THE YOUNGER SON
[p. 179] THE YOUNGER SON
There is nothing more wonderful than the parables of the Lord Jesus. They are the work of a Master hand. They are such pictures as none but the blessed God Himself could have presented. They are simple and within the capacity of a child, and yet so profound and so full of divine meaning that a great intellect cannot comprehend them, nor fully grasp them.
Of all the parables this one is the crown. It is the most blessed setting forth of the heart of God that has ever been presented to creatures, and one has a certain hesitation to speak upon it. It is so exceedingly glorious and blessed that one has the fear of spoiling it, but one has confidence the blessed God can make it speak for itself. If one were not conscious that the Holy Spirit of God were here and working to make these things known in power, one would not touch the holy work of the gospel.
There are three distinct parts in this history (not connected with the elder son but connected with the younger son): departure and degradation; what went on in his mind when at the lowest point of departure; and the wonderful reception he received at the hands of his father.
It is the whole history of man as a fallen creature, and that of the work of God in the souls of men, that by which they are brought to themselves and to Him, and also the history of what God’s grace delights to do for those who turn to Him.
I want you to notice that the younger son was indebted to the father for everything. Apart from the father’s goodness he had nothing. All we have we owe to God — life, strength, mind and so on. All our capacities we owe to God; all is derived from the Father. Are we using them for self and the pleasures of sin? As soon as the younger son gets his portion [p. 180] he takes a journey into a far country. It is very terrible. We have departed from God. The whole of the human race takes the good that God bestows — health, ability and so on — and uses it all for self-pleasing. He wasted his substance. It is solemn to waste one’s substance. I have often been exercised at the end of a day and said, ‘A wasted day, nothing in it for God’. It is a solemn thing to waste a day but what is it to waste a life! If we have not come to God we have wasted substance. Every day has been wasted. The life of a creature away from God is all waste.
Ephesians 2: 2, 3 is a good picture of the far country: “The ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience”; all is pervaded by that influence, and people are kept away from God. They may be base or refined influences, but they keep people away from God. It is the power of Satan as the ruler of the authority of the air.
The whole atmosphere of the world is full of influences that keep people from God and cause them to waste their substance. There must come a moment in your history when you will realise that the whole of your life has been wasted because God has not been in it. It may not have been filled with terrible things, perhaps, such as would be condemned in a human court of justice, but you have been away from God, and that leads to all kinds of bad things. Read Romans 1: 28.
It is God’s not being given a place in man’s heart and conscience that leads to all kinds of wickedness. They refused the knowledge of God. The younger son comes to the lowest point of degradation: he hires himself out to feed swine. The Jew knew what that meant. Swine are unclean animals; it was degrading work like Romans 1. In Ephesians it is doing the will of the flesh and the mind pleasing self — a wasted life.
That is the position to which man has brought himself; he does not know it. It is a strange insanity. Notice it says, “And coming to himself”. The power of sin is a kind of madness; there is no madness so terrible as the madness of sin. It is departure from God. The madness of living without Christ and God in the world is an awful form of madness.
[p. 181] The second part of this history gives us the work of God in the souls of men. Man is in a place of distance, far from God, and in a place of degradation, and he has no sense of it. That is the moment when God begins to work. How does it happen? The influence of the father’s house begins to work. A ray of light from the father’s house and the father’s presence shows itself in the soul. I think it is beautiful how the thought of that place from which he had departed, and of the person, comes back to him. The preaching of the gospel is to bring the light of God in goodness and love into the mind and heart of His fallen creature. The first thought that entered the younger son’s mind was the thought of the goodness and satisfaction that belong to the father’s house. It was, “How many hired servants of my father’s have abundance of bread”. That is the first thought. The first moment when God’s goodness presents itself as an attraction is a wonderful moment in the soul’s history.
In the natural heart there is no thought of the goodness of God — like the elder son; he was in the far country in his mind. “To me hast thou never given”, he said! That is the thought we have of God. That is the thought Satan puts in man’s mind, that one has to work hard for salvation: “Thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hadst not sowed”. Was he not as far away as the younger son inwardly? In the midst of the scene where the father gave everything, he turned round and said, “To me hast thou never given”. He was as far from God’s heart as the depths of hell are from the heights of heaven. It is a wonderful thing to get to the goodness of God. It is true: “Ye spend money for that which is not bread”, but if there is hunger in the bottom of your heart, God is calling upon you to delight yourself in that which is good and satisfying. He is good enough to do it.
When we come to the third part of this history the person who fills the scene with grace and activity is the father. As soon as a soul reaches this point, “I have sinned against heaven and before thee”, all depends unconditionally on what God is, and what God is pleased to do. What is God [p. 182] pleased to do with a poor sinner who says, “I have sinned”, and whose heart turns to God? Just think of God presenting Himself in this lovely and living picture.
“But while he was yet a long way off, his father saw him, ... and ran”. In the original Greek the words “far country” and “a long way off” are the same. It was the extreme point of departure. The father saw him and ran. I have often heard an elaborate discourse on the younger son’s return journey, but there was no journey home! It was the father’s feet that covered every step of the distance. He saw him in the distance in all his rags and filth and ran, and fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses. Do you believe in the presentation of God’s love? God is delighted to put the kiss of His love on the poor sinner. The moment man returns to God, all depends on what God is. The moment a soul turns to God it comes into all the good of what Christ is. Before a word was said he received the kiss! The kiss is a witness of love. God wants the sinner to be conscious of His love. People say, ‘How can I know that God loves me?’ The death of Jesus is the commendation of God’s love to the poor wretched sinner who turns to Him. He begins with the thought of the goodness and wealth of the father’s house, then he says: “I perish here by famine”; he was convicted of the truth of his position. “No one gave to him”; it was an empty scene.
If we know the truth of our position we get the thought of the goodness of God. That is conversion, and divine conversion — the turning round of the soul to God. The whole damage of the garden of Eden is undone when a soul turns to God. We then get the sense of the goodness and blessing of God and His disposition to give the very best. Is there a heart here that has had enough experience of the world to have the desire to turn to God? His work in the soul is to bring this about.
He gave His own Son as come into the world to die for sin, and “God commends his love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us” (Romans 5: 8). It is the death of [p. 183] Christ that the Holy Spirit uses to shed abroad in the heart the love of God. The love of God is the love of Calvary. It is where God gave His blessed Son to die. What is the measure of His love? It is immeasurable. It is impossible fully to measure the blessings of the gospel because one cannot fully measure the love of God. The love of God is shed abroad by His Spirit in the hearts of those who believe, so that the believer has a greater sense of the love of God than of anything else in the universe. It is a great thing to get the sense of the love of God. God wants us to get it.
In repentance one gets the seal of it; the kiss is for all, but only the repentant get it. The only thing the younger son has to say is, “I have sinned”. Before this he had been kissed and had the seal of love on the cheek. All one has to say is, “I have sinned”, not ‘I have turned’ but “I have sinned”. One cannot be too simple. Keep on that ground, “I have sinned”, and give God the glory and praise of His wondrous grace. When you get to the point of saying, “I have sinned”, you have done all the thinking about yourself that is necessary. The more you keep on this ground and have done with yourself, the more you get in faith and love what the Father loves to bestow (verses 22 - 24). Every provision was made. The father anticipated the return of the younger son and made every provision for the occasion. Not only did he do this for the younger son but he did it for his own delight. There is wonderful provision in his presence. It is in Christ, in His Son, that God has made provision. All who come to Him are invested with Christ. In Zechariah 3 we read of Joshua being invested. God wants us to be attired in festival-robes. He receives us in all the acceptance of Christ. If we are not received in Christ we are not received at all. We now live in the light and joy of Christ, the risen and glorified Man. We cannot measure the acceptance of the glorified Man, yet it is that and nothing less than that that is the acceptance of every believer. It is the acceptance of a risen and glorified Christ. “Make me as one of thy hired servants” would not have suited the father’s love. God wants us in the place of sonship, so sends the Spirit of His Son into the heart of the believer, crying, Abba, Father. The idea of eating together implies communion. Nothing will suit the heart of God but that those He blessed should be in communion with Himself. It is sonship’s place. We share His thoughts of His blessed Son and feed on His perfections. That is the reception a son gets. If this does not attract us to the heart of God, what will? The gospel goes forth to make this known. There is joy in heaven and to the heart of God.