0441. The Prodigal Said, "I Have Sinned"

The Prodigal Said, "I Have Sinned"

"I will arise and go unto my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son" (Luk_15:18-19).

The Prodigal Son was as great a sinner from the moral viewpoint, as we could find. He had taken his father’s goods and had ruthlessly left his father’s roof. He had gone to the far country and there he had wasted his substance with riotous living.

It was not until the Prodigal had spent all and found himself feeding the swine that he began to think of his father’s house.

It was a blessed day, however, when he said, "How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say unto him, ‘Father, I have sinned, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.’"

Those of us who have followed the other five men who said, "I have sinned" and who were turned down by the God of all grace, may at first thought be surprised at the picture before us.

We read of this profligate, that when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and ran, and had compassion and fell upon his neck and kissed him.

The forgiveness of the father was full and complete. No one need doubt this, the killing of the fatted calf, and the feast, the kiss, the ring, the shoes for his feet, and the new robe upon him, all prove the genuineness of the father’s forgiving love.

There is a reason why David and the Prodigal were forgiven when Balaam and Pharaoh and Saul and Achan and Judas were refused.

The Prodigal Son came home with a Godly sorrow; he possessed a repentance that was toward God. He left the far country, he turned from every sinful way, he sought the shelter of the father’s home, and the forgiveness of the father’s heart.

There was no spirit of pride, as in the case of Pharaoh; there was no self-excusing, as in the case of Saul; there was no hiding of his sins, as in the case of Achan; there was no continuing evil as in the case of Balaam; there was no utter despair, as in the case of Judas.

The Prodigal Son was ready to take the lowest place; he asked no more than a back-yard reception, a place with the servants in his father’s home.

The Word of God says, "A broken and a contrite heart Thou wilt not despise, O God."

Let us all rejoice that our God is a merciful God, full of loving kindness and of tender mercy. He is ready to forgive those who in humble contrition, and with the forsaking their sins, come unto Him, seeking mercy for Christ’s sake,

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR