Grace and the Prodigal

I want us to think of restoration with respect to the Prodigal Son as I think it is important for us to appreciate that God deals with us as a father who desires and demands growth in his children.

As such, God just doesn’t dish out grace like most preachers assume and teach, as an open cheque that requires no accountability or responsibility on our part. We teach restoration without stating that what is restored is not what we traded out or wasted but lost in the process of our obedience.

Job had a restoration because God is the one who had caused the loss. Or don’t you remember He is the one who prompted Satan to look into Job’s situation?

What does this have to do with the prodigal? You may be wondering.

The prodigal son wasted his inheritance. It is no wonder he resorts to returning home begging to be a servant.

Grace restored him to sonship. But do you realize it did not restore the inheritance he wasted?

And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. (Luke 15:31)

This is the father to his elder brother when the same complained about grace.

The inheritance situation was not the issue as the faithful son had thought. Grace did not mean the father tampering with the obedient son’s inheritance. It just meant giving the prodigal another chance, even if it meant him having to slave for it.

He sure started his life anew, but as a penniless, howbeit repentant son.

There really was no inheritance for him even though his position as son was restored. That is unless his brother had pity on him to extend the grace of ownership as the father had extended sonship.

Again, it is imperative to realize that sonship is positional and does not depend on what the son does or doesn’t do. Even disowning does nothing to sonship. I think it is a disciplinary last resort to force a son to take responsibility. Repentance will always restore sonship as it does not depend on performance.

But inheritance is another thing altogether.

Esau traded with his birthright which was his positional inheritance. It is surprising that his father still planned to give him the blessing on terms he had traded. Unless we assumed that he did not know of that trading. A responsible father ought to have followed that birthright. Probably that is what Rebecca knew when she schemed to right Isaac’s confusion.

Grace is not therefore an excuse to experiment with sin with the thought of repenting if things become thick. It is not an excuse for being prodigal as you are sure the Father will receive you when you repent.

Sadly, these are things I have encountered in my long life and ministry. I know people who bribe to get a job thinking they can then use the giving to compensate for the sin. There are women who sleep with their boss or lecturer to get that promotion or grade planning to repent in future.

Repentance does not simply wash over our folly.

Christ’s blood covers over all sin and not the consequences of the same.

Being forgiven does not miraculously join the leg that you broke in your drunken fight. It does not automatically heal the venereal diseases you contracted when you broke through the fence of your marriage. And it surely will not wish away that pregnancy or illegitimate children that resulted from that sexual experimentation.

And you can be sure that it will not dissolve all those marriages you entered in your pursuit of the perfect mate. Nor will it mend the marriages you broke as you expressed your hotness or potency.

I have tackled just one aspect of rebellion. But the same will happen whether it is in the business, agricultural or any other realms. Like the English (I do not know whether it is language or culture) says, the chicken will always come home to roost. Repentance does not kill the chicken.

We must be careful to preach the Gospel as it is instead of as we wish it to be.

Zaccheus repented. But that repentance demanded that he lose the bulk of his wealth, if not all of it. He must have lost his status as a rich man after restoring to those he had used to get rich. He walked to Jesus the way he was but joining Him meant the loss of all things.

We must teach restoration aright.

And we must not be condemning the obedient son for wondering why all the fuss. His only mistake was not realizing that the rebel was now dependent on his mercy. That is what their father was explaining to him. He ought to have operated as owner earlier instead of thinking his father was stingy with him. Everything that was left was his.

I will share this again. As a young man I was used to preaching with old men. I have talked of those who got saved in the ’39 and ’49 and ‘60s revivals.

There was this old man who used so much energy and exertion, and I repeat exceptionally so much it looked abnormal for my young eyes. I for a long time wondered why he was thus. One time we went preaching far and were rained on so much that I was told he was bedridden for a week yet for us we thoroughly enjoyed the rain and nothing happened to any one of us.

Then I came to learn much later that he got saved in his youth but strayed against sound judgment, even producing a child then. Then I understood.

That was the blot he sought to erase through much exertion.

Was he forgiven? Of course he was. But that could not blot out that stain on his testimony.

That is what I am talking about.

Grace restores the relationship. But it requires work to restore the things sin and rebellion lost or wasted in that rebellion. We simply cannot wish, even pray them back.

Let us treat grace aright.