Mike Focht 10/2/2026
In Luke chapter fifteen, Jesus speaks to the Pharisees regarding God’s heart toward sinners. The Pharisees cannot understand why Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners. Graciously, Jesus takes the time to teach them, and us, how the love of God works. The Father rejoices every time a lost sinner is restored to their proper position as a son or daughter of God.
Jesus gives a singular answer in three parables. In the first, one out of a hundred sheep is lost instinctually. An animal, following pure instinct, walks away but is found, rescued, and brought home by the shepherd. Rejoicing follows.
In the second parable, one out of ten coins is lost incidentally. The coin has no will, and the owner did not lose the coin purposefully. It is all an accident of sorts. Still, the woman searches until she finds the lost coin. Rejoicing follows.
Finally, in the last parable, two sons are lost intentionally. The willful actions of the prodigal younger brother and the embittered older brother should make the reader wonder: What will happen? Will there be joy, as in the other scenarios?
And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son’ (Luke 15:20-21).
When the prodigal son comes to his senses, he returns home repentant but ashamed. Typically, a shameful child, like this prodigal, would have been disowned by the father. A Kezazah ceremony would happen outside the gate of the home, and the shameful son wouldn’t even see the father until it was over. But what do we see here? The father running to the son and expressing his love. We see that the father loves the son more than the son loves the father. Even though it is true that the prodigal is no longer worthy to be called a son, the father will have him as nothing less. The father will only relate to his child as his child.
All our stories are the same. We once lived in sin, each of us lost to our own ways, living far from the Father. But by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, we came to ourselves and repented before heaven and earth. We have received the Spirit of adoption and are made children of God. All our love and service to Him is because He first loved us. Sonship always comes before service. Service is set in sonship.
Let’s not forget what the ultimate point of the chapter is—God’s own joy in redeeming lost sinners and receiving them as children. In the end, all of this brings God incredible joy! That fact is repeated throughout the chapter: 15:5-6, 9-10, 23-24, 32.
The first thing that marks us as the children of God is that we are found and loved by Him. Not our love toward Him. His love toward us. I think J.G. Bellett summed it up perfectly in his book The Evangelists: “The prodigal was silent. He did not stay his father’s hand, as though he was doing too much for him. That might have appeared modest and humble, but it would not have been so—for true humbleness forgets ourselves. His silence at the table was faith. And it had a rich feast before it. Among other things, it might have fed on the well-known truth, that the ascending affections are never equal to the descending. A child never loves a parent with the intensity with which a parent loves his child. Yea, and more than this—the parent is satisfied to have it so. A father is satisfied to know that his love will never get its “recompense in the same” from the heart of the child.
“These thoughts might have fed the heart of the prodigal, as he ate in silence of the fatted calf. And they should be our thoughts towards our heavenly Father. Not that He is indifferent to the state of our hearts towards Him. That would be neither His glory nor our joy. But He knows that His love will ever be the larger. He will ever be the One to “exceed” as David with Jonathan. For He is in the higher place; and that place will maintain its rights and attributes. And it is among the attributes of the descending affection (which comes out of the higher place), as I have said, to flow with the richer and more generous current; and all that faith has to do is to allow this, and to rejoice that it is so.”
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God!