By T.C. Lo; October 12, 2020; revised June 29, 2021
The fifteenth chapter of Gospel Luke (vv. 11-32) records a parable told by Jesus entitled, “the two sons“. There are three characters in this parable: the father, the younger son, and the older son. For the past more than two thousand years, countless preachers and teachers had told this story using varieties of topics based on their focuses and purposes. If the story teller tried to focus on sinner’s repentance, he might assign it a topic “the prodigal son;” if he tried to emphasize on the loving kindness of the father, a topic, such as “the waiting father” might be an appropriate option. If the preacher wanted to communicate the difference between grace and legalism, “the story of the elder son” might be designated. I have also heard an unique title given to this story as “another brother“, which infers to Jesus’ declaration that He claims to be the brother of His followers (Mark 3:34-35). Or, “the real elder brother” as in Romans 8:29.
Many years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to travel to St. Petersburg, Russia. One of the must-see attractions is the world-famous State Hermitage Museum, which was the former czar’s winter palace. In it was a great wealth of world famous paintings. One of the gorgeous portrayals was the The Prodigal Son painted by Rembrandt. I stayed in front of it for a long moment, examining the painter’s stroke of colors, and meditating on the Words of the Bible that describes the story behind the painting.
The full story of the “Two Sons” is recorded in Luke 15:11-32. But here we only focus on the repentance part of the story known as “The Prodigal Son” told in verse 11 through verse 20 that reads:「11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.」
No matter how we tell this story, I think there is a phrase in it (verse 17), which can be said to be the turning point of the story. That phrase is: “When he came to his senses.” But how would a sinner come to his senses? Apostle Paul later answered it in theological language: “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4-5).” People’s coming to repentance is all due to the urging of the Holy Spirit, who causes us to come to our senses by first making us alive in Christ.
R.C. Sproul
My theological thought was deeply influenced by the late Reformed theologian, R.C. Sproul. His salvific experience was aspired by the piercing force of the words of the Bible. In the first week after he entered the university campus, one day he had a conversation with a talented senior student. This senior talked to him on the subject of “building a personal relationship with Jesus.” Their dialogue was a casual one, not a formal gospel lecture, where the man talked about the transcendent wisdom of the Bible. For some reason, he quoted a vague verse「…Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie (Ecclesiastes 11:3b).」Suddenly, God the Holy Spirit made “him come to his senses;” he seemingly realized that he was lying there motionless, like a dead tree, and decaying. He saw how depraved his life was, slowly decayed and rotten away. Under this thought, Sproul came to his senses; he entered his room, knelt on his knees, prayed by the bedside, asking God for forgiveness. Right there, he met Jesus and received eternal life, he thought of himself as a rotten soul being lifted up from the forest floor. Afterwards, Sproul said, “This terse partial verse of the scripture was like a wake-up call, and it was hitting the soft spot of my heart.”
Who would have thought that such a mundane and mostly unfamiliar phrase from the Old Testament could change a person’s life! This is a testimony to the regenerative power of the Scripture.
Saint Augustine
The talented Augustine lived a depraved life when he was young. Though his mother wept in prayers for him day and night, he seemed unchanged. One day when he was walking in the garden of his apartment in Milan, the Holy Spirit came upon his soul and he cried out: “Why should I wait? Why not end my filthy past at this moment?” At that instant, he heard some children next door playfully sang in repetition loudly: “Pick up a book to read, pick up a book to read (Latin: Tolle lege, tolle lege)” At that time, his sight fell on a Bible opened before him to Romans 13:13-14 which read:「13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.」 The Holy Spirit used especially verse 13 to pierce his stone heart and turn it into a heart of flesh, at once, he came to his senses and repented. From then on, Augustine turned to God and baptized the following year. This medieval story once again bears witness to the fact that God’s Word has the power of regeneration.
Martin Luther
Centuries later, Martin Luther was awakened in a similar way. Luther had struggled deeply with God’s justice, and admitted that he even occasionally hated this doctrine. But when he read Augustine’s comment on Romans 1:17, the Holy Spirit suddenly led him to come to his senses, he began to grasp the true meaning of the gospel, that is, “The righteous will live by faith alone”, later known as sola fide. This short Scripture inspired Martin Luther to launch a great religious reformation movement, and its influence has spread to this day. It has confirmed once again that God’s Word are indeed capable of changing human history.
Bible Translation
A sister with a passion for missions was sent by the International Wycliffe Bible Translation Center (now renamed Wycliffe Global Alliance) to an undeveloped tribe to preach the gospel. This tribe had no written words, they only had oral communication. This sister first designed a set of words for them from the spoken language, and then used these words to translate the Bible. She chose the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel as the starting point for her undertaking. When she thought of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, in order to save time, she decided to omit this section and dived directly into the core of Matthew’s Gospel. After years of hard work, the translation was finally completed, and she sent the manuscript to a remote place for printing. A few months later, many printed copies were shipped back. But the villagers were not interested in the Bible at all. What they were fond of was the truck that transported the Bible copies. The heart of this missionary lady was crushed. But she persisted and decided to add the genealogy section to the manuscript and reprinted it. When she gave a copy of the revised version to the chief, the chief believed in Jesus after reading it. Not only that, soon afterward, all the native people of the tribe believed in Jesus. The sister was pleasantly surprised and asked the chief why could this happen? It turned out that the Holy Spirit had made the chief to come to his senses and said, “What I did not know before but I am convinced now was that your Jesus was a real person because he had genealogy record. So I believe that your Bible is a real history of real people and real events. Jesus’ life was unlike the myths and legends described in our culture and tradition, he is real.”
God Alone
The essence of the gospel is that a person’s salvation begins with God’s raising him up with Christ according to His pleasure. Then, saving faith is given to sinner as a gift from God. God the Father accepted repenting sinner as His own child through the work of Christ accomplished on the cross. Therefore, salvation is entirely the collaboration of the Three Persons within the God-head. Human being claims no credit whatsoever in this process. So, we cannot help but giving glory to God, praising Him, serving Him, and glorifying Him. Amen!
