Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 15:18
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
18. I will arise and go to my father ] The youth in the parable had loved his father, and would not doubt about his father’s love; and in the region which the parable shadows forth, the mercy of God to the returning penitent has always been abundantly promised. Is. 4:7; Jer 3:12; Hos 14:1-2 , &c.; and throughout the whole New Testament.
Father, I have sinned ] “Repentance is the younger brother of innocence itself.” Fuller, Holy War.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will arise – This is a common expression among the Hebrews to denote entering on a piece of business. It does not imply that he was sitting, but that he meant immediately to return. This should be the feeling of every sinner who is conscious of his guilt and danger.
To My father – To his father, although he had offended him, and treated him unkindly, and had provoked him, and dishonored him by his course of conduct. So the sinner. He has nowhere else to go but to God. He has offended him, but he may trust in his kindness. If God does not save him he cannot be saved. There is no other being that has an arm strong enough to deliver from sin; and though it is painful for a man to go to one whom he has offended – though he cannot go but with shame and confusion of face – yet, unless the sinner is willing to go to God and confess his faults, he can never be saved.
I have sinned – I have been wicked, dissipated, ungrateful, and rebellious.
Against heaven – The word heaven here, as it is often elsewhere, is put for God. I have sinned against God. See Mat 21:25. It is also to be observed that one evidence of the genuineness of repentance is the feeling that our sins have been committed chiefly against God. Commonly we think most of our offences as committed against man; but when the sinner sees the true character of his sins, he sees that they have been aimed chiefly against God, and that the sins against man are of little consequence compared with those against God. So David, even after committing the crimes of adultery and murder after having inflicted the deepest injury on man – yet felt that the sin as committed against God shut every other consideration out of view: Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, etc., Psa 2:4.
Before thee – This means the same as against thee. The offences had been committed mainly against God, but they were to be regarded, also, as sins against his father, in wasting property which he had given him, in neglecting his counsels, and in plunging himself into ruin. He felt that he had disgraced such a father. A sinner will be sensible of his sins against his relatives and friends as well as against God. A true penitent will be as ready to acknowledge his offences against his fellow-men as those against his Maker.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 18. Against heaven] ; that is, against God. The Jews often make use of this periphrasis in order to avoid mentioning the name of God, which they have ever treated with the utmost reverence. But some contend that it should be translated, even unto heaven; a Hebraism for, I have sinned exceedingly-beyond all description.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The way of a sinners returning to God must be by arising, going to the Father, confessing his sins with the aggravations of them, disclaiming any goodness, any righteousness in himself, humbling himself to Gods footstool.
I will arise (saith the prodigal) and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. He arose from the sleep and bed of sin, and came unto his father. We are not here told by whose strength, or in whose assistance, he arose and came. We must remember that our Saviour is here representing a spiritual notion by an ordinary human action; now men have an innate power to natural motions, though not to spiritual actions. We are elsewhere told, that no man cometh to the Father, but by Christ, nor doth any man come unto the Son, but he whom the Father draweth. Every one as he is taught of the Father cometh unto the Son. And again, that though we be saved by faith, yet it is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God; and, it is given to us in the behalf of Christ to believe, Phi 1:29. These are but several expressions signifying, by the tender affections and gracious reception of earthly parents of a returning prodigal son, the exceeding readiness of our heavenly Father to receive penitent sinners; he is so far from discouraging great sinners from taking up thoughts of returning unto him, that he cherisheth the embryos of such resolutions: I said, (saith the psalmist), I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin, Psa 32:5. God seeth the first good motions and stirrings of our hearts towards him, and he needs must do so, for he stirreth them up in us; there is no sacred fire upon our altar, but first cometh down from heaven. While yet the soul is far off from believing, and closing with Christ actually, and hath but some thoughts of that tendency, God looks upon it, encourages it, meeteth it as it were half way; and indeed if he did not, our goodness would be but like a morning dew, which would quickly pass away; our first inclinations would perish like an untimely birth, before it hath seen the light.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. I will arise and go to my FATHERThe change has come at last, and what a change!couched interms of such exquisite simplicity and power as if expressly framedfor all heart-broken penitents.
Father, c.Mark theterm. Though “no more worthy to be called his son,”the prodigal sinner is taught to claim the defiled, but stillexisting relationship, asking not to be made a servant, butremaining a son to be made “as a servant,”willing to take the lowest place and do the meanest work. Ah! and isit come to this? Once it was, “Any place rather than home.”Now, “Oh, that home! Could I but dare to hope that the door ofit would not be closed against me, how gladly would I take any placeand do any worK, happy only to be there at all.” Well, thatis conversionnothing absolutely new, yet all new old familiarthings seen in a new light and for the first time as realities ofoverwhelming magnitude and power. How this is brought about theparable says not. (We have that abundantly elsewhere, Php2:13, &c.). Its one object is to paint the welcome homeof the greatest sinners, when (no matter for the present how)they “arise and go to their Father.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I will arise,…. This is the resolution which at last, through divine grace, he came into: he determines to quit the country, and his companions; he had left his harlots, and his old course of living before, but was in the same country still; for this a man may do, and yet remain unregenerate: but he is now for leaving the country itself, and his new acquaintance; he is now determined to drop his legal preacher, to be gone out of his fields, and from under his ministry, and to leave his swine and husks;
and go to my father: not to his old companions in debauchery and sin; nor to his elder brother, the Pharisees; he had made trial of both these to his cost already; nor to his father’s servants, but to his father himself; to which he was moved and encouraged, from his being ready to perish, from the fulness of bread in his father’s house and from the relation he stood in to him; notwithstanding, all that had passed, he was his father, and a kind and merciful one: this shows, that he knew him as his father, having now the Spirit of adoption sent down into him; and the way unto him, which lies through Christ the mediator:
and will say unto him, father; or, “my father”, as the Syriac and Persic versions read:
I have sinned against heaven; by preferring earthly things to heavenly ones; and have sinned openly in the face of the heavens, who were witnesses against him; and against God, who dwells in heaven. It was usual with the Jews to call God, , “heaven”;
[See comments on Mt 21:25]. They have this very phrase;
“there is a man, (say b they), who sins against earth, and he does not , “sin against heaven”; against heaven, and he does not sin against earth: but he that speaks with an ill tongue sins against heaven and earth, as it is said, Ps 73:9 “they set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the earth.””
And so the sense is, that he had sinned against God himself, and not merely against men, and human laws. All sin is a transgression of the law of God; and the thought of sin being committed against a God of infinite holiness, justice, goodness, grace, and mercy, is cutting to a sensible sinner: and this being the case, this man determined to go to God his Father, and him only, for the pardon of his sin, against whom it was committed. It is added,
and before thee; for he was now convinced of his omniscience. Sin may be committed against a man, and not before him, or he not know it; but whatever is committed against God, is before him, it is in his sight, he knows it: he is God omniscient, though sinners take no notice of this perfection of his, but go on in sin, as if it was not seen, known, and observed by God. But when God works powerfully and effectually upon the heart of a sinner, he convinces him of his omniscience, as this man was convinced: hence he determined to go to God, and acknowledge his sin before him; and that it was committed before him, and was in his sight; and that he could not be justified in his sight by any righteousness of his own; and therefore humbly desires pardon at his hands. This man’s sense of sin and sorrow for it, and confession of it, appear very right and genuine, which he determined to express; they appear to be the convictions of the Spirit of God: it was not a sense of sin, and sorrow for it, as done before men, but God; and the concern was not so much for the mischief that comes by sin, as for the evil that was in it; and this did not drive him to despair, as in the cases of Cain and Judas, but brought him home to his father; and his confession appears to be hearty, sincere, and without excuse.
b Midrash Kohclet, in c. 9. 12. fol. 79. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I will arise and go ( ). This determination is the act of the will after he comes to himself and sees his real condition.
I did sin (). That is the hard word to say and he will say it first. The word means to miss the mark. I shot my bolt and I missed my aim (compare the high-handed demand in verse 12).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) I will arise and go to my father,” (anastas poreusomai pros ton patera mou) “I will rise up and go to my father,” of my own will and accord, the second element of repentance, a turning from sin. At the “I will” a change began in his soul, Isa 55:7; Hos 14:1-2.
2) “And will say unto him,” (kai ero auto) “And I will say to him,” will acknowledge or confess to him’ In resolute purpose he chose the right course of action, to be reconciled with his father.
3) “Father, I have sinned against heaven,” (pater hemarton eis ton ouranon) “Father I sinned against heaven,” the God of heaven; upon both leaving my father’s house, and in riotous living, Luk 15:13; Luk 15:21; Whose property I am; To whom I belong; Whose image I bear, though marred and scarred by sin. I am his in two ways: 1) By right of creation, Eze 18:4; Ezekiel 2) and by His daily care for me, Act 17:28.
4) “And before thee,” (kai enopion sou) “And in your presence,” or before you, in leaving home, disobeying you, and trusting self. All sin is first against heaven, the God of heaven, and second against one’s self and his fellowman, as expressed by David, Psa 51:4; For sin against God, rebellion against his character and attributes, is expressed in wrong toward one’s fellowman who bears God’s image.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(18) I will arise and go to my father.This, then, was the firstfruits of repentance. He remembers that he has a father, and trusts in that fathers love; but he dares not claim the old position which he had so recklessly cast away. He is content to be as one of the hired servants. Spiritually, the first impulse of the contrite heart is to take the lowest place, to wish for the drudgery of daily duties, or even menial service, if only it may be near its Father in heaven, and by slow degrees regain His favour and earn the wages of His praise.
I have sinned . . .More strictly, I sinned, as going back in thought to the first act of sin as virtually including all that grew out of it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. I have sinned Very different from his bold address, (Luk 15:12,) Give me the portion. Confession is good for the soul.
Against heaven Against the divine authority of God as Creator, and against the law of right and nature.
And before thee It was from the former, heaven, that the famine came upon the land. It was from the latter, thee, that the son wandered, and to whom he was now returning, 19. As one of thy hired servants This son embodies in himself all classes of wanderers and aliens from God, both Jew and Gentile. As Jew he has a natural born sonship. But as Gentile, though he has also a natural born sonship in the back ground, he now takes position as an alien. And then when the father forthwith restores him to sonship, he who is in symbol even the alien, becomes a true son in the Gospel acceptance.
No more worthy to be called thy son He says truth. He has forfeited his birthright.
If a man by free voluntary sin lose the grace to which he is born, and which meets him from the atonement at the threshold of life, being symbolized in his circumcision or baptism, he is only a son as all others are sons, and must return to God as a returned alien. It is the mercy of God which restores his sonship.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight, I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.’ ”
So he vowed to himself that what he would do was humble himself, and seek a position in his father’s house as a day-servant. He was well aware that he had lost his rights and forfeited his sonship. Nor would he try to claim any differently. He would not go back claiming sonship. Nor would he ask to be a favoured servant. He would only plead to be allowed to be a ‘hired servant’, a ‘day labourer’, to be fed and paid a decent wage while not being accepted back into the household. Perhaps his father would have pity on him and at least allow him this. It was certainly better than what he had.
Note his recognition that he had firstly sinned ‘against Heaven’, that is, against God. And then secondly that he had grievously sinned in his father’s eyes. His father had trusted him, and had provided him with capital so that he could establish himself in business, and he had ‘disappeared’ and squandered it all. He was well aware of the social situation. He no longer had a right to claim sonship. All then that he would ask was employment in whatever capacity his father chose.
He was the perfect picture of the repentant sinner, coming with no pretensions, and with no claims to special treatment, admitting grave fault, and simply trusting in a merciful God to have compassion on him and forgive him and accept him just as he is. He is like the public servant in the parable of the Pharisee and the Public Servant who stood afar off and would not even lift up his eyes to Heaven (Luk 18:13). He is already on his way home.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 15:18-19 . With this coming to himself and longing is associated the corresponding determination , namely, to turn back to God, to confess to Him his guilt and unworthiness, and to petition for grace . In this petition, however, the humility which belongs to the consciousness of guilt sets aside the thought of complete restoration.
] against heaven . Comp. Mat 18:15 ; Mat 18:21 , and elsewhere; , Plat. Phaedr . p. 243 C. Heaven does not denote God, but is, as the abode of the Godhead and of the pure spirits, personified , so that this holy heavenly world appears as injured and offended by sin.
] comp. 1Sa 7:6 ; 1Sa 10:1 ; Psa 51:4 ; Tob 3:3 ; Jdt 5:17 ; Susann. 23. The meaning is: I have so sinned that I have transgressed before Thee , i.e. in relation to Thee . The moral relation of the deed to the offended subject is thus rendered palpable, as though this subject had suffered in respect of the deed; the moral reference is set forth as visible . Grotius, moreover, well says: “Non in aetatem, non in malos consultatores culpam rejicit, sed nudam parat sine excusatione confessionem.”
Luk 15:19 . ] not: not yet (Paulus), but: no longer .
. . .] i.e. place me in the position of being as one of thy day-labourers. Comp. Gen 48:20 ; Isa 41:15 . Without the petition would aim at the result of making him a day-labourer; with its purport is: although he is a son, yet to place him no otherwise than if he were one of the day-labourers.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
Ver. 18. Against heaven and before thee ] That is, I have not only thee, but the whole heaven for a swift witness against me of mine offences and outbursts. “The heaven doth declare mine iniquity, and the earth riseth up against me,” Job 20:27 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
18. ] See Luk 15:24 , [it was truly a resurrection from the dead]. This resolution is a further step than his last reflection. In it he no where gives up his sonship: this , and the , lie at the root of his penitence: it is the thought of having sinned against (in the parable itself , Heaven and) Thee, which works now in him. And accordingly he does not resolve to ask to be made . but . .: still a son , but as an hireling. “And what is it that gives the sinner now a sure ground of confidence, that returning to God he shall not be repelled, nor cast out? The adoption of sonship which he received in Christ Jesus at his baptism, and his faith that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance or recall.” Trench, Par. in loc.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 15:18 . : a bright hope gives energy to the starving man; home! Said, done, but the motive is not high. It is simply the last resource of a desperate man. He will go home and confess his fault, and so, he hopes, get at least a hireling’s fare. Well to be brought out of that land, under home influences, by any motive. It is in the right direction. Yet though bread is as yet the supreme consideration, foretokens of true ethical repentance appear in the premeditated speech: : some sense of the claims that long-disused word implies , I erred; perception that the whole past has been a mistake and folly , against heaven, God , in thy sight, in thy judgment (Hahn) he knows quite well what his father must think of his conduct; what a fool he must think him (Psa 73:22 ) , etc. (Luk 15:19 ), fully conscious that he has forfeited all filial claims. The omission of suits the emotional mood.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
to. Greek. pros. App-104.
sinned. App-128.
against. Greek. eis. App-104.
heaven. Singular with Art. See notes on Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10. “Heaven” put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Subject), App-6, for God Himself.
before. Greek. enopion. Same word as in Luk 15:10 “in the presence of”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
18. ] See Luk 15:24, [it was truly a resurrection from the dead]. This resolution is a further step than his last reflection. In it he no where gives up his sonship: this, and the , lie at the root of his penitence:-it is the thought of having sinned against (in the parable itself, Heaven and) Thee, which works now in him. And accordingly he does not resolve to ask to be made . but . .:-still a son, but as an hireling. And what is it that gives the sinner now a sure ground of confidence, that returning to God he shall not be repelled, nor cast out? The adoption of sonship which he received in Christ Jesus at his baptism, and his faith that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance or recall. Trench, Par. in loc.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 15:18. , having arisen) The first steps of repentance are herein accurately indicated.-, Father) The name, Father, remains the same [His willingness to receive us in that character, as our Father, remains], even though the sons he degenerate.- , against heaven) Comp. Luk 15:7 [which implies that the inhabitants of heaven have a concern in the sinners recovery, and therefore also in the fall of the sinner, who accordingly in part sins against them].
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
sinned
Sin. (See Scofield “Rom 3:23”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
will arise: 1Ki 20:30, 1Ki 20:31, 2Ki 7:3, 2Ki 7:4, 2Ch 33:12, 2Ch 33:13, 2Ch 33:19, Psa 32:5, Psa 116:3-7, Jer 31:6-9, Jer 50:4, Jer 50:5, Lam 3:18-22, Lam 3:29, Lam 3:40, Hos 2:6, Hos 2:7, Hos 14:1-3, Jon 2:4, Jon 3:9
Father: Luk 11:2, Isa 63:16, Jer 3:19, Jer 31:20, Mat 6:9, Mat 6:14, Mat 7:11
I have: Luk 18:13, Lev 26:40, Lev 26:41, 1Ki 8:47, 1Ki 8:48, Job 33:27, Job 33:28, Job 36:8-10, Psa 25:11, Psa 32:3-5, Psa 51:3-5, Pro 23:13, Mat 3:6, 1Jo 1:8-10
against: Luk 15:21, Dan 4:26
Reciprocal: Exo 32:30 – Ye have Deu 32:6 – thy father 1Sa 7:6 – We have sinned 1Ch 21:8 – I have sinned 2Ch 6:37 – We have sinned 2Ch 12:7 – the Lord Job 40:4 – Behold Job 42:6 – I Psa 126:6 – shall doubtless Pro 5:13 – General Pro 21:29 – he directeth Pro 28:13 – whoso Ecc 7:14 – but Isa 65:24 – General Jer 3:13 – acknowledge Jer 14:20 – for Lam 1:20 – for Lam 3:42 – transgressed Eze 18:28 – he considereth Dan 9:15 – we have sinned Mic 7:9 – bear Zec 1:3 – Turn Mat 15:27 – Truth Mat 21:29 – he repented Luk 15:17 – How Luk 20:4 – from Luk 23:41 – we indeed 1Co 11:31 – General 2Th 3:14 – that he
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
8
He knew he could not justly request more of his father’s estate for he had already received his full share. He would have to return and throw himself upon the mercy of his father. Sinned against heaven. When anyone does wrong, the sin is an offense against the Lord regardless of who may be affected among men.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 15:18. I will arise. Correct reflection led to remembrance of the father, that feeling led to resolve and corresponding action. The will is turned: he proposes to leave the far country.
I have sinned. There can be no return to God which does not include the confession of sin.
Against heaven and in thy sight (as in Luk 15:21), in relation to this. The two are separated in the parable, but are to be identified in the interpretation. He alone really confesses his sins, who has regarded them mainly as sins against God, against a higher, heavenly order of things; and this is the best sign that a sinner has come to himself.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
15:18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against {b} heaven, and before thee,
(b) Against God, because he is said to dwell in heaven.