Parables are simple life stories Jesus used to teach about spiritual truths. They raise intense curiosity, promising more for seekers. The interested ones will be inspired and uninterested will walk away uninspired. They are not myths or fables, nor are they doctrines or prophecies.
A kind father and two sons lived together. The younger son rejected the home and claimed his inheritanace and went to a far away land. There, he wasted all his wealth and became lonely and homeless. Then he remembered about his life in his father's home and decided to return. He repented and returned to the father asking for forgiveness and to take him back as a servant. The older son lived with the father, but was also unhappy and lost discontentment. The story is not just about the sons, but more about a loving father who restores and reconciles. It has been described as "the Gospel within the Gospel." because the gospel is the love story of God to mankind.
Rejecting the joy of the home is a personal choice. You can be lost away from home or at home. God forgives and chooses to forget our sins. He remembers and restores when we repent and return. The necessary element of repentance is remembrance of the joy at home. We cannot change the past. But we can ruin a perfectly good present by being stuck in the past. We may have failed, disappointed ourselves and others miserably. We can deny ourselves the promises of the future unless we repent and move on.
Repentance is a personal choice as well. You can only repent for yourself. Nobody else can do it for you. Repentance is not just being regretful or sorrowful of the past. It is an action that makes a change. A determination to turn around. You ask for forgiveness from God and from the victims that are hurt, and make a covenant that you will not do it again. It is not being regretful when you get caught. Repenting is not just admitting. We admit almost anything but never repent. Our problem is that we are learning how to justify everything. We get used to it and admit as mistakes and not sinning anymore. Modern " feel good" theology denies the existence of sin. Preachers don't preach about sin and many consider calling people sinners as politically incorrect.
Bible declares sin’s existence and the human heart and lives display it. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). Our actions are covered by self centered interests and are are like filthy rags. Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, (Rom 5:12) Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin (1 Cor 15:21). The wages of sin is death. Sinfulness is the general characteristic of all mankind; we are all guilty before God. We are sinners by nature and by our own acts of transgression.
Repentance happens When we believe that repentance is possible. People can change. God knows that humans have the capacity to change. It is a choice we can make. We must also believe that God really does forgive sin. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isa 1:18). "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9). There is no sin that is too big for God to forgive, and there is no sinner who is too lost to be restored. God’s grace will reach out to the farthest and darkest corners of our lives.
Repentance is not pointing the blame at someone or something. Our problem is that when we fall down, we try to justify by blaming on some system or people. We are very good at finding excuses, on our bad upbringing, our past hurts and on people who have wronged us. We try to find something or someone to put all the blame on. It started in the Garden of Eden. Adam blamed Eve and Eve pointed to the serpent. The symbol of sin is the pointing finger. We are very good at blaming the devil even now.
Sin holds us prisoners of guilt and shame. No one is immune to it. God wants everyone to be saved and returned to the joy of the father's home. God’s grace is always available and it is greater than any of our sins. It doesn't matter if you attend church or not. It doesn’t matter if you think your are a Christian or not. All of mankind need repentance. The father’s home is not the same if one soul is missing. Having another son at home does not take away the Father's pain of losing one.
Blessings
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