death.

The returning son has become sensible of his great sin and neglect after being counted as dead to all love as a son. He comes back appreciating his father's love and acknowledging his father's claims. Having suffered and felt his need, he comes to his father as the only one who can supply that great need.

Father's Loving Welcome

The father in the story is God, who longs and waits and yearns for the sinner to come back. When the returning son confesses that he has sinned against heaven and against his father and is no more worthy to be called a son, he is met with yearning love, compassion, pity, care and forgiveness, not with reproach, contempt, denunciation or accusations of wrath. The confession expresses the penitence and sense of guilt and unworthiness required of every sinner returning to the Heavenly Father, and the past is treated as forgiven and forgotten. The son has become sensible of great sin and neglect after being counted as dead to love as a son, and he comes back appreciating his father's love, acknowledging his father's claims, having suffered and felt his need as only his father can supply.

He does not receive a servant's place, for the father will not allow it, but embraces him, keeps him close, brings him into the house and home, and restores him with a son's honor and care. His plan to ask only to be hired as a servant shows how little he understands his father's love, and his confession does not earn the welcome, yet his sense of unworthiness and ingratitude only deepens under such tenderness, love and forgiveness though he does not deserve it. The covering of his rags, the ring signifying sonship, and the preparing of a feast are the Father's welcome, care and restoration rather than contempt. God's love runs faster than the returning sinner's feet to meet him stealing back to peace, kissing his shame silent and putting the best robe on him.

That return brings joy throughout heaven, where warmth, courtesy and love prevail. The father's joyful welcome shows that God receives with joy His children who have strayed and repent, restoring the wanderer brought back to the Father's house. Heaven expends labor and energy to reclaim the lost and bring about such a return because of the amazing sacrifice made for them. This welcome reveals the Father's love in giving His Son to die for the human race. It was proved at Calvary, where He sent His Son to be the propitiation for sins, not for believers only but for the sins of the whole world, and making this known is the way to win souls and bring the perishing with hunger far from home to a saving knowledge of the truth through self-denial, mercy and offerings.

God in Christ daily pleads with men to be reconciled to God, and His dying love manifested on Calvary is the assurance of acceptance, peace and love to the one who comes back. Through the goodness and mercy of Christ the returning sinner and prodigal is restored to divine favor, received with acceptance, peace and love, and will in no wise be cast out. He is covered with Christ's robe of righteousness and welcomed into the Father's household with a place at His table. Coming to God in repentance means confessing wrongdoing and asking forgiveness, and the penitent is so received and clothed.

In such loving fatherly dealings with a rebellious people He is willing to suffer for their sins and bear their guilt. The return begins while still far off, for the Father yearns for him and the Spirit awakens the longing to return and draws him to God. The Father's gift of His beloved Son as a sacrifice shows infinite love for the fallen race and opens a channel for infinite love to flow out, so that all who believe on Jesus Christ are restored again to favor, led to obedience to all of God's commandments, and given life in Jesus Christ. Like the father, God still loves the one who left Him and will accept as His child the person who returns to Him and is willing to receive him.

Compassion for the Erring

The parable teaches mercy and forgiveness toward sinners, and the erring, the fallen, and those perishing with hunger far from home are to be treated as objects of compassion. They are to be approached with Christlike tenderness, sympathy, pity, help, encouragement, and love, and lovingly helped toward restoration. They are not to be condemned, held at a distance, treated harshly so they lose hope, or judged severely when a brother is overcome by temptation. The father's welcome stands against the elder brother's cold rejection, contempt, indifference, complaining selfishness, and lack of joy. Those who treat the struggling soul with contempt act like the elder brother, and those who serve God must share heaven's joy and welcome the repenting sinner instead of showing indifference and careless disregard for those ready to die.

The elder brother's complaints were natural but not right, and believers must not follow that course toward a brother. They must not make the returned sinner feel where he erred or keep reminding him of his mistakes. One who has failed and repented suffers in feeling and is often downcast, desponding, and discouraged. Above all he needs pity, help, sympathy, and free forgiveness. His return calls for pity, encouragement, forgiveness, and love, not reproach, suspicion, censure, blame, or condemnation. Wanderers are brought back when they hear a message of love rather than blame and condemnation.

At Ashfield such confessions of sin against heaven and unworthiness to be called a son were made after plain counsel and reproof. There the elder-son part was acted out distinctly by established church members who ought to have rejoiced that wandering sheep were being brought to the fold and souls awakened for baptism, but instead felt envious and jealous because more labor could not be given to them. God is sorely displeased when church members reveal that same spirit toward rejoicing over the returned. Those who have had labor bestowed on them should know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and if Christ is formed within as the hope of glory they will seek to save the lost. A living church is earnest and working, its members chosen vessels and light bearers carrying salvation, reflecting truth by precept and example, burdened for souls, praying sincerely, stretching out hands all day long and hunting for souls, doing righteousness at home and in the church, not gossiping, planting doubt, questioning, evil surmising and jealousy, and not expecting to be constantly fed with sermons while doing nothing, for food without work is a curse instead of a blessing.

The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son must be carefully studied and practiced by seeking the lost instead of wounding and driving them away, for the lesson is practical and involves eternal interests. Believers are chosen as laborers together with God to bring wanderers to a saving knowledge of the truth through self-denial, mercy, and offerings in righteousness for the saving of souls. People who have themselves been rescued from sin can help bring other prodigals to God, and a backslidden person's return is brought about through earnest labor in Christ for him. God as the true shepherd seeks the wandering, calls the distressed soul to return with promise to return to them, heals backsliding, loves freely, and turns away anger, and all heaven rejoices over such a return. Those willing to receive truth can be patiently helped and saved, for truth lived in the heart has saving power. Harsh, unchristlike treatment of students who go astray can keep them from the kingdom, while they need patient, compassionate care. Even an outcast and the poorest person who comes repentant, acknowledging sin and unworthiness, can be brought back to the Father's house, and God provides a shepherd to seek every lost sheep, bringing joy among the heavenly host.

Returning and Remaining Sons

Those who have left the Father's house, the sinful and those perishing in sin, are encouraged to return to God, and the son's confession on his return is the invitation to come home without delay. His return with a humble heart is the example of coming back without delay to seek forgiveness for sin. The call to return is joined to hope through believing in Jesus as personal Saviour and accepting His sacrifice, so that a new life may be begotten by the Spirit of God. Failure and sin do not make a person unworthy to come to the Lord in prayer, for the repentant sinner confessing sin and unworthiness can approach Him, admit mistakes, and seek strength for a fresh effort, trusting His welcome.

Even one who has long denied Jesus, pierced the Son of God and put Him to open shame, is waited on with grace. Coming penitent to the Father's house means grasping Jesus Christ by faith, fixing the eye upon Him, casting oneself all helpless upon His mercy, giving the little remnant of life to Jesus, ceasing to do things known to be sin, turning to Jesus, and being saved by His cleansing blood, because heaven must not be lost. Backsliders returning to God as the son returned to his Father's house, turning to the Lord with confession and contrition of soul under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, meet tender, pitying, loving compassion in Jesus Christ who died to save them and will do all He has promised if they believe in Him, so that none who seek Him in this way seek Him in vain.

The son's return to his father is the model for a backslider turning back to God and returning to the Father's service. That return can be brought about through earnest labor in Christ for him, as when like the prodigal those who turn back can return to their Father's house by humbling themselves and following an enlightened conscience, urged upon Arthur and Rosetta. The thorough backslider's return means leaving the service of Satan and of sin and turning square about with an immediate decision. Though it costs position, as with a young person discouraged by Satan's temptations and by the mistakes and severity of brethren over simple errors of youthful indiscretion even to giving up the Sabbath for trade and apprenticeship, the mistakes of brethren must not keep him from Christ who loved him and died to redeem him, but he must return at once. The return involves confessing and promising before God and angels and witnesses, I will from this day be a Christian, and brings entrance into a new channel with purified thoughts, changed purposes, a solemn sense of responsibility taken, sleepless earnestness, and happiness and thankfulness in the evidenced pardon and love of the Lord.

The returning son's confession of sin and recognition that he is no longer worthy to be called a son is a model for an erring child who needs encouragement to come back. The parent should not make the sin seem less grievous, but should remain tender and welcoming, offering full pardon and pitying love that covers the child's disgrace. The same return illustrates God's invitation to His children to repent and return, with the promise that He will freely pardon their transgressions, as in the appeal to Daniel to respond to God's love and return to his heavenly Father after neglecting the Spirit's invitation. The lesson is given for the instruction of youth, because many youth do as he did, living a careless, pleasure-loving, spendthrift life, forsaking the fountain of living waters, the fountain of true pleasure, and hewing out to themselves broken cisterns which can hold no water.

Returning brings back claim to the privileges of a son, but enjoying them means accepting a son's obligations and remaining under the father's care. Sonship involves willing acceptance of the father's terms and living by the conditions of sonship and walking according to God's word. Claiming the son's place means consenting to accept a son's obligations, submitting to control and direction for deliverance from sin, denying self and taking up the cross, remaining under care in the fold instead of wandering again, and repaying love by obedience. God accepts the prodigal who links himself with God by turning to Him with full decision of soul and unreserved surrender of the whole life. When a person gives heart and soul to God, God blesses him and works with him to help other youth give their hearts to God and be converted, while the one accepted is accountable for all the good he might have done that Jesus died to make possible, and God's acceptance carries Christ's invitation to wear His yoke, lift His burden, and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart, with rest of soul as the reward. Such a wandering son returning to his Father's house in submission to His will and His way is led step by step by the Lord into a rich experience, and such a return brings tears of praise and joy to those who hear of it.